Amy Poehler and Hugh Laurie Are Digging Up Peacock’s Next Big Comedy Hit 'Dig'

The streaming landscape is littered with underbaked comedies, but Peacock is preparing to unearth something that might actually justify your monthly subscription fee. Dig, an upcoming archaeological comedy series, is officially scheduled to drop all 10 episodes on Monday, November 23, 2026. If the sheer pairing of the lead actors isn’t enough to make you pause your latest true-crime binge, the creative forces operating behind the scenes certainly will.

This upcoming Peacock original marks the heavily anticipated reunion of Amy Poehler and executive producer Mike Schur. For anyone who spent the 2010s treating Parks and Recreation like a personality trait—we see you—this news is the television equivalent of finding water in a desert. Schur is co-running the series alongside J.J. Philbin, adapting Kate Myers’ popular novel Excavations into what promises to be a sharp, deeply cynical look at academia, history, and the people obsessed with unearthing it.

The Plot: Dust, Dirt, and Deception

Set against the sun-drenched backdrop of an excavation site in Greece, Dig follows a team of wildly passionate archaeologists saddled with a group of profoundly unenthusiastic college students. The premise kicks into high gear when the crew stumbles upon a rare artifact that triggers a long-buried secret.

Rather than a simple historical debate, this single discovery launches the entire team directly into a high-stakes international conspiracy. Suddenly, a group of people who usually argue about ancient pottery shards are forced to navigate a plot that has the genuine potential to rewrite human history. It is a brilliant setup for situational comedy, contrasting dry academic elitism with genuine, existential danger.

A Cast Worth the Hype

What truly elevates Dig from a standard streaming gamble to a mandatory watch is its stellar ensemble cast. Amy Poehler stars as Elise, one of the primary archaeologists steering the ship. Poehler excels at playing women driven by intense, occasionally exhausting professional passion, making this role a perfect fit for her comedic strengths.

Opposite her is Hugh Laurie as Neville, a traditionalist British professor who views himself as a grand mentor to the youth, despite the youth mostly wanting him to stop talking. Laurie’s unmatched ability to deliver elite levels of exasperation will undoubtedly play beautifully against Poehler’s trademark optimism.

The supporting roster is equally formidable. Geraldine Viswanathan plays Dylan, a young woman returning to the dig site after five years to handle some deeply personal, unfinished business.Antonia Thomas stars as Clare, the sharp-tongued head preservationist keeping the site's laboratory from falling apart. Fina Strazza portrays Patty, Neville’s long-suffering undergraduate assistant. Kayvan Novak, Jon Pointing, and Bonita Friedericy round out the cast in recurring roles, ensuring that even the background banter will be top-tier.

Peacock greenlit the project back in mid-2025, and filming wrapped in Greece between January and May of this year. Produced by Universal Television alongside Fremulon and Poehler’s Paper Kite Productions, the show has the structural backing to deliver both high production value and tightly written scripts.

While we wait for a full-length trailer to give us our first real look at the dynamic between Poehler and Laurie, the pedigree of this team speaks for itself. It is sharp, it is dry, and it is precisely the kind of comedy Peacock needs to cement itself as a destination for quality television. Mark your calendars for November 23—not us counting down the days to a show about ancient dirt.