Even though Smallville has been stuck in the death slot of Friday nights, (thanks, CW), the ratings for the Tom Welling-starring fantasy series are improving.

Now admittedly Smallville is not capturing 8 million viewers like NBC’s Law & Order or 7.9 million viewers like Ghost Whisperer on Friday nights, but it is picking up.

Smallville drew in 2.76 million viewers in overnight numbers from last night.  But more importantly, the show won the demographic of adults between 18-34 & men 18-34.

It also hit a new season high and their best performance in these categories in over a year, since September of 2008.

Ghost Whisperer, Law & Order, Smallville, Dollhouse, Medium & Numb3rs are all returning tonight… and then we have the premiere of a FOX comedy with a retired football player?

Friday hasn’t been this popular for television since ABC was in its hay-day with TGIF and Boy Meets World (Feeny!). With seven hours of new and returning programming stuffed into a three hour block, you’re either going to have to make some tough decisions on what to watch, or be a DVR master.

Let’s take a look at tonight’s lineup.

USA Network is working to get season number 9 of the Law & Order spin-off, Criminal Intent, but we’re looking at some changes.

Julainne Nicholson has opted to not return.  Her possible replacement could be Saffron Burrows (My Own Worst Enemy).

The veterans of the series, Vincent D’Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe, are looking to return in some capacity.  Not sure what though.

Law & Order… It just keeps on ticking & ticking.  Sometimes that’s good, sometimes it just gets long in the tooth.  How do you folks feel about Law & Order:CI?  Let us know.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

NBC has released the schedule of dates for their fall 2009 / 2010 season.

A pair of new dramas lined up for us are Parenthood & Trauma and some returning shows are Heroes, Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order.  Southland survived it’s first season and is returning for a second.

Today NBC announced their 2009 Fall and mid-season television schedules.  As you will see, there are some new shows, some old shows, and you might notice there are a couple of shows that are missing from the roster.

We’ll touch on the missing shows in a moment – and in the case of some of them, the situation may not be as bad as it looks. Here are the 2009 NBC Fall and mid-season schedules, as they stand today: