Splitting Up Together: A New Favorite Sitcom

While in LA for my press trip with ABC/Disney, we screened the new show Splitting Up Together. Here’s the premise:

Based on the Danish series, “Splitting Up Together” is the story of a couple (Jenna Fischer, “The Office,” and Oliver Hudson, “Scream Queens”) whose marriage is reignited by their divorce. Emily Kapnek (“Suburgatory”) writes and serves as executive producer of this new comedy, along with Ellen DeGeneres.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect to like it. I thought it was going to be a silly, unrelatable set-up. But after watching the first three episodes, I can say I was wrong. It ended up being my favorite show we screened.

It touches on the challenges of marriage in really relatable ways. I found myself connecting with the characters and thinking about my own marriage. If you are married or divorced and a parent, I think you will really like this show.

The show premieres tonight at 9:30|8:30c after the premiere of “Roseanne”.

Our group had the chance to sit down with Oliver Hudson, Lindsay Price, the creator of the show Emily Kapnek and executive producer Dean Holland for a fun and insightful interview.

On Their Roles

The show is much more about family than divorce. We asked the cast members what captivated them about their roles:

Lindsay: This script in and of itself captivated me, and I loved the characters because they’re real. They’re real people. But I do think it’s interesting she (Camille) probably immediately seemed selfish that she doesn’t want them to get divorced.

Oliver: “This is, for me, the most connected that I’ve been to a project just because I live this life. And when I read for Emily she was sitting way back and I was like “okay, I want this job so bad”.

On Divorce and Real Life

It was clear that a lot of thought went into how divorce is portrayed on the screen and how it mirrors real life.

Emily: I think we felt like a lot of people seem to identify with the world and the characters whether they were going through a divorce or not. I think the main goal is just to tell a story about divorce that isn’t toxic and negative that has a little bit of hope and a little bit of optimism. I know a lot of couples that have good relationships, even if they didn’t reconcile, just good relationships with their exes and they’re co-parenting happily, and I just don’t think you see a lot of that represented.

Dean: “Historically it’s always been kinda negative that divorce is such a bad thing. And while we were shooting it, numerous people came up to us and told us we’re doing this (exes living together, raising kids). My friends are doing this. So many people were like, hey, it’s let’s kind of both still raise our kids and somehow manage to make it work.”

It was such a fun morning! I hope you check out the show tonight and let me know what you think.

I attended this press event on behalf of Disney and ABC in Los Angeles 2/24-2/27. This post is part of the required content series, all opinions and experiences are my own.