2012 Network Fall Preview Specials; The Office Ends This Season On NBC

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

2012 Network Fall Preview Specials; The Office Ends This Season On NBC

It's almost that time of year again...the start of the new TV season! So let's get ready for that with annual network preview specials to inform us on what is new and returning! See our Fall 2011 preview from last year.

First up we will look at ABC. ABC's Fall 2012 preview special is titled The Chew Presents ABC's Primetime Fall Preview Special. This year ABC will air two versions -- one in primetime and one for local ABC affiliates. The primetime version will be one-hour and air on Sunday, Sept. 2 at 7pm ET. The special showcases the new fall Primetime lineup, including new late news lead-ins 666 Park Avenue and Nashville and the new Wednesday comedy, The Neighbors. The special will also feature the new Shawn Ryan drama Last Resort. The preview show will be hosted by The Chew's Mario Batali, Michael Symon, Carla Hall, Clinton Kelly and Daphne Oz. A half-hour version will be airing on ABC Affiliates beginning Sept. 15, so check your local listings (WABC in NYC hasn't scheduled it yet). The primetime version will be reaired on ABC on Sunday, Sept. 23 from 3-4PM ET/1-2PM PT. The special usually airs on ABC-owned cable networks as well, but as of now networks like ABC Family have not scheduled it. And also as of now, it isn't on abc.com but it is still early.

Next is CBS. The CBS Fall 2012 preview special, simply titled CBS Fall Preview Sneak Peek will be a primetime special previewing CBS's new fall lineup, to be hosted by the stars of 2 Broke Girls - Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs - will be broadcast on Monday, Sept. 10 from 8:30-9:00 PM, ET/PT nationally on the CBS Television Network following an encore of How I Met Your Mother and leading into an encore of 2 Broke Girls. The preview will feature sneak peeks of the five new additions to CBS's primetime schedule this fall: the drama series Vegas, Elementary, and Made In Jersey, and the comedy series Partners. CBS.com doesn't usually post the preview, so you'll have to watch it on-air or if you miss that, your local CBS might air it on a weekend in the daytime -- but that is not confirmed.

Moving on to NBC, the NBC Fall 2012 preview special (titled once again The NBC Primetime Preview Show) has started airing on their cable owned networks & local NBC affiliates (such as USA, Syfy, Bravo, UniHD, Chiller, mun2, MSNBC, CNBC, Oxygen, Sleuth, Xfinity, E! Entertainment Television, mun2, NBC2Go, on-demand and broadband) since Aug. 8 and will continue to run through Sept. 30 (in NYC it is on next on WNBC Sat Sept. 1 at 7pm). The special will be hosted by Matthew Perry and the cast of NBC's new comedy Go On. The entertainment special will focus on NBC's new shows for the fall, including the dramas Revolution and Chicago Fire, along with the new comedies Go On, The New Normal, Animal Practice and Guys With Kids.

Onto Fox, the Fox Fall 2012 preview special starts airing on local Fox affiliates soon on weekends (in NY WNYW Sun Sept. 2 at 3pm) and is simply titled Fox Fall Preview Special. It will only run on local Fox affiliates again and not on Fox in primetime. No information is available as of this writing on who is hosting and what the special features, but it will of course feature their new programs: The Mob Doctor, Ben & Kate, and The Mindy Project. No idea yet also if it will be on fox.com, but check your local Fox listings for on-air showtimes.

And finally we conclude with The CW. The CW's Fall 2012 TV preview special is called The CW Fall First Look is airing on local CW affiliates as of this past weekend (such as NY's WPIX on Sat. Sept 8 at 8pm)! No word if it will also air nationally on The CW like it did last year. Series featured will be Arrow, Beauty and the Beast, and Emily Owens M.D. The affiliate special is a half-hour, and last year's primetime version had fifteen more minutes in primetime. Watch the half-hour special right now

NBC's comedy The Office will end after the upcoming ninth season, it was announced on a conference call by Greg Daniels to reporters on Tuesday. Executive producer Greg Daniels will return as showrunner for this final hurrah, taking over from Paul Lieberstein, who is developing a potential spinoff with Rainn Wilson. Daniels ran the show for the first five seasons. Here is what he had to say:

"This year feels like the last chance to really go out together and make an artistic ending for the show that pays off a lot of the stuff that matters most to fans. This will be the last season of The Office. And we're planning a very big exciting last season. We're going to have a lot of faces coming back. There are a lot of things that I've personally been wanting to do since season two. All questions will be answered this year. We're going to see who's behind the documentary. Now that we know we have an end date we can blow things up and take some chances and it will be very freeing, creatively."

The ninth and final season of The Office premieres Thursday, Sept. 20 at 9pm ET/PT on NBC.

Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows

Friday, December 20

Happy's Place - "Ho-Ho-Howey" (NBC, 8:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
When the tavern's health insurance is threatened to be canceled, Gabby has a plan; she'll persuade her friend Danny to host his company party at Happy's, but the catch is everyone must call Bobbie "Gabby" and Gabby "Bobbie."

Bob Hearts Abishola - "The Canadians of Africa" (The CW, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Abishola doesn't appreciate it when Bob gives her unsolicited parenting advice about her "unhappy son."

The Conners - "The Dog Days of Christmas" (The CW, 8:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Dan meets his in-laws for the first time when Louise's family comes to visit; Darlene helps Becky with a parenting problem.

Children Ruin Everything - "Ego" (The CW, 9:00PM ET/PT)
After Felix gets in trouble for defacing school property, Felix's teacher Mr. Dongall makes James feel like a parent.

Children Ruin Everything - "Memories" (The CW, 9:30PM ET/PT)
In a mockumentary style episode, Astrid realizes how hard she was on Nisha during her teenage years and tries to make up for it by arranging something special for Nisha's surprise birthday party; James misses the good old days of work.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of December 16)

Friday, December 20

Jason Bateman (Arrested Development/George and Leo/Chicago Sons/Simon/The Hogan Family/It's Your Move/Silver Spoons) - Watch Jason on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters/HouseBroken/Catastrophe) - Sharon is a guest on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
Dwayne Johnson (Young Rock) - Dwayne appears on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
Colton Dunn (Superstore) and Diona Reasonover (Clipped) - Colton and Diona are guests on a repeat of After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
Zachary Quinto (Big Mouth/So Notorious) - NBC's Today catches up with Zachary in the 9am hour.
Billy Eichner (Friends from College/Difficult People/Parks and Recreation) - Billy talks about Mufasa: The Lion King on NBC's Today in the 10am hour. He can also be heard on The Morning Mash Up on SiriusXM.
Kerry Washington (UnPrisoned) - Kerry talks about The Six Triple Eight on CBS Mornings sometime between 7-9am and on Sherri, so check your local listings.
James Marsden (30 Rock) and Ben Schwartz (The Afterparty/Space Force/Parks and Recreation) - James and Ben talk about Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
Jamie Lee Curtis (The Sticky/Anything But Love/Operation Petticoat) - Jamie Lee chats with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
Whitney Cummings (Whitney) - Whitney talks about Max's Fast Friends on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
Henry Winkler (Barry/Arrested Development/Out of Practice/Monty/Happy Days) - Access Daily with Mario & Kit has the best of Henry and Kit Hoover, so check your local listings.
Howie Mandel (Good Grief) - The Talk celebrates 15 seasons with a special finale episode; friend of the show Howie Mandel makes his 21st appearance on the show when he stops by one last time with a surprise for the hosts on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.