• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, 7 hours ago

“The Big Bang Theory” and its two spinoffs have been huge hits for CBS, but the third spinoff is going directly to streaming.

The show was announced Wednesday at the Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront in New York. 

Titled “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe,” the series focuses on Stuart Bloom, the comic-book store owner played by Kevin Sussman in the original “Big Bang.”

“The Big Bang Theory” ran for 12 seasons on CBS from 2007 to 2019. Since then, it has enjoyed a spectacular run in off-network syndication, where by all appearances, it is still going strong.

At various points in its history, “Big Bang” was by far the highest-rated comedy in all of television with season averages unheard of today for live, timeslot viewing -- 18.68 million total viewers per episode in Season 6, 19.96 million in Season 7, and peaking in Season 9 with 20.36 million.

It was a mainstay of CBS and begat “Young Sheldon” (2017-24) and “George & Mandy’s First Marriage” (2024-present). 

But the third spinoff from the “Big Bang” juggernaut is not going to CBS.

Instead, producer Warner Bros. Television is keeping “Stuart” in the WB family with a 10-episode first run on HBO Max starting July 23. 

Chuck Lorre, producer of all three previous “Big Bang” shows, is the creator, writer and executive producer of “Stuart,” along with Zak Penn and Bill Prady.

The premise of the new spinoff references the original show and its two principal characters, roommate physicists Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) and Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki).

In the “Stuart” spinoff, Stuart “is tasked with restoring reality after he breaks a device built by Sheldon and Leonard, accidentally bringing about a multiverse Armageddon,” according to a description from HBO Max.

The reality of this decision is that Warner decided to bypass network TV in favor of a streaming-only strategy for a sitcom descended from one of the most profitable sitcom franchises in the history of network television.

Photo of the four main cast members of “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe” courtesy 

HBO Max. L-r: John Ross Bowie, Lauren Lapkus, Kevin Sussman and Brian Posehn.