While this is a press release about NBC’s January schedule, it confirms the demise of Lipstick Jungle, leaving only the craziest of fans hoping for its salvation.
via NBC press release:
Lineup Features Premieres of “Superstars of Dance” on January 4, “Howie Do It” (January 9) and “The Biggest Loser: Couples” (January 6); “Friday Night Lights” Returns for NBC Season Premiere (January 16)
NBC Offers Original Movie Event “The Last Templar” on January 25-26
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – November 25, 2008 – NBC announced today the January 2009 schedule that features the series premieres of “Superstars of Dance” (debuting January 4) and “Howie Do It” (January 9), the returns of “The Biggest Loser: Couples” (January 6) and “Friday Night Lights” (January 16).
Likewise, NBC will broadcast the original movie event “The Last Templar” Sunday and Monday, January 25-26, 9-11 p.m. ET both nights).
NBC also showcases the new specials “Saturday Night Live Sports Extra” on Sunday, January 4 (7-9 p.m. ET) and “Saturday Night Live Film Festival” on Sunday, January 18 (9-11 p.m. ET). “Dateline NBC” also will broadcast a Presidential Inauguration Day Special on Tuesday, January 20 (10-11 p.m. ET).
Among the new night-by-night lineup changes are:
The two-hour premiere of “Superstars of Dance” – from the producers of “So You Think You Can Dance?” — will be broadcast on Sunday, January 4 (9-11 p.m. ET) before the series resumes in its regular day and time on Monday, January 5 through January 19 (8-10 p.m. ET). The new competition series — showcasing the world’s best and most varied dancers — will be followed on Mondays by “Momma’s Boys” (10-11 p.m. ET), the new alternative series from executive producer Ryan Seacrest.
The season finale of “Superstars of Dance” will wrap on Monday, January 26 (8-9 p.m. ET).
On Tuesdays — from January 6 — NBC will telecast “The Biggest Loser: Couples” (8-10 p.m. ET) followed by “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (10-11 p.m. ET).
Fridays will see the debut of “Howie Do It” — starring Howie Mandel of NBC’s “Deal or No Deal” (8-9 p.m. ET) — beginning January 9.
The critically acclaimed “Friday Night Lights” will then return to NBC’s Friday-night lineup on January 16 (9-10 p.m. ET).
The new January program schedule grid follows (all times ET); new series are capitalized:
MONDAYS (beginning January 5)
8-10 p.m. — “SUPERSTARS OF DANCE”; premieres Sunday, January 4 (9-11 p.m.); season finale Monday, January 26 (8-9 p.m.)
10-11 p.m. – “MOMMA’S BOYS”
(”Chuck” and “Heroes” return in February)
TUESDAYS (beginning January 6)
8-10 p.m. – “The Biggest Loser: Couples”
10-11 p.m. — Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”
TUESDAY (January 20)
10-11 p.m. – “Dateline NBC”: Presidential Inauguration Special (10-11 p.m. ET)
WEDNESDAYS (beginning January 7)
8-9 p.m. — “Knight Rider”
9-10 p.m. – “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” encores (”Life” returns in February)
10-11 p.m. — “Law & Order”
THURSDAYS (beginning January 
8-8:30 p.m. – “My Name Is Earl”
8:30-9 p.m. — “Kath & Kim”
9:00-9:31 p.m. — “The Office”
9:31-10 p.m. — “30 Rock”
10-11 p.m. – “ER”
FRIDAYS
8-9 p.m. — “HOWIE DO IT” (series premiere January 9)
9-10 p.m. – “Friday Night Lights” (beginning January 16)
10-11 p.m. — “Dateline NBC” (beginning December 5)
SATURDAYS (beginning January 10)
8-11 – “Law & Order” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” encores
SUNDAYS (January 4)
7-9 p.m. – “Saturday Night Live Sports Extra”
9-11 p.m. – “SUPERSTARS OF DANCE” (premiere)
“Sunday — Event Specials”
8-11 p.m. – “THE GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS” (January 11)
9-11 p.m. – “SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE FILM FESTIVAL” (January 18)
9-11 p.m. — THE LAST TEMPLAR — (January 25 and Monday, January 26)
6:15-10 p.m. — SUPER BOWL XLIII (February 1)
Yawn. Whatever.
bring us your tired, your poor, your craziest fans…
I know Life did get a full season order, but I’m a little worried the SVU encores will do better, especially in the demo.
