THE COMEBACK KIDS

A fallen ex-NFL star and a canceled movie director team up as an odd couple for a Hail Mary shot at redemption

- BY DAMIAN HOLBROOK

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins

SERIES PREMIERE

Monday, Feb. 23, 8/7c, NBC

From The Office to St. Denis Medical and every Abbott Elementary along the way, docu-style TV has become such a thing that even the Real Housewives openly acknowledge that they're on camera...while on camera! The latest addition to the lineup is NBC's easy-tolove new comedy with Tracy Morgan as the titular disgraced football star and Daniel Radcliffe as the filmmaker interested in his story. But instead of serving the usual mix of plot-driven comedy intercut with confessionals, Reggie—which had a special preview premiere on January 18 that scored 5.8 million viewers—goes behind the scenes to clown on the often-insane lengths both men will go to while trying to make a masterpiece. And behind the actual scenes are the real pros in this game.

“It felt like a new way to approach the fake-doc style, which we love,” says Robert Carlock, Morgan's Emmy-winning 30 Rock boss, who showruns Reggie with cocreator and Parks & Rec scribe Sam Means. Having spoofed the genre with 30 Rock's Bravo-inspired Queen of Jordan bits, Carlock knows “the audience is so fluent in it now, so doing it from a sports point of view felt like fresh territory for us.”

Means, who also wrote for