NBC will be doing some major remodeling on its prime-time schedule over the next couple of months, making changes on five nights, moving eight shows to new nights and/or times and premiering one new series.
(Gee, can you tell that NBC isn't doing all that well in the ratings this season?)They're happy at Utah's NBC affiliate, KSL-Ch. 5, because "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" will be moving to a later time slot. Instead of airing Mondays at 8 p.m., the series moves to Fridays at 9 p.m., as of Jan. 7. That's a move that will also please the show's executive producer, Dick Wolf, who had lobbied for the later time slot since before the show premiered.
Another show that KSL executives were concerned about, "Third Watch," is also getting a later time slot. It moves from Sundays at 7 p.m. (a wholly inappropriate spot) to Mondays at 9 p.m., as of Jan. 10. (Although isn't it odd that NBC programmers, who insisted that the Monday edition of "Dateline" couldn't be moved to accommodate a later start for "Special Victims Unit," have done just that to accommodate "Third Watch.")
Mondays will also be the home of the promising new series "Freaks and Geeks," which will occupy the 7 p.m. time slot, beginning Jan. 10, rescuing the series from the Saturday night graveyard.
Other changes include:
-- Tuesdays: "Veronica's Closet" (which is being rescued for no apparent reason) moves from Mondays to Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m., beginning Jan. 4.
-- Saturdays: As of Dec. 4, "The Pretender" moves up an hour to 7 p.m. and "Profiler" moves up an hour to 8 p.m. (Hmmmm . . . that's a bit early for a show as intense and violent as "Profiler.")
On Saturday, Feb. 5, at 9 p.m., NBC plans to introduce the new series "The Others." It's an hourlong science-fiction thriller that "revolves around a varied group of individuals . . . who share an extrasensory ability to reach beyond this world and into other dimensions." Expect lots of ghostly, creepy stuff.
-- Sundays: As of Jan. 2, "Dateline" moves back an hour to 7 p.m. NBC has not yet decided what it will air at 6 p.m.
The dreadful "Suddenly Susan" disappears from the schedule -- it's not yet officially canceled, but its outlook is grim indeed. Not that we should shed any tears over that.
NBC has previously axed two of its new fall series, the hourlong romantic comedy "Cold Feet" and the half-hour sitcom "The Mike O'Malley Show."
ABC CHANGES: ABC, apparently under the misimpression that moving bad shows around will somehow improve their ratings, is shuffling several of its sitcoms.
This past week, "Norm" moved from Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. to Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. Beginning Tuesday, Dec. 7, "Oh Grow Up" moves into the 7:30 p.m. time slot (vacating the slot now occupied by "Norm").
On Wednesday, Dec. 8, "It's like, you know . . . " moves to Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. (vacating the slot that will be occupied by "Oh Grow Up").
Got all that?
This is sort of the proverbial moving of deck chairs around the Titanic. None of these shows is worth making an effort to see.
"SPORTS NIGHT" WILL RETURN: ABC will also bring "Sports Night" back to its regular time slot, Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m., on Dec. 7. The ratings-starved show was rather abruptly yanked off the schedule in favor of various reruns for the duration of the November sweeps.