WEDNESDAY
SHILO: 8:00 Will & Grace; 8:30 Relatively Happy; 9:00 Law & Order: SVU; 10:00 Chicago PD
CRAIG: 8:00 Will & Grace; 8:30 Relatively Happy; 9:00 Law & Order: SVU; 10:00 Chicago PD
SHILO: I flirted with the idea of having Thursday be a four-comedy night, but not only are the single cams vastly incompatible with the multi-cams, the multi-cams will only have 12 episodes, so having them in a fairly important spot for NBC didn’t feel right. Ergo, I think Wednesdays at 8:00 will turn into a multi-cam hour for NBC, headed by the return of Will & Grace. It and adult sibling comedy Relatively Happy are going after a different audience than the ABC comedies in the hour and both should skew a little younger than the 9:00 hour, which would help an SVU that’s looked a tad weak this spring. While I do have to wonder about Will & Grace‘s overall prospects, given that it’s not been a hot syndication property for a while and isn’t available for streaming on Netflix, I think it could at least open well and give Relatively Happy a decent shot at success.
CRAIG: I feel like I’m parroting what you’re listing, but when it works, it works. Relatively Happy comes from at least one of the creators of Will & Grace, and it also seems gay-friendly in a similar way, having Jane Lynch as part of the cast, so one could easily launch the other. I, too, was tempted to go with two hours of comedy on Thursday, which is something I do think NBC desperately needs to try. Now might not be that time, and airing on Wednesday means not having to clear out of the way of The Big Bang Theory or do schedule maneuvering because of Thursday football.
