The TV Column

NBC's Will & Grace returns to Thursday nights

Will & Grace stars celebrate the NBC revival of their hit sitcom. They are (from left) Eric McCormack, Megan Mullally, Sean Hayes and Debra Messing. The series will air on Thursdays this fall.
Will & Grace stars celebrate the NBC revival of their hit sitcom. They are (from left) Eric McCormack, Megan Mullally, Sean Hayes and Debra Messing. The series will air on Thursdays this fall.

Last week the broadcast networks put on a big fuss for advertisers about what's ahead for the fall, and as usual, there were a few surprises as the newbies were announced and pink slips were officially handed out.

Let's take a look at NBC first.

The biggest news is that the network is bringing back Will & Grace with its four principal stars, and hoping to return to the glory days of "Must-See TV" on Thursdays with the series as the opening show.

Will & Grace, a hit from 1998 to 2006, stars Debra Messing, Eric McCormack, Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally. NBC has only ordered 12 episodes, but would love to order up more if the old magic happens.

The comedy will be followed on Thursdays by Great News, a sitcom that left me less than impressed, but is produced by Tina Fey. That'll get you a second look if anything will. Fey will appear in a few episodes next season.

At 8 p.m., NBC will air this season's surprise biggest hit, This Is Us.

Another plus for the network is that this coming year it will air the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl, the latter on Feb. 4.

Of immediate interest, however, is that NBC has ordered eight new series, but only three will debut in the fall. In addition to Will & Grace, there will be Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders, a limited eight-episode series from Dick Wolf starring Edie Falco; and an action adventure, The Brave, starring Anne Heche as an undercover military analyst.

It'll take me a moment to imagine Heche as an action hero.

And whereas ABC is reviving American Idol, NBC is bringing in Idol favorites Jennifer Hudson and Kelly Clarkson to join The Voice as coaches in Seasons 13 and 14, respectively.

The five remaining freshman shows joining the team will arrive when they arrive. TV is like that these days, as the goal is to avoid repeats, which no longer rate very well.

Here's what NBC says is waiting in the wings:

Good Girls is a comedy/drama about three suburban moms who rob a supermarket. The network says the show "mixes a little Thelma & Louise with a bit of Breaking Bad."

Reverie is a thriller about a former hostage negotiator (Sarah Shahi) brought in to save people lost in a highly advanced virtual reality program in which you can live your dreams. Also starring are Dennis Haysbert, Jessica Lu, Sendhil Ramamurthy and Kathryn Morris.

Rise is an inspirational drama starring Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother) as a teacher who revives a failing high school theater department and an entire working-class town while he's at it.

A.P. Bio is a comedy produced by Lorne Michaels and Seth Meyers about a philosophy scholar (Glenn Howerton, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) who loses his dream job and has to take work as a high school advanced placement biology teacher.

Ah, but he won't be teaching them any biology. He will use his honor students for revenge. Patton Oswalt plays the principal.

Champions comes from Mindy Kaling and is about gym owner Vince (Anders Holm) and his brother Michael (Andy Favreau) whose carefree lives of babes and working out is upset when Vince's high school fling (Kaling) dumps his 15-year-old son on their doorstep.

Here's the NBC fall lineup as it stands now. These invariably get tweaked as fall approaches.

Monday: The Voice; The Brave.

Tuesday: The Voice; Superstore; The Good Place; Chicago Fire.

Wednesday: The Blacklist; Law & Order: SVU; Chicago P.D.

Thursday: Will & Grace; Great News; This Is Us; Law & Order: True Crime -- The Menendez Murders.

Friday: Blindspot; Taken; Dateline NBC.

Sunday: Football Night in America; Sunday Night Football.

NOT COMING BACK

Here are the 2016-2017 NBC shows that have been cancelled or have ended their run.

Aquarius -- I'm betting David Duchovney just wishes he could leave this one off his resume. By the end, only 1.75 million were watching each week. Ouch.

The Blacklist: Redemption -- Here's proof that more isn't necessarily better with a spinoff.

Emerald City -- Nobody watched this 10-episode experiment.

Powerless -- Adorable Vanessa Hudgens couldn't save this superhero show without superheroes.

Grimm -- NBC cut the episode order to 13, but at least there was a Season 6 to wrap things up.

Note: Timeless was axed, then un-axed. It's proof that the networks sometimes change their minds.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:

mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Weekend on 05/25/2017

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