NBC, which lost the households rating lead last season to CBS and the demographics lead this season to ABC (and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?") has done some major retooling of its prime-time schedule for the fall. The Peacock will add four new comedies, three new dramas and move five returning series to new nights and/or times.
Perhaps the biggest news comes from three returning sitcoms -- "Friends" will be back for at least two more seasons, at a cost of $750,000 per episode for each of the show's six stars. After two seasons on Thursday nights, "Frasier" will return to Tuesdays at 8 p.m.And, taking "Frasier's" place on Thursday at 8 p.m. will be "Will & Grace" -- a move that demonstrates the NBC programmers' huge confidence in the show.
The major moves here are to shore up both Tuesdays and Thursdays. In addition to "Frasier's" move back to Tuesdays, NBC will lead off the night with "The Michael Richards Show," featuring not only the former "Seinfeld" co-star but a number of that show's writers and producers. And, after years of lame shows on Thursdays at 7:30 and 8:30 p.m., NBC will have at least three established comedy hits on the night, with "Just Shoot Me" joining "Friends" and "Will & Grace." (The fourth show is an unknown -- a new comedy starring Steven Weber ("Wings").
The network is also expecting a big promotional boost from its coverage of the 2000 Summer Olympics in September.
NBC's new comedies are:
The Michael Richard Show (Tuesdays, 7 p.m.) casts the former "Seinfeld" co-star as an offbeat private investigator. (Would you expect something other than "offbeat"?) Richards is also an executive producer, along with three former "Seinfeld" writers.
Tucker (Tuesdays, 7:30 p.m.) is about a 14-year-old boy who, along with his newly divorced mother, moves in with his aunt (Katey Sagal of "Married . . . With Children") and loutish 15-year-old cousin.
DAG (Tuesdays, 8:30 p.m.) stars David Alan Grier ("In Living Color") as a demoted Secret Service agent and Delta Burke ("Designing Women") as the first lady he's assigned to protect.
The Steven Weber Show (Thursdays, 7:30 p.m.) -- and this is only a working title -- casts the former "Wings" star as a successful advertising executive whose life takes a sudden turn for the worse when a jilted blind date puts a hex on him.
And NBC's new dramas are:
ED (Sundays, 7 p.m.) comes from an old foe of NBC's -- David Letterman's Worldwide Pants Inc. Tom Cavanagh stars as Ed, a New York attorney who moves back to his small Midwestern hometown of Stuckeyville after losing his job and dumping his cheating wife. He buys a bowling ally and opens a new law practice. The show was originally developed as a half-hour comedy for CBS.
Deadline (Mondays, 8 p.m.) stars Oliver Platt as an outspoken, crusading New York newspaper columnist. From the producers of "Law & Order."
Titans (Wednesdays, 7 p.m.) is a glitzy prime-time soap from Aaron Spelling ("Melrose Place," "Dynasty") -- and the scheduling, no doubt, has something to do with the departure of Fox's "Beverly Hills, 90210." Casper Van Dien stars as a 26-year-old fighter pilot who comes home to Beverly Hills to find his filthy rich family torn apart. The cast includes Victoria Principal ("Dallas"), Perry King and Yasmine Bleeth ("Baywatch").
NBC has also junked its current Saturday-night lineup in favor of a package of theatrical movies and, beginning in February, weekly XFL football games (which come to us from the people who produce WWF wrestling).
NBC also announced a slate of six midseason replacement shows. The three comedies are: Kristin, which stars Broadway star Kristin Chenowith as a smalltown girl who dreams of becoming a Broadway star but goes to work for an amoral real-estate tycoon in the meantime. These Women is about three very different sisters who are reunited in Los Angeles. Go Fish is a coming-of-age comedy from the creator of the film "American Pie" about a meek high-school freshman (Kieran Culkin).
And the two dramas are: Semper Fi, from a producing team that includes Steven Spielberg, is a "realistic depiction" of a group of young Marines as they go from boot camp to action around the world; News from the Edge is about staffers at a supermarket tabloid who discover that there really are monsters and aliens living among us.
Among the shows NBC canceled are the Thursday sitcoms "Jesse" and "Stark Raving Mad," its entire Saturday-night lineup of "The Pretender," "The Others" and "Profiler" as well as "Suddenly Susan," "Veronica's Closet" and "Twenty-One." Previously announced cancellations include "Battery Park," '"Cold Feet," "Freaks and Geeks," "God, the Devil and Bob" and "The Mike O'Malley Show."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com