NBC became the fourth broadcast network to unveil its plans for fall 2020 and rather than send out a schedule like FOX or The CW, filled with unscripted and low-cost acquisitions to account for concerns over production delays, they opted for a (relatively) more normal, optimistic state of affairs.
Due to COVID-19 destroying pilot season this year, there’s only one new show on the fall docket, that being Law & Order: SVU spinoff Law & Order: Organized Crime. The series follows SVU favorite Elliot Stabler as he leads a unit of the NYPD focused on organized crime. To make room for Organized Crime, NBC cut an hour of comedy on Thursday and moved SVU to 9:00 to serve as a lead-in for its spinoff.
The only other big move for fall 2020 was pushing genre drama Manifest back to fall. This was in part due to NBC not being able to shoot any pilots, meaning they wanted a known quantity that could do well in lieu of trying a new show they hadn’t seen any footage of. However, it’s still a big vote of confidence for Manifest, whose third season renewal was said to have went down to the wire as Warner Bros. and NBC haggled over costs.
Otherwise, the network’s Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday lineups remain the same as they were this past fall.
Scripted shows on the network’s midseason docket include well-received musical dramedy Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist; crime drama Good Girls; and a trio of comedies that’ve already received their series orders – Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson origin story Young Rock, Tina Fey political comedy Mr. Mayor, and 2019-20 holdover Kenan.
MONDAY
8:00 The Voice
10:00 Manifest
TUESDAY
8:00 The Voice
9:00 This Is Us
10:00 New Amsterdam
WEDNESDAY
8:00 Chicago Med
9:00 Chicago Fire
10:00 Chicago PD
THURSDAY
8:00 Superstore
8:30 Brooklyn Nine-Nine
9:00 Law & Order: SVU
10:00 LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME
FRIDAY
8:00 The Blacklist
9:00 Dateline (2 hours)
