Fall Lineup Dissection: NBC

Click here for videos and photos and descriptions of NBC's new fall shows

Synopsis:
For a fall lineup filled with so many interesting new shows, not to mention some awesome looking midseason prospects ("Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea", "Awake", and "Smash" in particular), NBC's fall schedule couldn't be any uglier looking. For starters, with this many promising looking new shows, it's disappointing that NBC is only launching 3 new dramas and 3 new comedies. I would've liked to have seen at least one more new drama since they decided to put scripted (albeit doomed) programming on Fridays with "Chuck" and new fairy-tales themed crime series "Grimm". By March the network will have 3 reality shows expanded out to 2 hours each. That's just too much, especially with shows like "The Biggest Loser" starting to lose viewers. That said, if the programming is really as good as at least some of it looks, I think viewers will find it (like they did "Harry's Law" this past winter). Hopefully this spread out approach allows the network to focus in on each program a bit and give them all decent, if not good launches. A night by night look at NBC's fall schedule:

Mondays:
8/7c- "The Sing Off" *2 hour episodes*
10/9c- "The Playboy Club"- series travels back to the 1960s to look at the beginning of the Playboy Club in Chicago.

I like the decision to use the "Sing Off" as a regular series. I hate that they're just expanding it to 2 hours from the get go and going head to head against "Dancing with the Stars" isn't exactly brilliant programming (they claim it will skew much younger and it might). This move just feels like the cheap NBC of old (hello Jay Leno!). A better decision? Air an hour of this and add another new drama to this night (Smash?). While they're at it, I would've liked to see NBC leave "Harry's Law" on this night and shift "Parenthood" and newcomer "Prime Suspect" here and try these shows on Tuesdays. At midseason, NBC is planning on using "The Voice" on this night with 2 hour editions as well.

Tuesdays:
8/7c- "The Biggest Loser" *2 hours*
10/9c- "Parenthood"

I get this was their most successful night this past year, but it was also a night with a tiring reality franchise and a family-themed show that's begging to be shown earlier in the evening. I'm guessing NBC's reasoning here was that they have to fix other nights, leave Tuesdays alone for now, but if this is the case, then why weren't Fridays left cheap and unscripted too?

Wednesdays:
8/7c- "Up All Night"- New comedy from the SNL team starring Christina Applegate and Will Arnett as new parents
8:30/7:30c- "Free Agents"- A workplace/romantic comedy about two co-workers (Hank Azaria and Kathryn Hahn) who recently became single and sleep together and then decided to be friends, even though they really want to be more.
9/8c- "Harry's Law"- new night and time
10/9c- "Law and Order: SVU"

This night is a bit of a head scratcher. "Harry's Law" certainly has proven it can handle difficult time slots and grow out of no lead in (as has "SVU") but together they don't really fit in my book. "Up All Night" will have its moments if I had to guess but feels like a Thursday night comedy. "Free Agents" looks like all these other romantic/friends/buddy comedies we've seen launched recently, but I wasn't turned off by the clips I saw. This hour will struggle in my opinion against ABC's more established comedy block, "X Factor", and "Survivor".

Thursdays:
8/7c- "Community"
8:30/7:30c- "Parks and Recreation"
9/8c- "The Office"
9:30/8:30c- "Whitney"- new comedy about an unmarried couple who tries to keep things fresh
10/9c- "Prime Suspect"- new drama based on a British series that features a female cop in a tough male-dominated NY precinct.

One thing I hoped NBC's new bosses would do is not lead off Thursdays with "Community". Naturally they didn't do that. Not only is "Community" not an 8pm show, but it stands very little chance of growing with competition being "The Big Bang Theory", "X Factor", and ABC's new "Charlie's Angels" reboot. New comedy Whitney is a traditional multi-camera comedy, while these shows are all single camera, making it an odd choice. Why they didn't pair this with the Chelsea Handler's "Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea" is confusing. "Up All Night" would've fit this block better. "The Office", now in decline, should be leading off the night. One of their more high profile new dramas would've been a good way to cap off this block ("The Playboy Club", "Smash", even "Grimm"). Instead we got "Prime Suspect", a show that doesn't look bad, but would've been a much better fit for one of their returning dramas like "Parenthood", "Harry's Law", and "SVU". All of those shows do well amongst female viewers.

Fridays:
8/7c- "Chuck" *final 13 episodes*
9/8c- "Grimm"- new drama where a homicide detective finds out he is one of the last "Grimms"- a group of elite "hunters" who have to stop villains from the fairy tale/supernatural world.
10/9c- "Dateline NBC"

I get the decision to go genre on Fridays but Fox has "Fringe" and CW has "Supernatural". That gives "Grimm" about a zero chance with what will be a weak lead in from "Chuck". Again I feel if you really want "Grimm" to succeed, you put it on another night. For someone who doesn't really care for genre, I think "Grimm" looks pretty good and think it could work after their single camera comedies on Thursday or even paired with "Harry's Law" or "SVU".

Saturdays:


Sundays:
Football- their savior.