NBC's Schedule Shake-Up: What About Chuck, Heroes and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit?

NBC's prime-time president answers your burning questions about existing series and the future of the Peacock's schedule

By Jennifer Godwin Jan 10, 2010 9:30 PMTags
Chuck, Zachary Levi, Yvonne StrahovskiNBC Photo: Greg Gayne

NBC has finally dispatched with Jay Leno at 10 p.m., but that means their troubles are just beginning. The Peacock now has to fill up those five hours a week with something. (NBC boss Jeff Gaspin suggested they were looking for two hours of scripted TV, one hour of reality and two hours of miscellany like news magazines and repeats.) However, there are not a lot of 10 p.m.-ready programs waiting on the network's bench right now. So what goes where?

We caught up with Angela Bromstad, NBC's president in charge of prime-time entertainment, in the press "gaggle" after the big Jay Leno to-do and got some answers to your burning questions about the future of everything else on NBC. Whither Chuck? Does the network's hole at 10 p.m. portend good things for the Law & Order franchise? Is Heroes coming back? What about newbies like Mercy and Trauma?

Here's what we learned about those shows and more, along with some intriguing stonewalling about which show might reclaim NBC's crown-jewel, Thursday-at-10-p.m. slot...

Chuck

Is Chuck now a good contender to be renewed for next fall?

It's a show that we love, and we'll see how it performs. We have 19 full episodes this season.

Law & Order Franchise

How many episodes do you have this season of Law & Order?
I believe we're up to 20 hours of Law & Order.

Is it now nearly certain that the original Law & Order will be back again?
It's not confirmed, deals have to be made, and so...we'd certainly like for that to be the case.

Were you joking about Law & Order: L.A.?
No, that's absolutely real.

How far have you gotten in development?
We're talking about writers.

Why do you think that would work?
Well, first of all, this is a conversation that we've been having, and it's a very fluid conversation, but if for instance, Law & Order, the mothership, didn't go beyond a few more years, that bifurcated way of telling stories is so unique that I actually think it could work with a new look and a new cast. Also, there's not really—other than Southland—a really great L.A.-based cop show.

Is the Law & Order: Los Angeles spin-off dependent on whether or not Law & Order gets picked up?
Not right now. We're talking about it. Both could be on the schedule.

Where do you think SVU is going to land, as far as time slots?
These are all going to be conversations we are going to be having up to the last minute, but obviously it's a contender to move back to a 10 p.m. slot.

On Tuesdays maybe?
Potentially. 

Heroes

For Heroes to come back, would that require budget cuts?
No, actually Heroes has already been very responsible in having a good budget, so I don't think we'd be cutting it.

If you do not decide to renew Heroes, would they have time to do a series finale?
No, they're out of production. They've wrapped production.

What does the end of this season currently look like? Is it open-ended?
I can't give anything away about the Heroes finale.

Freshman and Upcoming Series

What are the current renewal prospects for Mercy and Trauma?
Well, we have six episodes of Trauma that have yet to air and could be coming back to the schedule, and Mercy is a show that we absolutely love creatively and we've got to get the ratings up.

When do you think Trauma would reappear if it was coming back?
Probably post-Olympics.

Since you shot Day One as a pilot and it's now going to air as a movie, is it still open-ended?
It will be like a pilot in that you could see where it could go as a series, but you will see a resolve at the end.

Is 100 Questions still happening?
Yes, 100 Questions will be on before the end of the season as well.

Scheduling and Development

What are you thinking about putting at 10 p.m. on Thursdays?
We're not thinking anything until we see our pilots.

But after The Jay Leno Show goes off the air, you'll have that open slot, you need to put something there between now and September.
We have to see what our pilots look like. We've got great pilots that we've picked up, but we have to see them executed and see how they come out. 

Between now and fall, what are you going to put on Thursday at 10 p.m.?
We'll looking at possibilities for that.

Creatively speaking, which shows on your network do you admire most right now and would you like to see used as models by other producers?
That's a difficult question, because I have so much respect and love for all of the shows, whether you're talking about Chuck, Heroes, the Law & Orders, and then you look at Greg DanielsThe Office and Parks & Recreation, Dan Harmon [Community], Tina Fey [30 Rock]. We need our ratings to be better but I think we have some of the best shows and the strongest creatives.

So now that you've got five more hours, potentially, to play with, are you happy about that or are you going "oh my God"?
I don't think it's going to be five hours. I don't think it's going to be five straight hours, and I just think we just need to have the product, and that didn't change, whether we have Leno or whether we didn't have Leno, we needed strong breakout shows.

OK, it's your turn to play network exec: What should go where on the NBC schedule beginning in March? Hit the comments!