EXCLUSIVE: Seasoned comedy writer-producer Saladin K. Patterson has joined Tracy Morgan and Jordan Peele’s upcoming TBS comedy series The Last O.G. as executive producer and new showrunner. He replaces co-creator John Carcieri, who exited after production on Season 1 wrapped this fall.

Primetime-Panic Your Complete Guide to Pilots and Straight-to-Series orders See All

Patterson will shepherd post-production for the first season, whose launch was moved from late October 2017 to spring 2018, when the network’s popular NBA coverage on sibling TNT will be used to promote the show. I hear the hire of an established comedy writer-producer like Patterson bodes well for a potential second season of the series, whose female lead opposite Morgan is the comedy “it” girl at the moment, Girls Trip‘s Tiffany Haddish, who is coming off a winning Saturday Night Live hosting turn. Patterson is expected to soon start hiring writers for a potential second season.

Created by Peele and Carcieri, The Last O.G., which originated at FX before moving to TBS, stars Morgan as Tray, an ex-con who is shocked to see just how much the world has changed when he is released on good behavior from a 15-year prison stint. Returning to his newly gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood, he discovers that his former girlfriend, Shay (Haddish), has married an affable, successful white man who is helping raise Tray’s twin sons who he never knew existed. Wanting nothing more than to connect with his kids, but having neither the money to support them nor himself, Tray falls back on the skills he learned in prison to make ends meet while treading unfamiliar territory.

TBS

Cedric the Entertainer, Taylor Mosby, Dante Hoagland, Allen Maldonado and Ryan Gaul co-star. Peele executive produces the series alongside Morgan, Patterson, Eric Tannebaum, Kim Tannenbaum and Joel Zadak.

Patterson most recently served as co-executive producer on hit The Big Bang Theory. His series credits also include Two and a Half Men, Psych, The Bernie Mac Show and Frasier. He is repped by CAA.