Monday, July 16, 2007

Ch-ch-changes at NBC

From the tour blog: Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff hire Isaiah Washington, un-fire Donald Trump, change the schedule in a bunch of ways (including some damn good news for "Friday Night Lights" fans) and more.

13 comments:

Alan Sepinwall said...

Oh, also, NBC is doing a reality show with Uri Geller and Criss Angel. Yay!

Elwood said...

Why?!?!? Those shifts, while awesome, mess up my Mondays. Placing "Chuck" opposite both "Prison Break" and "HIMYM" is suck-tastic, since my DVR only records 2 shows.

Same for Fridays. I'm very happy that the new PTB have enough faith in FNL to give it a decent lead-in and timeslot, that puts it in direct conflict with "Women's Murder Club" and "Moonlight."

Good offense by NBC...we'll wait and see what kind of defense the other nets have, I guess.

Matty said...

Alan - Has anyone brought up why the most recent season of a show almost always comes out one week before the next season is about to start? I know it takes time to get all the commentaries and special features finished, but it would make more sense for the networks to release them earlier if they want to bring in new viewers. For instance, I watched the first two seasons of Nip/Tuck last summer, but I didn't have time to watch the season 3 DVDs in the 5 days before season 4 aired, so they lost my viewership. If Friday Night Lights comes out on DVD too close to the premiere, I'm worried new viewers won't be able to catch up in time.

Anonymous said...

Two mindfreaks in one show? Eh, I suppose it can't be worse than a celebrity version of "The Apprentice"--or can it?

Alan Sepinwall said...

Elwood, you can let go of "Prison Break." Really, it's okay. I let it out of my life and have done just fine.

Alan Sepinwall said...

Matty, it does take time to assemble those boxed sets. however, the FNL set will be coming out at the end of August, more than a month before the season two premiere (which was scheduled for Oct. 5).

You can find the full press release about the schedule changes and the premiere dates here.

Matt said...

NBC's also making the very smart decision of putting the Season 1 FNL DVDs out there at a low MSRP $29.99, ensuring that it'll be generally available for $19.99 opening week. On a value for money standpoint, that's just smart. I'm a little worried about it against "Moonlight," which is certainly going to draw the attention of Whedonites given the creative team.

Anonymous said...

Matty -- Just FYI, but these days the DVD commentaries and special features for current series are being prepped pretty much "as they go" over the course of the TV season.

Anonymous said...

Gotta give Seinfeld props; promotion of "Bee Movie" notwithstanding, I like that he's willing to lend his presence to shows he feels are deserving of more attention. He did the same thing with NewsRadio, not that it really worked.

Ted Frank said...

WTF moment: Silverman says he's going to write some one-hour episodes of the Lear dramedy? Aside from the conflict-of-interest issues, how the hell is he going to have time to do that plus his real job?

Unless the Uri Geller show is about how to scam gullible reporters, or features James Randi punking Geller repeatedly, I suspect I'm going to be very disappointed in NBC.

VanessaH said...

Ted F. -- I think you misread -- Lear may write some episodes down the line, not Silverman.

dark tyler said...

LOL, I read it the same way as Ted F.

Alan Sepinwall said...

Yeah, the use of "he" was a bit confusing, which is why in the column version of the story, I changed it to "Lear."