LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- While "The Office" has been in repeats for a month, NBC's other Thursday night comedies will offer up a few new episodes in 2008 the network confirmed today.
The news comes as the Peacock trims its Thursday comedy block to make room for "The Celebrity Apprentice" on January 3 at 9:00/8:00c.
As for specifics, "My Name is Earl" and "30 Rock" will broadcast their potential final 2007-08 season episodes on Thursday, January 10 at 8:00/7:00c and 8:30/7:30c respectively.
"Scrubs" then will assume the 8:30/7:30c slot for four weeks beginning January 17 with various "Earl" and "Office" repeats as lead-ins.
Said developments mean all produced episodes of "Earl" (13 half-hours), "30 Rock" (10 half-hours), "The Office" (12 half-hours) and "Scrubs" (10 half-hours) will have run by February 7.
To review, here's a breakdown of the network's upcoming Thursday plans:
Thursday, January 3 8:00/7:00c - "Deal or No Deal" (Special Night) 9:00/8:00c - "The Celebrity Apprentice" (Season Premiere) 10:00/9:00c - "ER"
Thursday, January 10 8:00/7:00c - "My Name Is Earl" (Last Pre-Strike Episode) 8:30/7:30c - "30 Rock" (Last Pre-Strike Episode) 9:00/8:00c - "The Celebrity Apprentice" 10:00/9:00c - "ER"
Thursday, January 17 8:00/7:00c - (Repeat TBA) 8:30/7:30c - "Scrubs" (New Time Slot) 9:00/8:00c - "The Celebrity Apprentice" 10:00/9:00c - "ER" (Last Pre-Strike Episode)
Thursday, January 24 8:00/7:00c - (Repeat TBA) 8:30/7:30c - "Scrubs" 9:00/8:00c - "The Celebrity Apprentice" (Two Hours)
Thursday, January 31 8:00/7:00c - (Repeat TBA) 8:30/7:30c - "Scrubs" 9:00/8:00c - "The Celebrity Apprentice" (Two Hours)
Originally posted by vlis: Said developments mean all produced episodes of "Earl" (13 half-hours), "30 Rock" (10 half-hours), "The Office" (12 half-hours) and "Scrubs" (10 half-hours) will have run by February 7.
Give Earl some extra credit for keeping their episode production on track. 3 extra episodes is a nice addition for NBC over the two lagging sitcoms. Well, then again, maybe NBC will benefit from having less 30 Rock and Scrubs.
You have Scrubs wrong they have 6 episodes left, not four, so it won't be by Feb. 7 and a reason Scrubs' ratings are low is because they're lead-in is a repeat of something and they are continuing to do this and they know it will be low.
This is probably the best move NBC could've made with the comedies but once Scubs and 30 Rock are out of episodes, I'd say we'll be seeing very little of them and much more Earl and Office repeats.
Originally posted by mushu_jj: This is probably the best move NBC could've made with the comedies but once Scubs and 30 Rock are out of episodes, I'd say we'll be seeing very little of them and much more Earl and Office repeats.
Originally posted by Joey: You have Scrubs wrong they have 6 episodes left, not four, so it won't be by Feb. 7 and a reason Scrubs' ratings are low is because they're lead-in is a repeat of something and they are continuing to do this and they know it will be low.
Scrubs ratings will be bad no matter what the lead-in is.
