Not Quite Twenty Good Years

For Twenty Good Years, it was more like two bad weeks.

The new NBC sitcom, which premiered Oct. 11, is headed to the bench after distinguishing itself as the one of the least watched comedy series on the four big networks. In fact, only Fox's Happy Hour, yet another inaptly named sitcom, has played to fewer people.

Through its first two episodes, Twenty Good Years averaged just 6.1 million viewers. By comparison, CBS' Two Half a Men, the network comedy's current standard-bearer, is drawing nearly 16 million people each week.

Per an NBC statement that actually announced the influx of Scrubs and 30 Rock to Thursday night and left the Twenty Good Years demotion for the careful reader to deduce, the sitcom will lose its 8:30 p.m. Wednesday home on Nov. 22.

With November sweeps starting Nov. 2, it seems unlikely the ratings-deprived show will continue to air deep into the ratings-mad month. As of now, however, Twenty Good Years will be around next week, at least according to NBC's Website.

A network spokeswoman did not return a call for comment Thursday on Twenty Good Years' status or future.

Twenty Good Years stars John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor as two men north of the 18-to-49-year-old demographic.

For those keeping score at home, Twenty Good Years is the third fall show to be pulled from the schedule after CBS' Smith and CW's Runaway. NBC's Kidnapped is the season's fourth casualty, consigned to burning off its episodes on Saturday night.

The Thursday edition of NBC's Deal or No Deal also is going the way of Runaway, but the game-show franchise will endure on other nights.

Deal or No Deal is being pushed off Thursdays at 9 p.m. to make way for Scrubs and 30 Rock.

30 Rock will make its Thursday debut on Nov. 16. Scrubs will make its Thursday—and sixth-season debut—on Nov. 30. My Name Is Earl and The Office will continue to air from 8-9 p.m., giving NBC a two-hour comedy block and an excuse to warm itself with memories of two-hour Thursday comedy blocks past—like the Cosby, Family Ties, Cheers and Night Court quartet of the '80s.

Paired with Twenty Good Years on Wednesdays, the Tina Fey-led 30 Rock hasn't performed much better than its banished compatriot. Through its first two episodes, 30 Rock has averaged 6.9 million viewers.

Given that Scrubs only averaged 6.3 million viewers last season, NBC is taking a chance by ditching Deal or No Deal on Thursdays. The Howie Mandel-hosted game show has been drawing 10.1 million people on that night. So far, neither Scrubs nor 30 Rock has proved capable of bringing in that kind of crowd.

But by moving 30 Rock from Wednesdays at 8 p.m. and moving it to Thursdays at 9:30 p.m., NBC is adhering to the philosophy of "NBC 2.0."

Last week, NBC executive Jeff Zucker said the network would stop developing new comedies and dramas for 8 p.m., filling the real estate instead with cheaper-to-produce reality shows and game shows.

On point, NBC said this week that its 8 p.m. Wednesday hour would be filled with "various specials" starting Nov. 22.

In other TV news: 

• ABC is giving struggling Six Degrees Thursday night off in favor of a Grey's Anatomy repeat. But the network says the freshman show will be back next week and will air through November sweeps.
• NBC's Las Vegas makes its belated fourth-season debut on Friday.
• Mariska Hargitay returns from maternity leave and makes her own personal belated season debut on Tuesday's Law & Order: SVU on NBC.
• Medium's return to NBC's lineup will be marked Nov. 15 with a two-hour episode, the network said.
• Fox will launch its new Standoff-House lineup on Tuesday, and the fourth season of The O.C. next Thursday—assuming, that is, the water-logged World Series is completed in a timely fashion.