Woeful NBC adds 6 shows

If nothing else, NBC programmers have plenty of chutzpah.

After a second consecutive season finishing fourth in every audience measurement that matters, the no-longer-proud-as-a-Peacock network announced a schedule that features changes on every night, a Sunday-night NFL franchise and a show that's already generating buzz four months before it will premiere.

But NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly has positioned that show — "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" — opposite CBS' blockbuster hit "CSI" on Thursdays at 8 p.m.

Bold? Absolutely.

Foolhardy? Time will tell.

Reilly wasn't just blowing smoke when he described "Studio 60" — the new show from the creator of "The West Wing" that's set inside the world of television — as perhaps the most anticipated of the fall season. At least by TV critics. In a conference call, he called it the kind of show that "really makes you proud to be in television. The cast is fantastic. It's funny. It's touching. It's going to be the kind of show you talk about the next day."

Provided, of course, you weren't watching "CSI."

It's part of Reilly's job to sell advertisers and critics on how great his new shows will be — a task made tougher by NBC's lack of success in recent seasons. Only one ("My Name Is Earl") of the six shows the network introduced in the fall of 2005 survived, joined by midseason game-show entry "Deal or No Deal."

"Coming off another tough season, I have to tell you, I'm not sure what I would do if I had to do a shuck and jive with you here this morning," Reilly told TV critics on a conference call from New York. "Fortunately, that's not the case."

Predictably, he said NBC had a "banner year" developing new shows. "We've hit the gold mine here."

If there's reason for optimism at NBC, it's because the network has re-entered the NFL business with Sunday-night games beginning in September. The thinking is that, with the promotional platform those games provide, it will be easier to launch the network's new series.

"It's clearly one of the cornerstones of our rebuilding," said Jeff Zucker, president of the NBC Universal Television Group.

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