NBC renews ‘Parenthood’ and ‘Park and Recreation’, announces fall schedule

After long negotiations there is good and bad news for NBC’s drama series ‘Parenthood’. The good news is; there will be a sixth season, the bad news is that it will only have thirteen episodes and that the sixth season will be the last season.

‘Park and Recreation’ will have a final seventh season and that is not very surprising because the ratings are not very good for the comedy. The show is not mentioned in the fall schedule. NBC stated that ‘Park and Recreation’ will be kept for midseason.

Now NBC is done and announced its fall schedule. NBC’s two hour comedy block on Thursday fell. NBC plans on placing their hit series ‘The Blacklist’ on Monday night November 17th and to move it to Thursday night on February 5th.

As announced NBC got seven new drama- and comedy series lined-up for next season, together with two miniseries. ‘State of Affairs’ shall bring back former ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ star Katherine Heigl to prime-time TV. The supernatural DC Comics thriller ‘Constantine’ will be seen after ‘Grimm’ on the Friday night.

The new comedy series ‘Marry Me’ will go after ‘The Voice’ on Tuesday night and ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ with Ellie Kemper (‘The Office’) in the lead role will have its debut in midseason. There are also two more miniseries in the line-up. The reboot of ‘Heroes’; ‘Heroes: Reborn’. And the sequel of Mark Burnett’s miniseries ‘The Bible’; ‘A.D’ and that is planned to premiere on Easter Sunday April 5th.

While Salke noted that “comedy is very important to this network,” there is arguably a shift in emphasis in this schedule to dramas — particularly thrillers. This is understandably the wake of the success of ‘The Blacklist’ and NBC’s struggle with launching new comedies in recent years. “A trio of sophisticated new 10 p.m. dramas — ‘State of Affairs’, ‘Allegiance’, and ‘Odyssey’ — have a cinematic look and feel, as well as compelling action storylines,” Salke said. “Part of NBC’s legacy is its strength in drama, and we’re extremely proud of both our rich history and what’s ahead.” Still, it represents the end of an era for NBC Thursdays, which have been hammered in recent years in the ratings — by CBS’ comedy block led by ‘Big Bang Theory’ in particular. Since 1983, NBC has largely programmed two hours of Thursday comedy, with a few deviations here and there along the way.

NBC’s 2014-2015 fall schedule
(New series in capital letters)

Monday
20.00 — ‘The Voice’
22.00 — ‘The Blacklist’ / ‘STATE OF AFFAIRS’ (begins November 17th)

Tuesday
20.00 — ‘The Voice’
21.00 — ‘MARRY ME’
21.30 — ‘About a Boy’
22.00 — ‘Chicago Fire’

Wednesday
20.00 — ‘THE MYSTERIES OF LAURA’
21.00 — ‘Law & Order: SVU’
22.00 — ‘Chicago P.D.’

Thursday
20.00 — ‘The Biggest Loser’
21.00 — ‘BAD JUDGE’ (‘The Blacklist’ begins February 5th)
21.30 — ‘A TO Z’
22.00 — ‘Parenthood’

Friday
20.00 — ‘Dateline NBC’
21.00 — ‘Grimm’
22.00 — ‘CONSTANTINE’

Sunday
19.00 — Football night in America
20.20 — NBC Sunday night Football

Not returning next season: ‘Believe’, ‘Community’, ‘Crisis’, ‘Dracula’, ‘Growing Up Fisher’, ‘Ironside’, ‘The Michael J. Fox Show’, ‘Revolution’, ‘Sean Saves the World’ and ‘Welcome to the Family’.