NBC Lines Up New Series

UNIVERSAL CITY, January 16: The John Wells drama Southland joins the new comedy from The Office‘s Greg Daniels and The Chopping Block on NBC’s spring schedule.

The drama Southland, which takes a look at the police unit in Los Angeles, debuts on April 9 at 10 p.m. Michael Cudlitz (A River Runs Through It) plays a seasoned cop assigned to train a young rookie, played by Benjamin McKenzie (The O.C.). The series is a John Wells production in association with Warner Bros. Television. Wells, Chris Chulack and Ann Biderman serve as executive producers.

From Emmy Award-winning executive producers Greg Daniels (The Office, King of the Hill) and Michael Schur (The Office, Saturday Night Live) comes a new mockumentary that looks at the world of local government. The as-yet-untitled series stars Amy Poehler (Saturday Night Live, Baby Mama) as a mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks and Recreation Department of Pawnee, Indiana. A production of Deedle-Dee Productions and Universal Media Studios, the series will launch on April 9 at 8:30 p.m.

The new cooking competition The Chopping Block makes its debut on March 11 at 8 p.m. Celebrated chef and restaurateur Marco Pierre White gives hopeful chefs/restaurateurs working in couples the opportunity to compete in restaurant challenges in order to win $250,000. The series is produced by Granada America. The executive producers are David Barbour and Julian Cress.

In addition, the new drama Kings is re-set for Sundays with a two-hour premiere on March 15 at 8 p.m. NBC has added three more episodes of ER, moving the long-running series’ two-hour finale to April 2 at 9 p.m. after a one-hour retrospective at 8 p.m.

NBC has also renewed the hit series The Office, 30 Rock and The Biggest Loser each for an additional year through the 2009-2010 season.