NBC announces fall schedule

OK, so this is a big week for TV viewers as all the networks will be announcing their fall schedules. We learn what got cancelled, what will be new, and any potential scheduling changes for our returning favorites. Today, NBC announced their schedule.

All the details can be found here.

The key moves:
- Gone are Studio 60 and Crossing Jordan
- Friday Night Lights (and wisely gets moved to Fridays) and Law & Order survived
- Thursday's lineup is now Earl, 30 Rock, Office, and Scrubs
- The Office's season will have 5 hour long episoded and a total of 30 hrs. of new content.
- There will be 30 combined episodes of "Heroes" and "Heroes: Origins," an innovative new spin-off that each week will introduce a new character -- one of whom will be chosen by viewers through the "Heroes" website on NBC.com to become a cast regular the following season
- 8 new shows were picked up including 5 dramas, 1 sitcom, and two unscripted series

My thoughts:
- Of the new shows, Journeyman looks to be the best drama and could pair up nicely with Heroes. I look forward to The IT crowd too, but right now it doesn't have a place on the schedule. Most likely, it'll fill in for Scrubs at some point since they're only doing 18 episodes this year.
- I'm excited about Heroes bulking up on episodes and the Heroes: Origins spin-off sounds really cool. However, I hope the creators don't burn themselves out trying to come up with so much content.
- Ditto for The Office and Earl (who will also have 25 episodes next season). But I think this is still better than the proposed change to make The Office an hour-long permanently.
- Until we see what shows are placed against them, I can't say much about the timeslots of the shows, but it seems NBC didn't do anything to risky with their placement. Of all the networks, NBC, I feel, has made the most improvements as far as content goes over the past couple of years. I hope that starts to show in the ratings next year.