‘Champions’ Charlie Grandy-Mindy Kaling Comedy Gets NBC Series Order

As Mindy Kaling is preparing the final chapter of The Mindy Project, she also will be working on the opening one for her follow-up series, Champions.

NBC has given a series order to the single-camera pilot, from The Mindy Project creator, executive producer and star Kaling and the series’ executive producer Charlie Grandy, which features Kaling in a guest starring/recurring role.

Champions joins the sole new comedy series picked up by NBC this season, Mike O’Brien/Seth Meyers’ A.P. Bio. (NBC also has a new season of Will & Grace for this fall.) All three series come from Universal TV.

The pickup for Champions comes after NBC had left only two comedy pilots in contention earlier this week, Champions and the Tina Fey-produced Sackett Sisters. There is no word on the latter’s fate, though NBC may be done with its comedy orders, at least for now. The network this week renewed the Fey-produced new midseason series Great News for a second season.

Written by Grandy and Kaling, Champions centers on Vince (Anders Holm), a charismatic gym owner with no ambition, who lives with his younger brother Matthew (Andy Favreau), a gorgeous idiot. Their simple life of women and working out is put on hold when the teenage son of Vince is dropped off on their doorstep by Priya (Kaling), one of his old high school flings. J.J. Totah, Mouzam Makkar and Nina Wadia co-star.

Grandy and Kaling executive produce with Howard Klein for Universal Television, 3 Arts Entertainment, Eyes Up Productions and Kaling International. Michael Alan Spiller is director/executive producer.