TVSquad

Edie Falco has been tapped to guest star on three episodes of NBC's 30 Rock. With the success of the new sitcom reaching epic proportions, NBC is doing everything they can to increase the ratings in the second season. Falco is one of many celebrities who are making appearances on 30 Rock including Jerry Seinfeld.

Last season Nathan Lane, Will Arnett, Molly Shannon and Hollywood legend Elaine Stritch all made guest appearances on the sitcom. Arnett will return this season along with Rip Torn and Sherri Shepherd.

Remember the short-lived American version of Coupling that ran on NBC a few seasons back? Do you know why it was so short-lived? Two words: Jeff Zucker!

That's what writer/producer Steven Moffat says. He was the creator and writer of both the British and American versions of the show (he has also written several episodes of Doctor Who). He's still angry that Zucker actually said that the show "sucked" back in 2003.

I guess some people don't think that NBC is "doing comedy right," and that the days of "Must-See TV" are long gone.

On April 12, NBC's Thursday night lineup of My Name Is Earl, The Office, 30 Rock, Scrubs, and ER got the lowest ratings since the 1987 season. (NBC always finishes third, behind number one CBS and number two ABC.)

I guess I can understand ER not doing that well, since it has been on for quite some time (though the success of Shark surprises me), but I wonder why more viewers - beyond the loyal fans - aren't latching on to The Office and 30 Rock. They're both smart, funny shows, and you'd think more people would watch them, and Scrubs is still good even though it's been on for several seasons. Damn Grey's Anatomy and CSI!

First off, it was a great episode. Dwight shooting Roy in the eyes, all the Toby/Michael stuff (Toby is truly one of the great characters on TV right now), and Ed Helms returning at the end (which I didn't see coming) were all really funny moments. But I'm wondering: was the show really "supersized?"

Oh, I know it was longer. It started at 8pm and got over at 8:40, so it was longer in length, but didn't it seem like there were more commercials than usual? And what about that 4 minute long commercial for 30 Rock? Sure, they increase the length of the episode by 10 minutes, but 4 of those minutes are for an extended promo for another one of NBC's shows? It seemed to be shoved in there and was rather distracting.

And please, this isn't a post about "quality" or "that show sucks!"

Actually, it comes down to this: 30 Rock is owned by NBC and Studio 60 is owned by Warner Brothers. That's one of the many interesting bits of info in Lisa de Moraes' Washington Post column. I mean, that has to be the reason.

As de Moraes points out, it can't be because 30 Rock got better ratings than Studio 60, because Studio 60 got better ratings. It can't be because 30 Rock got a higher rating in the all-important 18 to 49 demo, because Studio 60 had higher ratings there, too. And it can't be because 30 Rock gets the upscale viewers that networks and advertisers like, because Studio 60 was just as good if not better there, too. And I don't think it's because Studio 60 is more expensive than 30 Rock, though that might tie into the whole ownership thing.

It is funny to see Kevin Reilly not really talk about Studio 60, a show he was "really behind" and greenlighted for a whole season. The way he talks now, 30 Rock is the centerpiece to NBC's entire future.

Fans of 30 Rock can rest easy: the show has been renewed for the 2007-08 season.

Even though the Tina Fey/Alec Baldwin/Tracy Morgan show is on NBC's "Comedy Done Right" Thursday lineup and has picked up viewer and critic steam since a so-so start, it was still iffy as to whether or not the show would actually be renewed for a second season. I'm not really sure why it was iffy, because I always thought the show would be renewed, especially since the show moved to Thursdays and people started talking about it more. I just wish Rachel Dratch was given more to do on the show.

The show returns tomorrow with one of those "supersized" episodes.

[via Pop Candy]

30 Rock, the Tina Fey/Alec Baldwin Thursday night comedy on NBC, was supposed to leave the air for a month to make room for Andy Richter's new sitcom, Andy Barker, P.I. But NBC has just announced that the show is actually coming back a little early, on April 5, to be part of a new "Super-Size" night of comedies on the network. It also announced that starting March April 12, 30 Rock will switch places with Scrubs, airing at 9 with Scrubs moving to 9:30.

Hmmm...the first six episodes of Andy Barker, P.I. are already online, and that might be all that we'll see from the show. As TV Barn notes, one of the episodes is an "online only" episode, which means that only five episodes will be shown on TV. I think that all of this news, plus the fact that Andy Richter's shows never seem to last long, means that we won't see much of the show after these five episodes are shown.

It seems to me that NBC is kinda messed up right now and aren't sure what the hell to do with a lot of their shows.

Remember when NBC had a slogan for their repeats, "If you've never seen it, it's new to you!" I thought it was actually pretty much true, if a sneaky way to sell reruns.

