NBC announced several Spring TV schedule changes and I was left asking myself the following questions: What the hell? ER is still on? Apparently so but we learned today what will replace it along with exciting news about Ian McShane, a show that can’t be named, and a cooking show not starring Gordon Ramsay.
After NBC airs the final episode of ER, another John Wells produced show will take over its spot. Southland, NBC has announced, will take over the 10:00pm timeslot. Southland fills a glaring lack of police show programming that television seems to suffer from currently (Sarcasm mode off). Southland, starring Ben Mackenzie, Regina King, Michael Kudlitz, and Tom Everett Scott as LAPD cops, will begin airing six episodes this spring on April 9th as soon as ER and the recently ordered three additional episodes finish airing.
In other scheduling news, NBC announced that the much-hyped Kings will debut Sunday March 15 at 8pm with a 2 hour premiere. I didn’t care what Kings was about after I learned Ian McShane was starring. I did hear it was about a modern day monarch, greed, romance and power but who cares. Ian McShane! I’d watch McShane star in anything. Okay maybe not porn. The only concern to me is that Kings was originally thought to replace ER. Is this move to Sunday a lack of faith in Kings or a favor to John Wells?
Am Poehler’s unnamed show also received a premiere date on the same night as Southland. Poehler’s “Show That Must Not Be Named” will air at at 8:30. Seriously, how hard is it to name a damn show? It’s a “mockumentary” following Poehler’s character who is a government bureaucrat in the recreation department. Maybe we should offer some suggestions? The Rec, Bureacracy, I liked the premise the first time when it was called The Office? I’m not as big of a fan of Poehler as most people, but she’s not bad as long as she isn’t playing Hillary Clinton.
Finally, we learned that NBC will add a cooking show to its schedule on March 9th when Chopping Block debuts. The show stars another Michelin star chef, Marco Pierre White in reality show that challenges aspiring chefs with the winner getting $250,000 to help start their own restaurant.
All of this news is a helluva lot more exciting to me than a future of Jay Leno ruling the NBC Network. Let’s hope all of these shows succeed. When The CW creates more hits than you, you know your network sucks.
