Here it is!
MONDAYS
8:00 The Sing Off (3rd season)
10:00 THE PLAYBOY CLUB
After trying male-skewing action and sci-fi shows this season, NBC is completely changing course on Monday nights. They made the surprising move of putting December filler The Sing Off on for two hours on the fall schedule. The singing competition performed above expectations in December but now it must face off against CBS's comedies, and more importantly, ABC's Dancing with the Stars. Can it really survive against Dancing? At 10pm is new controversial drama The Playboy Club. This is a good move as it can be counter programming to Hawaii Five-0 and Castle if ABC and CBS don't change their Monday 10pm slot. In the spring, as of now, they plan to launch season 2 of The Voice from 8-10pm to lead into new musical dramedy Smash. The good news is that Chuck is no longer leading off the night, but I think The Sing Off could easily get lost in the crowd which wouldn't help The Playboy Club.
TUESDAYS
8:00 The Biggest Loser (12th Edition)
10:00 Parenthood (3rd season)
NBC has chosen to keep Tuesdays in tact even though many (including myself) thought they would move Parenthood elsewhere. They will stick to two hours of The Biggest Loser as part of a plan to make/keep all their reality shows into two hour installments. It should do well enough but they had an opportunity to do something here. Some people thought they might move The Biggest Loser to Wednesday to stabilize 8-10pm on that night which wouldn't have been a bad move. Parenthood will probably continue to be competitive in the demo but viewer challenged. Tuesdays weren't as much of a concern for NBC but they still could have shaken it up a bit.
WEDNESDAYS
8:00 UP ALL NIGHT
8:30 FREE AGENTS
9:00 Harry's Law (2nd season)
10:00 Law & Order: SVU (13th season)
Wednesdays is an interesting night for NBC. They are making the bold move of leading off the night with two comedies - the Christina Applegate/Will Arnett starrer Up All Night and the Hank Azaria comedy Free Agents. It's surprising that NBC chose to expand single camera sitcoms to another night rather than launching multi-camera sitcoms. Plus these shows will be airing against comedies on ABC. I applaud the move to expand comedy to more nights but I'm not sure Weds at 8pm was the best slotting. If they weren't so stubborn with Tuesdays, comedies might have worked there. NBC is moving Harry's Law from Mondays at 10 to Wednesdays at 9. While Harry's was a self starter this spring, it will likely be facing Criminal Minds, Modern Family, and X-Factor which is a killer. It is a very old-skewing show so maybe it will be able to find an audience but Weds at 9pm is incredibly difficult for NBC. They are making the wise move by leaving Law & Order: SVU at 10pm because it just doesn't work at 9pm like NBC has tried the past two falls before sliding it back to 10pm at midseason.
THURSDAYS
8:00 Community (3rd season)
8:30 Parks and Recreation (4th season)
9:00 The Office (8th season)
9:30 WHITNEY
10:00 PRIME SUSPECT
Thursdays also have some curious choices. NBC is choosing to lead off with Community and Parks and Recreation, just like they did in Fall 2009. Community just isn't working at all as a lead off but NBC is keeping it there again. Parks and Recreation has done a little better airing at 9:30pm this spring but it's hard to imagine it sustaining that when it goes back to 8:30pm. It really doesn't do anything to solve NBC's glaring problems in that hour. The Office remains the tentpole at 9pm but even that show is a question mark without Steve Carell. It's quite possible that NBC's comedies will fall even further next season on Thursdays. They are following The Office with Whitney from Whitney Cummings. While this was a hot pilot, it is a surprising move since it is a multicamera comedy. It would have been better off on another night paired with the other multicam pickup (Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea, which was held for midseason). NBC is nixing the 10pm comedies in favor of the remake of Prime Suspect. They are returning to a tentpole 10pm drama for the first time since ER and that may be a smart move. It should be competitive if its a quality show.
FRIDAY
8:00 Chuck (5th season)
9:00 GRIMM
10:00 Dateline NBC (21st season)
Fridays are very interesting for NBC as they are going back to scripted programming after airing just one scripted show there this year (the short lived Outlaw). They decided to renew Chuck for a final 13 episodes and while that seemed like a surprising and unnecessary move, they are doing the right thing by shipping it to Fridays. They will pair it with fantasy drama Grimm, which will be a tough sell in a sleepy Friday timeslot but kudos to NBC for giving scripted programming a chance on Friday. Grimm is a genre show and expectations will be lower so it may have a chance. At 10pm, Dateline NBC will compete with 20/20 to be the top newsmagazine show.
SATURDAY
8:00 Encores
Not surprisingly, NBC is not venturing into Saturdays again yet. They had too many other concerns to worry about this night.
SUNDAY
7:00 Football Night in America
8:30 Sunday Night Football
NBC is still planning for football on Sunday nights with the expectation that the NFL lockout troubles will be over by then. Let's hope they are because NBC needs football in the fall (as do we!) It's their biggest promotional platform. The plan for the spring is Dateline NBC at 7pm, Celebrity Apprentice at 8pm, and The Firm at 10pm which seems like it has a nice flow to it. Perhaps this means Donald Trump will not be running for president?
MIDSEASON: 30 Rock, Celebrity Apprentice, The Voice, Who Do You Think You Are?, Minute to Win It, ARE YOU THERE VODKA? IT'S ME CHELSEA, AWAKE, BENT, BEST FRIENDS FOREVER, THE FIRM, SMASH
NBC has a lot on deck for midseason. I already mentioned what slots they are planning for Celebrity Apprentice, The Voice, The Firm, and Smash. 30 Rock is being held off for the fall due to star Tina Fey's pregnancy and will run uninterrupted in the spring. Who Do You Think You Are? could return to Fridays at 8pm if Chuck does indeed only run for 13 episodes. Minute to Win It could fill in anywhere when needed. Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea would have been a good pairing with Whitney and maybe it still will be if Whitney survives the fall. Bent and Best Friends Forever will be interesting to place while NBC will surely give a big midseason push towards Awake.
CANCELLED: America's Next Great Restaurant, The Cape, Chase, The Event, Friday Night Lights, Law & Order: LA, Outlaw, Outsourced, The Paul Reiser Show, Perfect Couples, School Pride, Undercovers
Within this list of cancellations is every new show from 2010-2011 except Harry's Law and The Voice. NBC is hoping for a much better batting average next season.
TO SUM UP
I don't think this is a great schedule from a network that needs to crawl out of the basement. They have many promising pilots but yet they are taking up a huge amount of space with The Sing Off (which has never proven itself on a long term basis) and the tired The Biggest Loser. They are throwing comedies to the wolves at 8pm Wednesdays while using its best comedy slot (Thursday at 9:30pm) on a show that seems completely incompatible with The Office. Prime Suspect on Thursdays at 10 and The Playboy Club on Mondays at 10 are solid moves if the earlier part of the night doesn't kill the evening. Harry's Law might get wrecked in a tough timeslot and they didn't do anything to address the 8pm hour on Thursday which has been a huge problem. The Friday schedule is bold and interesting and the Sunday midseason schedule looks solid as does The Voice/Smash on Mondays as it will get a head start before Dancing with the Stars returns on ABC in March. Overall, could have been better. Let's hope some of these promising new shows can get off the ground.
No comments:
Post a Comment