Maya Rudolph, Martin Short variety show will happen at NBC

For those wondering whether or not Maya Rudolph is finally going to get that variety show over at NBC, we are rather pleased to be coming here today with some sort of official answer: It’s happening.

Per Variety, the show is entitled “Maya and Marty in Manhattan,” and is going to premiere this May with “Saturday Night Live” guru Lorne Michaels serving as an executive-producer. It’s weird that in some ways, the performance of Maya with Martin Short, who will be her co-host on the show, from the “SNL” 40th anniversary special may have been the precursor of this happening (to go along with a one-off show Rudolph did all the way back in 2014).

One of the biggest reasons why this show is such big news is that it marks one of the first real opportunities for NBC to get back into the variety genre since they canceled “Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris,” an ambitious show that placed the former “How I Met Your Mother” star front and center and in a hyper-energetic role. That show had a lot of good ideas, but it never could establish much consistency either creatively or in the ratings.

For Rudolph and Short, the big challenge here is going to be making this consistently funny, while different than “SNL.” It’s something that needs to demand that people want to watch live, and that is something that other shows have struggled with in this format over the years. Let’s face it: It’s been a long time since a live variety show made a huge impact.

Are you excited to check this show out? Share some of your thoughts right now with a comment, and head over here if interested in getting some other TV news on all we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)