NBC rips up schedule

Never mind.

A week after sounding the trumpets and unveiling its fall schedule to advertisers with all the hoopla it could muster, NBC has essentially ripped that slate up and started over.

It's not unusual for a network to make some adjustments to its fall schedule in the months between announcing it in May and premiering it in September. But this is unprecedented.

Five of seven nights changed. Eight shows moved to different nights and/or times, including the venerable "Law & Order," which — after spending most of the past 16 years on Wednesday nights — is moving to Friday at 9 p.m.

"Medium," which had been on the fall schedule, is now a midseason replacement. (It's penciled in on Sundays beginning in January.)

"Crossing Jordan," which had been picked up as a midseason replacement, is now on the fall schedule on Fridays at 7 p.m.

The wholesale changes were the result of two factors. First, NBC was the first network to announce its fall schedule, which used to work just fine when it was dominating the ratings. Now, after two seasons in fourth place, NBC has to react to what ABC, CBS, Fox and perhaps even The CW do.

And, second, after placing its highly anticipated new series "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" opposite CBS hit "CSI" on Thursdays at 8 p.m., ABC crossed NBC up by moving its hit "Grey's Anatomy" to the same time slot. That was too much competition, leading to a sort of domino effect when "Studio 60" was moved to Mondays at 9 p.m.

""We . . . are going to do what it takes to give each new series the strongest launch we can," NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly said in a prepared statement. "Now that we've assessed the competitive landscape, we've scheduled our new shows in time periods where we believe they'll succeed."

Other changes:

• The new serial drama Kidnapped moves to Wednesdays at 9 p.m. (from Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on the jettisoned slate announced last week).

• The new sitcoms 20 Good Years and 30 Rock each move up an hour on Wednesdays, to 7 and 7:30 p.m., respectively. They're switching places with the reality show The Biggest Loser, which moves back an hour to 8 p.m.

• While one edition remains on Mondays at 7 p.m., the second weekly edition of the game show Deal or No Deal moves to Thursdays at 8 p.m. (from Fridays at 7 p.m.), where it will do battle with "CSI" and "Grey's Anatomy." And, for that matter, with Fox's "The O.C." and The CW's "Supernatural," too.

• Two of the three "Law & Orders" switch time slots.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent will move to Tuesdays at 8 p.m. (from Fridays at 9 p.m.), serving as a lead-in to "Law & Order: SVU" (the only one of the three remaining put).

And, again, the original Law & Order takes over the Friday-at-9 p.m. time slot.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com