Upfront week has begun – essentially, it began last week, as the broadcast networks began cancelling lots of shows and ordering new series – with NBC's announcement of its fall schedule, which has echoes of many past NBC schedules: high-concept new dramas airing Mondays after The Voice, a Wednesday lineup of crime shows, yet another Dick Wolf-produced Chicago series, and a new attempt to revive the network's old Thursday comedy brand – albeit without NBC's best comedy, The Carmichael Show, which is still in limbo. (On a conference call with reporters, NBC boss Bob Greenblatt said he's still negotiating with the studio over the number of episodes for a third season.) UPDATE: NBC has since closed a deal to renew the series for a 13-episode third season.
The lineup, night-by-night:
MONDAY: The Voice leads into Timeless, from Supernatural creator Eric Kripke and The Shield boss Shawn Ryan, about a trio of time travelers (Abigail Spencer, Matt Lanter, and Malcolm Barrett) trying to prevent a criminal from rewriting history. At midseason, Timeless will give way to a Taken prequel series, starring Clive Standen as a younger version of Liam Neeson's character from the movies.
TUESDAY: The Voice and Chicago Fire are back at 8 and 10, sandwiched around This Is Us, a new drama starring Mandy Moore, Milo Ventimiglia and Sterling K. Brown (from The People V. O.J. Simpson), about ” a unique ensemble whose paths cross and their life stories intertwine in curious ways.”
WEDNESDAY: CopMom MomCop The Mysteries of Laura has been canceled, and Blindspot slides in at 8, where it will attempt to prove it's not just a creation of a post-Voice timeslot, leading into Law & Order: SVU and Chicago P.D.
THURSDAY: Superstore, NBC's lone surviving comedy from this season, leads off the night at 8, followed by The Good Place, starring Kristen Bell and Ted Danson, and created by Mike Schur, who knows Thursdays at 8:30 well from all his years running Parks and Recreation. Chicago Med is at 9, and The Blacklist gets to move to 10, presumably out of the way of Scandal.
FRIDAY: Grimm and Dateline are back at 9 & 10, preceded by Caught on Camera with Nick Cannon.
SATURDAY: The bare minimum, as usual: Saturday Dateline Mysteries and vintage SNL repeats.
SUNDAY: Football in the fall, and in January, Little Big Shots, Chicago Justice (starring Philip Winchester and Carl Weathers), and the return of Shades of Blue.
Mid-season shows without a home yet include dramas Midnight, Texas, another vampire series inspired by True Blood author Charlaine Harris's books; Blacklist spin-off The Blacklist: Redemption, with Famke Janssen and Ryan Eggold; Wizard of Oz “reimagining” Emerald City, with Vincent D'Onofrio as the Wizard; Tina Fey and Robert Carlock's newest comedy Great News; Powerless, starring Vanessa Hudgens as an insurance adjuster in a world with superheroes; mockumentary Trial & Error with John Lithgow; Marlon, starring Marlon Wayans as a father co-parenting kids with his ex; and Arnold Schwarzenegger in a revival of The Celebrity Apprentice, whose previous star is otherwise occupied.
FOX announces its schedule tomorrow, ABC on Tuesday, CBS on Wednesday, and the CW on Thursday.