NBC Rips Up Fall Schedule

By Rick Porter, Zap2It.com | May 25, 2006

Matthew Perry on 'Studio 60'

'Studio 60' moves to Mondays, changes on every weeknight

LOS ANGELES -- You know the fall schedule NBC released at its upfront presentation last week? Yeah, never mind about that.

Following several moves by competitors after it announced its fall lineup, NBC on Thursday radically revamped its plans for 2006-07. There are changes to every weeknight, and four of the network's six new shows are moving to timeslots different than the ones announced ten days ago.

"A couple weeks ago when we talked about our schedule, we felt very confident about our new product and felt we had a very challenging scheduling job ahead of us," NBC Entertainment chief Kevin Reilly says. "Having looked at everybody else's schedule and having looked at everybody else's product, we feel even more confident in the product we're putting out there."

The marquee change in NBC's new plan is probably the move of Aaron Sorkin's new drama, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," from 9 p.m. Thursdays to 10 p.m. Mondays -- a switch brought about by ABC's moving of "Grey's Anatomy" to Thursday.

That created something of a domino effect. With "Studio 60" joining another new drama, "Heroes," in the Monday lineup, the network no longer wanted two more new shows ("Friday Night Lights" and "Kidnapped") on Tuesdays, lest the marketing campaign become too scattered.

The "Law & Order" brand also got shaken up, with the original show heading to Fridays and "Criminal Intent" and "SVU" forming a two-hour block on Tuesday nights. Additionally, "Crossing Jordan" was bumped up to a fall berth at 8 p.m. ET Fridays, and "Medium" will get a midseason berth on Sundays, where it can run without repeats.

"The challenge of doing a schedule is if you pull on one end of the string, the other end goes with it," Reilly says. "Every one move creates two others. ... I think this is going to make a very focused [marketing] effort for us on Mondays, and lighten it up on Tuesday. Now the big focus for Tuesday is getting 'Friday Night Lights' off the ground."

"Criminal Intent" and "SVU" will run back-to-back starting at 9 p.m. Tuesdays, with Reilly figuring the best lead-in for one version of "Law & Order" is another version of "Law & Order."

"Kidnapped," which was originally set for 9 p.m. Tuesday, will now go to 10 p.m. Wednesday, bumping the original "Law & Order" to 10 p.m. Friday, where it will follow "Crossing Jordan" and "Las Vegas." The 9 p.m. Thursday task falls to "Deal or No Deal," which will try to carve out a niche opposite the twin powers of "Grey's" and CBS' "CSI."

NBC has also flipped "The Biggest Loser" and its new comedies "20 Good Years" and "30 Rock," moving "Loser" to 9 p.m. Reilly notes that 8 o'clock Wednesday in the fall will be reality-heavy with "America's Next Top Model" and the "Dancing with the Stars" results show, and no one else has comedy at that time.

NBC's moves certainly aren't coming from a position of strength -- the network finished the 2005-06 season in fourth place. The network was also at a disadvantage in announcing its schedule before anyone else.

Reilly hopes, though, that making changes now, which he acknowledges is a unusual, will give advertisers -- who have yet to commit much money in the upfront market -- more reason to spend money on NBC and help the network rebuild.

"I hope people would say, 'They were smart. They got practical and looked at the competitors and made some judgments,'" Reilly says of possible reaction to the changes. "... We're saying we believe in our new shows, and now that we've got the competitive landscape, let's realign with a schedule that in the light of day seems to make the most sense."