Twenty years ago, at NBC‘s 2006 upfront presentation, the network unveiled its 2006-07 lineup which featured two new series on the fall schedule, Aaron Sorkin’s drama Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip and Tina Fey’s single-camera comedy 30 Rock, set behind the scenes of a Saturday Night Live-type TV show. They launched within weeks of each other, in September and October 2006, respectively.
Exactly 20 years later, at NBC’s 2026 upfront presentation today, the network unveiled its 2026-27 lineup, which includes two new private detective series, drama The Rockford Files, a reboot of the 1970s classic, and single-camera comedy Sunset P.I..
As luck will have it, just like 30 Rock and Studio 60, The Rockford Files and Sunset P.I. also will premiere within weeks of each other in January and February 2027, respectively.
Studio 60 and 30 Rock shared a number of similarities, from the numerical titles and the premise, to having as main characters the fictional sketch show’s head writer, producer and stars as well as the network executive overseeing it, plus the caliber of actors in the cast, Bradley Whitford, Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet and Sarah Paulson (Studio 60), and Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan and Jane Krakowski (30 Rock).
The Rockford Files and Sunset P.I. also are headlined by big TV stars, David Boreanaz and Jake Johnson, respectively, playing P.I.s with knack for solving cases who are trying to rebuild their lives. Boreanaz’s James is newly paroled after doing time for a crime he didn’t commit, Johnson’s Mickey is an ex-LAPD cop whose life imploded three years ago.
Lisa Katz, President of Scripted Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, downplayed the similarities between The Rockford Files and Sunset P.I. and the fact that the network is launching a drama and comedy in the same arena.
“As you know, we’ve done two medical shows, we’ve done multiple investigative shows,” she said. “And they’re both really, really strong and very different in terms of the tone and kinds of shows they are.”
It is true that multiple series in the same genre across comedy and drama can co-exist. This season alone, NBC has three medical shows on the air, dramas Chicago Med and Brilliant Minds and comedy St. Denis Medical. Brooklyn Nine-Nine aired on the network alongside dramas Law & Order: SVU and Chicago P.D.
Still, private investigator is a specific, narrow crime sub-genre. And it is very rare for a comedy and drama in the same genre lane to come out of the same development cycle and launch at the same time with overlapping marketing campaigns.
“It wasn’t intentional, it was just finding the best shows for the best slots, and they both happened to come near each other,” Katz said about the timing.
The Rockford Files and Sunset P.I. are scheduled on different nights, Thursday and Monday, respectively, and there are no plans for them to air back to back, Katz said. Still, both shows are set in Los Angeles, so, if there is a desire, there could be potential crossovers.
In television, there are some trends that seemingly come out of nowhere. The rise of P.I. shows may be one of them.
CBS brought the genre back in 2018 with another reboot of a classic series, Magnum P.I.. It was followed by Amazon’s 2022 Bosch sequel, Bosch: Legacy, which featured former LAPD Detective “Harry” Bosch (Titus Welliver) as a private investigator.
But the current wave of P.I. shows kicked off in earnest with Netflix’s The Man On the Inside, starring Ted Danson, which launched in November 2024 and is headed to its third season, with Danson’s amateur sleuth Charles now a licensed private investigator. ABC’s R.J. Decker, headlined by Scott Speedman, premiered in March and was just renewed for a second season. It will be joined on broadcast next season by The Rockford Files and Sunset P.I.
And there are more PI projects in the pipeline, including a series adaptation of the Adam Brody movie The Kid Detective in development at Hulu with Rachel Kaplan producing.
Fun fact: A Man On the Inside is created/executive produced by Mike Schur, and Sunset P.I. is co-created/executive produced by Dan Goor, the duo who created together Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Cop comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine ran for eight seasons. Meanwhile, every pilot Boreanaz has starred in has gone to series and all the series, Angel, Bones and SEAL Team, have had long, successful runs. That bodes well for both Sunset P.I. and The Rockford Files.
Still, we all know television’s brutal success rate. Looking back 20 years, 30 Rock and Studio 60 did not share the NBC schedule for long. While 30 Rock went on to run for seven seasons and earn 16 Emmys, Studio 60 was canceled after one season.
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