Upfronts Week: NBC

 

One of the many things lost last year was an annual event I always enjoy, Upfronts Week, a time when the Networks unveil their Fall schedules. This Upfronts week doesn't look exactly like it has in year's past, but the schedules are still rolling out, and I'll be here to look at them. For each network I'll be looking at the Best Scheduling Move, Most Curious Scheduling Move, Most Promising New Show and Least Promising New Show.

NBC:

Best Scheduling Move:
NBC was the first to unveil a schedule and it feels quite vanilla. I'm not really excited by any of it, but the best decision seems to be keeping the three-hour Chicago block together on Wednesday nights. While it doesn't move the needle for me, personally, it seems to have plenty of fans, and it makes sense to keep a strong, stable block on the schedule. It is the first half of back-to-back Dick Wolf-produced nights, with the Chicago Trio on Wednesdays and three Law & Order series on Thursdays, including a new addition focusing on defense attorneys. 

Most Curious Move:
NBC over the years has been known for its comedies. That has waned of late, but still you think of comedies when you think of NBC. This Fall, the network will have no comedies on the schedule. Superstore ended its run, the renewed Mr. Mayor and Young Rock will be in the mid-season schedule and Brooklynn Nine Nine will wrap up its run over the summer. So, this Fall, there will be no Must-See TV comedies on NBC. In fact, aside from the unintentional, there will be no comedies at all.

Most Promising New Show:
NBC has three new shows, all dramas, on the Fall schedule. One is a new Law & Order, which will no doubt be fairly successful but won't be discussed here. Instead, I'm tackling the high concept ones. The one I'm most interested in is La Brea, which launches on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. The series focuses on a sinkhole that opens in Los Angeles, sucking hundreds of people into a primeval world below, and leaving the survivors topside to figure out what happened. This has a lot of potential to go sideways, but it feels like something different that will be an interesting and ambitious swing. I'm curious to see how it plays out.

Least Promising New Show:
The third of NBC's new shows is Ordinary Joe, which focuses on a man who has a decision to make as he finishes college. The series then splits into three parallel stories to show how different decisions would branch into different futures and different realities. This is another big, high-concept swing that airs Mondays at 10 p.m. following The Voice. It gets a plumb slot and it could be engaging, but I just don't see this working. Maybe as a film, but the story seems too dense and convoluted to work as a series. We'll find out this Fall.