Tuesday, May 19, 2009

NBC Sets Their Plans For The New Season - Chuck Lives!!!! - May 19, 2009

2007 Summer TCA Tour - Day 8I've mostly covered NBC already with their announcements a couple of weeks ago so I'll just go with the new stuff. What about Chuck? That has been my question and the question from many people. The news came out a couple of days ago that Chuck had been renewed for 13 episodes. What a relief that was to hear!!!! The show will return in February after the Olympics with NBC promoting it heavily during the Olympics. Wow, that is a long wait on the show especially with the momentum of this campaign. It is going to almost be a year before it is back on TV. Despite speculation, the show will remain on Monday nights in its normal time slot and the cast is not going to be shrunk down according to comments made today. NBC president, Ben Silverman, gave a big credit to the online fan campaign as to the reason that Chuck is returning. Subway will be back on board partnering up with the show and Subway was a key part of the show coming back. Nothing but love for Subway!! Silverman made these comments about Chuck's fan campaign: “Both the fans of the shows that matter and the advertisers of the shows raised their hands to say, ‘We need ‘Chuck on the schedule.’ We will send you Nerds. We will buy Subway $5 footlongs. We will do whatever it takes.” He also pointed out how that same lack of dedication to other shows led to their cancellation. This has been speculated about but it is now confirmed that NBC has canceled My Name Is Earl. The speculation has also been that another network will pick it up but nothing on that yet. Ethan Suplee twittered this comment today voicing his frustration over the cancellation: "Just got the call that My Name Is Earl has been canceled. They sure did take their time with that decision or rather informing us of it." http://twitter.com/EthanSuplee Heroes will move to 7pm central time in the fall on Monday nights. The 19 episodes ordered for the show will run straight through. The new show Trauma will follow Heroes on Monday nights. 30 Rock will premiere a month late into the fall season launch due to Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin doing movies while also wanting to cut down on reruns. Law & Order has been picked up for 16 episodes. Medium is canceled although there are reports from Entertainment Weekly today that CBS might be interested in it. Friday Night Lights is once again paired up with DirecTV and will have its new season premiering exclusively on the satellite service. The new season will eventually run on NBC but appears to be later than it was this season. The Biggest Loser will drop to 90 minutes at midseason but will remain two hours in the fall. Jerry Seinfeld’s show, The Marriage Ref will be airing on Sunday nights after the NFL season is over. Basically, you get the idea. Lots of mix and matching with shows. Some shows will start in the fall and then be replaced by others premiering at midseason. Then, don’t forget that we have five nights of Leno to add into the mix. The new comedy, Community is going to air on Thursday nights in the middle of the comedies. If you want to see the full schedule, here is the link: http://www.nbc.com/upcoming-shows/

Returning Shows: Chuck, Heroes, The Biggest Loser, Law & Order, Law & Order SVU, Parks and Recreation, The Office, Southland, Dateline, 30 Rock, Saturday Night Live, SNL Thursday, Friday Night Lights, Celebrity Apprentice.

Canceled Shows: My Name Is Earl, Medium, Life.

Overall Thoughts: Well, we mostly knew what NBC was doing except for the exception of a few shows and then what their actual schedule was going to look like. Chuck being back is a great thing!! That was my worry when it came to NBC. Not sure if holding it off till February is such a good idea!! I expect Leno to do well and I’m really looking forward to seeing how his show competes at that time. I commented on the new shows a couple weeks ago with there being two of them that I would like to check out. NBC also has the Winter Olympics which are very up and down ratings wise. The Winter Olympics just doesn’t draw viewers like the Summer Olympics does. The mix and matching of shows by NBC is interesting to keep an eye on thoughout the season.

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