NBC Announces Their 2008-09 Schedule. Who’s In and Who’s Out?

Today, NBC announced their yearlong primetime schedule in New York. Though no one truly expects the peacock network to stick to this plan for very long, it does give us an idea about which shows will and won’t be returning for the 2008-09 season. Since news has been steadily trickling down for some time, there aren’t many surprises.

Returning shows for Fall 2008 include 30 Rock, The Biggest Loser, Chuck, Dateline, Deal or No Deal, ER, Heroes, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Life, Lipstick Jungle, My Name is Earl, and The Office. No big surprises there. Interestingly, NBC has scheduled Life for 10pm on Friday nights — the timeslot that killed Las Vegas. Do they really think it will succeed or are they trying to kill it?

For the winter schedule, the peacock network is bringing back The Apprentice (celebrity version), Law & Order, Medium, and Friday Night Lights. FNL was renewed for 13 episodes and they will begin airing in October on DirecTV. They’ll start running on NBC a few months later. Obviously the satellite TV provider is hoping that fans of the show will subscribe to DirecTV so it will be worth their while. We’ll see.

America’s Got Talent, American Gladiators, and Last Comic Standing are scheduled to return for Summer 2009. Gladiators could return earlier if another show tanks in the meantime.

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We pretty much knew about the season’s losers. Bionic Woman, Journeyman, and Las Vegas won’t be back next season. Scrubs is leaving NBC but will return for a new and final year on ABC. We’ll have to wait until ABC’s upfronts in May to find out if the sitcom will air in the fall or the winter.

The fate of Law & Order: Criminal Intent is up to sister channel USA since they have been airing it first run. No word when that one will be decided.

As expected, a new Knight Rider series has found a spot on the NBC schedule beginning this fall. Las Vegas creator Gary Scott Thompson will be the showrunner so it would seem he’s not holding a grudge over the Vegas cancellation. The peacock network is expected to give the sequel series a big push and has scheduled it for both Wednesday and Saturday nights. Let’s hope it fares better than Bionic Woman did. Stay tuned!