NBC sets its 2012-13 fall schedule
'The Voice' gets doubled, while 'Community' moves to Fridays
"The Voice"
Credit: NBC
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NBC announced the fall portion of its 2012-2013 schedule on Sunday (May 13) morning, revealing a two-night run for "The Voice" and shipping beloved comedy "Community" off to Friday in an oddball pairing with less beloved comedy "Whitney."
NBC announced the fall portion of its 2012-2013 schedule on Sunday (May 13) morning, revealing a two-night run for "The Voice" and shipping beloved comedy "Community" off to Friday in an oddball pairing with less beloved comedy "Whitney."
The first thing that you'll notice is that NBC has expanded "The Voice," previously a spring-only series, for a fall run, stretching the singing competition, which suffered from declining numbers through much of this season, over three hours on Monday and Tuesday nights.
On Monday, two hours of "The Voice" will be paired with the new J.J. Abrams-produced "Revolution." That sends the retooled "Smash" waiting for midseason for its second run.
On Tuesdays, "The Voice" will run only an hour and will lead into the Matthew Perry comedy "Go On" and the Ryan Murphy/Ali Adler comedy "The New Normal." NBC will keep "Parenthood" on Tuesdays at 10 p.m.
That Tuesday comedy hour is one of a whopping four comedy blocks scheduled by NBC.
NBC will launch Wednesday with another comedy block featuring the Justin Kirk comedy "Animal Practice" and the Jimmy Fallon-produced "Guys with Kids." Once again, NBC will experiment with "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" in the 9 p.m. slot, not that it's worked previously, leading into the new Dick Wolf drama "Chicago Fire."
There will be more comedy on Thursday, with "30 Rock," "Up All Night," "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation" all staying relatively stable and leading into the low-rated "Rock Center with Brian Williams."
Friday night will feature the return of "Whitney" leading into "Community" in what many will consider a strange pairing and then leading into "Grimm," naturally." "Dateline" will remain at 10 p.m.
NBC has NFL on Sundays for the fall and the network has already set "Fashion Star," "The Celebrity Apprentice" and the drama "Do No Harm" for Sundays in the spring.
"We’ve taken a few first steps toward a turnaround over this past season and now we’re seeing a real opportunity to accelerate that process," blurbs Greenblatt. "We’ve got a lineup of new shows that will really get people to sit up and take notice. And with the Olympics coming this summer and two nights of ‘The Voice’ in the fall, we’ve also got the tools we need to give our shows the kind of launch they deserve."
NBC has also held back a slow of shows for midseason. In addition to "Do No Harm" and "Smash," the network will have "Infamous," "Hannibal" and a retooled Dane Cook comedy, among other midseason options.
Related
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First Look : Images from NBC's 'Do No Harm,' 'Infamous' and 'Chicago Fire'
Also pics from 'Guys with Kids'
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First Look : Images from NBC's 'Revolution,' 'Save Me' and '1600 Penn'
Also pics from 'Go On' and 'The New Normal'
NBC FALL 2012-13 SCHEDULE
(*New programs in UPPER CASE; all times ET)
MONDAY
8-10 p.m. – "The Voice"
10-11 p.m. – "REVOLUTION"
TUESDAY
8-9 p.m. –"The Voice"
9-9:30 p.m. – "GO ON"
9:30-10 p.m. – "THE NEW NORMAL"
10-11 p.m. – "Parenthood"
WEDNESDAY
8-8:30 p.m. – "ANIMAL PRACTICE"
8:30-9 p.m. – "GUYS WITH KIDS"
9-10 p.m. – "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"
10-11 p.m. – "CHICAGO FIRE"
THURSDAY
8-8:30 p.m. – "30 Rock"
8:30-9 p.m. – "Up All Night"
9-9:30 p.m. – "The Office"
9:30-10 p.m. – "Parks and Recreation"
10-11 p.m. – "Rock Center with Brian Williams"
FRIDAY
8-8:30 p.m. – "Whitney"
8:30-9 p.m. – "Community"
9-10 p.m. – "Grimm"
10-11 p.m. – "Dateline NBC"
SUNDAY (Fall 2012)
7- 8:15 p.m. — "Football Night in America"
8:15-11:30 p.m. — "NBC Sunday Night Football"
SUNDAY (Post-football/Winter 2013)
7-8 p.m. – "Dateline NBC"
8-9 p.m. – "Fashion Star"
9-10 p.m. – "The Celebrity Apprentice"
10-11 p.m. – "DO NO HARM"
A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupCraig
May 13, 2012 at 2:11PM EST Reply to CommentOne thing is for sure, the internet is going to take this news very well.
jamie
May 13, 2012 at 2:14PM EST Reply to Commentshould of put Community on after the voice on tuesday,a good lead in is all we ever asked
dan Jamie - "Community" premiered after "The Office" when "The Office" was a hit. [Granted it was moved away after a month, but the sampling opportunity was there.]
May 13, 2012 at 2:21PM ESTNBC is not going to give its best available lead-in to a comedy which has established its audience, for worse or for better.
