SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

Day 30: WGA's Strike; CBS and NBC Revise Schedules

It is now day 30 of the strike. Talks will resume today, so if we have any details we will share it with you. Carson Daly returned to his talk show last night with new episodes. Daly said this on the show last night:
"If I had not been back on the air tonight, 75 members of my loyal staff and crew were going to get laid off. You either come back, or they're laid off. I said, 'Let's turn the lights on, I'm gonna come back.' It's that simple." He added, "I miss my writers." None of this is written—clearly! I don't know what we're gonna do, moving forward the rest of the week. But I'll figure it out."
Meanwhile, ABC will now stop paying the non-writing staff of Jimmy Kimmel Live. And as Conan and Leno, Jimmy will pay them from his own pocket. David Letterman's production company is paying his and Ferguson's non-writing staff.

CBS has announced its plans for January and February. Because of the strike, they will bring back Big Brother for its ninth season. This series usually only airs in the summer for them. The series will air Tuesdays at 9, Wednesdays at 8 and Sundays at 8 starting Tuesday, Feb. 12. But before that, CBS will bring back the summer game show Power of 10, hosted by Drew Carey, on Wednesday, January 2, airing Wednesdays at 8pm for 6 weeks before Big Brother takes the slot. On Monday, January 28 CBS will launch two sitcoms--a new one and a returning one. The new one is The Captain, a single camera about a wildly eclectic group of people whose lives are intertwined through the place they all call home, a fabled Hollywood apartment building, El Capitan, which they've dubbed "The Captain." It stars Fran Kranz, Chris Klein, Jeffrey Tambor, Raquel Welch, comedian Al Madrigal, Valerie Azlynn and Joanna Garcia. It will take the place of The Big Bang Theory, which would have been repeats anyway, Mondays at 8:30pm. Also launching Jan. 28 is the third season of The New Adventures of Old Christine, the critically acclaimed comedy about a divorced working mom trying to juggle motherhood, work and dating, starring Emmy Award winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The show will air at 9:30pm on Mondays replacing repeats of The Rules of Engagement. CBS will replace Cane, Tuesdays at 10 with a movie (Jan. 15) and two airings of 48 Hours Mystery (Jan. 22 and 29) before the second season of Jericho takes over on Feb. 12. The movie is a three-night, six-hour event airing Sunday, Jan. 13, Tuesday, Jan. 15 and Wednesday, Jan. 16 from 9-11pm titled Comanche Moon. The 16th season of Survivor launches on Thursday, Feb. 7 at 8pm. Crime repeats will likely air in January in the slot.
CBS will continue to air rebroadcasts of its popular comedies and dramas in their regular time periods including How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men and CSI: Miami on Monday; NCIS on Tuesday; Criminal Minds and CSI: NY on Wednesday; CSI and Without a Trace on Thursday; Ghost Whisperer, Moonlight and NUMB3RS on Friday; and Cold Case and Shark on Sunday. 60 Minutes will also continue to air Sundays. CBS has also completed production on episodes of the game show Do You Trust Me. A scheduling announcement will be made at a later date.
For a full list of CBS airdates for January and February, click HERE!

Meanwhile NBC has announced its Wednesday plans. NBC will lawyer-up on Wednesday nights as the Emmy Award-winning Law & Order resumes with a two-hour season premiere event on Wednesday, January 2 from 9-11 p.m. ET, and will continue on Wednesdays starting January 9 in its old 10:00 p.m. ET timeslot preceded by this season's network broadcast premiere of Law & Order: Criminal Intent at 9:00 p.m. ET in its return to NBC that night. Original episodes air on sister cable network USA Network on Thursdays. So to recap, this is how NBC will look this January, as of now:
Mondays - 8pm American Gladiators, 9-11pm TBD
Tuesdays - 8-10pm The Biggest Loser, 10pm Law & Order: SVU
Wednesdays - 8pm Deal or No Deal, 9pm Law & Order: Criminal Intent, 10pm Law & Order
Thursdays - 8pm Comedy Repeats, 9pm Celebrity Apprentice, 10pm ER (Lipstick Jungle takes over in Feb)
Fridays - 8pm 1 vs. 100, 9pm Friday Night Lights, 10pm Las Vegas (the latter two is not confirmed yet, but is likely in January at least)
Saturdays - Repeats
Sundays - TBD
NBC still has Medium, Dateline, and new reality series Amne$ia and The Baby Borrowers yet to be scheduled.