NBC Seeks New "Life": The Peacock's Fall 2007 TV Schedule

With a schedule heavy on action and sci-fi, NBC looks to be angling to spread viewers from football and Heroes throughout the week with four new dramas.

Though Heroes took a small hit against Dancing with the Stars this spring, the serial's demos remained strong; it still remains to be seen, however, if the action hour can successfully launch a new series behind it after three failed this past season. Time-traveler series Journeyman gets the assignment, and may be provided a boost thanks to a surprise announcement about a Heroes spin-off. Called Heroes: Origins, the six-episode series introduces a new character each week, with one joining the following season as a cast regular as voted by viewers on NBC.com. The move cuts down on repeats for a combined 30 episodes of superhero action.

Chuck, in which a computer catapulted into secret agent mode after an accidental 'download,' finds a cushioned slot between episodes of The Biggest Loser and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. More risky may be the decision to air two new dramas back-to-back on Wednesdays in a move that mirrors last fall's Monday bid. The network hopes that a re-imagining of Bionic Woman benefits from a Deal or No Deal lead-in, and caps the night with Life, about a cop returning to the force after being released from wrongful imprisonment.

On the returning side are all four Thursday night comedies, reshuffled with The Office as the 9/8c anchor. Despite slipping ratings, the comedies reach valuable young male demographics on the biggest advertising night of the week. With tough competition from Grey's Anatomy and CSI, the network also upped the order for The Office to 30 episodes, including five hour-long outings. Scrubs had been rumored to be going to ABC for its last season, but NBC ordered 18 episodes of the laffer late last week, along with an adaptation of the UK series The I.T. Crowd for midseason. Most vulnerable may be 30 Rock, but NBC's commitment to quality should help.

Another beneficiary of NBC's vision? Peabody-winner Friday Night Lights, taking a risky slot behind Las Vegas on Mondays. Tom Selleck joins the casino-set drama as Nikki Cox and James Caan depart. The night again starts off with 1 vs 100, but expect to see The Singing Bee later in fall. The variety-competition show challenges contestants to accurately sing the lyrics to popular songs.

Saturdays remain home to Dateline and encores, which later in the season may include the NBC premieres of Law & Order: Criminal Intent - now seen first on USA. And after months of speculation, the venerable Law & Order returns to continue Dick Wolf's aspiration of beating Gunsmoke in the record books for longest-running primetime drama. The procedural joins Sundays once football ends, followed by the returning Medium and the Brooke Shields vehicle Lipstick Jungle, based on the novel by Sex & the City's Candace Bushnell.

New reality series World Moves, a dance team competition produced by Randy Jackson, joins the line-up midseason, while the fate of The Apprentice remains up in the air. Crossing Jordan had been in the running for a shortened season, but ultimately did not make the list to return.

Overall, NBC looks to have strengthened both Mondays and Thursdays with some smart scheduling, and Sundays post-football should do much better than this year's non-scripted efforts. Tuesdays and Wednesdays remain big question marks for the fourth-place network, though Bionic Woman should at least premiere well with its built-in name recognition. The schedule definitely appears stronger than the schedule attempted by NBC last fall; unfortunately for the Peacock, that may not be enough with the strong competition it faces. What NBC really needs is to find their CSI, Grey's or American Idol. Will fall 2007 be the year NBC finds its next breakout hit?