Upfronts

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"We approached our development this year with a specific goal in mind—to be daring and different," said Nina Tassler, President, CBS Entertainment. "The Fall and mid-season series we have selected offer creativity and variety with great potential to excite and surprise television audiences everywhere."

They’re bringing us musicals, vampires and swingers!

But the big news broke yesterday: they’ll be renewing How I Met Your Mother, the hilarious show you’re not watching (fill up the Netflix queue with the first and second season). This morning came the official announcement of that decision, as well as confirming the new comedy and three new dramas added to their fall line-up.

Hugh Jackman is producing and starring in a mystery musical called Viva Laughlin, an American version of BBC’s Viva Blackpool, a wealthy casino entrepreneur and an ambitious businessman in Nevada.

The West Wing’s Jimmy Smits will lead Cane, a drama about an Cuban-American family who runs a rum and sugar cane business in Florida. This could be a snoozer, unless you knock back a few Long Island Iced teas while you’re watching.

Moonlight is some kind cross between the X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer about a detective who investigates the undead. Spooky.

And the new comedy from the producer of Two and a Half Men brings two nerds (Johnny Galecki of Roseanne and Jim Parsons of Judging Amy) and a sexy mentor for The Big Bang Theory. A sultry Kaley Cuoco of 8 Simple Rules trades info about the birds and the bees for their knowledge about quantum physics. Seems like a Weird Science project to us.

Swingtown, a midseason series, is CBS’s biggest leap from their usually tame line-up. The director of Big Love will bring audiences into the suburban homes of 1970s swingers.

Click "read more" to read the whole press release.  read more »

“We’re heading into the new season with a strong lineup of returning shows that we’ve developed and nurtured over the past few years,”  read more »

“The buzz was loud and clear, we struck a chord,” said president of NBC Entertainment Kevin Reilly at the network’s Upfront presentation yesterday afternoon. But: “Frankly, we need to be more better.”

Mr. Reilly was saying what the hundreds of ad executives milling around Radio City for the first day of the Upfronts already knew.  read more »

This afternoon, NBC goes before advertisers and the press to try to sell its 2007-2008 season to advertisers and the press. So this morning the network sent out the details of the season for previewing by the masses.

"We've got the class and next season we're ready to add some mass," said NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly, "with new shows that build on the creative accomplishments of last season and are as broad as they are good."

We take it "mass" means "more viewers," because Mr. Reilly's statement suggests what we all know: the network that was willing to take risks with some edgy material over the last couple of seasons (and had a lot of success with the critics: Friday Night Lights, Medium, Heroes) still hasn't gotten a show in the top 10 in terms of viewers.

But then, why does this season seem so of a piece with the previous ones?

Given that NBC only picked up one comedy and renewed Scrubs, it looks like comedy development, once a Must-See TV staple, is in trouble (though that's true everywhere).

Chuck sounds cute and funny, and Lipstick Jungle is a no-brainer even if working-women dramedys are a tough sell on television these days (how to avoid both cliché and dirtiness in a show like this?)

But with Journeyman, it sounds like they are ripping off their own Heroes, taking the Masi Oka character (who time travels) and building a show on that. People love the supernatural these days!

If Bionic Woman is a success we'll be seeing these woman-superhero shows all over the place on the small screen. Get Linda Carter!

And the IT Crowd–about the eccentrics who fix your computer and what life is like in the room next to the supply room--hello, Office?

Life, we assume, is made possible by the banishment of Law and Order: Criminal Intent to USA. They needed another quirky detective, but maybe not one with quite such an annoying speech pattern.

The burning question: Why won’t NBC ever cancel ER? (And why do people continue to watch it?)

Click "READ MORE" to read the full announcement.  read more »