‘Undateable,’ ‘Crossbones’ and ‘Night Shift’ get NBC summer premieres

For 10 months, they've been pictures on the side of milk cartons, but… 

“Crossbones” lives!

“Undateable” lives!

“The Night Shift” lives!

NBC announced six scripted additions to its already busy summer slate on Wednesday (March 26) and if you were looking for premiere dates for all of the mysteriously vanished shows the network unveiled last May, we've found them!

In all, NBC will be airing six original scripted shows this summer, the most for any broadcast network in more than 20 years, so NBC says. [By my count, ABC's summer schedule will include five original scripted shows.]

Once again: Never say that there's nothing to watch on TV in the summer.

On to those premieres…

[Note that NBC previously announced premiere dates for “Last Comic Standing” (Thursday, May 22), “American Ninja Warrior” (Monday, May 26) and “America's Got Talent” (Tuesday, May 27).]

Up first on the scripted front is “The Night Shift,” airing Tuesdays at 10 p.m. starting on May 27, when it'll likely get a solid bump from the “AGT” premiere. Eoin Macken stars as a renegade doctor working the late shift at a San Antonio hospital. Ken Leung, Brendan Fehr and Freddy Rodriguez also star.

On Thursday, May 29, NBC will premiere “Undateable,” which I'm pretty sure Bill Lawrence was beginning to suspect he might need to take from town to town, screening it on bedsheets like a 21st Century TV minstrel. NBC will air two new episodes per week for the comedy, which stars Chris D'Elia, Brent Morin and Bianca Kajlich.

The pirate drama “Crossbones” will finally premiere on Friday, May 30 at 10 p.m. NBC had originally scheduled “Crossbones” for the same slot after “Dracula” finished its run, but “Hannibal” grabbed the hour instead. John Malkovich plays Blackbeard. What else could you possibly need to know? 

On Wednesday, June 25, NBC will premiere “Taxi Brooklyn” in the 10 p.m. hour. Until today, I'd never heard of “Taxi Brooklyn,” which is “an action-comedy police procedural centered on the fractious, closely bonded partnership between a streetwise Marseilles-born New York City taxi driver and an intensely driven NYPD detective.” Yes, it's a foreign co-production and Chyler Leigh, Jacky Ido, Ally Walker and Jennifer Esposito star.

NBC will create a comedy pairing of “Welcome to Sweden” and “Woking the Engels” in the Thursday 9 p.m. hour starting on July 10. “Sweden” comes from Amy Poehler and brother Greg Poehler, who stars as a man who follows his Swedish girlfriend back to her native country and has to learn to handle the new country and her wacky family. “Engels,” meanwhile, stars Andrea Martin, Kacey Rohl, Azura Skye and Benjamin Arthur as a family rebounds from the death of their patriarch by working at his storefront law firm, even if most of them aren't lawyers.

Finally, NBC has set a Tuesday, July 22 8 p.m. premiere for “Food Fighters,” featuring Adam Richman. It's not a scripted drama, but it features home cooks doing culinary battle with professionals, earning more and more money for each pro they beat. And no, Dave Grohl is not involved.

That's just a lot of original programming stuff.

Anything pique your interest?

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