Following this week's season one finale, it has just been revealed creator/star Will Forte no longer returns to The Last Man on Earth as its showrunner for its announced second season. Those duties now belong to Dan Sterling, as the former The Office executive producer closes a two-year overall deal with Fox Television.
The executive producer/showrunner change-up news comes from Deadline. Although Forte stepped down from his top position, he remains a multi-tasker on the series as its creator, star and fellow executive producer, a position he and Sterling share with Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
This is not the beginning of Sterling's work relationship with Lord and Miller, as the new Last Man on Earth showrunner developed a multi-camera comedy with them through their deal with 20th TV. That show landed at CBS with a pilot commitment last August, Deadline also reported at the time.
Outside of this, however, Sterling also served as a consulting producer on Girls in 2012, a co-executive producer on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in 2006 and writer/executive producer on The Sarah Silverman Program. This is just to name a few of his television credits. In film, however, he recently wrote and executive produced last year's The Interview.
"Getting Dan to come to the studio is such a big win for us,” Jonnie Davis, 20th TV President of Creative Affairs, said. “It’s bold and original voices like Dan’s which continue to set our company apart from the others, and we’ve had a fantastic time developing with him this past year. He’s also quite possibly Last Man on Earth‘s biggest fan, so having him set up shop here and run that show has us all over the moon.”
Anyone who watched this week's season finale knows that last comment is fairly cheeky. The final 2015 episode teased some big plans in the series' future, and hopefully Sterling lives up to such potential. Despite its uneven season, The Last Man on Earth started out very strong in its initial episodes. While it bounced back into its potential here and there, though, it never had the same spark its first three episodes had. The Fox show was renewed for a second season a month ago.
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