On a Loser Streak: Heder to Star in Comedy Central Sitcom

"Napoleon Dynamite" star Jon Heder will play a geek again -- this time in a comedy series about an unemployed I.T. dweeb who leaves the big city and moves back in with Mom and Dad.

The as-yet unnamed series will be a multi-camera comedy -- you know, shot in a studio, using multiple cameras, like CBS's "Two and a Half Men," as opposed to single-camera comedies that look more like films, along the lines of NBC's "The Office" and "30 Rock." Multi-cam comedies are considered old-fashioned and passe, like CBS. Single-cam comedies attract younger viewers -- and TV critics, who wet their pants whenever they see a new single-cam coming at them.

So, is this new comedy for CBS?

Nope -- Comedy Central, the cutting edge of comedy.

Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy are producing the new series. Producer McKay did the flick "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" and the Broadway production "You're Welcome America: A Final Night With George W. Bush" with Ferrell. Heder starred in the '07 flick "Blades of Glory" with funnyman Ferrell.

Debmar-Mercury will distribute the show, and has brokered a deal with Comedy Central similar to the one it struck with TBS for its Tyler Perry sitcoms.

Comedy Central has ordered 10 episodes of the Heder vehicle; that's considered the "research" phase. Should those episodes hit a certain ratings threshold, it triggers an order for an additional 90 episodes.

Comedy Central would air 20 to 30 episodes a year -- a huge block of original programming for the Viacom-owned network that typically runs 14 episodes of its most successful prime-time comedy, "South Park," in a year.

Comedy Central plans to premiere the sitcom in the summer of 2010 and, if the first 10 episodes are successful, the remaining 90 would start to roll out in the first quarter of 2011.

And, with the additional 90 episodes guaranteed, the comedy series could debut in reruns (in "off-network syndication") in the fall of 2012 -- just two years after its unveiling.

This is a lot faster than sitcoms produced for broadcast networks. Those shows are typically ordered one season at a time, and it takes about four years to amass enough episodes to the magic number (100) needed to be considered for syndication.

"Essentially they're building an off-network acquisition much faster, in partnership with a cable network," Comedy Central programming senior veep Dave Bernath told The TV Column.

"Getting to syndication is always the [financial] mother lode."