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How I Met Your Dad Being Shopped to Other Networks After CBS Passed

The How I Met Your Mother spinoff was considered a lock at CBS—Find out what went wrong

By Kristin Dos Santos, Chris Harnick May 14, 2014 2:16 PMTags
Greta GerwigAstrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Glamour

How I Met Your Dad won't be coming to CBS this year, despite early reports that it was a lock at the network, but that doesn't mean the project is dead.

A spinoff of sorts from the beloved CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother, the new comedy from Carter Bays, Craig Thomas and Emily Spivey followed Greta Gerwig as Sally as she told the story of how she met her kids' father. Meg Ryan was tapped to do the narration like Bob Saget provided How I Met Your Mother.

CBS ordered the pilot before How I Met Your Mother came to an end this season, but during their Upfront press call explained it wasn't what they had hoped it would be. CBS' Nina Tassler said "there were elements of the pilot that didn't work out," but the brass at the network "love this show and we love these producers."

"I'm heartsick," she told reporters. "We love this brand and we love this show, but it didn't work out."

Tassler said CBS reached out to Bays and Thomas to try and get a redo, but the producers didn't want to do it. According to insiders close to the negotiations, the studio and producers didn't want to redo the pilot without a series order from CBS.

Still, How I Met Your Dad could live to see another day. HIMYD was one of the most buzzed about pilots for next season and it's possible it could find a new home on a different network.

Sources tell E! News that CBS has until midnight tonight to pick up the series before the bid expires. 20th Century Fox, the show's producer, had been waiting for that bid to expire before showing the pilot to other networks, but has already had preliminary discussions about moving the show elsewhere.

Gerwig was also tapped to join the show's writers' room if it was picked up to series.  "It's funny. It shares the heart and soul with the original show, so it has the sweetness and the funniness," she told E! News in March.

See CBS' new fall schedule here.