Upfronts: NBC

It's that time of year when the networks bring in the advertisers to unveil their schedules for the 2007-08 season, hoping that they'll pre-sell as much of their ad time as possible. First up this year is NBC, who is looking to improve on their impending fourth place finish for the season.

What's Back>? - you probably heard that Friday Night Lights is back, and that Law & Order worked out a last-minute deal. Lights will actually move to Friday - good luck - while L&O moves to Sundays, while L&O: Criminal Intent moves to USA, with reruns on NBC Saturday nights. Scrubs is back, which is somewhat surprising. I should be less surprised that Medium is back, but given the way NBC has mishandled the show a renewal is the least they could do. Las Vegas is also back, for reasons I cannot comprehend.

Odder still, the more family-friendly Lights is on at 10, and is preceded by Las Vegas. Wouldn't it make more sense to have the shows swap time slots?

Oh, we're also getting 30 episodes of The Office, including a few that are an hour long. That doesn't suck at all.

What's Gone? - Crossing Jordan got the boot, and The Apprentice was fired, though it may get rehired elsewhere. A bunch of the new stuff, from Studio 60 to the mid-season shows, also got the axe.

What's New? - not surprisingly given the breakout of Heroes, many of the new shows for next season have a sci-fi or fantasy bend to them. They include:

Journeyman, about a San Francisco newsman who starts traveling through time for some reason. It's tabbed as a "romantic-mystery" from NBC, so I'm thinking it'll be a cross between Love, American Style and Quantum Leap. It gets the post-Heroes slot on Monday, so it has a chance.

Chuck, a comedic spy thriller about a computer geek who becomes a secret agent after he manages to download confidential government data into his brain. I suppose a live action Freakazoid is too much to ask, but this seems pretty close. It's on Tuesdays, stuck between The Biggest Loser and L&O: SVU. This does not seem like a good fit.

Bionic Woman, a remake of the Lindsay Wagner vehicle starring Michelle Ryan (known to you, if at all, from her time on EastEnders. This airs on Wednesday after the second appearance of Deal or No Deal for the week. It is followed by Life, a drama about a cop who rejoins the force after being imprisoned for a crime he did not commit.

Heroes: Origins, is a prequel to the current show, which will introduce some new characters. It's touted as a "supplement" to the original show, so look for it to help bridge the gap from the mini-hiatuses the show took this season to ratings-eroding effect.

I'm tempted to include Lipstick Jungle as a sci-fi themed show as it's another attempt to clone Sex in the City, even using Candace Bushnell source material. It'll debut in January 2008 once football is gone, and I don't think well of its prospects given that it'll have Dateline, L&O, and Medium as its lead-ins.

And then there's The Singing Bee which will trade off with 1 vs. 100 on Friday nights. It's a singing show that sees how well people remember song lyrics, both with the music and without. Seems more like horror than sci-fi, really.

Not yet scheduled is an American version of The IT Crowd, a comedy about technical workers (dust off those Dweebs scripts!) and "minisodes" from Jerry Seinfeld about making Bee Movie. My guess is that they'll use the Seinfeld material to fill gaps during the week and during Sunday night football broadcasts.

I suppose there's some sense to all the sci-fi related shows, as it's a niche that doesn't get a lot of air on network TV and NBC can always spin shows to the Sci Fi Channel for reruns or first runs if they don't do so well in prime time. There may be too much for the average viewer, though, and I think it'll show with Journeyman and/or Chuck. I'm imagining a big push for The Bionic Woman, which could wind up facing off against Lost if ABC puts it back into its original time slot.

All in all, I don't think this is the line-up that's going to bring NBC out of fourth place.