The Singing Bee host, Joey Fatone by Paul Drinkwater/NBC Photo
The Peacock's latest prime-time premiere plan:Tuesday, Sept. 118 pm/ET The Biggest LoserMonday, Sept. 248 pm Chuck9 pm Heroes10 pm JourneymanTuesday, Sept. 259:30 pm The Singing Bee 10 pm Law & Order: SVUWednesday, Sept. 268 pm Deal or No Deal 9 pm Bionic Woman10 pm LifeThursday, Sept. 278 pm My Name Is Earl (hour special)9 pm The Office (hour special)10 pm ERFriday, Sept. 288 pm Deal or No Deal9 pm Las Vegas (two-hour premiere)Thursday, Oct. 48 pm 30 RockFriday, Oct. 59 pm Friday Night LightsThursday, Oct. 259:30 pm Scrubs
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Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff, NBC
It was fair to wonder why NBC put Kevin Reilly in the executive ejector seat just after signing him to a new multi-year contract. After seeing the debut performance of his replacement, Ben Silverman, at the Television Critics Association press tour, we're not wondering anymore.Instead of doing a rope-a-dope with reporters because he's only been in the job a month, Silverman came out with guns blazing, firing off one programming announcement after another. He even made a deal with legendary sitcom producer Norman Lear. That's red meat for the TCA, since many of its members love TV the way it used to be.He's even ignored the mandate NBC chief
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Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff, NBC Press Tour by Chris Haston/NBC
It was fair to wonder why NBC put Kevin Reilly in the executive ejector seat just after signing him to a new multiyear contract. But after seeing his replacement Ben Silverman's debut performance at the Television Critics Association press tour, we're not wondering anymore.Instead of the doing a rope-a-dope with reporters because he's only been in the job a month, Silverman came out with guns blazing, firing off one programming announcement after another. He even made a deal with legendary sitcom producer Norman Lear. That's red meat for the TCA, since many of its members love TV the way it used to be.He's even ignored the mandate that NBC chief Jeff Zucker publicly issued last year that the network was out of the business of programming 8 o'clock with new, expensive scripted sitcoms and dramas. The first scheduling move under Silverman's watch was moving the new, expensive scripted hi-tech thriller Chuck to Monday at 8, leading into Heroes and Journeyman and turning the night into ...
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The Singing Bee's Joey Fatone with The Honey Bees by Trae Patton/NBC Photo
He dropped names as diverse as Norman Lear, Uri Geller, Isaiah Washington and Jerry Seinfeld. He teased an all-celebrity version of The Apprentice (with a half-joking promise to extend an invitation to Rosie O’Donnell). In describing his vision for NBC's immediate and long-term future, the network’s boyish new co-chair Ben Silverman showed his affinity for both packaging and programming TV in an enthusiastic debut performance in front of the nation’s TV critics on Monday morning.Though he took the stage alongside the relatively subdued co-chair Marc Graboff, whose expertise is on the business side, this was Silverman’s show all the way, and he wasted no time in announcing some surprising programming deals and a few aggressive scheduling changes, including turning Monday into an all-fantasy night and shifting Friday Night Lights an hour earlier on Fridays, so it’s now cozily hammocked between the strong franchises of a relocated Deal or No Deal and Las Vegas,...
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Jerry Seinfeld by Chris Haston/NBC Photo
A flurry of announcements from the Peacock regarding the upcoming season of television (in addition to Isaiah going Bionic, that is):• TV icon Norman Lear is producing an hourlong dramedy about a widowed mother who reenters the workforce and is thus pitted against her late husband's Wall Street adversaries.• Jerry Seinfeld will play himself on the Oct. 4 second-season opener of 30 Rock. Quips Tina Fey, "Finally, my parents have an excuse to watch the show." Love. Her.• My Name Is Earl and The Office will launch their new seasons on Sept. 27 with hourlong episodes.• The new series Chuck has been relocated to Mondays at 8, while Friday Night Lights has been moved up an hour to Fridays at 9. Leading out of FNL is Las Vegas, which returns Sept. 28 with a two-hour episode.• The Apprentice is returning with a "celebrity version" in which famous(ish) faces vie for the Donald's favor and in turn raise bucks for charity. Trump says this incarnation "will bring our wo...
