A&E wants more of Simmons’ ‘Family Jewels’

A&E has ordered up a 20-episodes second season for the real-life family drama “Gene Simmons Family Jewels.”

The cable network’s best original series launch since 2004’s “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” “Family Jewels” averaged 1.3 million viewers per premiere episode in its first season.

“Our viewers have really connected with Gene and his family,” says Bob DeBitetto, executive vice president and general manager at A&E. “‘Gene Simmons Family Jewels’ is a great example of A&E’s unique brand of peal-life series, presenting remarkable personal stories in an entertaining but always honest way.”

The series revolves around the unusual relationship between KISS frontman Simmons, longtime girlfriend Shannon Tweed and their two kids and helped boost its time period viewership among adults 18-49 by an impressive 56 percent.

Production has already begun on the second season with a 2007 premiere pending.

“Now that A&E has picked us up for another 20 shows, I suppose they expect me to put out. I will,” says the ever-tactful Simmons. “My family, Shannon, Nick and Sophie, my partners Leslie Greif and Adam Reed, the entire staff and I have a “take no prisoners’ approach to doing things. It’s our way or the highway and we’re proud to be back.”

FX extends its close relationship

Glenn Close apparently liked her time on “The Shield” so much, she’s ready to be a TV-series regular again.

The Emmy winner and five-time Oscar nominee, who starred in “The Shield’s” fourth season, has signed on to her first-ever TV pilot. It’s also at FX, and it will star Close as a “high-stakes litigator,” the showbiz trade papers say.

The show, untitled at the moment, comes from writers Todd A. Kessler (“The Sopranos”), Glenn Kessler (“Robbery Homicide Division”) and Daniel Zelman. It will focus on Patty Hughes (Close), a successful New York attorney. Other details of the story are scant at the moment.

The three writers will also serve as executive producers of the pilot. Another “Sopranos” hand, Allen Coulter, is set to direct the pilot, which is scheduled to shoot early next year.

Close earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations in 2005 for her turn as Capt. Monica Rawling on “The Shield,” which was her first regular work on a TV series. Her credits also include “Dangerous Liaisons,” “Fatal Attraction,” Showtime’s “Lion in Winter” and “101 Dalmatians.”

She’s currently at work on the feature film “Evening,” due for release in mid-2007.

NBC resets for midseason

NBC is shuffling its schedule some at midseason, getting the critically acclaimed but ratings-challenged “Friday Night Lights” out of the path of Fox’s “American Idol” steamroller.

That move also created a few other changes, as does the disappearance of “Sunday Night Football” shortly after the new year. The network will institute a two-hour reality block early on Sundays, anchored by “The Apprentice,” and bring back “Crossing Jordan” to one of its old timeslots to close out the night.

“It’s already been a terrific fall for NBC, our rebuild is in motion and we’re looking to maintain that momentum through the spring,” says Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment. “Although the second half of the season will get tougher, we think the quality of our midseason series will continue to fuel NBC’s year-to-year story of ratings growth.”

NBC is drawing about 940,000 more viewers per week this season than it did last year, and its adults 18-49 rating is up by half a point. A good portion of that is thanks to “Sunday Night Football,” but shows like “Heroes” and “Deal or No Deal” have helped as well.

The midseason schedule keeps the current Monday, Thursday and Friday lineups intact, with game show “1 vs. 100” becoming a permanent resident on Friday. “Friday Night Lights” slides from Tuesday to 8 p.m. ET Wednesdays, away from the “Idol” juggernaut and into a timeslot with no dominant show. Newsmagazine “Dateline” will take the bullet on Tuesdays.

On Sundays, NBC will debut its be-on-Broadway series “Grease: You’re the One That We Want” at 8 p.m. Jan. 7. It will be followed by “The Apprentice: Los Angeles,” with both shows getting 90-minute episodes in their first two weeks. “Crossing Jordan” takes over the 10 p.m. slot on Jan. 21.

NBC had originally slated a second season of its summertime hit “America’s Got Talent” for Sundays in January but has apparently decided to hold off.

Also left out of the mix for now are four new series: the dramas “Raines” and “The Black Donnellys” and comedies “Andy Barker, P.I.” and “The Singles Table.” NBC says the two dramas will debut sometime in the spring; there’s no word on the comedies yet.

Here are the changes to NBC’s schedule for midseason, with starting dates in parentheses:

Tuesday:

8 p.m. “Dateline NBC” (Dec. 26)

Wednesday:

8 p.m. “Friday Night Lights” (Jan. 10; new timeslot)

9 p.m. “Deal or No Deal” (Jan. 3; new timeslot)

Sunday:

7 p.m. “Dateline NBC” (Feb. 11)

8 p.m. “Grease: You’re the One That We Want” (Jan. 7; airs from 8-9:30 p.m. for first two weeks)

9 p.m. “The Apprentice: Los Angeles” (Jan. 7; airs from 9:30-11 p.m. for first two weeks)

10 p.m. “Crossing Jordan” (Jan. 21)