The lights are back on at The Office, Heroes is coming out of mothballs, and CSI is ready to prod some corpses. TV Land is back in business.
With the writers' strike a bitter memory, the folks at NBC and CBS are following the lead of rival ABC and announcing the return of their major series.
NBC will be out of the box quickly, with a new Saturday Night Live slated to air Feb. 23, featuring Tina Fey as guest host, while Juno's Ellen Page will host the Mar. 1 outing. The long-running sketch-comedy series aims to produce six to eight episodes between now and May.
New episodes of the networks' prime-time scripted shows, which require more lead time to write, shoot and edit, will begin popping up in March and April.
Producers of The Office plan to squeeze in six new episodes before the end of the season—possibly seven, should NBC demand it—with the first episode airing Apr. 10.
Meanwhile, there are five new episodes of 30 Rock in the works, though that could change based on Alec Baldwin's availability, with the show also set to return Apr. 10, along with medical comedy Scrubs and medical drama ER.
My Name Is Earl is due to return Apr. 3, with a one-hour episode, while Law & Order: Special Victims Unit resumes Apr. 15. The original Law & Order will be back Apr. 23.
The network also announced it had renewed Heroes, Chuck and Life for the 2008-09 season.
CBS, meanwhile, is also hustling to get its key shows up and running. The network announced the return dates for 14 prime-time series Wednesday, including CSI, Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother and Cold Case.
How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men are scheduled to return Mar. 17, with each show expected to produce nine new episodes before the end of the season.
CSI: Miami is slated to return to the airwaves a week later, Mar. 24, with producers expected to churn out eight new episodes. Cold Case will follow suit on Mar. 30, with five episodes in the works.
The first week of April will see even more shows back on the schedule, with Criminal Minds and CSI: NY returning on Apr. 2, with seven new episodes each; CSI and Without a Trace returning Apr. 3, with six new episodes apiece; and Ghost Whisperer and Numb3rs returns Apr. 4, also with six episodes each.
NCIS is scheduled to return Apr. 8, with seven new episodes in the works, and Moonlight will be back on Apr. 11, with four new episodes. Rules of Engagement is slated to return on Apr. 14, with six episodes.
Fox has yet to unveil its poststrike plans, beyond lots of American Idol. But network sources have confirmed that 24, originally set to count down its seventh season last month, won't be back on the air until January 2009.
ABC got the ball rolling on Monday, announcing that its top shows, including Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and Lost, would resume production ASAP to get as many shows in the pipeline as possible in time for May sweeps—and before a potential actors' strike in June.