Romano to produce new drama

Ray Romano and Mike Royce, partners in the Emmy-winning “Everybody Loves Raymond,” will write and executive produce a pilot, “Men of a Certain Age,” for TNT, the network has announced. Romano also will star in the project as a divorced father and one of three longtime friends approaching midlife.

The project is the latest in TNT’s new push to expand its weekday prime- time schedule with original scripted dramas. The cable network has green-lighted “Raising the Bar,” a Steven Bochco project starring Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Gloria Reuben and Jane Kaczmarek, and “Truth in Advertising,” a series by the team behind its biggest hit, “The Closer.”

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-- Martin Miller