NBCIncoming head Peacock Robert Greenblatt faced the press today, to discuss his plans for the upcoming fall season and/or his aspirations to push the NBC network into an era of renaissance after the recent dark ages.
Find out where Chuck is moving on the NBC schedule, which new series got picked up, which old series got flushed, which fan-fave half-hour comedy is being held back until the winter, what the network will do with Celebrity Apprentice if Donald Trump runs for the office of President of the United States (!), and what the network plans to do with breakout reality hit The Voice:
RETURNING SERIES
Chuck is returning for a fifth and final season of just 13 episodes, and then Chuck and Sarah (and Morgan) will live happily ever after in a DVD box set cherished by nerd herders everywhere. Chuck will now air on Fridays.
SVU is the last Law & Order series standing. (So long, LOLA. See you in hell!) As we head into lucky season 13, Christopher Meloni's contract remains unsigned; Mariska Hargitay is coming back, albeit with a police-department promotion for her character that will allow the actress to work fewer hours. Greenblatt told reporters, "I think we're going to have both of the returning stars. We believe that's the show, and they want to be a part of it. Mariska's deal is closed, technically, if you want that information and I don't think there is any impediment to Chris' deal closing." Rumors that Jennifer Love Hewitt would be joining the series were consigned to "just rumor" status at this stage.
Because Tina Fey is all preggo with baby No. 2 (yay!), 30 Rock's sixth season premiere will be delayed until winter to accommodate the star's maternity leave. (Awww, we were kind of looking forward to Jack Donaghy and Pete Hornberger mentor-mentee comedy. OK, not really, but that could have been a fun creative experiment.)
Harry's Law, one of David E. Kelley's patented quirky legal dramas, will be returning; NBC didn't pick up the Kelley-scripted Wonder Womanseries.
Ratings-challenged cult hit Parenthood is coming back. Those Bravermans are the pluckiest; also, what do America's Nielsen families have against the fine television programming produced by Mr. Jason Katims?!
FYI, if Donald Trump runs for President (god help us all), the network would still bring back Celebrity Apprentice, just with someone else at the head of the table. (Anybody remember the Martha Stewart season?)
Are you addicted to The Voice? You might have to survive on lower strength reality methadone until winter, because the talent competition will not return until January when it will be paired with scripted musical, Smash. (Shades of Fox's highly successful Idol-Glee reality-scripted singing tandem, don't you think?)
FALL 2011 NBC SCHEDULE
Here's the current planned arrangement of shows on NBC's fall schedule; looks like they're making a beachhead for a second night of comedy (on Wednesday). And it seems as if Ben Silverman's cockamamie plan to replace the 10 p.m. strip with cheapo Jay Leno talk has now been fully repudiated; there will be a one-hour drama running on NBC at 10 p.m. four nights a week.
Monday, 8 p.m.: The Sing-Off (two-hour reality block)
Monday, 10 p.m.: The Playboy Club (one-hour drama)
Tuesday, 8 p.m.: The Biggest Loser (two-hour reality block)
Tuesday, 10 p.m.: Parenthood (one-hour drama)
Wednesday, 8 p.m.: Up All Night (half-hour comedy)
Wednesday, 8:30 p.m.: Free Agents (half-hour comedy)
Wednesday, 9:00 p.m.: Harry's Law (one-hour dramedy)
Wednesday, 10 p.m.: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (one-hour drama)
Thursday, 8 p.m.: Community (half-hour comedy)
Thursday, 8:30 p.m.: Parks and Recreation (half-hour comedy)
Thursday, 9:00 p.m.: The Office (half-hour comedy)
Thursday, 9:30 p.m.: Whitney (half-hour comedy)
Thursday, 10 p.m.: Prime Suspect (one-hour drama)
Friday, 8 p.m.: Chuck (one-hour dramedy)
Friday, 9 p.m.: Grimm (one-hour drama)
Friday, 10 p.m.: Dateline NBC (one-hour newsmagazine)
CANCELED: The Event, Law & Order: Los Angeles, Outsourced, Chase
NEW SHOWS
- Awake: Brit hottie Jason Isaacs (who is best known to many of us as the guy who plays Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies) stars as a cop who finds himself living in two realities after an accident on the job.
- Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea: Synergy! Comcast-owned NBC is making a series out of the book by Comcast-owned E! Network star Chelsea Handler. That '70s Show alum Laura Prepon plays the misbehaving comedienne.
- Bent: Hey, everybody, Amanda Peet's eyebrows are coming back to television for a new TV rom-com!
- BFFs: Girl, boyfriend and girl's antagonistic best friend try to learn to live with each other.
- The Firm: The John Grisham lawyer novel turned Tom Cruise-starring film will now also be an NBC legal series. The Firm will premiere midseason.
- Free Agents: The Simpsons voice genius Hank Azaria? Crossing Jordan sweetiepie Kathryn Hahn? OK, consider us intrigued by this British rom-com remake.
- Grimm: Ummm...Are we sure this show didn't escape from Syfy Network's spec script slush pile? Because it's apparently about cops who protect innocent bystanders from the same kind of evil beasties that are described in the folk tales collected by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm in 19th-century Germany.
- The Playboy Club: As we all learned from Hugh Hefner's history lectures on The Girls Next Door and/or from Lane Pryce's storyline on last season's Mad Men, Playboy Clubs weren't just dens of iniquity, they were socially progressive dens of iniquity. Third Watch star and tabloid fixture Eddie Cibrian stars.
- Prime Suspect: Internationally acclaimed badass Helen Mirren starred in the British version of this crime show; Maria Bello (A History of Violence FTW!) stars in this new American remake.
- Smash: So apparently there's some drama behind the scenes of your average Broadway show? Debra Messing, Idol alum and girl-about-town Katherine McPhee and internationally acclaimed badass Anjelica Huston star in this TV series about backstage musical hijinks. Smash will premiere midseason.
- Up All Night: This is a family comedy starring Christina Applegate, Will Arnett and Maya Rudolph. We. Are. So. There.
- Whitney: This one's a relationship comedy based on the standup comedy of TV newcomer Whitney Cummings.
Stoked? Yawning? What do you think of this rundown? Hit the comments!
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