NBC Schedule Change

I tried to think of a witty joke modeled in the style of "NBC stands for..." but I couldn't come up with anything and I kept getting sidetracked by thinking about Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross. (Never Be Closing? Numbskulls Burying Community? NWhere Bis CParksandRecreation?) So I'll give up. Either way, NBC announced changes to its lineup and is now extending its comedy block to cover three whole hours. Here's how it affects your weekend.

One of these things is not like the other.

The Good News: 
-Parks and Recreation will return on January 20th in the 8:30 PM CST slot and, in my opinion, this could not happen soon enough. I miss Pawnee, and Ron Swason and even Jerry. Loveable, fat, pants-ripping farting Jerry. 


-Also, 30 Rock was renewed for a sixth season and then subsequently bumped down to the 9 PM CST slot. Sooo I guess that's promising? 


-Community stays where it is as does The Office. 


The Bad News: 
-Outsourced (You know, that show about India?) has apparently become a sentient being and is taking over NBC's comedy ratings (highest rated new program?!). So, yes, it will continue to be around. Luckily it will continue to be last and now at 9:30 PM CST so I won't really have to look at it at all.


The Ehhh News: 
-First, I don't really watch NBC other than on Thursdays and Saturday Night Live so if your favorite show of all time is the Lost-24 lovechild known as The Event, it's coming back in February or something. I'm not really sure. Something is happening to the other shows. Guy Fieri is wearing sunglasses on the back of his neck and yelling at some single mother to stack six water bottles on top of each other on Minute to Win It. Jerry Seinfeld is tarnishing his image on The Marriage Ref. Some Law & Order? I don't know.

Relationships can be challenging AND humorous!

-In between Community and The Office, they are squeezing a new show called Perfect Couples. I have no idea what it's about but let me give you a glimpse. This is the way it is described on NBC's website: "Perfect Couples depicts the misadventures of three engaging couples as they struggle to find out what makes the ideal relationship - and how to maintain it through humorous trial and error." Not only does that description sound like the thesis statement to a C- high school essay, but it also sounds like a lame summary of every sitcom involving relationships ever. Friends and Seinfeld can both fit inside that box. Christ, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia can fit inside that description. Also, the photo to advertise the show is just three couples spooning. Except one looks aggravated, one looks happy and one looks confident. I can't wait to see what's grinding the gears of the aggravated one!


This network is becoming a bad game of Three-card Monte. If NBC took a Scantron test, it would spend ten minutes on the first question nervously erasing and refilling in-between A and B and then just end up going with C. And then it would skip a question to go back to but then off-set all of its subsequent answers by one so it just turns out to be one huge error (More test-taking references to come!). Who is running this network? I understand that ratings are ratings but why are you butchering your lineup. 30 Rock at 10 PM ET?? What? That show used to be at 8:30. Nothing helps an audience find a show better than constantly playing musical chairs with the time slots. Not to mention everything on the other nights is more or less just a shitty reality show. Listen, either be CBS and cater to the masses with three-camera laughtracked sitcoms or nurse the talent you have already. But don't go halfway like you are with Outsourced.