‘Mike & Molly’ creator exits before season 4 production

While the Chuck Lorre media empire has expanded on CBS to a point where he has four shows on the air, one of them is starting to see some pretty sizable changes, and it, ironically enough, may be the one with Hollywood’s fastest rising star on board in Melissa McCarthy. “Mike & Molly” was already left off of the network’s fall schedule, and will premiere at midseason despite having a 22-episode order.

In addition to that, we also have the news that the original creator of the show is getting ready to step aside in order to work on some other projects. Sources are confirming that Mark Roberts, who also served as the showrunner on the series for the past three seasons, will be replaced by another man on the staff in co-executive producer Al Higgins.

This move is slightly different than what happened to another CBS – Chuck Lorre show in “The Big Bang Theory.” While it never really received many headlines, Steven Molaro became the show’s primary showrunner before season 6, and while both Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady are still a part of the show and work on it part-time, they are not there to oversee all day-to-day operations. Meanwhile, the “Mike & Molly” case now revolves around someone taking even less of a role than Lorre and Prady, which means that there could be a shift in tone depending on what the upcoming scripts look like.

Are you shocked at all by this move, and do you think that “Mike & Molly” has a shot this coming season to be even better than before? If you haven’t seen the network’s full schedule just yet, the best way in which to do so is over at the link here.

Photo: CBS