NBC is reportedly developing a reboot of popular 1990s sitcom Coach, which starred Craig T. Nelson as memorable head coach Hayden Fox, with the show seeing an impressive run of nine seasons on ABC for a total of 200 episodes.
Now, with NBC taking the baton, star of Modern Family Ty Burrell is already slated to executive produce the show, the two-time Emmy Award winner is also rumored to play the lead in this new iteration of Coach.
The backdrop will remain in Minnesota, but it won’t have anything to do with the original show’s NCAA Division I-A football program, the Minnesota State University Screaming Eagles.
‘Modern Family’ Star Ty Burrell Eyed for NBC Sitcom Revival, With a Couple New Twists
‘Modern Family’ star Ty Burrell is set to co-write and executive produce a ‘Coach’ (1989) reboot in development at NBC, also being eyed to star.
The single-camera series follows a legendary coach who returns home to Minnesota to rebuild his alma mater’s basketball program, with… pic.twitter.com/tY43FNJVhz— sitcom crave (@sitcomcrave) October 21, 2026
Instead of those beloved Screaming Eagles, a fictitious team that appears to have just as much available apparel as an actual popular college football program, the lead role for Burrell would have the head coach returning home to Minnesota instead “to rebuild his alma mater’s basketball program and reconnect with his community.”
This new version of Coach would also be “a single-camera take on the 1989 [to 1997] ABC multi-camera comedy,” just as Modern Family was, and will be led by co-creators Daniel Libman and Matthew Libman, most recently known for Mr. Throwback with Stephen Curry.
While initial fan reaction to the announcement has not been close to enthusiastic, this isn’t NBC’s first attempt at a Coach revival.
Back in in 2015, NBC had an 13-episode order in place for a continuation of Coach, with the show set 18 years later and Nelson reprising his starring role of coach Fox coming out of retirement to become an assistant coach at a fictional college in Pennsylvania.
But after filming just one episode, and what sounded like major creative differences, NBC canned the revival and the series never happened.
Should the popular Burrell, who had an incredible eight consecutive Emmy nominations for his role in Modern Family, end up taking on the lead role — along with some tweaks that make for a bit of fresh backdrop — the hope is that this version of Coach can move well beyond the developmental stages and avoid the unfortunate fumbles of the attempted revival in 2015.
Related: Michael Douglas Reflects on Cancer Diagnosis: ‘It Makes People Not Want to Be Near You’
