Articles

March 13, 2013
 

UPDATED–THE SKED: “Smash” Moves Waaaay Off-Broadway And Other NBC Schedule Changes

 

NOTE:  updated to reflect NBC’s revised Tuesday listings for March 19 and 26.

The curtain has started to come down for SMASH.  Although technically the show hasn’t been canceled yet, on April 6 it moves to the bleak outpost of Saturday nights to run out the string of its remaining episodes, and there’s no coming back from that.

With THE VOICE returning to Tuesdays on March 26, NBC clearly decided it was time to clean house on that night.  Apart from the banishment of Smash, both  GO ON and THE NEW NORMAL will exit sooner than originally planned to make way for the 2-hour dating show READY FOR LOVE, which had up till now been scheduled for Sundays after a single “preview” on Tuesday March 26.  That preview has now been omitted, and instead Love will now regularly air 9-11PM on Tuesdays after skipping April 2 beginning April 9.  (On Sundays, CELEBRITY APPRENTICE will expand to 2 hours beginning April 14, with The Voice reruns running 7-10PM on March 31 and April 7, and unspecified programming in the 8PM hour after that.)

THE NEW NORMAL will conclude its season with a 1-hour finale on April 2.

GO ON has aired its last new Tuesday episode will air its last new Tuesday episode on March 26  (a rerun was already had previously been scheduled for March 19, and the Ready For Love preview was set for March 26.)  On April 4 and April 11, it will run its final 2 episodes of the season on Thursdays, with a lead-in from new THE OFFICE episodes.

What does all this mean?  NBC is putting a hefty bet on Ready For Love as part of an all-unscripted Tuesday, New Normal is being quickly disposed of, Go On is getting a shot to prove it deserves to come back even without a Voice lead-in, and Smash… well, Smash has posted its closing notice.

In other NBC news, WHITNEY will air its season (?) finale with a full hour on Wednesday, March 27.



About the Author

Mitch Salem
MITCH SALEM has worked on the business side of the entertainment industry for 20 years, as a senior business affairs executive and attorney for such companies as NBC, ABC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, and BermanBraun Productions, and before that, at the NY law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. During all that, he has more or less constantly been going to the movies and watching TV, and writing about both since the 1980s. His film reviews also currently appear on screened.com and the-burg.com. In addition, he is co-writer of an episode of the television series "Felicity."