Jamie Lee Curtis Returns to Sitcoms With 'Newlyweds'
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- Jamie Lee Curtis executive produces and recurs on NBC's new multi-camera comedy 'Newlyweds,' saying she begged her agents every year for a sitcom and eventually decided to 'create my own job' with writer Gail Lerner.
- Curtis rejected single-camera comedy after working on 'New Girl' and 'The Bear,' calling the format 'like doing a movie' where 'nobody laughs' and 'it's awful, for me, awful.'
- 'Newlyweds' centers on a later-in-life marriage between Téa Leoni's free-spirited character and Tim Daly's buttoned-up professor, with Curtis playing Daly's ex-wife, whom she described as 'a bitch.'
- Curtis revealed the show is partly autobiographical: she married filmmaker Christopher Guest after less than 72 hours spent together, and they've been married 42 years despite being 'polar opposites.'
- NBC greenlit 'Newlyweds' in November 2025 to pair with breakout hit 'Happy's Place' on a Friday comedy block Curtis dubbed 'Fridays: We Are In Love On NBC.'
- Lerner said she and Curtis developed the idea during the pandemic before NBC picked it up in November 2025, praising the network for 'reinvesting in multi-cam and bringing back Must See TV.'
- Tim Daly pushed back on the notion that sitcoms are old-fashioned, noting that young fans regularly approach him to talk about his classic sitcom 'Wings.'
Why it matters: NBC is deliberately reinvesting in multi-camera broadcast sitcoms at a moment when the genre had retreated across networks, building a Friday block anchored by 'Happy's Place' and Curtis's show — and betting that free, accessible over-the-air comedy can pull viewers back to appointment TV in an era when 'a lot of people don't have any money anymore,' as Curtis put it.
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