There’s a new Pete Holmes show in town. Deadline reports that HBO has ordered Crashing, a single-camera comedy series from Judd Apatow and Holmes, to series. As we previously reported, HBO originally ordered the Crashing pilot, which was directed by Apatow and stars Holmes, in September. Crashing follows a sweet and sincere comedian (Holmes) who crashes on the couches of New York’s top comedians after his wife suddenly leaves him. That story should sound somewhat familiar to listeners of Holmes’s You Made It Weird podcast, on which he talks about his marriage and its eventual demise all the time. Holmes has said on his podcast that fellow comedian John Mulaney helped him get through his divorce, so maybe Mulaney’s will be one of the many couches to make an appearance in Crashing.
Crashing seems to be utilizing the same semi-autobiographical approach to scripted comedy as Aziz Ansari’s Master Of None and Louis C.K.’s Louie; in fact, one of Crashing’s producers, Igor Srubshchik, also produces Master Of None. He is producing alongside Josh Church (Trainwreck), Oren Brimer (The Pete Holmes Show), and Holmes’s manager, Dave Rath. Holmes and Apatow are executive producing. Crashing is the first pilot Apatow has ever directed, although he also executive produces HBO’s Girls—which was recently renewed for a sixth and final season—and has an original comedy series coming to Netflix. He’s also producing Kumail Nanjiani’s first movie and Jemaine Clement’s new HBO series and writing a screenplay about the hilarious topic of soldiers returning home from war, just a few of the approximately 75 other movies he has in the pipeline as well.
Holmes hasn’t had a regular television gig since TBS canceled his late-night show in 2014, so HBO is presumably hoping Crashing keeps it crispy for longer than The Pete Holmes Show did.