-Daniel
The rest of the story It moved away after three weeks. It also pulled better numbers in that slot than any show subsequently.
May 13, 2012 at 3:50PM ESTThat it has been shunted to Fridays for shows that don't do meaningfully better in much easier slots is an abomination.
dan The Rest of the Story - You're not exactly right about either part of that, but based on your use of the word "abomination," I sense you MAY be trafficking in hyperbole, so it's all good...
May 13, 2012 at 4:03PM EST-Daniel
The Rest of the Story Demos for the first three episodes for shows to appear after "The Office" in the various iterations of NBC's schedule the past three seasons:
May 13, 2012 at 6:31PM EST"Community" (Sep 2009) - 3.8 2.7 2.9 (3.13)
"30 Rock" (Oct 2009) - 3.0 3.2 3.0 (3.07)
"Outsourced" (Sep 2010) - 3.5 2.8 2.5 (2.93)
"Parks and Recreation" (Jan 2011) - 3.2 3.0 2.4 (2.87)
"Whitney" (Sep 2011) - 3.3 2.5 2.3 (2.70)
~~~ "The Office" collapses ~~~
"Up All Night" (Jan 2012) - 2.0 1.9 1.8 (1.90)
"Parks and Recreation" (Apr 2012) - 1.7 1.6 1.7 (1.67)
On the second front, since returning March 15, "Community" has averaged 1.53 in the demo. "30 Rock," despite the benefit of overall television audience growth from 8 to 8:30 and airing against "Rules of Engagement" rather than "The Highest-Rated Show on Television," has averaged 1.52. This, after averaging 1.52 while occupying "Community"'s current slot from January to March -- before the annual DST ratings collapse, mind you. Yet "30 Rock" returns to Thursdays.
"Up All Night," airing after "The Office," averaged 1.62 from January to April. The two times "The Office" was a repeat, it averaged 1.25. Yet "Up All Night" returns to Thursdays.
Explain then, dear sir, in what way I was "not exactly right" and in what way this is *not* an abomination.
dan The Rest of the Story - The primary reason you're not exactly right is because you ignore that premiere-to-second-week drop as if had no meaning and didn't, at least to some degree, semi-validate what was always a plan to move "Community" to 8 p.m. NBC viewed Community as a show capable of being a stand-alone hit and an hour-opener. It wasn't punishment that it got moved to 8 p.m. It was confidence. Was the confidence ultimately misplaced? Yes. Could NBC have backtracked and nurtured Community more? Sure. But NBC was sure that giving "Community" those couple weeks -- with the move to 8 p.m. HEAVILY promoted within episodes -- would help it be a Thursday pillar. And it got that first week sample. And then the audience dropped hard. Sure, you can say that "Outsourced" fell further, but... "Outsourced" sucked and it's not on TV anymore.
May 13, 2012 at 6:53PM ESTAnd this is not an abomination because... Well, nothing involving network TV rises to the level of "abomination" for me. This isn't genocide or spilled oil or a constitutional amendment forcing the NL to use the designated hitter.
Bottom Line: "Community" was going to get crushed ANYWHERE NBC put it at this point. That's just a fact. NBC has no place to protect "Community" and giving it a post-"Voice" slot was never going to happen ever. So rather than returning "Community" to a place it would get crushed by competing comedies and whatnot, NBC moved it to a place where it won't have any direct competition at all. ABC may program a TGIF comedy block, but it won't be direct competition. So if "Community" holds its audience or bumps up its DVR numbers -- which aren't nearly as good as they probably should be -- it could improve NBC's time period performance and maybe get a back-nine. I personally think that getting away from all comedy competition and anything young adult skewing can't possibly be a bad thing for "Community." I'm not saying it's a good thing. Moving to Friday is never a good thing.
But I can see enough potential positives to feel that it's comfortably short of an abomination...
-Daniel
dan The Rest of the Story - May I back off the "right" or "wrong" and just say that I have a different interpretation of things than you do?
May 13, 2012 at 7:12PM ESTNot *everything* on the Internet needs to be only about aggressive posturing... Doesn't seem necessary...
-Daniel
Blake You guys make me LOL. Literally. I laughed out loud.
May 13, 2012 at 7:54PM ESTIt's a TV show! It's not even an unsolved mystery like "Lost." If another episode never aired, would we really lose anything? Don't get me wrong, I like "Community." I DVR it. But it's not important.
I'm reading "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." Pick your abominations there.
CinemaPsycho I always thought 8:00 was the wrong time slot - should have been 8:30 Thursday all along. A lot of people watch Big Bang Theory, record Community and watch it at 8:30 anyway. Or vice versa. Just getting it away from Big Bang Theory would have been a good start.
May 14, 2012 at 12:02AM ESTFriday at 8:30? After Whitney? Yeah, they're letting it die a slow death in that slot. But I AM glad it's coming back AT ALL. If you're not home on Fridays, just DVR it. Calling this an "abomination" is a bit much though. A mistake, maybe... however, it didn't seem like 30 Rock did any better in the 8:00 slot this season. Just saying.
