NBC

As marketer interest in other TV programming declines, demand for pro football continues its upward trajectory and has had a knock-on effect for other leagues like the NBA and NHL.

NBC is considering reducing the number of hours it programs in prime time, people familiar with the matter said, a cost-cutting move that would reflect broadcast television’s diminishing popularity. Under the scenario being discussed, NBC would stop programming the 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. hour and give those seven hours per week to local TV stations to program, the people said.

For the first time in the history of the Law & Order franchise, all three of Dick Wolf’s dramas on NBC will come together for a special crossover event to help the network kick off its 2022-23 TV season. The action will begin on Law & Order: Organized Crime and continue on Law & Order: SVU before wrapping up on Law & Order. The three-hour event will air Thursday, Sept. 22 at 8-11 p.m. ET/PT on NBC and on Peacock the next day.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is losing a detective. Kelli Giddish, who portrays Amanda Rollins on the NBC drama, will depart during the upcoming 24th season. She will be in at least the premiere episode. Exact details regarding her exit were not provided by the network.

Beginning Sept. 19, premium customers will get next-day access to current seasons of NBC and Bravo shows with less than five minutes of ads per hour for $5 per month.

Television’s top awards rotate among the top four networks, and this year’s broadcast home, NBC, has reserved the second Sunday night in September for Tampa Bay vs. Dallas. After the Emmys slogged through two years of pandemic-restricted ceremonies, a day’s delay (to Sept. 12) seems a minor annoyance. The industry is expected to put on its Monday best, swan down the red carpet and celebrate itself and the wealth of shows across streaming services, cable and, to a degree that pales compared to years’ past, old-school network fare.

Lindsay Shookus, a producer on Saturday Night Live and head of its talent department, is leaving after 20 years. Deadline understands that Shookus decided to leave the show ahead of this season given that it is essentially a rebuilding year with a number of key cast members such as Pete Davidson and Kate McKinnon leaving. She was offered a promotion but decided it was the right time to exit.

Reports of the Golden Globes resurrection on NBC might be premature. A January 2023 broadcast of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association-organized shindig is “not a done deal,” according to a well-placed source. While talks have been going on between the longtime Globes broadcaster and the Helen Hoehne-led HFPA, no final agreement has been reached as of Tuesday.

The network has promoted Margaret Walker to SVP, NBC brand strategy and audience growth. She will add oversight of brand strategy and consumer engagement for NBC’s entertainment shows in addition to her current role of overseeing digital audience acquisition and growth across the company’s network and cable networks including NBC, Bravo, E!, Oxygen, SYFY, Universal Kids and USA Network.

The Sept. 12 Emmy ceremony will air live on NBC and be carried on its streaming sibling Peacock. Top nominees include the dramas Succession and Squid Game and comedies Ted Lasso, Hacks and Only Murders in the Building.

The Big Ten is on the cusp of television deals that are expected to pay it in excess of $1 billion and create a college football triple-header featuring Fox, CBS and NBC. If the agreement goes through, ESPN will be out of the business of Big Ten football and basketball for the first time in 40 years.

Starting Sept. 12, Peacock will become the exclusive home of the 57-year-old soap, which has already produced two spinoffs for the platform dubbed Beyond Salem. NBC will fill the DOOL slot with NBC News Daily, which NBC News promises will “provide signature world-class reporting and breaking news coverage in a first-of-its kind, live in most markets mid-day news offering. The hour-long program will be anchored by Kate Snow, Aaron Gilchrist, Vicky Nguyen and Morgan Radford and offer “up-to-the-minute national and international news, with the option for NBC stations to add local news.”

Weakest Link will return to NBC. The network has renewed the series hosted by Jane Lynch, based on the British game show, for a bumper third season. The second season, which launched in March, consisted of 13 episodes and the third season will feature 20 episodes.

An NBC spokesperson confirms it has scrapped the “high-stakes” competition series before cameras even began rolling on its inaugural season. No reason was given for Island‘s demise, although speculation is that the series’ budget was to blame. Co-producer Studio Lambert is said to be shopping the series to other outlets.

Seth Meyers has tested positive for the virus and has canceled his NBC Late Night show for the rest of the week. “After negative tests Monday and Tuesday I tested positive for COVID this morning,” he tweeted. “Canceling shows the rest of this week. Apologies to our scheduled guests and loyal viewers.”

The Hollywood Reporter’s awards columnist explores the plummeting Emmys presence of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, which take turns airing the awards show.

The series, from All American showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll and executive producer Greg Berlanti, follows a public relations specialist (Shameless alum Shanola Hampton) who shines a light on missing persons cases. Found wasn’t part of NBC’s 2022-23 series orders in May but remained in contention for a pickup following the upfronts.

A member of Law & Order: Organized Crime crew was shot and killed Tuesday morning on set of the NBC procedural. The victim, a 31-year-old man whose name is being withheld pending notification of his family, was killed while sitting in a car in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn around 5:15 a.m., the New York Police Department said. According to police, officers arrived to find that the man was unconscious and had received multiple gunshots to the head and neck. He was taken to NYC Health + Hospital/Woodhull, where he was pronounced dead.

