News: NBC Picks Up 5 New Shows

Even though Upfronts don't officially start until next Monday, NBC has jumped the gun by officially picking up five new shows to join Matthew Perry's Go On and the straight to series Hannibal. According to the web, NBC has added Save Me, The New Normal, Revolution, 1600 Penn and Animal Practice.

What's interesting about these pick ups is the fact that four of them are comedies which takes the new crop to a total of five, and in turn could make things very interesting when it comes to which existing sitcoms will get renewed or canceled (although it looks like 30 Rock is close to a final season order). Another stray observation: most of the new shows stray away from the established workplace comedy sub-genre that's been NBC's go-to for some time now.

On the drama side, so far the only new show to be added to the NBC line-up is the J.J. Abrams produced Revolution which will be the Peacock's second attempt at getting into the Abrams business in the past few seasons. Since it has a sci-fi spin to it, I'll be interested to see where it lands on the schedule, but more on that later.

Check back next week as I delve a little deeper and share my thoughts on all of next season's new shows and schedules. Until then, take a look at my Armchair Programmer Series.