NBC is scrapping the linear run of “The Paper” and giving “Stumble” a Monday showcase
NBC ends the linear series of Peacock’s ‘The Paper’ earlier than expected. Instead, starting Jan. 5, NBC will air episodes of the freshman comedy “Stumble” on Mondays at 8:30 p.m. ET — where broadcast-friendly versions of “The Paper” have been airing since Nov. 10.
New episodes of “Stumble” air Fridays at 8:30 p.m., behind “Happy’s Place.” But NBC executives hope to give “Stumble” some extra exposure by posting reruns, starting with the show’s pilot episode, on Monday behind “St. Dennis Medical’.
That means “The Paper” won’t quite get a full 10-episode run on Monday, but NBC plans to air the remaining three episodes on Saturday, January 3. That show has, of course, been available on Peacock since September 4 – where viewers can already watch all of Season 1. And an option for season 2 of ‘The Paper’ has already been picked up, meaning the show will return to the streamer with more episodes in 2026.
NBC executives hope to add more momentum to “Stumble,” which will air on the extra Monday schedule through Feb. 2 (with the exception of an NBA game on Jan. 19). That Monday 8:30 PM slot will eventually be taken over by the new comedy “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins,” which will premiere with an hour-long episode on February 23 at 8 PM ET before kicking off the following week on March 2 at 8:30 PM.
“The Paper,” Peacock’s No. 2 comedy to date (behind only “Ted”), added nearly 6 million viewers to its cross-platform reach during its NBC run, according to the network. When it originally decided to air a second series of “The Paper” on NBC, people in the know said an internal study showed there was only about 4% duplication in viewership between the NBC and Peacock audiences. Peacock viewers are also about a decade younger than NBC’s, and the network hoped this would expose “The Paper” to a very different demographic.
As for “Stumble,” the show was created by Jeff Astrof and Liz Astrof and is set in the competitive world of junior college cheerleading. The series stars Jenn Lyon, Taran Killam, Ryan Pinkston, Jarrett Austin Brown, Anissa Borrego, Arianna Davis, Taylor Dunbar and Georgie Murphy, while Kristin Chenoweth is announced as a recurring guest star. Other guest stars in Season 1 include Jeff Hiller, Ashlie Atkinson and Dascha Polanco.
The Astrofs are executive producers, along with Dana Honor and Monica Aldama (of Netflix’s ‘Cheer’). Jeff Blitz is director/EP. Universal TV is the studio behind the single-camera comedy, which was picked up for 13 episodes in season 1.
Variety TV critic Aramide Tinubu gave the show a thumbs up, calling it “a hysterical mockumentary about the high-stakes arena of high school cheerleading. For viewers who loved the ‘Cheer’ docuseries and Aldama’s no-nonsense approach to coaching, this light-hearted twist on that world introduces a cast of wildly colorful characters and a woman determined to win no matter the cost.”
