For the first time in 23 years, the NBA is returning to NBC and that was the focus of their new fall schedule, released on Monday. The week gets off to a familiar start with The Voice returning for another round on Mondays, followed by Brilliant Minds, the sophomore medical drama starring Zachary Quinto. Tuesday will start off in September with a second installment of The Voice followed by On Brand with Jimmy Fallon, an unscripted series where the boorish Tonight Show host staffs a premier marketing agency with “the most creative, clever and competitive go-getters he can find.” When the NBA season begins in October, it will take over the night.
Wednesday and Thursday continue to be dominated by Dick Wolf franchises, with his three Chicago series running back-to-back-to-back on Wednesday and the two original entries in his Law & Order franchise the following night. Thursday wraps up with another season of The Hunting Party. On Brand with Jimmy Fallon will continue on Friday, followed by a two-hour block of Dateline. The weekend is dominated by football, with the Big Ten or Notre Dame on Saturday and the NFL on Sunday.
Come November, things will shift again. The two-hour Monday edition of The Voice will be shrunk to one hour to make room for the displaced Tuesday comedy block, which will be anchored by sophomore hit St. Denis Medical. The Friday comedy block with also return, with fellow sophomore Happy’s Place back to lead off the night. At this point, the second half of both hours is undetermined.
On the bench, NBC has three comedies and one nature documentary series. The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins reunites Tracy Morgan with Executive Producer Tina Fey in a comedy where a disgraced former football player is on a mission to rehabilitate his image. Stumble is from Jeff and Liz Astrof. The final comedy is an untitled community center project from Sierra Teller Ornelas. In Surviving Earth, viewers will go back in time to see how life not only survived cataclysmic events but thrived.
Shows gone from our television sets include Found, The Irrational, Suits LA, Night Court and Lopez vs Lopez.