NBC Unveils Lineup, 2006 July May 15, 2006
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It’s back to the drawing board for NBC this fall as the network faces another last-place finish this season among the big broadcast networks.
The drastic redesign of the schedule will see 10 new shows plus “Sunday Night Football” with changes on every night of the week. The peacock network is struggling to take flight and return to its glory days when its “Must-See TV” programming made it the No. 1 network.
Those days have rapidly become just a faded memory with only one series (“Deal or No Deal”) on the top-20 Nielsen list.
This time around NBC is counting on three big-name writer/producers to hoist it out of the ratings basement.
Aaron Sorkin, who created “The West Wing,” is behind “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” a backstage drama about a “Saturday Night Live Show”-type show. Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford play the creative forces, and Amanda Peet is the network executive who wants them to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse.
“30 Rock” refers to the NBC’s Rockefeller Center address and is another “Saturday Night Live”-like program. This one is a comedy from Tina Fey, a former “SNL” head writer. She will play the head writer on “30 Rock,” with Alec Baldwin as the network boss man. “SNL” producer Lorne Michaels is an executive producer.
Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco, the creators of “Crash,” which won the Academy Award for best picture this year, will be the forces behind “The Black Donnellys,” a drama about four Irish mob brothers in New York. “ER” will air from September through December, then “The Black Donnellys” will take its place on Thursday nights in January. The medical drama will return in the spring.
“Kidnapped” is a serialized drama co-starring former Louisville resident Jeremy Sisto as a hostage rescuer. It follows the week-to-week search for the abducted teenage son of a prominent Manhattan couple played by Timothy Hutton and Dana Delaney.
“Heroes” is another themed show that appears to be trying to lure the kind of younger viewer who likes superhero-type films. It features ordinary, often down-on-their luck, people who suddenly find they possess extraordinary powers such as the ability to fly, paint the future, instantly transport themselves to other locations and to read people’s minds at a time when society is threatened by new evils.
“20 Good Years” sounds like a version of “The Odd Couple” for older guys. It co-stars John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor as a retired surgeon and judge coming up on their 60th birthdays who decide to make all the whoopee they can before all the air goes out of their balloon.
“Friday Night Lights” is a Texas high school football-based drama based on the book and movie. It’s as much about the team’s off-field exploits as the gridiron feats.
“Raines” is one of three new series that will join the schedule on Sundays in January after “Sunday Night Football” ends. It stars Jeff Goldblum as a detective who solves crimes by talking with the dead. The cop doesn’t hold séances, but he has a sense that the victims are communicating with him.
“America’s Got Talent,” a variety-talent competition produced by Simon Cowell of “American Idol” fame and hosted by Regis Philbin, has a limited run starting next month and then will return to the schedule after football season ends. It will be a first run in June. The January Sunday lineup will be completed by “The Apprentice” based in Los Angeles.
NBC is holding out two comedies for mid-season. One is “Andy Barker P.I.” starring former Conan O’Brien sidekick Andy Richter who will play an accountant-turned-gumshoe with the emphasis on the silly stuff.
The other replacement is “The Singles Table,” a drama about five young strangers who get seated together at a wedding and become good buddies. Think “Friends.”
The network says that “Crossing Jordan” and “Scrubs” will return to the lineup at some point in the future, probably filling in for shows that fail.
The cancellation casualty list includes “Heist,” “Conviction,” “Surface,” “Fear Factor,” “E-Ring” and “Joey.”
Here’s the night-by-night lineup:
Monday
8 p.m. — “Deal or No Deal”
9 p.m. — “Heroes”
10 p.m. — “Medium”
Tuesday
8 p.m. — “Friday Night Lights”
9 p.m. — “Kidnapped”
10 p.m. — “Law & Order: SVU”
Wednesday
8 p.m. — “The Biggest Loser”
9 p.m. — “20 Good Years”
9:30 p.m. — “30 Rock”
10 p.m. — “Law and Order”
Thursday
8 p.m. — “My Name is Earl”
8:30 p.m. — “The Office”
9 p.m. — “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”
10 p.m. — “ER”/“The Black Donnellys”
Friday
8 p.m. — “Deal or No Deal”
9 p.m. — “Las Vegas”
10 p.m. — “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”
Saturday
8 p.m. — “Dateline NBC”
9 p.m. — Drama series repeats
Sunday
7 p.m. — “Football Night in America,” pregame show with host Bob Costas.
8 p.m. — “Sunday Night Football”
“Mission: Impossible” Capsizes “Poseidon” May 15, 2006
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LOS ANGELES.– It was bottoms up for “Poseidon,” as the cruise ship disaster remake failed to topple “Mission: Impossible III” from a second week atop the nation’s box office, according to studio estimates Sunday.
“Mission: Impossible III” clung to No. 1 with a $24.5 million take during an anemic North America box office weekend that saw the Tom Cruise action film drop 49 percent from its opening weekend.
Internationally, “Mission: Impossible III” raked in another $37.3 million to bring its two-week earnings overall to $214 million.
“It’s not a bad start,” said Rob Moore, Paramount’s president of worldwide marketing, distribution and operations.
“Poseidon,” which reportedly cost $150 million-plus to make, debuted in second place with what was described as a solid weekend opening of $20.3 million.
“You’ve got two PG-13 action movies vying for the top spot and each earned over $20 million. I think that’s pretty strong for Mother’s Day weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian of Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc., which tracks box office performance.
But the overall North America turnstile take was more than 13 percent behind the comparable 2005 period, the first time in seven weeks that box office receipts dropped over last year’s figures.
“The top 12 films for this weekend are down about 13.5 percent for comparable weekend last year. Hollywood has been on a roll for seven weeks,” Dergarabedian said, adding the upcoming weekend has two potential blockbusters that could again float all boats.
“This was a solid but not spectacular weekend leading up to a big week ahead with `The Da Vinci Code’ and `Over the Hedge.’ This will be classic counter-programming,” he said.
The Robin Williams comedy “RV” was third with $9.5 million, Lindsay Lohan’s “Just My Luck” debuted in fourth with $5.5 million and “An American Haunting” was fifth with $3.7 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. “Mission: Impossible III,” $24.5 million.
2. “Poseidon,” $20.3 million.
3. “RV,” $9.5 million.
4. “Just My Luck,” $5.5 million.
5. “An American Haunting,” $3.7 million.
6. “United 93,” $3.6 million.
7. “Stick It,” $3.2 million.
8. “Ice Age: The Meltdown,” $3 million.
9. “Silent Hill,” $2.2 million.
10. “Hoot,” $2.1 million.
