We're only a few weeks away from the one-year anniversary of NBC's "in-front" schedule announcement, and time was running out for the network to actually announce premiere dates for several of the shows they announced last April, notably the Tom Fontana-created "vigilante billionaire" drama "The Philanthropist" (which was originally supposed to debut after "Heroes" in February) plus a couple of foreign co-productions in "Merlin" and "The Listener."Today, NBC finally got around to the details of when and where those shows will air, along with a bunch of other summer programming -- including repeats of the upcoming USA season of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," and the resurrection of "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!" (which flopped on ABC in 2003 but is a hit in England) -- in a press release that you can read here.
Note that "The Listener" and "The Philanthropist" will be the last original scripted series to air on NBC on weeknights at 10 p.m. before Jay Leno takes over in the fall. I can't wait. Can you?
The Philanthropist has been delayed so many times that there was time for Fontana to be fired and rehired before they shot a single piece of film.
ReplyDeleteLOL. The other shows all sound like winners, too. A) they were originally supposed to come out in fall/spring and B) they're on NBC.
ReplyDeleteThey've got to be good, right?
Note to NBC, fire your development/current execs, start fresh. Come on Ben Silverman, how long are you going to let them run Heroes and other shows into the ground?
Did someone watch The Listiner by chance? Its just awful.
ReplyDeleteIs "eventful" a word? Because it's used in their topline, and I don't think it is a word.
ReplyDeleteAnd "Meteor" and "The Storm" both sound like bad Sci-Fi Channel Movies of the Week. Can we finally get "Mansquito: The Series?"
Is "eventful" a word? Because it's used in their topline, and I don't think it is a word.
ReplyDeleteIf "monetizing" is a word, then so is "eventful," dammit!
I´ve watched The Listener and I liked it. I´m tired of great marketed productions as The Mentalist and Heroes, at last, boring... With The Listener you have a simple history but it allows you having a good time with an hooking plot.
ReplyDeleteI really liked Merlin and I can't figure out why they haven't aired it yet. I wonder if the British accents are the problem.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it is just the over-exubberant language and self-applied descriptions of their shows as "buzz-worthy," but none of that sounds good. At all. None of it.
ReplyDeleteCrap, when did L&O:CI start up on USA? I can't keep track of all these network shenanigans.
ReplyDeleteThis'll be at least the second season where the eps air on USA first, Dez.
ReplyDelete"Vigilante billionaire"? If EVER there were a more poorly timed idea for a show ...
ReplyDeleteTodd, I think the idea is that he's using his vast resources to help those less fortunate.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it co-stars Michael K. Williams, aka Omar from "The Wire."
Hm. I suppose that could work (not that it actually will, it being a summer series airing at 10 p.m. on NBC), but I still think the time is ripe for some sort of modern-day Robin Hood riff. Everyone not watching CNBC would watch it! (And all the better if Omar -- miraculously back from the dead to the bafflement of America -- were the one doing the Robin Hooding.)
ReplyDeleteDidn't ABC already do I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here? Is NBC that desperate they're bringing it back failed reality shows from other networks?
ReplyDeleteAlso, "The Storm"... I remember that from GI Joe. Will we see James van der Beek and David James Eliot playing ice hockey with sensitive electronic components?
Apparently "Last Comic Standing" is done. I watched it every year, but I gotta say I'm not shedding a tear.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I meant when did the new season of L&O:CI start airing? For some reason, I got it in my head that the new eps were coming in April.
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