The 2025 TV schedule isn't out of fall premieres just yet, and one of just two new sitcoms of the season is set to premiere in exactly one week. Stumble is a new mockumentary following the world of junior college cheerleading, with a home on NBC's updated comedy lineup. The comedy, which stars Jenn Lyon, SNL's Taran Killam, and Kristin Chenowith, will be paired with Reba McEntire's Happy's Place on Friday nights, and co-showrunners Jeff and Liz Astrof opened up about being "flattered" and "thrilled" with the time slot.
Between them, the sibling co-showrunners have produced for a long list of hit sitcoms including The King of Queens, 2 Broke Girls, The New Adventures of Old Christine, and Trial & Error. Stumble will take them in a new direction, with junior college cheerleading at the center of the comedy and the motley crew of athletes – or "athletes," as the case may be for some of them – who want to win a championship. Stumble and CBS' DMV are the only freshman sitcoms on network TV this fall.
Fortunately, Stumble has been paired with a sitcom that's already a success on Friday nights: Reba McEntire's Happy's Place, which brought together several former Reba costars. When I spoke with the Astrof siblings, they shared their thoughts about the primetime pairing, with Jeff saying:
First of all, we are thrilled to be on television. I know that this is not the most fertile landscape for comedy right now. They told us the reason why we were on then, because they deliver, I think, NBC’s biggest live audience, and this show tested really, really well in the middle of the country, I think it tested well across the board, which was crazy. You always kind of want to write things. We just wrote something that we thought would be really funny and cool [with] cheer. And I think Reba has a lot of crossover fans with our audience, and Kristin [Chenowith], and so we're thrilled. Honestly, we're really, really thrilled. It was an honor to be picked up, I think wherever they put us.
As Jeff Astrof noted, the landscape for sitcoms is somewhat barren on network TV nowadays, but Happy's Place is proof that people are still looking for laughs on the small screen. Liz Astrof agreed with her brother, then added what was "so flattering" about NBC giving them their 8:30 p.m. ET time slot after Reba's show on Fridays:
They're setting us up for success, which is so flattering. Really, following Reba is such a great thing, to be following their most successful show. It feels good to be cared for like that.
NBC is also the longtime home of hit mockumentaries, going back to shows like The Office and Parks & Recreation as well as current series like St. Denis Medical, with one star even weighing in on why the mockumentary format is still so popular. That's not to say that Stumble is something that viewers have seen before, and I can vouch that the choice to focus on junior college cheerleading is much funnier than a more elite arena.
Jeff Astrof concurred with his sister about being set up for success on NBC, then added:
I don't know how people watch TV, because people ask. A lot of people have asked me, 'Well what's the Peacock of it?' I don't really know. I know we're on NBC. I guess we're on Peacock the next day. I'm hoping people watch us live and then have to see it again the next day on Peacock because they realize that they missed 200 jokes. So that's what our goal is. Honestly, if it was Sunday morning, we'd be grateful.
Like other NBC offerings, new Stumble episodes will be available streaming next day with a Peacock subscription if you can't watch live or, as Jeff Astrof suggested, just want to watch again to catch any jokes you might have missed. The mockumentary format generally offers opportunities for sight gags that aren't necessarily possible with other sitcoms, and the trailer indicates that the showrunners, actors, and rest of the team had fun with the style. Take a look:
Tune in to NBC on Friday, November 7 at 8:30 p.m. ET for the series premiere of Stumble, directly after the Season 2 premiere of Happy's Place. Prepare your pompoms and check back with CinemaBlend during premiere week for more from Liz and Jeff Astrof about Stumble!
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