NBC Announces 2008-09 Season Schedules; RTN Announces 3 More Affiliates, Launches Official Website

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

NBC Announces 2008-09 Season Schedules; RTN Announces 3 More Affiliates, Launches Official Website

NBC today unveiled its new lineup for the 2008-09 television season, introducing a schedule earlier than ever. All the other networks will continue announcing the schedule in the annual upfronts in mid-May, but NBC has decided to break that tradition and announce the schedule 6 weeks earlier than normal. Also, they have actually made actual timeslots for the entire year, going with a 52-week schedule. Among the series they have picked-up for the fall are sitcom Kath & Kim, and new dramas Knight Rider, My Own Worst Enemy and Crusoe. Coming in mid-season are The Office spin-off, new dramas The Philanthropist, Merlin and Kings.
Returning to the NBC schedule next season will be ER, the most-nominated series in Emmy Award history, returning for its 15th and final season on NBC's Thursday night lineup, and the acclaimed Friday Night Lights, slated to re-join the Friday schedule in February as part of a unique broadcast partnership between NBC and DIRECTV. NBC would begin broadcasting the Season 3 episodes on Fridays (9-10 p.m. ET), starting soon after NBC's telecast of the Super Bowl in 2009. DIRECTV would have exclusive rights to the season's 13 new episodes beginning Wednesday, October 1 on DIRECTV's entertainment channel "The 101."
NBC also announced today that the post Super Bowl slot, will be used to launch a spinoff of the network's hit comedy series, The Office. Immediately following NBC Sports' coverage of Super Bowl XLIII, the network will first present an original episode of The Office, followed by the debut of the new Greg Daniels comedy.
Also, a surprise on the schedule is the return of Lipstick Jungle, which will move to Wednesdays now. Law & Order will return in the winter for an all-new season. No sign of Scrubs returning, so it could be very well moving to ABC next season.
Here are the schedules:

Fall 2008
(New programs in CAPS, except ER)
MONDAY
8-9 p.m. Chuck
9-10 p.m. Heroes
10-11 p.m. MY OWN WORST ENEMY
TUESDAY
8- 9:30 p.m. The Biggest Loser: Families
9:30-10 p.m. KATH & KIM
10-11 p.m. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
WEDNESDAY
8-9 p.m. KNIGHT RIDER
9-10 p.m. Deal or No Deal
10-11 p.m. Lipstick Jungle
THURSDAY
8- 8:30 p.m. My Name Is Earl
8:30-9 p.m. 30 Rock
9- 9:30 p.m. The Office
9:30-10 p.m. The Office/ SNL THURSDAY NIGHT LIVE
10-11 p.m. ER
FRIDAY
8-9 p.m. CRUSOE
9-10 p.m. Deal or No Deal
10-11 p.m. Life
SATURDAY
8-9 p.m. Dateline NBC
9-10 p.m. KNIGHT RIDER (Encores)
10-11 p.m. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Encores)
SUNDAY
7- 8:20 p.m. Football Night in America
8:20-11 p.m. NBC Sunday Night Football

For the winter and summer 2009 schedules, and more on all these new series, I advise you to click HERE! You wanna bet we will see changes to the winter and summer 2009 right? Maybe even Fall 2008 will see changes. It makes no sense to release winter and summer 2009 already.

Retro Television Network (RTN) announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Citadel Communications Company to launch RTN programming in three markets. The new affiliates will air on the digital streams of WOI-TV (Des Moines-Ames, IA), KLKN-TV (Lincoln, NE) and WHBF-TV (Davenport, IA/Rock Island-Moline, IL).
Meanwhile, their official website is now up! RetroTelevision.net is their website. The website has details on RTN, their programming, shows, affiliates, how to advertise and how to contact them. It's 'primetime all the time' has now hit the web! The Fonz, Mr. T, Andy, Lucy, Matlock and the rest of RTN's finest are now online! Take a peek...it is pretty well designed, too!

Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows

Monday, December 15

St. Denis Medical - "A Waste of Time and Marble" (NBC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
With the threat of a nurse walkout, Alex is caught between her colleagues and Joyce; Ron and Bruce go above and beyond to help an unexpected patient.

The Paper - "Churnalism" (NBC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Ned takes over Esmeralda's advertorials and assigns the staff to test products themselves, but Esmeralda retaliates and covers one of Ned's stories and finds a scandal; Ken turns Adam into a lab rat; Oscar and Adelola compare pain tolerances.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of December 15)

Monday, December 15

Simu Liu (Kim's Convenience) - Watch Simu on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC. He also talks about The Copenhagen Test on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am and in the 10am hour.
Paul Rudd (The Shrink Next Door/Living with Yourself/Wild Oats) - Paul appears on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
Maria Bamford (Lady Dynamite/Benched) - Maria is a guest on Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen at 12:37am on CBS.
Kerry Washington (UnPrisoned) - Andy Cohen interviews Kerry on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen at 11pm on Bravo.
Odessa A'zion (I Love LA/Fam) - Odessa talks about Marty Supreme on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm.
Patti LaBelle (Out All Night) - Patti treats us to an EXCLUSIVE festive performance of It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year on Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.
Kate Hudson (Running Point) - Kate talks about Song Sung Blue on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am.
Rosie Perez (Human Resources/Search Party) - Rosie co-hosts NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
Hank Azaria (The Simpsons/Brockmire/Free Agents/Herman's Head) - Hank and The EZ Street Band stop by for a chat and performance on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your local listings.
Ana Gasteyer (American Auto/People of Earth/Lady Dynamite/Suburgatory) - NBC's Today catches up with Ana in the 10am hour.
Connie Britton (SMILF/Lost at Home/The Fighting Fitzgeralds/Spin City) - Connie tells Sherri about starring in The Family McMullen, the sequel to The Brothers McMullen, on a repeat of Sherri, so check your local listings.
Ashley Park (Emily in Paris/Only Murders in the Building/Girls5eva/Nightcap) - Ashley talks about the highly-anticipated fifth season of Emily in Paris on Netflix on a repeat of Sherri, so check your local listings.
Glen Powell (Chad Powers/Scream Queens) - Glen talks about The Running Man on a repeat of The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
William H. Macy (Sports Night) - William talks about Netflix's Train Dreams on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
Andy Richter (Andy Barker, P.I./Quintuplets/Andy Richter Controls the Universe) - Andy talks about ABC's Dancing with the Stars on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.