SHUFFLE OFF: It remains to be seen how well "Back to You" does in the national ratings, but don't look for it to be a big hit in Buffalo.

"The premise of the show is a guy who is climbing the ladder and nothing matters to him more than just reaching the top," said executive producer Christopher Lloyd. "He reaches almost the top, has sort of a flameout and then free-falls and lands someplace where he has to feel like he's got some climbing to do.

"We originally set it in Buffalo and — no offense to any Buffalonians here — but we thought that might have been too far for him to fall."

"That's going to cost us, Chris," executive producer Steve Levitan interjected.

"There goes the Buffalo market," Grammer added.

Chuck made it to the No. 2 market, Los Angeles, before taking his fall. And falling to No. 22 Pittsburgh seemed more acceptable than falling to No. 47 Buffalo.

"Pittsburgh felt like the right place for these two people to be," Levitan said. "I believe these people in Pittsburgh more than I believe this team in Buffalo, for some reason, and that could maybe just be my own bias."

"They're a little too polished to believe that they're in Sioux Falls," Lloyd said. "And now I've offended people from Sioux Falls."

BETTER THAN NOTHING: Heaton said she had tried to develop a sitcom with Grammer that would cast both of them as college professors and it didn't work out. "And then I was doing this play in New York for 600 bucks a week, and they said there's this sitcom, and I said, 'Yes, whatever it is."'

My, that's quite a recommendation for "Back to You," isn't it?

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com