While the fall has already seen a few highly publicized TV series get canceled after only a few episodes, NBC is making sure that three of their new shows will make it all the way through their first year.
The network has announced that “The Event,” “Law & Order: Los Angeles” and “Outsourced” have all been given full season pickups, which means they should each run 22 new episodes during the Fall 2010-2011 TV season.
“We are pleased with the quality of ‘The Event,’ ‘Law & Order: Los Angeles’ and ‘Outsourced,’ and feel they are an important part of helping to re-build our schedule and our studio pipeline,” said NBC's Primetime Entertainment President, Angela Bromstad. “We believe in these new series and the creative auspices behind them.”
Of the three series, "The Event" was heavily touted for its similarities to "Lost" and "24." The series airs Monday nights at 9PM and stars Jason Ritter as a man who unwittingly becomes involved with a deadly conspiracy following the abduction of his fiancée, played by Sarah Roemer. Laura Innes ("ER") co-stars as the leader of a group of apparently "non-terrestrial humans" with Blair Underwood as President Elias Martinez.
While "The Event" has averaged a 3.0 rating across four episodes, it also one of the most popular new series among DVR viewers, with a 35% ratings increase when "time-shifted" numbers are factored in. It has also been licensed to nearly 200 foreign countries where it has also performed well.
“Law & Order: Los Angeles” is the fourth spinoff of the long-running franchise, which has inherited the original series' Wednesday night 10PM timeslot. The series stars Skeet Ulrich (“Jericho”) and Corey Stoll (“Midnight in Paris”) as a pair of elite detectives in LA's Robbery Homicide Division, with Terrence Howard (“Iron Man") and Alfred Molina ("Spider-Man 2") sharing duties as the deputy district attorneys.
On Thursday nights, "Outsourced" finishes the superstar comedy lineup of "Community," "30 Rock" and "The Office." "Outsourced" stars Ben Rappaport as a man forced to relocate to India in order to keep his job as call center manager. Diedrich Bader (“The Drew Carey Show”) and Pippa Black (“Neighbours”) co-star, along with Rebecca Hazlewood, Parvesh Cheena, Rizwan Manji and Sacha Dhawan.
