NBC reschedules yet again

NBC viewers will have to start looking for other shows, too. On Thursday, "Will & Grace" moves to 7:30 p.m., where it used to air after it moved from Mondays and before it moved to 8 p.m. Except when it airs at 8:30 p.m.

Beginning Tuesday, Jan. 29, "Whoopi" moves up a half-hour to 7 p.m. and "Happy Family" moves up an hour to 7:30 p.m. — which are the time slots the shows debuted in last fall before being moved.

And beginning Saturday, "The Tracy Morgan Show" moves from Tuesdays at 8 p.m. to Saturdays at 7 p.m.

If you're unhappy about any of this constant rejiggering of the Peacock's schedule, well, NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker really doesn't care. And if you're confused by the schedule changes — including last-minute changes, such as when NBC pulled new episodes of "Ed," "West Wing" and "Law & Order" on the day they were to air back in October — well, he thinks you're kind of stupid and hopelessly out of date. Not that he'd phrase it quite that way.

"Our view on this is, we give the viewers a lot of credit," Zucker said. "They can find the programs. . . . I think it's incumbent on all of us to know that there's generations of viewers who have grown up on MTV and with video cameras in their hands making their own films and playing video games and a hundred cable channel choices and all they do is surf around. And they're sophisticated enough now to be able to find the hot new Web site and to find the hot new show and the hot new channel.

"And I think that a lot of the folks who don't understand some of the moves that we and others are making are playing by the old rules, quite frankly."

In other words, if you can't keep up with all the TV schedule gyrations, you're unsophisticated and hopelessly out of date. If not just stupid.

To think that Zucker has a reputation for arrogance. . . .

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com