No New Sitcoms? At NBC, It's No Joke

Kevin McKidd plays a newspaper reporter and time traveler in NBC's "Journeyman." (David Moir -- NBC)

"Haven't you heard?" the reporter asked, referring to some reports the newspaper business is crawling to its deathbed. Reilly explained that since the lead character is going to spend a lot of time in the past, he kind of had to be a newspaper reporter (as opposed to, say, an Internet journalist).

Then Reilly added, "We may reshoot that." The many newspaper reporters in the room laughed outwardly; inside they cried.

Tuesdays at 9, following "The Biggest Loser," NBC will debut "Chuck," from "OC" creator Josh Schwartz, about a computer nerd who works for a "nerd herd" at a place called Buy More. The guy becomes the government's top secret agent after opening an e-mail "subliminally encoded with government secrets" that he unwittingly downloads into his brain.

Hey, I don't write this stuff. I'm just the messenger.

Two new dramas are bound for Wednesday night: a "Bionic Woman" remake at 9 and "Life," at 10, about a cop who returns to the force, bitter, no doubt, after spending years in prison.

And, just in case reporters didn't catch the "bitter middle-aged guy" parallels between this new show and "House," which has been clocking record high ratings on Fox this season, Reilly noted "Life's" star, Damian Lewis, is, like "House" lead Hugh Laurie, a "guy who can bring it all together." Heck, Lewis even looks a little like Laurie and, in the clip shown to advertisers, he seemed to imitate some of Laurie's "House" shtick.

Thursday is untouched, except NBC has shuffled its four sitcoms, and, yes, "Scrubs" is back, after all that hooey about NBC ditching the series because Zach Braff's gimongous pay raise makes the show prohibitively expensive for the GE-owned network.

NBC actually has ordered one new comedy, mid-season's "IT Crowd." It's a remake of the 2006 Brit sitcom about computer geeks -- and we mean that in the best possible sense -- who, NBC says, are "misunderstood masters of their high-tech domain" and "lack the people skills to befriend anyone but each other."

Friday night is now "Game Night" on NBC, kicking off first with "1 vs. 100" for eight weeks, after which "The Singing Bee" will step in, challenging contestants to sing the lyrics to pop tunes they think the know.

On Sunday, once football season ends, "Dateline" returns to the night, followed by "Law & Order" at 8, "Medium" at 9 and the new one-hour "Lipstick Jungle" at 10.

NBC is waiting on "L&O" actor Fred Thompson to decide whether he'll run for president, in which case he would be off the series, Marc Graboff, NBC Universal Television West Coast president, told reporters, adding, "It's pretty clear you can't be an actor and . . . oh, never mind."

"Lipstick" is based on a Candace Bushnell book. Its scheduling on Sunday is calculated to make happy fans of HBO's former Sunday hit "Sex and the City," also based on Bushnell's writing.

"Lipstick" is about three high-powered New York chicks -- one in publishing, one in the movie industry and one a designer who's looking for Mr. Right. Sadly, one of them is played by Brooke Shields, who is the anti-"Sex and the City."

Noticeably missing from the fall lineup is the Donald Trump vehicle "The Apprentice." Reilly told reporters it's not dead -- yet, and the network will "revisit" the matter in "the next couple weeks."

One reporter, at the news conference via telephone, actually complained about the network having announced pickups on some returning shows days, and even weeks ago, rather than waiting for its dog-and-pony show.

Reilly and Graboff explained patiently, as though talking to a much-loved idiot child, that NBC did so, on such series as "Law & Order: SVU," "30 Rock," "My Name Is Earl," etc., because intrepid reporters had gotten wind of the early pickups, which were initiated so that NBC could get the shows back into production early and stockpile episodes in the event of an anticipated writers strike next season.