NBC - CBS LAUGHS IT UP

CBS, the only network that continues to show notable success with sitcoms -- its Monday night comedy lineup routinely beats the competition -- plans to add a second night of sitcoms on Wednesdays next season. The Worst Week will augment Monday's comedy schedule. (Ironically the show is being produced by NBC Universal Television; NBC turned it down.) The Wednesday-night shows include Project Gary, starring Jay Mohr, and the returning The New Adventures of Old Christine. TV columnist Lisa de Moraes noted in today's Washington Post that the recent writers' strike may have been a factor in CBS's decision to ramp up its comedies. "They tend to do things like come back from strikes stronger than dramas, probably because with virtually no continuing story line, no plot momentum is lost during three-month shutdowns," she wrote. The network is also adding three new dramas, including another show based on a British hit, Eleventh Hour. The other shows are The Mentalist, about a cop who uses intuition to solve cases, and The Ex List, about a woman who is told by a psychic she must find her future husband among the men she has dated in the past or be doomed to remain single for the rest of her life.

15/05/2008