'Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage' Stars Montana Jordan and Emily Osment Talk the Transition to a Live Studio Audience

When Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage premieres on Oct. 17, Young Sheldon fans will find the same characters and sweet sense of humor, but the spinoff will look and sound a little different. It’s “a laughing show,” which is how Georgie ( Montana Jordan ) approvingly describes Frasier in the winking first scene of the series premiere. “Some shows you can hear people laughing and some you can’t,” he says. He likes shows that let you know what's funny, so he'd enjoy watching his own show. Georgie & Mandy is filmed in front of a live studio audience, whose laughter flavors the episodes. Structurally, it’s like its grandparent show, The Big Bang Theory .

It’s the first time Jordan—who was a teenager straight out of Texas when he landed the role of Sheldon Cooper’s less intellectual (to put it nicely) big brother on Young Sheldon in 2017— has been on a show like this. It’s also the first time he’s ever been the lead. Some people might be nervous about that, but Jordan exudes the same type of easygoing confidence as his character.

“Honestly, man, I don't really get nervous very much,” Jordan tells Parade. “All I can tell you is, I've never done multicam before, so I'm gonna give it my all. I know that [creators Chuck Lorre , Steven Molaro , and Steve Holland ] are depending on this, and I’m gonna try not to let ‘em down.”

Related: Everything to Know About the Young Sheldon Spinoff Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage

His onscreen better half, Emily Osment , who plays Mandy McAllister, is a TV veteran who is now in her fifth show produced by Lorre (the first was Two and a Half Men ). She has extensive experience performing in front of a live studio audience going back to her time as a child actress on Hannah Montana .

“I'm really excited to get back in front of a live audience,” she says. “I love the routine of a sitcom." She says that on single-camera shows like Young Sheldon , if you don’t have scenes with another actor, you might rarely see them. On the other hand, “With a sitcom, you’re all together all day, no matter your involvement in that specific show. And it’s nice because it feels more like a family. There were some spurts of Young Sheldon where I wouldn’t see Zoe [Perry , who plays Georgie’s mother, Mary, and guest stars on Georgie.& Mandy ] for like eight weeks because we didn’t have a scene together. And this is different. I’ll get to see our whole cast every day. It’s a good bonding experience.”

Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage follows the newlyweds as they try to navigate adulthood. Mandy, of course, is technically more of an adult than Georgie—she’s 31 and he’s 19. But they both have a lot of growing up to do as they try to raise baby CeCe and earn enough money to move out of Mandy’s parents ’ Jim ( Will Sasso ) and Audrey’s ( Rachel Bay Jones ) house.

Related: Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage Co-Creator Promises 'Clean Slate' for the Young Sheldon Spinoff

In a little bit of life imitating art, Jordan recently became a father for the first time at the age of 21. So far, he says the writers haven’t come to him to try to pull experiences from his own life for material on the show, but it could happen. “They have come to me in the past about some Texan things that we do,” he says. “But I think having a baby is definitely going to help make it look real.” The dark circles under his eyes aren’t makeup.

Neither Jordan nor Osment expected they’d end up where they are now when they started on Young Sheldon . Jordan says he didn’t think he’d get the part on Young Sheldon and it just sort of happened, and then he was on the show for seven years. “I think from the start, I just kind of fell into it and learned as I went, and I'm still learning to this day,” he says. “Now I'm starting something completely different. I didn't know what I was doing on Young Sheldon , and now I dang sure don't know what I'm doing. But I’m gonna do the best I can.”

For Osment, it’s unfolded very naturally in a way she would never have predicted. She signed on for one episode in Season 5, expecting that to be it. Then she came back for a few more, and then she became a series regular, and now she has her own show. “I think that's the most wonderful thing about all of this, and setting your expectations at a pretty normal place,” she says. “It's a good lesson in, like, don't expect anything and the world may open.”

Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage premieres Thursday, Oct. 11 at 8/7c on CBS and streams on Paramount+.

Next, here's everything to know about the most recent season of Ghosts .