UPDATE: Demi Lovato will no longer star in the upcoming NBC series Hungry.
E! News has learned the singer has stepped down from their starring role in the sitcom because of scheduling conflicts. However, it's understood that they and their manager Scooter Braun remain executive producers on the project.
Deadline was the first to report the news.
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Demi Lovato is getting their very own show once again.
Almost 10 years after the cancellation of Disney Channel's Sonny With a Chance, the music superstar is headlining a new comedy on NBC. It's called Hungry and according to Variety, it follows friends in a food issues group "as they help each other look for love, success and the perfect thing in the fridge that's going to make it all better."
NBC has given the show a put pilot commitment, which means if it doesn't air as a series, it will air as a special at least. Lovato will executive produce and star in the series, with Frasier and Will & Grace producer Suzanne Martin at the helm. Will & Grace star Sean Hayes will also executive produce under his production company. Lovato guest starred alongside Hayes in the Will & Grace revival last year as Will's (Eric McCormack) surrogate.
Aside from their stint on Will & Grace, Lovato has appeared on several TV shows in the years since Sonny With a Chance. They were in two episodes of From Dusk Till Dawn and guest starred as Dani, Santana's (Naya Rivera) love interest in four episodes of Glee in 2013 and 2014. They also appeared as a patient in one episode of Grey's Anatomy in 2010.
The singer has been open in the past about struggling with and recovering from bulimia. They sought treatment for their eating disorder during a 2010 rehab and has spoken publicly about their subsequent relapses. In March 2020, she spoke to Ellen Degeneres about a period where they felt like their life and food were controlled by their team.
"My life, I just felt, was so—and I hate to use this word—but I felt like it was controlled by so many people around me," they said. "If I was in my hotel room at night, they would take the phone out of the hotel room so I couldn't call room service. Or, if there was fruit in my hotel room, they would take it out because that's extra sugar. We're not talking about, like, brownies, and cookies, and candies and stuff. It was fruit."
Lovato has since hired Scooter Braun as their manager. He also serves as an executive producer on Hungry.
This story was originally published on Monday, Jan. 25, 2021 at 5:01 p.m. PST.
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