Seems like there are several new dramas that NBC is not including. Plus the Office spin off.
What on earth is an “alternative series”?
Wish I could feel excited about “Friday Night Lights.” But I’m so very tired of angsty teen romance. If the show was more Eric Taylor and less musical beds for the high school set (yes, I’m talking to you, Lyla), maybe I could get into it again.
Do you know when the mid-season replacement will start airing (Merlin- really like to see how The US reacts to it, Ofiice Spin-off, The Kings and Medium- plus some others) the mid-season shows?
Robert,
Indeed L&O: SVU will beat Life, but they can’t have reruns of that series the whole spring. NBC really doesn’t seem to have too many dramas that will be ready by February. I hear they are high on Kings, but I believe they are looking to place it on Sundays–it wouldn’t work with their “Crime Time” Wednesdays anyway.
I’m not sure when The Philanthropist will be ready. Development is where NBC is really hurting now.
Meh, no KINGS and MERLIN? Heh, NBC’s Mid-Season line-up is *completely* empty.
All, I’m pretty sure NBC will have more moves in February, this schedule only covers January.
I think this isn’t the lineup for the mid-season more the bridging part of the season between fall and spring isn’t it? Merlin was bought by NBC ages ago: its a hit on the Internet by the way: why hasn’t NBC put it on?
Well, not quite though. LAST TEMPLAR intrigues me quite a bit.
Oh thanks Bill
Could the long hiatus by Chuck/Heroes harm their ratings? The numbers for these shows aren’t all that spectacular but it seems like the long break will pretty much destroy any chances of these shows to increase in numbers.
“it confirms the demise of Lipstick Jungle, leaving only the craziest of fans hoping for its salvation.”
Wait, there are uncrazy fans of this show? They must not have internet access.
Sometimes I scroll through the NBC forums for “Lipstick Jungle,” you know, when I’m the mood to drop my IQ 100 or so points. When last I left off, there was an outbreak of viewers — ones who were once pleading with NBC not to cancel it — now begging them to cancel it because they found out the writers are going to break up Kim Raver and… I don’t know, whoever her character screws on the show. The last time I checked them before that, I saw several posts from people begging everyone to please turn on all the TVs in their house and make sure they’re tuned to “Lipstick Jungle” every Friday night, so NBC won’t cancel it (after NBC had already cancelled it). Did it matter whether the people turning on all the TVs have Nielsen boxes or diaries or not? No, of course. They didn’t even know what Nielsen boxes and diaries are.
As for the pipe dreams that NBC would reverse the cancellation, that stemmed from a stupid post-production assistant and a stupid writer who have both been in the business for about 5 seconds and should have known better. I’d like to think the fact that Ben Silverman even admitted to them that he was originally going to pull it after 9 episodes this season and not air the last 4 should have clued them in, but I guess you don’t need a brain to work in Hollywood anymore.
And as for the show, it was a one-hour infomercial for Maybelline and Massengill. 20 episodes was 21 too many.
The Office spin-off is no more. From what i’ve heard, it’s turned into something Greg Daniels just calls “The Untitled Amy Poehler Project”. Rashida Jones plays a nurse. Aziz Ansari does something. It’s not a spin-off anymore.
