“American Auto” has been renewed for its second season at NBC.
From “Superstore” creator Justin Spitzer, Season 1 of “American Auto” debuted in December 2021. The series is a workplace sitcom set in Detroit, where Payne Motors has just hired Katherine Hastings (Ana Gasteyer), its first female CEO, who found huge success in big pharma but doesn’t know the first thing about cars — not even how to drive them. Katherine and her team of executives must work to adapt to the changing times or be sent to the junkyard.
Harriet Dyer plays Payne’s chief communication officer Sadie, Katherine’s right-hand woman who constantly saves Katherine from herself. She also struggles to fight her feelings for Jack (Tye White), a Payne assembly line worker she had a one night stand with who Katherine suddenly promoted to the corporate office, making him impossible to avoid. The rest of the team includes Wesley (Jon Barinholtz), the would-be heir to the Payne throne if he wasn’t so bad at his job; Payne’s brilliant but uptight chief product designer Cyrus (Michael B. Washington); Payne’s slightly socially awkward chief counsel Elliot (Humphrey Ker); and Katherine’s hilarious assistant Dori (X Mayo).
Spitzer serves as creator, writer and executive producer. Also executive producing are pilot director Jeff Blitz, Aaron Kaplan and Dana Honor. Universal Television produces in association with Spitzer Holding Company and Kapital Entertainment.
Variety‘s review of Season 1 praised the humor of Gasteyer’s performance as Katherine, saying that the character’s “oafishness takes a different form from, say, Michael Scott’s; she has the smooth assurance of an exec who is accustomed to being accommodated,” and pointing out her “paranoia that two of her employees are secretly having sex in the office, which Gasteyer carries across with a sly wit.”