Just saw an interview with one of the show's lead actors.

Tony Shalhoub won multiple awards for his cable-network show "Monk." I did not watch many seasons of that show, but when I saw an episode, I admired his work.
Shalhoub remarks that, although the title character of that earlier show and his character in the CBS show are very different roles, they have one thing in common: both are equally demanding in the balance of drama and comedy, you have to do both genres well to do justice to such roles. He also commented on how curious it is to have a show like this debuting when real life presidential campaigns are so extreme as to challenge a fictional TV program premise.