How I Met Your Mother is an American situation comedy that premiered on CBS Broadcasting on September 19, 2005. The show was created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays. As a framing device, the main character, Ted Mosby, in the year 2030 recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to his meeting their mother. How I Met Your Mother's other main characters are Marshall Eriksen, Robin Scherbatsky, Barney Stinson, and Lily Aldrin. Thomas and Bays drew from their friendship in creating the characters, with Ted based loosely on Bays, and Marshall and Lily based loosely on Thomas and his wife.

On May 16, 2007, CBS executives announced at the annual Upfront presentation that How I Met Your Mother was renewed for a third season. While airing CSI-style promos for the show, it was announced that the show would be moving to the 9:30 ET/8:30 CT Monday timeslot for summer reruns, after reruns of the highly-rated Two and a Half Men. The show shifted back to 8:00 ET/7:00 CT at the beginning of the third season, which premiered September 24, 2007 but it has since been moved to the 8:30 PM ET/7:30 PM CT slot.

During the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, How I Met Your Mother shut down production, but once the strike ended the show returned on March 17, 2008, with 9 new episodes. It was also announced another change in timeslot to 8:30 ET/7:30 CT, flip-flopping from the summer schedule with The Big Bang Theory.Breaking News – "THE BIG BANG THEORY" AND "HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER" TO SWAP TIME PERIODS | TheFutonCritic.com The show was renewed for a fourth season by CBS on May 14,2008, which premiered on September 22, 2008.