It Was Only a Matter of Time

We knew it was coming. In fact, we could see it coming a mile away. Between its anemic-looking fall lineup and its new network sheriff in town, programming changes at 30 Rock prior to the start of the new season were inevitable.

This afternoon, NBC’s newly-crowned co-chair of entertainment Ben Silverman announced a number of adjustments to the network's previously-announced fall schedule. The shakeup affects three nights: Monday, Tuesday, and Friday.

The drama Chuck, which had been scheduled to run Tuesdays-at-9, will now lead off the NBC Monday night schedule. The Biggest Loser will remain in its Tuesday-at-8 slot, but will now expand from 60 minutes to 90 minutes, and a 30-minute version of The Singing Bee (which had been penciled-in as a Friday night midseason replacement for 1 vs. 100), will inherit the Tuesday-at-9:30 slot.

The Monday edition of Deal or No Deal will now assume the Friday-at-8 slot (pushing 1 vs. 100 off to hiatus land), and Las Vegas and Friday Night Lights will now flip time periods: Lights will move to 9:00, and Vegas will slide into the 10:00 slot.

Will any of this help the fall fortunes of the peacock? Considering the disaster that was the original NBC fall lineup, it can’t hurt. But if I were Ben Silverman, I wouldn’t start ordering any celebratory champagne just yet…