The Upfronts: Playing Thursday Night Chicken
When NBC's Kevin Reilly made a bold move in the chess match that is this week's fall schedule announcements at the upfronts by advancing his most beloved pawn, Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, into the 9 p.m. Thursday night slot, ABC's Steve McPherson responded by picking up his queen, Grey's Anatomy, and tossing it into Reilly's face. NBC hasn't officially retreated, but the LAT's Scott Collins blogs that some think that Reilly may ultimately concede the position to the competition:
Almost as soon as ABC announced its surprise move for the smash hit "Grey's Anatomy," to 9 p.m. Thursdays this fall, industry veterans speculated that NBC would be forced to hustle Aaron Sorkin's new showbiz satire "Studio 60 from the Sunset Strip" out of that slot to a more hospitable, if you will, region.
But where? And what could take its place?
So far the network isn't talking, but one scenario being buzzed about has "Studio 60" transferring to Mondays, with the Thursday 9 p.m. spot going to "Scrubs" and another yet-unknown sitcom. (NBC executives said earlier this week that "Scrubs" would be held until later in the season.)
Meanwhile, CBS's Les Moonves, whose CSI is the Thursday night Charybdis to the Grey's Anatomy Scylla terrorizing Studio 60 [Ed.note—Is this post about chess or mythology? Is there no Lohan joke to be made here?], cackled with glee at NBC's predicament: "If I were Aaron Sorkin, I wouldn't be very happy this morning." Moonves then mused about the possibility of calling up his pals at Fox and asking them to cram all of their American Idol programming into the Thursday 9 p.m. slot, just so "we can all watch Kevin Reilly weep."