Australia’s Nine buys slew of US comedy series

Australian free-to-air broadcaster Nine has bought five US comedy series including Matthew Perry fronted Mr. Sunshine and William Shatner’s $#*! My Dad Says, the CBS comedy based on the Twitter feed of the same name.

Nine has output deals with Warner Bros. and Sony and the comedy acquisitions include Warner Bros.-distributed Mike and Molly, which was picked up by the CBS network in the US and the aforementioned Mr. Sunshine, which is distributed by Sony and will air on ABC.

Other buys include Endemol-distributed Hot in Cleveland, which recently bowed on Viacom cable net TV Land in the US and Episodes, the seven-part BBC-Showtime coproduction starring Matt LeBlanc about a British couple trying to make a US version of their successful UK TV show.

Nine will air the comedies shortly after their US airings, which will mostly start this autumn.

“We already have the two most popular comedies on air with Two and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory and I’m really pleased we can follow their success with a massive line-up of new programmes,” said Michael Healy, Nine director of programming.