‘Young Sheldon’ Sets Rich Syndication Deal With ViacomCBS

The Big Bang Theory continues to pay off for Warner Bros. TV.

In a rich deal, the indie studio has inked a syndication deal with ViacomCBS for Big Bang spinoff prequel Young Sheldon. Under the multiple-year deal, the 1990s-set single-camera comedy from Chuck Lorre will join ViacomCBS-owned Nick at Nite’s syndication lineup in November.

The lucrative deal, financial terms of which were not immediately available, will see the first three seasons of the comedy about the younger version of Jim Parsons’ Sheldon Cooper join Nick at Nite’s evening block that also includes repeats of Friends, George Lopez and the Lorre-backed Mom. Season four, which is expected to air on CBS sometime in the fall (pending pandemic-related production delays), will join Nick at Nite in 2021.

The move means that Young Sheldon and Big Bang Theory will have different syndicated homes. WarnerMedia-owned TBS has syndication rights to the flagship comedy. The syndie deal also had a halo affect on first-run episodes of Big Bang Theory after TBS aired the multicam for multiple hours each weekday.

The syndication pact keeps Young Sheldon in the ViacomCBS ecosystem after the streaming rights to the comedy created by Lorre and Steve Molaro sold to WarnerMedia-backed HBO Max. Young Sheldon, the most watched comedy on network television among total viewers, joined Big Bang Theory on HBO Max. The mega-hit comedy, which wrapped last year, had not been available to stream until the HBO Max deal.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. TV — which produced the flagship and the spinoff — has yet to shop Young Sheldon out for sales to local station groups. Also still to come: a new overall deal for comedy kingpin Lorre, whose last deal with his longtime home at Warner Bros. TV expired this summer.