NBC's 2010 lineup attempts a comeback

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — While I was chatting with an NBC executive, he expressed some disappointment that critical reaction to the network's new fall shows has been, well, underwhelming. And he expressed the opinion that this crop of shows is NBC's best in several years.

He's not wrong. This is a step up from recent years.

But neither are the critics. The Peacock's pilots are, well, underwhelming.

There's a reason that NBC is in fourth place in the ratings. Actually, there are a lot of reasons, including last season's failed Jay Leno-in-prime time experiment.

"We've said several times we're trying to rebuild, and we recognize some of the mistakes that we've made over the past several years," said Jeff Gaspin, chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment. "We put a lot more money into development this year. We picked up quite a few series. We're taking more shots, certainly.

"We've taken too few chances in the past few years. We've taken too few shots. We don't want to make that mistake again."

What that comes down to — to some extent — is that they're throwing a lot of things at us and hoping something will stick.

To oversimplify more than a bit, what we'll be getting from NBC is a sub-par comedy, "Outsourced"; a weak legal drama, "Outlaw"; an intriguing but iffy suspense/sci-fi show, "The Event"; a couple of OK action shows, "Undercovers" and "Chase"; a familiar-looking reality show, "School Pride"; and a "new" series — "Law & Order: Los Angeles."

"For us, we're in rebuilding mode. So we just go after the best shows creatively," said Angela Bromstad, president of Primetime Entertainment for NBC.

"I feel that this development season really represents a lot of hard work in terms of really defining the type of shows that we want to come out with. And we want to improve on time periods and hopefully build some nights.

"And we do feel better. Just like we feel great about 'Community' and 'Parenthood' returning from last season, we hope that we have a crop from this season that will carry on as well."

It's always a crapshoot to build a new night. And as for the two shows that survived after debuting last season, neither of them is exactly a hit. Plus, "Community" faces a major challenge in the fall when CBS moves its hit series "The Big Bang Theory" opposite it on Thursdays at 7 p.m. MT.