The series, Blunt Talk, is a collaboration between MacFarlane and Bored To Death creator Jonathan Ames.

In what is becoming a trend, the cable channel Starz has commissioned two seasons of 10 episodes. That is a break with the tradition of filming a pilot and then ordering a single series.

A total of 20 one-hour episodes have been commissioned.

Weaver will star opposite British actor Patrick Stewart, best known to TV audiences as Star Trek: The Next Generation's Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

The series is described as a "character driven comedy" featuring Stewart as Walter Blunt, an iconic British newscaster who is brought onto an American cable news network to front a show titled Blunt Talk.

While the series is not based on the CNN talk show hosted by British journalist Piers Morgan, the premise of the comedy does seem to have a faint echo of it.

Weaver will play Blunt's producer, Rosalie Winter, who is described as "tough and motherly".

Weaver is also starring on the new Fox drama Gracepoint, which is a US remake of the critically acclaimed British crime drama Broadchurch.