Looking at the Thursday Network Upfronts

Last week, the networks all announced their initial schedules for next season. Beginning September 2007, this is what the Thursday grid is going to look like, at least tentatively. There is always the chance of reshuffling and other various changes to be made before the schedules actually go live. Now rather than take a look at each of the networks, I thought it would be better to take a look at the daily grids. Better to see how the networks stack up against one another. Today is Thursday, so let's see how it looks.

Bold= New Show Italics= What I plan to watch

Thur	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30
ABC	Ugly Betty		Grey's Anatomy		Big Shots
CBS	Survivor		CSI		Without a Trace
NBC	My Name is Earl	30 Rock	The Office	Scrubs	ER
FOX	Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader		Kitchen Nightmares		Local Programming
CW	Smallville		Supernatural		Local Programming

Thursday only offers up few new shows for our consumption, along with a few shuffle moves. For the most part it is a rather stable night.

ABC offers up a new show to anchor the evening in Big Shots. The show looks like the drama version of their new Wednesday night sitcom, Carpoolers. Instead of four guys with problems in a car, it is four guys with corner offices who find refuge in their country club. The clips look a little dry, although it is nice to see Christopher Titus (Titus) back on TV, along with Michael Vartan (Alias).

Fox is the only other network with a new Thursday show, Kitchen Nightmares. It features chef Gordon Ramsay, who was previously featured on Hell's Kitchen. Just what I wanted, more reality shows....

Thursday is a pretty solid night for me, which usually finds CSI getting th short und of the viewing stick. NBC puts together a solid lineup of comedies, and it is nice to see Scrubs returning for a seventh season, and starting out on the schedule, rather than being used as a replacement like it has been for the past few years. Granted, it will only be an 18 episode season, but any new Scrubs is a good thing with me. On the other hand, NBC will be offering up 30, yes 30, new episodes of The Office, with five of them being hour longs.