NBC 2010 upfronts: complete fall schedule


by Paul William Tenny

NBC LogoNBC sent out some press material in advance of their upfront presentation today, announcing their 2010 fall schedule and the 2011 mid-season lineup. I've heard that FOX execs are talking smack about the number of new series that NBC is trying to float this year, but it kind of stinks of fear if you ask me.

I've got both schedules here and all the info on the new shows from my previous upfront coverage.

NBC 2010 Fall Schedule

  7pm 8pm 8:30pm 9pm 9:30pm 10pm
MONDAY   Chuck The Event
Chase
TUESDAY   The Biggest Loser
Parenthood
WEDNESDAY   Undercovers Law & Order: SVU
Law & Order: Los Angeles
THURSDAY   Community
30 Rock The Office
Outsourced Love Bites
FRIDAY   Who Do You Think You are?/School Pride
Dateline NBC
Outlaw
SATURDAY   RERUNS
SUNDAY Dateline NBC
Minute To Win It
Celebrity Apprentice

 

Sunday represents the schedule as of March, 2011. Here is the data I've collected on NBC's new shows, from my upfront coverage:

  • The Event

    From: Nick Wauters as creator, Steve Stark producing, with Jeffrey Reiner directing the pilot. Wauters worked his way up from PA to freelance writer, collecting a few producing credits along the way. Good idea then, but probably not the showrunner. Sparks has produced most of Medium while Reiner has directed the pilot for Caprica and regular episodes for Friday Night Lights and about-to-be-canceled Trauma.

    Synopsis: A conspiracy thriller that follows Sean Walker, an Everyman who investigates the mysterious disappearance of his fiancee, Leila, and unwittingly begins to expose the biggest cover-up in U.S. history.

    Notes: 13 episodes ordered and will air at some point. Press release says Evan Katz (24, JAG) will run the show.

  • Chase

    From: Jennifer Johnson as creator, Jerry Bruckheimer, Johnathan Littman and KirstieAnne Reed producing, with David Nutter directing. Johnson came up writing for Providence and The Guradian, then started writing and producing for Lost and Cold Case. That's going from entry-level staff writer to her own show in less than 10 years. Uber producer Bruckherimer needs no introduction, but a useful note is that he has been doing a lot of TV producing lately (CSI and CSI Miami, The Amazing Race, CSI NY, Without a Trace) in addition to his feature film work.

    Nutter is a prolific TV director and producer back to 21 Jump Street, The X-Files and Millennium, Smallville, E.R., Without a Trace, etc. Littman is an equally proilfic producer on lots of big name shows. Reed has done production work steadily over the past few years, but nothing big.

    Synopsis: A game of cat-and-mouse as a team of U.S. marshals hunts down America's most dangerous fugitives.

    Notes: 13 episodes ordered. Guaranteed to air sometime this fall.

  • Undercovers

    From: J. J. Abrams and Josh Reims as creators, Bryan Burk producing, with Abrams directing his pilot. Abrams of course created Alias, Lost, and Fringe. Reims wrote and produced for Felicity, Dirty Sexy Money, and Brothers and Sisters. Burk produced Alias, Lost, Fringe, as well as Abrams' Star Trek feature film and Cloverfield.

    Synopsis: A spy drama that proves once and for all that marriage is still the world's most dangerous partnership.

    Notes: 13 episodes ordered. It will air, you can bet your paycheck on it.

  • Outsourced

    From: Robert Borden as creator, Alexandra Beattie as co-exec, and Ken Kwapis as exec-prod and pilot director. Beattie has no discernable past, while Borden is a veteran writer for Letterman, George Lopez, and Drew Carey (produced Lopez, Carey.) Ken Kwapis has directed episodes of The Office for five years, The Bernie Mac Show for six, and Malcolm in the Middle for five.

    Synopsis: An American novelties company has its call-center outsourced to India, where it's new manager must give the new staff "a crash course in all things American".

    Notes: 13 episodes ordered. Set in India, filmed on a studio lot in California? Naturally.

  • Love Bites

    From: Cindy Chupack as creator, Eric Fellner and Shelley McCrory producing, with Marc Buckland directing the pilot. Chupack co-produced and wrote for Sex and the City and Everybody Loves Raymond, and written for Mad Men.  Fellner appears to be a mostly feature producer with a long list of films to his name (nearly 100). Some gig movies, too. Fargo, Burn After Reading, Frost/Nixon among them.

    Buckland produced for Murder One and My Name is Earl, and directed for Scrubs, Earl, Sports Night, The West Wing, NYPD Blue, Murder One, and others.

    Synopsis: "Love Bites" is an hour-long romantic comedy anthology series featuring three loosely connected, modern stories of love, sex, marriage and dating.

    Notes: 13 episodes ordered.

  • Rough Justice (Now know as "Outlaw")

    From: John Eisendrath as creator, Conan O'Brien, David Kissinger, Jeff Ross and Jimmy Smitts producing, with Terry George directing the pilot. Eisendrath has written and produced for Alias, Felicity, 90210, and My Own Worst Enemy. Kissinger would seem to bring little of value to the project. Ross produced Late Night and The Tonight Show under O'Brien and Kids in the Hall.

    Synopsis: Tough Justice follows an ex-supreme court justice who quits the court to start his own legal practice.

    Notes: Ordered to pilot. Jimmy Smitts will co-star in addition to producing (this is normal for powerful actors.) O'Brien's vantiy studio will produce the show (sorry, I consider all these things to be vanity entities. You hardly ever see a star's production company involved absent the star in some way.)

Shows I missed include "School Pride":

'SCHOOL PRIDE' - From executive producers Cheryl Hines ("Curb Your Enthusiasm") and Denise Cramsey ("Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "True Beauty"), "School Pride" is a proactive, alternative series that tells the stories of communities coming together to renovate their aging and broken public schools. While transforming the school, the community also restores its sense of value and school pride. The cameras follow students, teachers and parents as they roll up their sleeves and rebuild their own schools, concluding with the unveiling of a brand new, completely transformed school. They are motivated by a quartet of community organizers and personalities -- SWAT Commander Tom Stroup, interior designer Susie Castillo ("House of Payne"), comedian and former substitute teacher Kym Whitley ("Til Death") and political correspondent Jacob Soboroff ("AMC News"). Together, the team of experts will lead the community through the makeover process. Months later, cameras will revisit the school to discover the lasting effects of the transformation -- a renewed sense of school pride and an increase in student achievement scores.

And Law & Order: Los Angeles:

'LAW & ORDER: LOS ANGELES' -- The new "Law & Order: Los Angeles" is a procedural crime drama that will follow the theme and storylines similar to the "Law & Order"-brand series on the streets of Los Angeles. The series, from executive producer Dick Wolf and Blake Masters "("Brotherhood"), is a Wolf Films production in association with Universal Media Studios. Casting and pre-production work are continuing.

NBC has quite a few other shows (The Cape, Harry's Law, Perfect Couples, The Paul Reiser Show, and Friends with Benefits) that haven't been put on the schedule yet. They'll probably debut in the spring of next year.

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