New element this season was signing talent deals with actors targeting specific projects that had not been officially greenlighted as a way of securing talent for hot projects before formal casting could be done. The Book Of Mormon star Andrew Rannells was signed in a joint 20th Century Fox TV-NBC talent holding deal with the intention for him to play one of the 3 leads in the NBC/20th TV comedy from the Glee duo of Ryan Murphy and Allison Adler, while actor-comedian David Koechner signed a talent holding deal with NBC with an eye toward him joining Greg Daniels’ adaptation of British comedyFriday Night Dinner. Both scripts were eventually picked up to pilot.
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