I do hope they place “Chuck” somewhere besides Monday or Friday — like the landfill in the picture above. As for “Chuck,” I burned out of computer geek dramedies a long time ago. “Chuck” at 8:00 has hurt NBC. I am also so tired of the “Chuck” show.

The numbers are bad and I don’t think they’re going to get much better unless NBC completely changes the Thursday running order but as far as I can tell the only replacement options NBC currently has is 100 Questions, which looks beyond awful. My guess is Parks survives because of a complete lack of alternatives and because it gels well (style wise at least) with the rest of the comedy block. I’d be amazed if a third season was ordered though. The fate of Community on the other hand is much more interesting…

Trauma and Mercy are both dead and the question is how long can they stay on the schedule, with little in the way of replacements they may be left with no choice but to keep one of them on the air somewhere on the schedule.

As far as Parenthood goes, that looked like the best drama pick-up Silverman made and the closest thing to a hit (and I use that word very loosely) NBC had with decent star power behind and in front of the camera. However the behind the scenes problems, which in their defence they had no real control over have thrown the show into chaos. A post-Olympics debut on Wednesday will put the show against Idol, which doesn’t seem like a good place for a new show to establish itself and the recasting done doesn’t fill me with confidence, its a shame they couldn’t get Helen Hunt on board although given NBC’s current state not a huge surprise.

With that said I still expect Parenthood to make it on the air post-Olympics and fill its 9-13 episode order. I’m not confident it’ll get a second season though.

What happens at NBC next season is going to be interesting though, will Gaspin have the money to play with to cancel Trauma, Mercy, Parenthood, Parks, Southland and Law & Order? Plus Heroes and Chuck are very much unknowns right now and SVU isn’t exactly setting the world alight at 9PM either. Ideally I imagine Gaspin would like to axe just about everything on the schedule and start from scratch but is the money there to do that?

Is he going to be in a position where Heroes for example has to come back cheaper still as a place holder next year?

Day one is a miniseries, they canceled Southland, there’s a problem about Parenthood, Trauma/Mercy have low ratings, heroes going very downhill and law & order: svu’s ratings are just very average

It doesn’t look good at all

They have a couple of strong shows (similar to fox back in the day). They should keep some of the strong shows that have a good following (which would include shows like Chuck, The Office, 30 Rock, Heroes). The one strong positive for Chuck is the support from advertisers (Subway for one). If advertisers support your show, that helps make them more financially viable for the network and helps sell ad space during their scheduled time on air. NBC needs to learn from fox with regards to promoting shows across multiple levels of media (ie…Glee).

Networks rise and fall based upon the strength of their schedule and shows. ABC was in poor shape a few years ago and they resurrected themselves. CBS was as well (I remember Letterman joking about the poor lead ins back when he first came to the network).

One thing that some of the networks need to understand that if you are competing with a large number of alternative viewing options (cable, online, etc), your ratings will change. If you have a strong fan base that actively follows your show…that show is actually important to your network and you should keep it on air. Imagine if CBS kept Moonlight on for another season or two? (Vampires just recently became popular).

Just some random thoughts.

Mondays
8:00 Chuck
9:00 Persons Unknown
10:00 The Jay Leno Show

Wednesdays
8:00 Parenthood
9:00 Law & Order SVU
10:00 The Jay Leno Show

With this for mondays and wednesdays Mercy could move to fridays.

parenthood is not exactly a viewers magnet based on the previews i saw, hence potential competition against american idol this spring

while trauma is in a terrible terrible timeslot, it’s a 10pm show(BLAME JAY!), i can see a potential in that show, too bad nbc don’t

also “mercy” is also in really bad timeslot, again a 10pm show(BLAME JAY!) only rate above average because of weak competition.

i think they should moved 2 hours of celebrity apprentice on monday next spring and put 2 dramas on sunday especially those 10pm-ers shows since “brothers and sister” and soon-to-be cancelled “cold case” and “three rivers” cant’ barely register

i don’t see any of nbc new shows surviving in the ratings game, “100 questions” pilot is terrible, while “day one” also has potential in 10pm but since jay leno, yeah, i think nbc gave up their faith in that show

how bout jay leno show at 8, or give jay leno a syndication show produced by nbc universal, cheap and jay is kinda, kinda a household name, could , could be a hit!.

what do you guys think? jay at 8 or jay at syndication?

Silverman was never formally reassigned, but all known scuttlebutt indicates he was yanked off those duties as Riff said.

@Kozy –
Trauma also costs far more per episode than Mercy and airs in an hour with better overall viewership (more people are watching TV at 9 than 8).

I don’t think anyone is predicting either show will be around in March, but even NBC won’t throw Trauma’s budget away every week.

I certainly wouldn’t let Ms. Bromstad off the hood but she still reported to Silverman as far as I know.

Trauma is DOA.

Silverman was “reassigned” in December and his day-to-day job was given to Angela Bromstad. So, Bromstad put “Trauma” on the air. Silverman greenlit the script, but she was the one who greenlit the pilot (and then the show) itself. She must have seen a different script than the one we all saw…

As beloved as Ron Howard may be and as mega-successful his films have been, the fact is that he has not had a single successful television show of his own ever. Parenthood will fail again.