It's hard to believe that just a year ago, the talk was that NBC was remaking prime-time TV with an hour a night of Jay Leno at 9 p.m.
NBC, seen here on Channel 4, is going back to a traditional prime-time this fall for the troubled network, with the network pushing its post-"Lost," post-"24" thriller, "The Event."
On the comedy front, NBC is delaying the return of the much-improved "Parks & Recreation," and facing a Thursday night onslaught from CBS.
Here's NBC's fall premiere schedule (of course, network schedules can change at the last minute):
- Monday, Sept. 20: 7 p.m., "Chuck;" 8 p.m., "The Event;" 9 p.m., "Chase."
- Tuesday, Sept. 21: 7 p.m., "The Biggest Loser."
- Wednesday, Sept. 22: 7 p.m., "Undercovers;" 8 p.m., "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit;" 9 p.m.,. "Law & Order: Los Angeles."
- Thursday, Sept. 23: 7 p.m., "Community;" 7:30 p.m., "30 Rock;" 8 p.m., "The Office;" 8:30 p.m., "Outsourced;" 9 p.m., "The Apprentice."
- Friday, Sept. 24: 7 p.m., "School Pride;" 8 p.m., "Dateline;" 9 p.m., "Outlaw," in its normal time slot.
- Saturday, Sept. 25: 7 p.m., "Law & Order: Los Angeles" (rerun); 8 p.m, "Chase" (rerun); 9 p.m., "Law & Order: SVU": (rerun).
An NBC show to watch: While "The Event" is getting the promotional budget and generating buzz, I'll be catching at least the first couple weeks of the newest addition to the Thursday night comedy lineup, "Outsourced."
Set in a call center in India, there's obviously a danger of going overboard in its take on the clash between Indian and American culture. But I'll be adding it to my Thursday schedule.
Here's a preview:
Staying up late to talk TV: I'll be joining Steve King and Johnnie Putman on Chicago's WGN-AM (720) at 1 a.m. tonight/Friday morning to chat about the new TV lineup.
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
