Less than two weeks after unveiling its Fall 2006 schedule, NBC -- candidly admitting that it is reacting to the subsequent fall schedules released by ABC, CBS, and Fox -- has released an "adjusted" 2006-2007 primetime program schedule that shuffles every weeknight and moves the network's The Biggest Loser reality series into the Wednesdays 9PM ET/PT time period opposite ABC's Lost.
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"We've enjoyed an extremely successful development season and are going to do what it takes to give each new series the strongest launch we can," the fourth place network's president, stated in NBC's new announcement. "Now that we've assessed the competitive landscape, we've scheduled our new shows in time periods where we believe they'll succeed and will be supporting them with robust marketing campaigns and the full resources of the network."
As a result of the network's changes, The Biggest Loser 3, originally scheduled to air in the Wednesdays at 8PM ET/PT time period and serve as the lead-in for 20 Good Years and 30 Rock, two new NBC sitcoms that were scheduled to air against Lost, will now flip-flop with the new comedies and instead air after 30 Rock in the 9-10PM hour.
While NBC did not specifically address the reasoning behind its decision to move The Biggest Loser to the Wednesdays at 9PM hour, the fact that, after NBC's initial announcement, ABC revealed a Fall 2006 schedule that included moving its smash-hit Dancing with the Stars reality show into the 8PM hour in which The Biggest Loser 3 was originally scheduled to air presumably impacted NBC's decision making. In addition to allowing The Biggest Loser to move into a time period in which it won't have to compete against both Dancing with the Stars and The CW's America's Next Top Model for reality viewers, moving the show to the 9PM time period will also allow NBC to provide a more established lead-in to Kidnapped, a new drama (originally scheduled for Tuesdays at 9PM ET/PT) that will now air in the post-The Biggest Loser 10PM time period that the network's long-running Law & Order drama was originally scheduled to occupy.