NBC announces fall schedule: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip not on the list

A lottery-winning mustache man, a bionic woman, several doctors, a team of football players, and plenty of cops will be on your TV this fall, courtesy of NBC.

NBC announced its fall schedule today during the upfront presentation to advertisers and media in New York City.

Old favorites, such as My Name is Earl, The Office, Scrubs, and Friday Night Lights are slated to return. Surprisingly, so are Medium, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and the geriatric ER.

The bad news: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip isn’t on the schedule, according to the press release I received from NBC. Sorry, folks. I liked it, too.

The good news: The Office will air more episodes than series usually do, with a whopping order for 30 shows, including five hour-long episodes. (Feel free to pause a moment to do the happy dance.) My Name is Earl received an order for a longer season, too, with 25 episodes.

Heroes will see plenty of action, also, with an expanded 30 episodes, that includes a combination of Heroes and Heroes: Origins, an innovative new spin-off that each week will introduce a new character, one of whom will be chosen by viewers through the Heroes website on NBC.com to become a cast regular the following season.

The network has only one new comedy on the new schedule, but five new dramas.

I’m pleased that NBC had the sense to keep Scrubs and Earl instead of trying out something new. As for the five new dramas, I’m most excited about Lipstick Jungle. It’s from the author Candace Bushnell (Sex and the City.)

Here’s the complete fall schedule, according to the NBC press release, as well as a synopsis of the network’s new shows so you’ll know what looks interesting to you. (New shows are in bold.)

MONDAY

8-9 pm Deal or No Deal

9-10 pm Heroes

10-11 pm JOURNEYMAN — A romantic-mystery from the Emmy Award-winning producers of The West Wing, concerning a San Francisco newspaper reporter (Kevin McKidd, Rome) who inexplicably begins to travel through time and alter people's lives

TUESDAY

8-9 pm The Biggest Loser

9-10 pm CHUCK — A comedic spy thriller about an unassuming computer geek who is unexpectedly catapulted into a new career as a government agent, after spy secrets are mysteriously embedded into his brain.

10-11 pm Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

WEDNESDAY

8-9 pm Deal or No Deal

9-10 pm BIONIC WOMAN — A re-imagination of the classic from David Eick (Battlestar Galactica) and Jason Smilovic (Kidnapped). Bionic Woman stars Michelle Ryan (EastEnders) as a young woman whose life is radically altered and empowered after a car crash.
10-11 pm LIFE —A complex police detective (Damian Lewis, Band of Brothers) is given a second chance on the force, after serving years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

THURSDAY

8-8:30 pm My Name Is Earl

8:30-9 pm 30 Rock

9-9:30 pm The Office

9:30-10 pm Scrubs

10-11 pm ER

FRIDAY

8-9 pm 1 vs. 100/THE SINGING BEE — A new variety competition series that challenges contestants to accurately sing the lyrics to popular songs, even when the band stops playing.

9-10 pm Las Vegas

10-11 pm Friday Night Lights

SATURDAY

8-9 pm Dateline NBC

9-11 pm Drama Series Encores

SUNDAY (Fall 2007)

7-8 pm Football Night in America

8-11 pm NBC Sunday Night Football

SUNDAY (January 2008)

7-8 pm Dateline NBC

8-9 pm Law & Order

9-10 pm Medium

10-11 pm LIPSTICK JUNGLE — A new dramedy from best-selling author Candace Bushnell (Sex and the City), is set to debut in January 2008. Created by Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Helene, (How I Met Your Mother), the series involves the lives of three high-powered friends (Brooke Shields, Suddenly Susan, Kim Raver, 24, and Lindsay Price, Beverly Hills, 90210) who are determined to achieve their dreams and to do it on their own terms.

The new comedy The IT Crowd, has not been assigned a day or time yet. It is scheduled to join the NBC schedule during the course of the 2007-08 season. The IT Crowd is based on the acclaimed British series that takes a behind-the-scenes peek at the misunderstood techies (Joel McHale, The Soup, and Richard Ayoade, who toil in the Information Technology department of a large, impersonal corporation.

Here are some other tidbits from NBC:

Jerry Seinfeld, star of the classic NBC mega-hit Seinfeld, returns to the network to create and star in 20 unique live-action comedy "minisodes" inspired by his experiences creating the upcoming DreamWorks animated feature film Bee Movie, in theaters November 2. The "minisodes" will run on NBC's primetime schedule this Fall, as well as on NBC.com, on designated days before and after the release of the film.

The new NBC series Bionic Woman and Life will be re-run on SCI FI Channel and USA Network, respectively, shortly after their original telecasts on NBC.

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