Audition fight: Jesse Tyler Ferguson says they didn't want to see him for Modern Family
Jesse Tyler Ferguson reveals his Modern Family auditions threw an unexpected curve — and that landing his iconic sitcom role meant a fight you probably didn’t see coming.
On a new episode of his Dinner’s on Me podcast, Jesse Tyler Ferguson told guest Jane Leeves that when Modern Family was casting, the team pegged him for Cameron — not the tightly wound Mitchell Pritchett he’d end up playing for 11 seasons. Ferguson pushed to read for Mitchell anyway.
“They did not want to see me for Mitchell,” he recalled.
Ferguson said the reluctance stemmed from a recently “failed” Fox pilot on his résumé, which made some decision-makers wary of giving him another shot. That’s his account on the podcast — and it could have changed TV history if it stuck.
The turning point, per Ferguson, was casting director Jeff Greenberg, who kept lobbying for him to get in the room as Mitchell. He finally did — and landed the role that paired him with Eric Stonestreet’s Cameron Tucker and turned domestic chaos into sitcom gold for more than a decade.
Modern Family alums tee up Mammoth
Meanwhile, Modern Family co-creator Christopher Lloyd and longtime EP Danny Zuker are back together on a new Fox comedy, Mammoth, adapted from a British series by Welsh comedian Mike Bubbins. Fox ordered the show in September 2026.
The premise centers on Tony Mammoth, a high-school gym teacher who was buried in an avalanche in 1983 and thaws out 40 years later to find the world has moved on without him. Expect plenty of fish-out-of-water ’80s bravado — the guy shows up with:
- a Burt Reynolds–style mustache,
- his beloved Trans-Am,
- and a die-hard attachment to old-school masculinity.
Lloyd and Zuker will write, executive produce and serve as showrunners, with Bubbins also executive producing. Fox has slated Mammoth for the 2027 –28 TV season; casting and a specific premiere date are still to come.