Fifteen years after he first charmed audiences as the lovable slacker Nick Miller on New Girl, Jake Johnson is finally making his return to network television. The actor has landed the lead role in Sunset P.I., a new single-camera comedy that NBC has officially ordered to series. The show is slated to premiere this fall.
According to the network, Sunset P.I. is a half-hour workplace comedy set in the world of Los Angeles private investigators. The logline cheekily promises it “continues the proud tradition of Los Angeles private eyes that began with Philip Marlowe and will end with this show.” Johnson plays Mickey, a beleaguered detective working for a small agency run by old-school tough guy Julius Royal, played by Keith David (The Thing). The cast also includes Langston Kerman (Abbott Elementary) as Julius’s lovable detective son Justin, Jane Levy (Don’t Breathe) as a brilliant investigative journalist named Faye, and newcomer Mary Shalaby as the agency’s “flagrantly disinterested” receptionist, Raya.
Johnson previously teased the project to Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, describing it as “a workplace comedy set in the world of P.I.s, so it’s going to be a new way of looking at the P.I. genre, but we’re going to still have great guest stars coming in.” The series is created by Dan Goor (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and Luke Del Tredici (Killing It), who also executive produce. The pilot was directed by Akiva Schaffer (The Naked Gun).
Since New Girl wrapped in 2018 after seven seasons, Johnson has kept busy with a mix of short-lived TV projects and notable film roles. He starred opposite Cobie Smulders in the ABC detective drama Stumptown, which was renewed for a second season but canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also led the 1970s-set comedy Minx and voiced a coach in the animated Netflix series Hoops; both were short-lived. On the big screen, Johnson voiced the fan-favorite Peter B. Parker in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and its sequel Across the Spider-Verse, and is expected to return for next year’s Beyond the Spider-Verse. He also wrote and starred in the comedy Ride the Eagle and made his directorial debut with the comedy thriller Self Reliance.
Later this year, Johnson will appear in the pickleball comedy The Dink and lend his voice to the stop-motion animated film Wildwood. For fans of crime comedies, Sunset P.I. joins a growing list of genre-blending shows. If you’re looking for something darker, check out Denzel Washington’s The Equalizer hitting Tubi free in June 2026 for a more brutal take on the crime thriller.
No premiere date has been announced yet, but Sunset P.I. is expected to debut on NBC this fall. Stay tuned for updates.
