Common Law, USA’s most recent entry to the land of blue-sky programming, finally has a premiere date. When can audiences hope to catch a glimpse of this light-hearted cop drama? Keep reading to find out.

According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, Common Law will debut on Friday, May 11 at 10pm on USA. The new show will follow USA’s returning legal drama, Fairly Legal (season 2 debuts on March 16) on Friday nights.

Common Law was originally scheduled to debut its premiere episode on Thursday, January 26. Before that date, however, USA decided to move the show to a summertime airing. In addition to placing Common Law in a good position to gain a larger summer audience, the light tone of the show is probably a better fit for sunny evenings than dark winter nights.

The show stars Michael Ealy (The Good Wife, Barbershop) and Warren Kole (The Chicago Code) as police detectives who, after being partners for seven years, start having trouble working together. Eventually, this dysfunctional pairing gets sent to couples’ therapy where they learn coping strategies with actual married couples in a group led by Sonya Walger’s (Lost, FlashForward) Dr. Emma Ryan. Jack McGee (Rescue Me) also stars as Captain Phil Sutton.

Common Law falls on the funny side of the standard police drama, focusing more on the squabbling partners than on gritty law-enforcement issues.

USA has an excellent track record for original programming — every drama that aired on the channel in 2011 was given new episodes in 2012. It therefore makes sense that Common Law would be given every chance to succeed whenever it debuted. USA’s other new scripted offering, a more serious drama called Political Animals, stars Lone Star survivor James Wolk and debuts later in the summer.

Are you looking forward to the debut of Common Law? Are you a fan of USA shows? Do you have a favorite? Let us know in the comments section below!

(Image courtesy of USA)

Laurel Brown

Senior Writer, BuddyTV

Laurel grew up in Mamaroneck, NY, Grosse Pointe, MI and Bellevue WA. She then went on to live in places like Boston, Tucson, Houston, Wales, Tanzania, Prince Edward Island and New York City before heading back to Seattle. Ever since early childhood, when she became addicted to The Muppet Show, Laurel has watched far too much TV. Current favorites include ChuckModern FamilySupernaturalMad Men and Community. Laurel received a BA in Astrophysics (yes, that is possible) from Colgate University and a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies and History of Science from Columbia University before she realized that television is much better than studying.