Including The Mick and Will & Grace

American comedy series The Mick is coming to the UK thanks to a new free-to-air channel –  two months after it was cancelled in the States.

The sitcom, which stars It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’s Kaitlin Olson as an irresponsible woman suddenly entrusted with looking after her niece and nephews, is one of the flagship programmes of the new Paramount Network.

It was cancelled last month as part of a comedy clear-out at broadcaster Fox, which also ditched The Last Man on Earth and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, though the latter was rescued by NBC.

Other programmes in Paramount’s launch schedules include the free-to-air premiere of Suits season seven, the last featuring  Meghan Markle, and Kiefer Sutherland drama Designated Survivor, previously available on Netflix.

Parent company Viacom says the new Paramount Network, which launches on July 4, will have ‘strong appeal to Generation X and millennials’. 

The channel will also air the rebooted Will & Grace, the premiere of Lip Sync Battle US  and movies including the comedies Groundhog Day and Roxanne.

The Paramount Network will be a sister broadcaster to Channel 5 and Comedy Central and will be scheduled by the Channel 5 editorial team.

Ben Frow, Channel 5’s director of programmes, said: ‘said: ‘Paramount Network is set to deliver high-end Hollywood entertainment with blockbuster movies, scripted drama and critically acclaimed comedy featuring some of the biggest names on the planet.’

Paramount Network will launch in the UK on Freeview (57), Sky (159), BT (57) and TalkTalk (57) platforms.

Published: 8 Jun 2018