Now they're going one step further. Next week the network is going to show two repeats of The Office. But instead of just airing them as they aired before, they're going to be recut into an hour-long episode, mixed up a little bit and with deleted scenes added to put in a whole new subplot that you didn't see in the first airings of the episodes. They're dubbing them "Newpeats."

Raines is the new quirky detective drama starring Jeff Goldblum. It's going to premiere in the Thursday at 10pm slot that ER currently occupies (side note: why was last night's ER a repeat when the rest of NBC's lineup was brand new?). The two episodes will air on March 15th and 30th. The show then goes into its regular time slot, Friday nights at 9pm.

Goldblum plays a detective that "sees" the victims of murder and they help him solve the crime. Now, contrary to earlier reports, these aren't ghosts a la Ghost Whisperer or Medium. These are actually hallucinations that the detective is seeing, but they help him piece together the puzzle of the crime. Yes, it sounds like the guy is legally insane, but he solves crimes.

The show will co-star Matt Craven, Linda Park, Madeleine Stowe, and Remi Boyer.

I look forward to PopCandy every day, and not just because Whitney is so darned adorable sitting there in her Chuck Taylor's. While that is certainly a better way to start your day than getting a gander at my ugly bearded mugg, she also has some cool content. Like this interview she did with Rainn Wilson from The Office, for example.

Wilson made Whitney's top 100 list again this year, coming in at #17. A deserved ranking I think. The Office hasn't managed to find those glory days Must See TV ratings numbers yet, but it's a great show getting all kinds of good press, largely in part to Wilson's Dwight. They talk about this week's big Christmas episode, the Dwight and Angela relationship (I really want to see the two of them outside the office), and his upcoming projects, among other things. It's a fun read for fans of The Office, or Wilson.

When I first saw the headline, I thought it sounded like the plot for an upcoming episode of 30 Rock, or something that would happen to Jordan McDeere on Studio 60: comedian Tracy Morgan was arrested this morning in New York for drunk driving. Of course, TMZ has all the info (they seem to be the go-to site for breaking celeb news...I think they must have a reporter covering every single celeb in the world at all times). Morgan admitted to cops that he was drinking beer before getting into the car.

And this isn't the first time that Morgan has been arrested for drunk driving. He was arrested and convicted of D.U.I. last year in Los Angeles. Maybe this is part of some cross-country drunk driving tour that Morgan is doing. "On December 9th I'll be driving drunk on the freeway near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and then on the 14th I'll be in Cleveland driving drunk on the street outside the Yuk Yuk Hut."

That's what some industry insiders are saying. NBC announced this week that the show was going into the Thursday at 9pm slot (after My Name Is Earl and The Office and before ER), but after ABC announced that Grey's Anatomy is moving to the same time slot, NBC might move it to another night to get away from that hit show. What would go into that Thursday at 9 slot? Scrubs, which isn't supposed to come back til later in the season.

Some are speculating Monday for Aaron Sorkin's new show. What do you think?

[via TV Tattle]

ER has been on Thursday nights on NBC for as long as I can remember. OK, actually it's only been in the 10 pm timeslot since 1994. And I haven't watched it since 1996 (I couldn't handle breaking down into a sobbing mess each week). But, still. It's an institution on Thursday nights. It's a throwback to the good ol' days when NBC was on top.

Well, those days are over. Now, NBC is reportedly considering moving it to a different night. Apparently, NBC thinks the move could boost the network's ratings during late primetime on Tuesdays or Wednesdays by pairing ER up with Law & Order or SVU. It looks like ER's replacement will most likely be the new Aaron Sorkin/Thomas Schlamme series, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. If that happens, I will definitely be returning to NBC at 10 pm on Thursdays (hey, I'm already there for Earl and The Office anyway).

I was starting to fall in love with this show after the first episode. Like most relationships, early on it had so much potential. I could really see us spending time together, getting to know each other every Thursday night at 8:30. But like most relationships, this one has started to turn sour, and like some women, will ultimately confuse you and make you sad until you are a bitter shell of the man you once used to be.

Um, where was I? Oh yeah: Four Kings. It's kinda lame now.

Actually, that headline might be a little bit too snarky. I actually don't see anything wrong with Will and Grace doing a second live show (tonight at 8) in the same season. A lot of people think that they're just doing it as a ratings ploy, but are they? I mean, how much of a ratings ploy can it be when the show is in its last season anyway and only have a handful of episodes left? Personally, I'd love to see the networks take a page out of TV in the 50s and do more live episodes, of both comedies and dramas.

NBC has a live blog up for the episode here.