Young Sheldon Stars Open Up About Being A 'Little Bit Ham' Switching To A Live Audience For The New Spinoff
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The weeks are counting down until Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage arrives on CBS in the 2024 TV schedule as a sequel series to Young Sheldon, which itself was a sequel to The Big Bang Theory. The new sitcom won't just be Young Sheldon 2.0, however, as the format is switching to multi-cam with a live studio audience like Big Bang. That will be a big change for stars and Young Sheldon alums Montana Jordan, Emily Osment, Rachel Bay Jones, and Will Sasso as these characters. The stars spoke about that change, including getting to be a "little bit ham" this time around.
Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage of course focuses on the title characters as they attempt to live peacefully under the roof of Mandy's parents, Audrey (Rachel Bay Jones) and Jim (Will Sasso) with their baby daughter CeeCee in the wake of George Sr.'s death. During CBS' Fall 2024 Virtual Press Day, I asked the former Young Sheldon stars what their experiences have been transitioning from playing their characters on a single-cam comedy vs. a multi-cam with a live studio audience. Montana Jordan, who reprises his role as Georgie, said:
We say on Young Sheldon [about] the younger version of Georgie, he was always up to something. He's always selling candy or doing whatever it is to make some type of money, or messing with the girls, whatever it is. And Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage, you're not going to see them type of things, but he's still going to be busy. He's still got everything, all kinds of things going on, and there's plenty to follow. Now he's got a child, and his father just passed away. He's having to become the man of the household, so he's got a lot on his shoulders. And there's a lot of story that needs to be told.
Well, it's certainly good news that he won't be messing around with girls now that he and Mandy are married with a child! Money may be an issue for the young couple, and while that might have been played for drama – or at least dramedy – on Young Sheldon, the live studio audience may guarantee that it's played more for laughs in episodes, which will be available streaming with a Paramount+ subscription.
Rachel Bay Jones went on to praise Montana Jordan becoming a "little bit of a ham" for the show, saying:
It was really fun to watch Montana, and it has been really fun to watch Montana especially grow in front of the audience, and really to see him enjoy that and be a little bit of a ham in front of the audience. It's been really fabulous. He's so so good, and it's really fun. We're all getting a big kick out of watching him.
I think it's safe to say that the actors were a lot more ham on The Big Bang Theory than they were over the years of Young Sheldon, which is natural for actors performing in front of a live studio audience compared to a single-cam set. Will Sasso agreed with Bay and went on:
It's really edifying, just as a fan of young Sheldon, to see Georgie come into Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage and still be very, very Georgie. And as Steve [Holland] said, this is not a show that you need to follow. Even though we are in the Big Bang universe, it's not quite like a Marvel film. [laughs] And having said that, it's great to see that Georgie is Georgie, and see how wonderfully Montana has brought into the multi-camera medium, which I can't wait for people to check out.
Rest assured that the TV universe started by The Big Bang Theory and continued by Young Sheldon (both of which are now streaming with a Max subscription) is not going full MCU with the addition of Georgie & Mandy. It's worth noting that Young Sheldon and Big Bang both were airing new episodes during the same season for a few years; that won't be the case for G&M after the Iain Armitage-led show ended in the spring. Emily Osment, who co-leads with Montana Jordan as Mandy, weighed in:
It's also a huge testament to this universe that they've built, that we've gone from a multi-cam to a single-cam back to a multi-cam. It just goes to show that these characters have longevity and they're authentic and they're real, and you can follow them through anything, even a change of camera positions.
The show certainly has brought the talent behind-the-scenes to continue building the universe, as creators/executive producers Steve Holland, Steven Molaro, and Chuck Lorre were all EPs on both Young Sheldon and Big Bang Theory before Georgie & Mandy was even conceived. Holland was also present at CBS' Fall 2024 Press Day, and said this in his closing comments:
For anyone who's a fan of Young Sheldon or Big Bang Theory, but especially Young Sheldon, I think this show is going to feel really fun and really familiar. It's Young Sheldon in a slightly different format than it was before, but I think all the things that people loved about it are still going to be there. One of the reasons we were excited to do that is because we knew this cast that we had put together, and we were so excited about putting them up in front of an audience every week and doing this little piece of theater every week, and it's just a blast. It's a blast to watch. I think the episodes have come out really well, and we're incredibly excited to share them with the world.
Fortunately for fans who have been missing the Cooper family since Young Sheldon went off the air with its finale back in May, the wait for Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage isn't too much longer. The new sitcom will premiere on Thursday, October 17 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. While there won't be as much of the larger Cooper family this time around compared to Young Sheldon, you can expect Zoe Perry as Mary and Annie Potts as MeeMaw in the series premiere.