I guess NBC really won’t have their full mid-season schedule start until February after Super Bowl and football is really over. Interesting that Life got replaced with SVU reruns, I agree that they will probable do better than Life, sorry to the Life fans. But why wouldn’t NBC be able to leave reruns there?? If they pull better numbers and it’s basically extra ad revenue since the episode is already paid for and assuming NBC has nothing else to put there, I don’t see why they wouldn’t bring back Life in yet another time slot, though I don’t know where. SVU reruns might even help the original Law&Order. I would say put Life at 8 and move Knight Rider to Mondays, but then Life would be directly up against Idol. Also, not sure what brand new shows they have ready to go in February. We’ll see what happens. Maybe the repeats won’t do better than Life after all and it will come back in its current timeslot in February.
Craig, While anything is possible, I think it would be highly unlikely for NBC to go the rest of the season airing SVU reruns on both Wednesday *and* Saturday nights, and sometimes on Tuesday (because they don’t have enough fresh episodes to fill until the end of May).
What’s going on here as some have asked? It’s simple – NBC is preparing for a possible SAG strike by banking some of their shows until a bit later in the season. Thus, they are filling in their schedule with reality and allowing taping to continue on their hit drama shows without airing any episodes. I actually think this is smart to prepare for a “worst case scenario” of an actors strike. I’m sure the big nets have more insight than we do into a possible strike, and it looks as though NBC believes its a real possibility.
What does NBC have to loose? They can introduce some cheaply produced reality shows hoping that one sticks as a success.
I also think that Rosie Live will replace SVU reruns on Wednesday assuming it is a hit this Wednesday. I’ll bet money that its a success in NBC’s eyes.
I GUESS NBC IS NOW BANNED FROM MY HOUSEHOLD!
IT MUST BE A MAN…A VERY INSECURE MAN WHO DECIDED TO CANCEL THIS SHOW!
I guess sexists still exist!
Wait, NBC is sexist because it canceled its lowest rated show which happens to be about women? MY EYES HAVE BEEN OPENED! SEXISM IS RAMPANT!
Not all the people on the boards for Lipstick Jungle are Nico/Kirby fans and not all of us are crazed or stupid. I for one have been trying to convince some of the masses there that unless they are hooked up to the ANTIQUATED NIELSON box or given their paper forms to fill out, leaving their TVs on LJ is a waste of energy.
So Riff, kindly realize that while your 100 IQ might make you feel superior to others, but it doesn’t impress me.
yo, C. Edwards…if you’re going to insult someone’s IQ, could you at least learn to spell “Nielsen” correctly?
Why do you think the boxes are antiquated for Lipstick Jungle, but not for Dancing With the Stars, Two and a Half Men, Grey’s Anatomy, House, The Office, etc.?
Where is “The Celebrity Apprentice 2″?
C. Edwards, was I untruthful about anything? (Maybe the Massengil dig. Although it really IS a one-hour infomercial for Maybelline.) That is exactly what’s on the NBC forums. In the threads “CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: INDECENT EXPOSURE, SE02:10 Air Date: 12-12-2008 9:00PM” and “Lipstick Jungle is NOT Cancelled! MUST WATCH FRIDAY!” (Note to non-fans of the show, which, judging by the ratings, is most of you. Please don’t read these threads on a full stomach. Or without a bottle of Dramamine on hand.)
The very notion that there was any salvation in a basically awful show which the critics slaughtered (did it get one good review from one prominent critic?) and which scored ratings I didn’t think possible for a Big 3 net to get is simply astounding. The show is over. Please move on. NBC already has. And please stop sending them lipsticks. They have no use for that. They’re all a bunch of insecure men, after all.
Crusoe, which will be airing Saturdays 8-9 isn’t mentioned in this schedule. It just says Law & Order and SVU encores.
NBC’s schedule is pathetic. ER is the only decent show left on this schedule and when it ends in March, there will be nothing left to watch in prime time on this channel. It’s like the network is trying to die.
Hey, does anyone have any insight as to when Merlin will air? Is February everyone’s best guess?
Thanks!
-Max