I'm often quick to criticize NBC...
I'm often quick to criticize NBC when it blunders, which sometimes seems like a full-time job. And it's pretty clear the network is still far from perfect — witness the bungling of
The Book of Daniel, buried on Fridays where low ratings would almost certainly have doomed it, even without a religious-right protest that scared away spineless advertisers.
But when NBC does something right, as in a series of aggressive moves announced over the weekend, it seems only right to take notice. Among the highlights:
Ta-ta, West Wing: Calling it quits was inevitable, but even so, I feared that NBC would, out of desperation, try to keep the franchise going after President Bartlet passes the torch to his successor. Thankfully, that will not be the case, and the show will wrap up with a retrospective and series finale on May 14. (A tribute episode to John Spencer will air before that.) Going out with dignity — what a pleasant surprise.
Moving Law & Order: Probably the biggest surprise was NBC's plan to move the venerable crime drama an hour earlier in mid-March, pitting it against Lost. But think about it. Could there be two shows less similar than Lost, with its exotic allure and tangled continuing stories, and Law & Order, with its stringent adherence to stand-alone formula? Law & Order has a built-in, though diminishing, audience and will do just fine. And if it takes a bite out of the ratings for CBS' execrable yet popular Criminal Minds, so much the better. Besides, NBC had a hole on the night, and better to use Law & Order as a lead-in for the promising-sounding Heist than putting Heist against Lost.
Moving The Apprentice: All hail NBC for not disrupting the newly invigorated Thursday-night comedy block with this fading reality show. Moving it to Mondays, following new episodes of the Howie Mandel curiosity Deal or No Deal, is terrific counterprogramming to the night's hot drama (24) and comedy (Two and a Half Men) alternatives. The Apprentice is officially off my radar, and given the options, will probably stay there.
Moving Las Vegas: This seems riskier, uprooting a popular lightweight drama and moving it to Fridays as a lead-in to Dick Wolf's latest legal show, Conviction. Ratings will almost certainly go down, given the overall lower viewership on Fridays. But NBC entertainment president Kevin Reilly is right to declare that CBS is winning Fridays by default with a mostly unexceptional slate of dramas. (Numbers being the one show I sometimes find time to watch). Las Vegas is actually the perfect sort of escapist programming for what's left of Friday-night viewing — or so I imagine, since I almost never watch non-TiVo'd TV live on Fridays. If Vegas doesn't work there, NBC can always put it back on Mondays after The Donald finishes his latest run.
Keeping Joey out of sight: No word yet on when or where Joey will return to the schedule, but it looks more and more as if it won't reappear until summer, when NBC can burn off the episodes it was contractually obligated to produce and make it look like it's actually providing added value to the summer schedule. But consider this the last nail in a very rickety coffin.
