NBC keeps 'Lights' on

We knew NBC would have to revamp its schedule in January. After the NFL season ends, the network will have an empty Sunday-night slate.

The best news to come out of NBC's re-jiggering is football-related but has nothing to do with the NFL. The top-quality, low-rated, high-school football drama "Friday Night Lights" will get a new time slot.

There's certainly no guarantee that moving to Sundays at 7 p.m. as of Jan. 10 will cure "Lights"' ratings woes, but it was a virtual certainty that airing opposite Fox's returning "American Idol" would kill the show.

NBC plays the reality card twice on Sundays to fill the NFL void — one new show, one returning series.

• "Grease: You're the One That We Want," a talent competition dangling roles in a new Broadway production as prizes, debuts Jan. 7 at 7 p.m. (Its first two episodes will be 90 minutes, then it settles into one-hour installments.)

• And the incredibly tired "Apprentice" returns Jan. 7 at 8:30 p.m. (Its first two episodes will also be 90 minutes, then it settles into one-hour installments at 8 p.m.) It's supposed to be all spiffy and new, because it's called "The Apprentice: Los Angeles," but silly old Donald Trump will still be around.

• On Jan. 21, "Crossing Jordan" returns on Sundays at 9 p.m.

The only real surprise on Sundays is that NBC changed its mind about bringing back Regis Philbin and "America's Got Talent" in January. That show will still return but not until spring or summer.

Other changes include:

• "Dateline" gets the Death Slot opposite "American Idol" — it begins airing on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. on Dec. 26.

• On Jan. 3, one of the weekly editions of "Deal or No Deal" begins airing Wednesdays at 8 p.m.

NBC CONTINUED ITS POLICY of renewing shows whose ratings are, well, weak. The latest show to join "Friday Night Lights" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" on that list is the comedy "30 Rock."

Airing in its new Thursday-at-8:30 p.m. time slot last week, "30 Rock" attracted about 6 million viewers, which isn't particularly good but is about what the show had done when it aired on Wednesdays. Worse yet, that was about 1.7 million fewer viewers than the show that preceded it on NBC's schedule, the season premiere of "Scrubs."