CBS Sets Comedy Pilot ‘Hilda! (In Lights!)’ About Old Woman on Broadway

CBS has given a pilot order to a comedy series titled “Hilda! (In Lights!)” about an elderly woman who moves to New York City to pursue her Broadway dreams.

Three scripts for the single-camera project, from writer and executive producer Abbey Caldwell, were announced as being in development at the studio in April. The logline reads: “One of those classic shows about a plucky small-town optimist who moves to the big city to pursue her lifelong dream of starring on Broadway. There’s just one teeny, tiny, totally inconsequential difference… our hero Hilda is a 70-year-old woman from Nebraska with absolutely no experience.”

Caldwell’s non-writing executive producers include Will Graham, Max Linsky and Tonia Davis for Invitation Media.

The “Hilda! (In Lights!)” news comes as CBS has taken bets on a handful of new, original projects. “Eternally Yours,” a vampire comedy from “Ghosts” duo Joe Port and Joe Wiseman, is premiering on Oct. 8 alongside the Silicon Valley-set legal drama “Cupertino” from Robert and Michelle King. Tara Hernandez’s comedy pilot “The Tillbrooks” (formerly known as “Regency”) — a historical spin on the classic multi-camera family sitcom — was also ordered to pilot but will not be moving forward.

Also on the CBS 2026-2027 schedule is the new “NCIS” spinoff “NCIS: New York,” which will see LL Cool J reprising his role as Sam Hanna. That show will debut on Oct. 6.

New series “Einstein,” a dramedy starring Matthew Gray Gubler as the brilliant but directionless great-grandson of Albert Einstein, will premiere in the second half of the season.