LOS ANGELES, Oct. 16 -- Eight days before its premiere, NBC's freshman sitcom Newlyweds has a new boss. Bruce Helford, a comedy veteran whose credits include The Drew Carey Show, Roseanne and The Conners, is taking over as showrunner from co-creator Gail Lerner, who says she was fired.

Helford inherits a series built around Tea Leoni and Tim Daly, who are married in real life and play a "later-in-life" newly married couple, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He ran The Conners for its entire seven-season run on ABC, and his recent credits as a writer and producer include NBC's Lopez vs. Lopez and CBS' Kevin Can Wait.

Lerner announced her own exit in an Instagram post last week. "Here's the good news: I couldn't be more proud of the ne...