NBC Announces New Shows, Including “Day One”

On Monday, May 5th 2009, The Jay Leno network NBC announced a slate of new shows at their In-Fronts for the 2009 / 2010 television season.  No the above screen shot is not from their in-fronts.  It’s a behind the scenes shot from NBC’s new show, Day One.

Keeping in mind that we here at Screen Rant are all about action / adventure and sci-fi / fantasy (with a dribble of comedy). I’ve left out some details on the new NBC comedy shows but only because we do like our action-adventure shows.  Rather than babble about what I am going to say, I might as well get right to it:

DAY ONE

Day One is a new futuristic drama that will premiere out of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games and the premise sounds awful familiar.

In the aftermath of a global event that devastates the world’s infrastructures, a small band of survivors strives to rebuild society and unravel the mysteries of why the event took place and what the future has in store. Told from the point of view of an eclectic group of neighbors in a Van Nuys, California apartment building, this journey of survival will show us that hope is found in the smallest of victories and heroes are born every day. (Hey! I grew up in Van Nuys.)

Is it me, or does this show sound a lot like Jericho? Instead of a town, it’s an apartment building. I want to say this is a lame attempt at replaying Jericho, but maybe it can work. Why? Because I see a glimmer of hope from the collected creative team.  I can only hope they won’t blatantly rip off the premise of our beloved canceled show.

It’s Executive produced and written by Jesse Alexander (Heroes, Lost, Alias) and directed by Alex Graves (Fringe, Journeyman).

It will star Adam Campbell (Date Movie), Catherine Dent (The Shield), Julie Gonzalo (Eli Stone), David Lyons (ER), Derek Mio (Greek), Carly Pope (24), Thekla Reuten (Sleeper Cell) and Addison Timlin (Cashmere Mafia).

Back in January, our own Kofi Outlaw reported that NBC ordered Day One and he predicted that we could have the same flash-forward and flash-back story structure like Lost and with Jesse Alexander involved, we’ll be getting mystery upon mystery upon cliffhanger upon cliffhanger mystery.

I hope if they do pull that off it is more creative than what we’ve already seen from their other venues. Otherwise, it will just slide into a Lost-Jericho (Losticho?) slot with spies. Me, I say bring it and we’ll see what comes of it.

TRAUMA

As NBC looks to hang on to their medical success from ER, Trauma is ER on wheels. They say that Trauma is an intense look at one of the most dangerous medical professions in the world: the first responder paramedic. Trauma stars Derek Luke, Cliff Curtis, Anastasia Griffith, Aimee Garcia, Kevin Rankin and Jamey Sheridan. It will be executive produced by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights)

MERCY

Mercy is yet another medical drama that comes from a different perspective – that of the nurses. Mercy will star Taylor Schilling, Jamie Lee Kirchner and Michelle Trachtenberg as our nurses.

It’s going to be put together by writer/executive producers Liz Heldens (Friday Night Lights) and Gretchen Berg & Aaron Harberts (Pushing Daisies). The executive producers are Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun and directed by Emmy Award winner Adam Bernstein (30 Rock, Rescue Me).

PARENTHOOD

From executive producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer and writer/executive producer Jason Katims (Friday Night Lights) Parenthood depicts the imperfect Braverman family. The Braverman’s are four grown siblings sharing the ups and downs of being parents (hence the show name, I guess). The cast includes Peter Krause, Maura Tierney, Craig T. Nelson, Dax Shepard, Bonnie Bedelia, Monica Potter, Erika Christensen and Sarah Ramos.

Aside from the above new dramas, shows they announced that are returning are:

• Heroes
• Southland
• Parks and Recreation
• Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday (6 epi’s.)
• The Office
• 30 Rock
• The Biggest Loser
• The Celebrity Apprentice
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
• Friday Night Lights

A few “alternative” series they announced are:

• The Marriage Ref
• Who Do You Think You Are
• Breakthrough With Tony Robbins

Whatever do they mean by alternative?  Is that their new coined term for reality TV and they’re trying to trick us?

Jerry Seinfeld exec produces The Marriage Ref.  Seinfeld himself says it’s not therapy, it’s a comedy show based on real break ups.  I don’t see how this will work, but just from the humor possibility alone, I might check it out.  How many divorcees are going to watch, and root for their own side of the timeless gender war?

I’ll also give the Breakthrough With Tony Robbins thing a try because I have a lot of respect for what he’s done for himself and others… but they better not test my patience.  Robbins has some great messages to deliver about various aspects on the perceptions of life.  If I see some network dribble creeping into the presentation, I’m out of there.

In Case You Didn’t Notice

The one thing I find interesting is the announcement of the return of Law & Order: SVU.  That’s because the stars of the show Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni are still in contract negotiations and despite the economy and being lucky they have jobs, they think they have NBC over a barrel of sorts and are asking for more in their new contracts.  They want more than the $350k per episode and are asking for back-end profits.  So right now, they can buy a house in some places with every episode they film…  and they want more.

NBC said the show is going to go on, with or without them, pending contract negotiations.

Whether it’s related or not, NBC does have to make 5 hours of prime time room for the Jay Leno Show… that means someone is losing their time somewhere.

Did you notice that Chuck is missing from the lineup?  No decision has been made yet on whether Chuck is coming back or not.  The initial plan was to announce Chuck’s status yesterday (May 4th) but they’re now waiting an extra week or two.  Testing the advertiser waters is my guess.  Well, at least it’s not bad news yet.

Check out the massive savechuck Twitter campaign.  I don’t think they’re in the same limbo as Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but they do share the same gray zone for the moment as both shows have some serious save-the-show campaigns going on.

Source:  NBC, Image Source: Sci Fi Scoop

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