After years spent battlingABC’s  Good Morning America, the venerable NBC morning news franchise is now eyeing the crowds that flock to consumer publications like People, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and Vogue. On Tuesday, the morning-news mainstay will unveil its first digital cover story, an in-depth look at creator and actor Issa Rae that will get exposure not only on its digital site, but on the linear TV show and across its social channels. The belief is that a series of deep-dive stories on newsmakers and cultural figures launched via the show’s digital channels will lure new audiences interested in lifestyle and consumer news.

The Law & Order universe has staged its fair share of crossovers, but it’s never dun-dun this before. A crossover involving all three of NBC’s Law & Order series — that’s the revived mothership, Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Organized Crime — is being eyed to launch the trio’s respective new seasons on Thursday, Sept. 22, sources confirm.

How much promotional time do ABC, CBS and NBC have in primetime? A fascinating analysis from the Promax Station Summit shows how many promos they have and how they divide the time between all their priorities.

Magnum P.I. has been saved. It came down to the wire but a deal just closed for NBC to order 20 new episodes of the action drama starring Jay Hernandez following its cancellation by CBS last month. The 20 episodes will be split into two seasons, bringing the reboot’s  run to 96 episodes, with an option for more.

Dancing With Myself, on NBC, shows the deep influence of the dance challenge on popular culture, even as its hold on TikTok has loosened.

NBC is the fourth broadcast network (following Fox, ABC and CBS) to unveil its fall rollout plan, with premiere dates set for more than a dozen new and returning series. As previously announced, La Brea is staying put in the Tuesday time slot that served its hit freshman run well, while the #OneChicago and Law & Order franchises will similarly and respectively call Wednesday and Thursday home.

NBC has ordered eight episodes of Surviving Earth, an unscripted series about how life not only survived during the cataclysmic events of the prehistoric era, but thrived. The series aims to find what lessons can be learned from past mass extinctions.

Two weeks after a Virginia jury handed Johnny Depp a victory in his multi-million-dollar defamation trial against Amber Heard, the Aquaman actress is set to publicly speak at length for the first time since the verdict. Heard will appear on NBC in a one-hour primetime special on June 17 in a sit-down with Savannah Guthrie. Certain to be heavily hyped and teased by the Comcast-owned network all week, the special will air at 8 p.m. ET on Friday.

Mehcad Brooks is suiting up to play a detective in “Law and Order” Season 22 at NBC. Brooks joins a returning cast that includes franchise veteran Sam Waterston as well as Jeffrey Donovan, Camryn Manheim, Hugh Dancy and Odelya Halevi. It was previously announced that Anthony Anderson, who returned for Season 21, would not be back for Season 22. Details on the character Brooks will be playing are being kept under wraps.

Magnum P.I. is looking to join an elite group of popular broadcast series that have overcome shocking cancellations to continue their runs. No one is commenting, but I hear talks are underway for NBC and/or USA Network to potentially carry the series starring Jay Hernandez. An arrangement still is being figured out, but I hear one scenario is for new episodes to air on NBC while USA would run previous seasons of the action drama, a reboot of the 1980s series that starred Tom Selleck

Anthony Anderson is not returning to Law & Order for season 22. The actor, who reprised his role as Detective Kevin Bernard on Season 21, had a one-year deal and will not return for the next season, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

Miller is the TV marketer who launched some of NBC’s most iconic shows, including Miami Vice, Golden Girls, Friends, Seinfeld, ER, The West Wing, The Office and 30 Rock among many others.  His “Must See TV” campaign remains one of the most memorable and most cited in TV history.

Aidy Bryant and Kyle Mooney will also leave the cast of the venerable latenight show that aired its 47th season finale on Saturday. The departures represent one of the biggest cast shake-ups in years on a show that has seen unusual steadiness in recent seasons.

Pete Davidson is leaving Studio 8H. The comedian is poised to sign off for good from NBC’s Saturday Night Live, where he has been a staple for the past eight seasons after joining the Lorne Michaels sketch comedy as one of its youngest-ever castmembers. Castmembers Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant and Kyle Mooney are also expected to announce their departure alongside Davidson during SNL’s season 47 finale, to be hosted by Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll) and featuring musical guest Japanese Breakfast.

The news is set to be announced Friday by NBC and the Television Academy, which jointly confirmed that D+D and Hudlin would reconnect for another go-round. The 74th Emmy Awards take place Sept. 12 on NBC.

There were constant reminders of the diminished influence of broadcast television networks this past week, when entertainment companies Paramount, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBC Universal and Fox hawked their upcoming wares to advertisers in flashy New York presentations. None was more glaring than the fact that Craig Erwich and Kelly Kahl, chiefs of the ABC and CBS entertainment divisions, watched from the sidelines. (Image: Associated Press)

Dick Wolf does not take anything for granted. Not even his prowess as one of Hollywood’s most prolific producers. Wolf and his loyal team of producers and showrunners have come a long way since the dark day, 12 years ago this month, when NBC executives unceremoniously plucked out the jewel in his crown, Law & Order, canceling the show after 20 years of yeoman’s service to the network. He speaks at length about the changes in television and the revitalization of his Wolf Entertainment banner over the past half-dozen years.