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Kevin Reilly by Maury Phillips/WireImage.com
Wow, that didn’t take long.It hasn’t even been two months (May 14, to be exact) since Kevin Reilly stood astride the Radio City Music Hall stage as NBC’s Entertainment president to present the Peacock’s fall lineup to advertisers at the upfront. That was then, this is now.In the interim, Reilly was bounced by NBC brass in favor of wunderkind agent-turned-producer Ben Silverman. And Reilly, as rumored, has rebounded with unusual agility and speed at Fox, where he is being reunited with his former FX captain Peter Liguori, who’s being promoted up the ladder to Fox Broadcasting Company chairman while Reilly assumes the Entertainment president reins.It’s enough to make the head spin, and to make those of us who’ve felt we’ve seen it all anticipate Fox’s days at the ongoing critics' press tour. (Fox is scheduled for Sunday and Monday, July 22 and 23.) Will Reilly now be pitching the virtues of new Fox shows like New Amsterdam, Back to You and ...
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The new NBC series Bionic Woman and Chuck, as well as the CW's Life Is Wild, have earned a thumbs-up from the Family Friendly Programming Forum, whose mission is to promote the development of programming appropriate in theme, content and language for adults and children. According to the Hollywood Reporter, this fall marks the first time the FFPF has an approved program airing each night of the week (meaning minus Saturday, which literally nobody seems to care about), with the new options joining the ranks of Ugly Betty, Brothers & Sisters, Notes from the Underbelly, Friday Night Lights and Everybody Hates Chris. But Bionic Woman, really? Methinks someone at the FFPF actually fancies two hot gals duking it out in a nighttime downpour.
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Ben Silverman, Kevin Reilly courtesy NBC
No such thing as a lull in the TV business, both on and off screen, not even in the once-sleepy period between the end of the traditional season and the start of June. Forget about all the off-season shows premiering this week (you probably will eventually, anyway), a rather staggering glut, but fans won’t want to forget that House and Boston Legal have their season finales tonight (delayed a week to make room for reality TV). Beyond what’s on TV, it’s been a crazy couple of days for the business itself.On Friday, it was made official that Rosie O’Donnell was off The View for good, a few weeks ahead of schedule. Not such a big surprise after her confrontational meltdown with Elisabeth Hasselbeck a few days earlier, the latest chapter in The Boor vs. The Blonde. Looks to me like Rosie was just looking for any excuse to make an early exit. The fact that she did not bow out with grace is hardly a shock. But what will it take to get her nitwit nemesis off the show? R...
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Ray Wise and Bret Harrison in Reaper by Michael Courtney/The CW
A few thoughts after sitting through an L.A. satellite feed of CW’s Upfront presentation on Thursday, which was more impressive (the Pussycat Dolls performance aside) than I expected.The Reaper looks much funnier than I expected. Should have guessed given that the appealing lead, Bret Harrison as a schmo who learns his parents sold his soul to the devil, is best known for sitcom work (Grounded for Life, That ’70s Show, The Loop). Ray Wise is a scream as his demanding new boss, aka Lucifer. Only drawback: Reaper’s time-slot competition includes another largely comedic series about a reluctant nerdish hero, NBC’s Chuck. Is there room for two?Also getting a good response: Aliens in America, with its Muslim exchange student fish-out-of-water befriending his classmate/host, a nerdy social pariah. This looks perfectly suited as a companion piece to the similarly sardonic Everybody Hates Chris.Gossip Girl may well become a brand-appropriate hit, but I’m personally ...
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NBC's 2007 upfront circus just came to an end and, before I let Calgon take me away, I have a few scoopy nuggets/observations to share with you:• Of NBC's new fall offerings, Josh Schwartz's Chuck and David Eick's Bionic Woman redo stand the best chance of earning the coveted AA seal of approval (based solely on the clips shown). • Taking a page from Lost, The Office's top-secret season finale will feature a game-changing final scene. (More on that in Wednesday's Ask Ausiello.) For more of Ausiello's take on the NBC Upfronts and the network's new shows, click here.
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