USA Picks Up Half-Hour Comedy 'Driven'

Rednecks rejoice! Like Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy before him, Blue Collar Comedian Ron White has landed a TV show.

According to Deadline, the risqué stand-up staple will star in 'Driven,' USA Network's first foray into the half-hour comedy biz in more than 10 years.

Linda Bloodworth, who delighted us with those Sugarbaker 'Designing Women' back in the '80s, has created the show about a guy (White) who loses his job and starts a limo company. Bloodworth's long-time collaborator (and husband), Harry Thomason, will co-exec produce the project. In addition to 'Women,' the pair worked together on hit '90s sitcoms like 'Hearts Afire' and 'Evening Shade.'

'Driven' isn't the only new show in development at USA, which, hot off its 15th-consecutive quarterly ratings win, has become basic cable's number-one network. It currently has seven new shows in various stages of development, including the Anthony Edwards-produced FBI drama 'Velvet Hammer,' about a former debutante who returns to her native Texas a changed woman.

But it's been a whole 10 years since the cabler has dabbled in the laughs department, though it's done really well with fun dramas. So why the sudden itch? "We've had a great deal of success in the light one-hour genre, so now let's find the next great thing for the brand," Jeff Wachtel, USA's president of original programming, said in a statement. "We're pushing in a bunch of directions, including half-hour comedy and reality." This isn't something they're entering into haphazardly, maintains Wachtel. "It's a carefully staged assault; we're not busting the door open, we're cautiously opening the door to half-hour comedy," he said.

While Ron White gets used to blocking a single-camera comedy, USA will begin airing two new shows this summer: 'Facing Kate,' a dramedy about a frustrated corporate litigator ('L Word's' Sarah Shahi) who gives it all up to become a mediator and help out the little guy, and 'Covert Affairs,' starring Piper Pearbo ('Coyote Ugly') as a CIA trainee who gets promoted to field agent.

Read more about how USA became the king of basic cable.