Neil Patrick Harris reportedly set for NBC variety series

This may in fact be worthy of a classic Barney Stinson “legendary” line.

According to Vulture, NBC and Neil Patrick Harris are close to a deal that will give him a ten-episode variety series on the network, which is something that former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Maya Rudolph tried out last year to relative success. This would be an adaptation of the “Saturday Night Takeaway” show hosted by Ant and Dec on the UK station ITV, which has already aired crossover hits in “Downton Abbey” as well as “The X Factor.”

With Neil’s show, there are no present guarantees about how the format would end up being, or if it would also air on Saturday nights (which is a risky proposition). If nothing else, we know that he has the capabilities to pull of something like this. We know that he can sing, dance, act, and host a given show, and also do so in a live format. He’s basically one of the few people on the planet right now who could make a variety show work in the age of the DVR. The original appeal of this format was that it was something fun you could watch to pass the time, but it is harder to do this now in an era with so many other options. It’s hard to see a whole lot of people setting their recorders to something like this.

It is looking like it will be a very busy few months for Neil moving forward, given that he also has on the docket coming up the 2015 Academy Awards. He will be the host for the show this year, which is the third major awards show he’s done along with the Emmys and the Tonys. He’s done others, as well, including the Video Game Awards.

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