Demi Lovato Pulls Out of NBC Comedy Pilot ‘Hungry’, Remains As Exec Producer
The upcoming NBC comedy pilot Hungry has just lost its main star as Demi Lovato has stepped back from their acting role due to scheduling conflicts.
According to Deadline, the singer had been attached to star in the multi-camera sitcom for a year but dropped out just as the project was about to begin production. However, Lovato will remain on board as an executive producer alongside their manager Scooter Braun.
Hungry, written and exec produced by Suzanne Martin (Hot in Cleveland), centers around the members of a food dependence support group who help one another as they “look for love, success, and the perfect thing in the fridge that’s going to make it all better.”
The cast includes Valerie Bertinelli (Hot in Cleveland), Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias (Thanks A Million), Ryan McPartlin (L.A.’s Finest), Alex Brightman (SMILF), and Ashley D. Kelley (Insatiable). James Burrows (Frasier) is set to direct the pilot.
This marks the second attempt at a pilot for Hungry. The show was originally filmed as a single-camera sitcom, with Lovato in a lead role, but NBC passed on it.
“The network wants to see it in a multi-cam,” Bertinelli said during a live Q&A with talkshoplive last year. “Because we filmed it in a single cam. I’m so excited! We get to film in multi-cam! So, the show has not been picked up yet; we are filming the pilot again, this time in front of an audience. That’s going to happen next year and I’m super-duper excited, you guys. It’s such a good show.”
Lovato currently hosts their own talk show on the Roku Channel and the Peacock reality series Unidentified with Demi Lovato. They also featured in the 2021 YouTube docuseries Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil, which shares a title with their seventh studio album, which was released on April 2, 2021.
There is no word yet on who will be recast in Lovato’s role, but Deadline reports that the goal is to have a replacement shortly so the pilot stays on schedule.
Hungry, Pilot, TBA, NBC
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