When it was announced that CBS' Kevin Can Wait was bringing in Kevin James' former King of Queens co-star Leah Remini as a guest-star, fans undoubtedly had expectations for their respective characters to share the same kind of chemistry that they did on the former comedy. And with Remini's promotion, combined with the show-written death of Kevin's wife Donna, it seemed like that could be an eventual end-game, but executive producer Rob Long claims that's not the case at all. At least not at this point in the show, or the characters' time together. In his words:
Honestly, we're trying not to [put them in a romantic relationship]. I know that sounds crazy! . . . These two actors have incredibly fun chemistry together, but they're also great antagonists. So as much as there's a lot of snap and crackle on screen, there's also a lot of fun in watching two people not get along.
Leah Remini's Vanessa Cellucci made her big Kevin Can Wait debut appearance in the two-part Season 1 finale, serving as a foil for Kevin as his former rival on the force. When Season 2 of Kevin Can Wait kicks off, the revised storyline will keep the characters at odds, but with Vanessa now taking on the role of Kevin's boss at the top of a new security firm. They've got to keep up a working relationship, of course, but fans shouldn't expect that awkward friendliness to turn into anything more lovey-dovey. For the time being, this isn't a will they/won't they situation, because they won't.
Season 1 was more tied to the relationship between Kevin and his family, with his job situation obviously coming up a bit. But now that the show is in Season 2, Rob Long told TVLine that everyone involved on the creative side is having a ton of fun dealing with things on the work-relationship side, since they hadn't gotten to do that before. Of course, Kevin will also be a single father raising the three Gable kids, with Kendra assumedly watching everyone when Kevin heads out to work. But it's not clear if Vanessa will enter into his home life very much.
We'll just say it right here that Rob Long specifically pointed out that fans shouldn't expect that "by Episode 12" to see Kevin and Vanessa having any kind of romantic kindling. So maybe in Episode 13? Okay, probably not, but still.
Kevin Can Wait will make its Season 2 debut on CBS on Monday, September 25, at 9:00 p.m. ET. To see everything else that'll be making primetime a little more complicated in the coming months, head to our fall premiere schedule.