However, I'm glad it's still on for as long as it continues to air, and I will enjoy it. But I'm still not watching Whiney... I mean, Whitney.
Bobby Why Community fans continually insist that the show would be a mainstream hit if only it had a better time slot completely baffles me. The show is incredibly weird and insular in its current form, and is therefore largely inaccessible to potential new viewers. As Dan stated, its audience is pretty much set at this point; the likelihood is that Community will never have anything more than a cult following (albeit a relatively large and very passionate one). Kudos to NBC for finally recognizing this.
May 14, 2012 at 8:33PM EST@The Rest of the Story - I'm assuming that you are not a statistician because, if you were, you would have immediately recognized that the 3.8 Community garnered for its premiere episode is an outlier that significantly affects its average. Also, assuming that the demo would have held steady from the show's (much more grounded) first season to its (increasingly experimental) third season is a logical fallacy. Demos from this year alone invalidate that argument. The first episode that aired following the hiatus got a 2.2; the last episode got a 1.4. That's a drop of over one-third in slightly less than two months, and would seem to indicate (among other things) that Community is having trouble even retaining its current audience. Anyone expecting it to actually grow its audience at this stage is engaging in nothing more than wishful thinking.
themadlibs
May 13, 2012 at 2:15PM EST Reply to CommentRock Center, NBC? ROCK CENTER?! There have to be drugs or chemicals flowing that are lowering the intelligence factor in those meetings.
Interrogation Bear I think you have an election coming up this November. Thursday at 10 is a death slot at NBC anyway.
May 13, 2012 at 2:59PM ESTBrendan Noel
May 13, 2012 at 2:16PM EST Reply to CommentOh man, I predict a good week of podcasting coming up
Marc11218
May 13, 2012 at 2:18PM EST Reply to CommentSmash was renewed so where the hell is it?
dan Marc11218 - Midseason... Just added details...
May 13, 2012 at 2:20PM EST-Daniel
Steph
May 13, 2012 at 2:23PM EST Reply to CommentOh NBC you Britta'd it again.
LJA Goldman and Donovan gone? Harmon possibly/likely gone? WTF, NBC! They Britta'd it HARD!
May 13, 2012 at 2:55PM ESTw
May 13, 2012 at 2:23PM EST Reply to Commentwell, this is to be expected. where else can they put a low-rated show on other than Friday night? also, Community, unlike the other four Thursday comedies, is not own by NBCU. I'm just happy it's coming back, Friday night is getting crowded all of a sudden.
Andrew I'm surprised they moved Whitney to Fridays though. It had done okay on Wednesdays and it would've paired with Guys With Kids (also Multicam). Community - as an aging cult hit makes sense on Fridays. Whitney?
May 13, 2012 at 2:39PM ESTNot that I care all that much, but it still seems like an odd choice.
Steph
May 13, 2012 at 2:24PM EST Reply to Commentoh NBC you Britta'd it, again.
Steph sorry for the re-post. :)
May 13, 2012 at 2:25PM ESTPurpleFishHead
May 13, 2012 at 2:26PM EST Reply to CommentDan,
is DO NO HARM the Katams/Ritter thing?
dan PurpleFishhead - No, that was "County," which wasn't picked up. "Do No Harm" is a Jekyll/Hyde-style drama starring Steven Pasquale.
May 13, 2012 at 2:31PM EST-Daniel
mgrabois I guess that means more Ritter on "Parenthood" then.
May 13, 2012 at 2:37PM ESTAndrew
May 13, 2012 at 2:27PM EST Reply to CommentHuh, interesting. No Biggest Loser on there.
I'm not complaining, but it's a little surprising – and good for them for at least making a real bet on scripted programming.
Andrew
May 13, 2012 at 2:36PM EST Reply to CommentAlso, I'm surprised they're trying Go On and The New Normal at 9pm on Tuesday, when they're going head-to-head with New Girl and a likely ABC comedy block. I'd have thought 8pm would be less competitive.
I suppose though they wanted to use The Voice as a launchpad, and I also am guessing they don't want Ryan Murphy's show competing with Ryan Murphy's show (Glee).
Tom3345
May 13, 2012 at 3:03PM EST Reply to CommentWith Justin Kirk having a new show, does this mean this will finally be the final season of Weeds?
dan Tom3345 - Likely to be. Nothing official. But most likely...
May 13, 2012 at 3:08PM EST-Daniel
marc
May 13, 2012 at 3:20PM EST Reply to CommentUp Alll Night hasn't worked on thursdays. Why are they trying it again?
AM7
May 13, 2012 at 3:40PM EST Reply to CommentI love these quotes from Greenblatt. BS Meter is going through the roof.
Andrew
May 13, 2012 at 4:53PM EST Reply to CommentThe Biggest Loser? Where is that NBC staple?
Andrew
May 13, 2012 at 4:55PM EST Reply to Commentwhere is the Biggest Loser? It has been an NBC staple for quite a while.