Richie to Star on NBC’s Upcoming Comedy Series “Great News”

There’s a little Great News for Nicole Richie

The 34-year-old part-Mexican American television personality and fashionista will star in NBC‘s forthcoming comedy Great News in a recasting, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Nicole Richie

Inspired by the life of Tracey Wigfield, the comedy centers on a mother-daughter relationship that is challenged when an overly involved New Jersey mom (Andrea Martin) interns at her daughter’s (Briga Heelan) workplace, a cable news network.

The Simple Life alum has been tapped to play Portia, the role originally played by Kimrie Lewis-Davis in the pilot.

Producers are said to have wanted to go in a different direction with the role. Portia is the hip, young co-host of The Breakdown, the cable news show within Great News. Sometimes a shrewd social media genius, sometimes a clueless idiot, Portia has little interest in her older co-host’s (John Michael Higgins) hard-hitting traditional vision for the show.

Written by Wigfield, the 30 Rock alum exec produces the Universal Television single-camera comedy alongside Tina Fey and Robert Carlock.

Beth McCarthy Miller directed the pilot for the series, which is due to bow midseason.

It’s Richie’s first scripted series-regular television role following reality television work on The Simple Life and Candidly Nicole as well as guest-acting appearances on NBC’s Chuck, The New Normal and Fox‘s Empire.