Rachel Bloom made a half-hour pilot of her musical comedy show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend for Showtime last year, and they ended up passing on it. But somewhat improbably, it’s gotten new life as an hour-long comedy on the CW, as that network has picked a retooled version of it up for a full season, to be aired alongside their hit Jane the Virgin.
That plan got greatly accelerated a couple of weeks ago when the CW execs asked their studio counterparts whether the show could possibly be ready for this coming Jane The Virgin - CW season, 2015-16. The answer was yes, and, while Bloom and Brosh McKenna got working on an hourlong pilot script, the half-hour Showtime pilot was screened with the rest of the CW pilots for next season. It was a runaway hit. Then, as the CW executives were heading into New York for scheduling meetings at the beginning of last week, they got the new script. Based on that and the pilot’s reception, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was put on the board for pickup consideration and ended up paired with Jane The Virgin on the network’s fall schedule. “This was the perfect companion for Jane,†Pedowitz said today. “It is very funny and very different — a blue-skies show with a very dark twist.â€
In addition to the shift from half-hour to hour-long, the show will be recasting one of its supporting characters, formerly played by Michael McDonald, and rewriting some of the racier material that would’ve flown on premium cable to make for a bit of a tamer network show. Here’s how Deadline reports the deal happened:Crazy Ex-Girlfriend will debut in its new format this fall on CW. here’s a first look at the show: