Other network heads are jokingly referring to their giant hit series as the underdog on Thursday nights next season, but Peter Ligouri is probably the one most able to call his show that.
The president of Fox Entertainment acknowledges that Thursday will be “one monster night of television” in the 2006-07 season, thanks largely to ABC’s moving “Grey’s Anatomy” to 9 p.m. ET to face CBS’ powerhouse “CSI.” NBC has also moved its game show “Deal or No Deal” to the night.
Then there’s “The O.C.,” which will begin its fourth season on Fox in November with far less buzz than it once had, along with a major story overhaul, with its principal characters out of high school entering adulthood. Although the show perked up the network’s typically anemic Thursday performance last year, it still averaged only about 5.7 million viewers per week.
On top of that, the network has only ordered 16 episodes of the show for the season. Ligouri says he wants to have the show repeat as little as possible, meaning the show could end by March.
“There are a number of options beyond that,” Ligouri says. “If the show happens to be really strong … we can call an audible with (creator Josh Schwartz) and extend it.”
The network also has a couple of other dramas in development – “Drive,” about an underground cross-country car race, and “Beyond,” about a new space race – and some unscripted options too.
The network’s reality guru, Mike Darnell, “has spent some time fermenting a lot of good ideas in his little lab,” Ligouri says. “So there’s something we may have for you on that front.”
“The O.C.” is scheduled to premiere Nov. 2. The season will find Ryan (Ben McKenzie), Seth (Adam Brody) and Summer (Rachel Bilson) dealing with the death of their friend Marissa (Mischa Barton, who has left the show) and moving on to the next stage of their lives. Ligouri still has confidence in the show creatively, saying “Josh has got a lot of stories to tell.”
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LAUPER, GRAY, BOLTON SING “DUETS’
The celebrities on Fox’s fall singing competition “Celebrity Duets” haven’t been announced yet, but whoever they are, they’ll have a fairly deep roster of recording artists backing them up.
A group of singers ranging from Motown legend Smokey Robinson to “80s pop stars Richard Marx and Cyndi Lauper will be taking part in the short-run show, which is being produced by “American Idol’s” Simon Cowell. The 13 professional singers will be paired with other famous folks who aren’t known for their vocal chops.
The lineup of celebrities hasn’t been settled yet, but Fox chief Peter Ligouri assures that “as a public service,” the show is making every effort to cast people who can actually carry a tune.
In addition to Robinson, Marx and Lauper, the other singers signed up for “Duets” are Macy Gray, Randy Travis, Dionne Warwick, Brian McKnight, Patti LaBelle, Chaka Khan, Aaron Neville, Clint Black, Kenny Loggins and Michael Bolton. Songwriter and producer David Foster, who was a guest coach on “American Idol” last season, will serve as a judge.
Each week, the celebs in the competition will be paired with a different singer and perform live with their partners. The audience will vote each week on which famous people go home, and the winner will earn a prize for his or her favorite charity.
“Celebrity Duets” premieres Aug. 29 and will move to its regular Thursday timeslot on Sept. 7. A results show will debut Sept. 8.
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MADONNA’S “CONFESSIONS’ COMING TO NBC
Two years after a planned concert special on CBS went belly-up, Madonna will give network TV another shot.
The pop icon will star in a two-hour special on NBC that’s scheduled for November sweeps, the network announced Friday. Camera crews will capture her performance at London’s Wembley Stadium (she’s playing eight dates there) in August.
“Madonna is one of the greatest artists of our time and never fails to generate excitement,” says Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment. “We think this is going to be a big event for television.”
Madonna and CBS announced plans for a concert special from her “Reinvention” tour at the May 2004 upfronts to air in the 2004-05 season. Those plans went down a few months later, reportedly because of differences between the network and the artist over how the concert would be presented.
That may not be an issue this time, as Madonna is one of the executive producers of the NBC special, along with Guy Oseary and Angela Becker. Reilly says NBC won’t ask her to make any changes in the live show, but it will edit the package so as not to invite any broadcast-standards questions.
“We’ve discussed exactly what content will be in and what is out,” he says. “And we’ve come to, I think, a healthy place that represents her show, but is appropriate for television.”
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NBC TURNS ON “NOBODY’S WATCHING’
NBC is hoping several hundred thousand YouTube fans can’t be wrong, rescuing the discarded pilot “Nobody’s Watching” from oblivion with an eye toward eventually putting it on the air.
The show, originally developed for The WB by “Scrubs” creator Bill Lawrence, died a somewhat surprising death at the 2005 upfronts after having a lot positive buzz during its development. That would have been the end of things in most cases.
However, the pilot was posted on viral-video site YouTube in June, and since then the first part of the pilot (it’s posted in three roughly nine-minute segments) has been streamed nearly 400,000 times, with mostly positive feedback from viewers. Given the response – and the fact that NBC’s sister studio, NBC Universal TV, produced it – the network has put it back into development.
“I love the spirit of the experimentation,” NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly says. “And I think if we can actually have something find an audience on the web, gravitate over to the network, continue with a web presence and have them feed each other, that could end up being a really cool thing.”
The resurrection of “Nobody’s Watching” will continue online before it ever hits the air (if, in fact, it does). Lawrence and his co-writers, Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan, will produce a set of webisodes featuring the show’s two leads, Taran Killam and Paul Campbell, that Reilly hopes will be online within the next month.
At the same time, Lawrence and Co. will begin working on scripts for the TV series. As with other pilots, there’s no guarantee it will make it to NBC’s airwaves. If it does go, though, there’s a chance it could air in the coming season.
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NBC LOADS UP IN PREMIERE WEEK
NBC is broadcasting the Emmy Awards in late August, and it will kick off the NFL season shortly after Labor Day, but it won’t launch its fall schedule until the official start of the season.
That would be Sept. 18, when Nielsen starts measuring ratings for the 2006-07 season. NBC will debut the majority of its lineup that week and sprinkle in the rest of its shows over the next month.
The network will also use its game show “Deal or No Deal” as a stunt during premiere week, running it on four nights (including its regular 9 p.m. Thursday airing) with an escalating prize pot that could reach $20 million, NBC Entertainment chief Kevin Reilly told reporters Friday at the Television Critics Association press tour.
“Deal” will debut with a two-hour show on the 18th, leading into the premiere of Aaron Sorkin’s new drama, “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” The bulk of NBC’s Tuesday and Wednesday lineups will also premiere that week, along with all of the Thursday schedule and the relocated “Law & Order” on Friday.
The remainder of the net’s new series – “Heroes,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Twenty Good Years” and “30 Rock” – will fall into place between Sept. 25 and Oct. 11.
The Emmys, which traditionally air the Sunday before the Nielsen-designated start of the season, will instead take place on Aug. 27 so as not to interfere with NBC’s new Sunday-night NFL package. The NFL returns to NBC on Thursday, Sept. 7 with the season opener; the first Sunday night game follows on Sept. 10.
Here’s the complete NBC premiere schedule (all times Eastern):
Thursday, Sept. 7
7 p.m. “Football Night in America” (regular timeslot 7 p.m. Sunday)
Sunday, Sept. 10
8 p.m. “NBC Sunday Night Football”
Monday, Sept. 18
8 p.m. “Deal or No Deal” (two hours) 10 p.m. “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”
Tuesday, Sept. 19
9 p.m. “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” (new timeslot) 10 p.m. “Law & Order: SVU”
Wednesday, Sept. 20
8 p.m. “The Biggest Loser” (two hours; regular timeslot 9 p.m. Wednesday) 10 p.m. “Kidnapped”
Thursday, Sept. 21
8 p.m. “My Name Is Earl” (new timeslot) 8:30 p.m. “The Office” (new timeslot) 9 p.m. “Deal or No Deal” (new timeslot) 10 p.m. “ER”
Friday, Sept. 22
10 p.m. “Law & Order” (new timeslot)
Monday, Sept. 25
9 p.m. “Heroes”
Tuesday, Oct. 3
8 p.m. “Friday Night Lights”
Wednesday, Oct. 4
8 p.m. “Twenty Good Years” (two episodes)
Wednesday, Oct. 11
8:30 p.m. “30 Rock”
Friday, Oct. 20
8 p.m. “Crossing Jordan” (new timeslot) 9 p.m. “Las Vegas”
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AP-NY-07-24-06 1559EDT
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