One of a slew of pilots ABC picked up earlier this month, The 46 Percenters is an “unromantic romantic comedy” about three couples who fall into the 46 percent of married Americans who don’t end up getting divorced. Hoping to get into production before the network gets cold feet, the series has already cast one of its blushing brides, The Office’s Angela Kinsey, as Marni, who is described only as “a wife and mother.”
Will The 46 Percenters be able to distinguish itself among the roughly 98 per cent of sitcoms whose central couples don’t get divorced, given the genre’s need for stability? The male lead hasn’t been cast yet, so maybe Kinsey will be married to a bear and will spend every week trying to avoid being mauled while staying with the bear long enough to satisfy a clause in her great-uncle’s will. Or perhaps it will be a more conventional marriage, and will simply embrace the well-worn trope that spending a lifetime with someone is a dispiriting slog that can only be endured through stubborn, bitter resolve or decades of dead-eyed complacency. You know, comedy!