NBC’s line up for the fall TV season

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Here are some of NBC’s big promises: fewer reruns, 65 weeks of new shows, the return of sentimental favourites like ER and Friday Night Lights—and more product placements from advertisers in its programmes.

A glimpse of the network’s plans for prime time came when NBC invited advertising executives and journalists to hear about its programme lineup and new philosophy. After the Hollywood writers’ strike ended in February, NBC broke ranks with the other networks by saying that it was scrapping various television traditions, including the mass introducing of shows in the fall. This week it is fleshing out its vision of the network of the future.

After saying earlier that it would replace the fall season with a 52-week schedule of show introductions, NBC went a step further, announcing what it labelled a “super season” of programmes that will fill 65 weeks, from this June through August of 2009.

Among the shows NBC intends to sprinkle throughout that expanse are a spinoff of its hit comedy The Office, a revival of the 1980s series Knight Rider, an adaptation of the classic novel Robinson Crusoe, and a Americanisation of the most successful Australian comedy of all time, Kath and Kim.

Saying that it will double the amount of original programming it offered 10 years ago, NBC promised a season of far fewer repeats, with none at all among the shows that air at 10 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays. It also committed to the concept of keeping the 8 o’clock hour devoted to programming a family can watch together.

Ben Silverman, the co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, acknowledged that the network, which has sagged in the prime time ratings for most of the past four years, is doing everything it can to try to capitalise on the big events it will control over the next year, like the summer Olympics from Beijing and the next Super Bowl.

“I really personally believe this is the opportunity for us to make that big move,” said Silverman, who led the presentations. “It’s why NBC is backing us so hard with investment in original programming, and why we’re scattering the original programming all around.”

The show that will carry the biggest load is the comedy The Office, which Silverman originally brought to the network as a producer. NBC has ordered 28 half-hours of the show, well above the usual top network order of 24, and it is asking the same production team to create the spinoff, the details of which Silverman declined to reveal.