NBC Unveils Full-Year Programming Schedule

NEW YORK, April 3: Ahead
of its broadcast network competitors, NBC yesterday announced its 2008-09
programming grid, featuring renewals for ER, Lipstick Jungle and Friday Night Lights, among others, plus new series like a spinoff of The
Office and Power’s Crusoe.

NBC’s announcement of a
52-week schedule is part of its efforts to take a new look at the Upfront
process, when the upcoming grid is showcased to advertisers and media buyers.
The network has scheduled a series of one-on-one meetings with clients in New
York, Los Angeles and Chicago. And on May 12, parent company NBC Universal will
host a “spotlight event” that will showcase the full scale of its network,
cable and online portfolio.

Announcing the new fall,
winter and summer schedules, NBC promised twice as much original entertainment
in 2008-09 than it offered ten years ago. There will be year-round original
programming on five nights a week at 10-11 p.m. In addition, NBC has allowed
for a better scheduling flow with family shows at 8 p.m., blockbusters at 9
p.m. and dramas or mature-themed programs at 10 p.m.

"NBC has established
itself as the place to go for the hottest, highest quality programs on
television, and now we're ready to take it to the next level," said Ben
Silverman, the co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios.
"With many of the very biggest events of the 2008-09 television season on
the NBC schedule, like the Beijing Olympic Games, Super Bowl XLIII, the Golden
Globes and a full season of Sunday Night Football, all the elements are in place to make this an
unforgettable year for NBC, its affiliates, its advertisers and its
viewers."

Fellow co-chairman Marc
Graboff added: "Normally the broadcast networks unveil their fall lineups
in mid-May, but we've got so many terrific plans already in place, there was no
reason to wait. The business is changing rapidly and our clients expect us to
stay a step ahead of that change, so we're giving them the chance now to
partner with us, start integrating with our shows from the very beginning and
map out their strategies a full year into the future. It's an innovative way to
introduce an innovative schedule."

On Mondays this fall, the
night kicks off with the returning Chuck and Heroes, leading
into the new drama series My Own Worst Enemy, starring Christian Slater. On Tuesdays, the night
opens with The Biggest Loser: Families, leading into the U.S. version of the Australian comedy Kath &
Kim with Molly Shannon and Selma
Blair, followed by the 10 p.m. stalwart Law & Order: SVU. On Wednesdays, the new Knight Rider joins the schedule following the success of the TV
movie that aired in February, followed by Deal or No Deal and the returning midseason dramedy Lipstick
Jungle. Thursdays remain the home
of a two-hour comedy block with My Name is Earl, 30 Rock and The Office and
the 9:30 p.m. slot will be shared by SNL Thursday Night Live, a three-week satirical comedy series ahead of the
U.S. presidential elections—and The Office. ER
returns for its 15th and final season at 10 p.m. The Power production Crusoe sits in the 8 p.m. slot on Fridays, leading into Deal
or No Deal and the returning Life.

In the winter, the Monday
10 p.m. slot will become home to The Philanthropist, from Homicide: Life on the Street’s Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson and L.A. Ink’s Charlie Corwin. On Tuesdays, a new edition of Biggest
Loser will shift its focus from
families to couples. On Wednesdays, Law & Order will return to its original 10 p.m. home in place
of Lipstick Jungle. Thursdays
will see the launch of a spinoff of The Office from executive producer Greg Daniels at 9:30 p.m.
And once ER finishes its run, The
Celebrity Apprentice will be back
for a second outing. Winter Fridays, meanwhile, will see the return of the
critically acclaimed yet struggling Friday Night Lights, via a deal with DIRECTV. In its third season, the
show will be broadcast initially on DIRECTV and subsequently telecast on NBC.
DIRECTV will have exclusive rights to the season's 13 new episodes beginning
October 1 on its entertainment channel The 101. On Sundays in the fall, Sunday
Night Football will be replaced by
a range of specials and new series, with Merlin—a FremantleMedia Enterprises-distributed
Shine production for the BBC—at 8 p.m. and Kings at 10 p.m.; Medium will return to the 9 p.m. slot. The lineup of
Sunday specials in the winter includes the 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards, the
Super Bowl and the four-hour mini-series The Last Templar and XIII.

In the summer, reality
series take a bigger role in the schedule, with Mondays home to American
Gladiators and America’s
Toughest Jobs, Tuesdays featuring Most
Outrageous Moments and America’s
Got Talent, Wednesdays with the Got
Talent results and Shark
Taggers and Thursdays with Last
Comic Standing. Both America’s
Toughest Jobs and Shark Taggers are from Thom Beers (Ice Road Truckers) and executive producers Gail Berman and Lloyd
Braun. And Fridays will be home to Chopping Block, a Granada America series with rock-star chef
Marco Pierre White that gives a winning couple the chance to open their own
restaurant in Manhattan. The summer will also include the launch of the
Canadian drama The Listener in
a Thursday 10 p.m. slot. Rounding out the summer slate are drama and comedy
encores, as well as the network broadcast of the cable series Monk and Nashville Star.

—By Mansha Daswani