One of the stars of the Zooey Deschanel Fox sitcom “New Girl” is set to lead a brand new series on NBC. According to reports actor Jake Johnson has been signed up to lead the cast of the pilot where he will.play the part of a private investigator in a series helmed by “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” co-creator Dan Goor.
Jake Johnson to Lead New Single-Camera Sitcom
A report by Deadline confirmed that Johnson will star in the series, which is currently untitled and is the work of former “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” alumni Goor and Luke Del Tredici. Goor fo-created that comedy and acted as showrunner, while Tredici was an executive producer throughout the later seasons.
They will act as writers and executive producers on the series, while Universal Studio Group act as the producing studio.
Johnson is set to play Mickey, a former Los Angeles Police Department detective who now works as a private investigator following a personal tragedy. He is described as, “Smart, cynical and heartbroken, but trying to pretend he’s not, Mickey is a private investigator with a knack for solving cases. Formerly an LAPD cop until his life imploded three years ago.”
Although little is known about the plot of the show, a longline does give some details about what viewers can expect from the NBC pilot, which was first picked up in January of this year. It reads, “[The series] continues the proud tradition of Los Angeles private eyes that began with Philip Marlowe and will end with this show.”
Akiva Schaffer, who recently worked on “The Naked Gun” and “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping” will also take on the roles of director and executive producer.
This is not the only project that Johnson is involved in this year. The actor is set to appear in the Joe Swanberg film “The Sun Never Set” opposite Dakota Fanning and the AppleTV series “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed.” He will also star in “The Dink”, a comedy film centered on pickleball with Mary Steenurgen and Ed Harris.
NBC Orders a String of New Pilots
As noted by The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year, NBC has seemingly moved to a more traditional pilot season in 2026. The network ordered as many new pilots in January as it did in the whole of 2026, suggesting a focus on new programming.
This has included the new private investigator-focused sitcom alongside a “Rockford Files” reboot, “Puzzled” from Joey Falcon and Jordan Cerf and based on the “Puzzle Master” novels, and the Dick Wolf series “What the Dead Know.”
