TVSquad

There are more details about NBC Universal's extreme cost-cutting measures, and this time they effect you, the viewer. Yesterday, Jeff Zucker announced that the network will no longer air comedies or dramas in the 8 o'clock hour because they're too expensive. Zucker says that advertisers just won't pay enough money during the 8 pm time slot to cover the costs of comedies and dramas. Instead, the network will air game shows and reality shows during that hour. What does that mean for The Office and My Name is Earl? Hopefully all it means is a later time slot. Or I will be forced to replace the first letter in Jeff Zucker's last name with an 'F' everytime I mention him in a story.

It looks like all the good press Ugly Betty is getting has gotten back to ABC. The network has decided to move the telenovela, about a plain girl thrust into the world of high-fashion publishing, from the "death slot" of Fridays at 8 to a more upscale neighborhood: Thursdays at 8, right before the mega-hit Grey's Anatomy. It is replacing Big Day and Notes from the Underbelly, which I would imagine would get slid into the vacated Friday slot, but there's no word yet. According to The Hollywood Reporter the move was done after the reception the show got at the TCA press tour. So it is now scheduled to go up against My Name Is Earl and The Office, making Thursday the "throwdown" night of the week.

Even though I thought it had some problems, I was intrigued enough by the show that I put it on my list of new shows to watch if I happened to be home on Fridays. Now, though, I'm not sure it's going to survive the face-off, at least in my house. I'm an avowed fan of Earl and The Office, and I don't think I'm going to have enough energy to follow all three shows, TiVo or no TiVo.