'Will & Grace' vets to run NBC's 'Love Bites'

Hit comedy veterans Jon Kinnally and Tracy Poust have signed as showrunners on NBC's midseason series "Love Bites."

The agreement is part of a two-year seven-figure deal that Kinnally and Poust have made with Universal Media Studios.

The writer-producer duo worked together for years on NBC's "Will & Grace," including showrunning the hit's final two seasons. Later, they helped write and produce another successful comedy, ABC's "Ugly Betty," for four seasons.

They will take over showrunning duties on "Bites" from creator Cindy Chupack, who stepped down from the post this month for personal reasons. She will continue to write on the show. Shelley McCrory and Mark Buckland will serve as producers on "Bites" as well.

"We worked with Jon and Tracy for many years on 'Will & Grace' and feel they are perfect for this job on 'Love Bites,' " said Angela Bromstad, president of primetime entertainment at NBC. "Not only do they bring intelligence, passion and great experience, but they are one of the funniest writing duos working in television today. This is great news for an incredibly promising new show."

The Universal Media Studios and Working Title project is an hourlong looking-for-love comedy series that originally was announced as part of NBC's fall lineup, airing at 10 p.m. Thursdays. With Chupack downshifting her role and star Becki Newton announcing her pregnancy, NBC decided to put the civilian reboot of reality staple "The Apprentice" into the "Bites" slot and push "Bites" to midseason.

"Bites" has an unusual anthology-inspired format wherein Newton and co-stars Constance Zimmer and Greg Grunberg appear in each episode, but there are other stand-alone segments throughout the show telling tales of modern romance.

Kinnally and Poust are repped by WME.