NBC fall schedule includes addition to ‘Law & Order’ franchise

NBC Friday became the first of the five major broadcast networks to announce programming plans for the 2021-22 season, including unveiling a fall schedule with six shows produced by Dick Wolf and no situation comedies.

The latest series from Wolf will be “Law & Order: For The Defense,” about a criminal defense firm. It will air at 8 p.m. Thursdays, preceding the Wolf-produced “Law & Order: SVU” and “Law & Order: Organized Crime.”

For the fourth consecutive season, NBC will devote its entire Wednesday schedule to Wolf-produced shows set in Chicago — “Chicago Med,” “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago P.D.”

NBC also announced it had ordered a documentary series produced by Wolf set to premiere at midseason, “LA Fire and Rescue,” about the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

NBC’s fall schedule also includes two other new dramas, “La Brea” and “Ordinary Joe.”

“La Brea” begins with a massive sinkhole opening in the middle of Los Angeles, pulling hundreds of people and buildings into its depths, with those falling in finding themselves in a mysterious and dangerous primeval land and the rest of the world desperately seeking to understand what happened.

“Ordinary Joe” is centered around the idea of how choices made in a single moment can alter the course of life forever.

NBC’s 2020 fall schedule included one situation comedy, “Superstore.” The network’s three comedies that premiered at midseason, “Kenan,” “Mr. Mayor” and “Young Rock,” will return for second seasons at midseason.

NBC also ordered two new comedies set to premiere at midseason — “American Auto,” a workplace comedy about the automobile industry created by “Superstore” creator Justin Spitzer, and “Grand Crew,” about a group of young professionals trying to navigate the ups and downs of life and love in Los Angeles while gathering at their favorite bar.

The comedy “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” will begin its eighth and final season following the network’s coverage of the Tokyo Olympics.

The drama “This Is Us” will begin its sixth and final season at midseason, continuing to air at 9 p.m. Tuesday with what NBC called “a largely uninterrupted run.”

NBC also announced it ordered what it described as “larger-than- life” competition series for midseason and summer 2022, including “American Song Contest,” a U.S. version of the “Eurovision Song Contest,” and “AGT: Extreme,” an element of the “America’s Got Talent” franchise showcasing outrageous and jaw-dropping daredevil acts with Simon Cowell serving as a judge and executive producer.

NBC’s new holiday programming includes the musical “Annie Live!”; the animated specials “Trolls Holidays in Harmony” and Jimmy Fallon’s “Five More Sleeps ‘Til Christmas”; and holiday episodes of “Kenan,” “Young Rock” and “Mr. Mayor.”

No decisions have been made on the fates of the game show, “Ellen’s Game of Games,” and the scripted series, “Debris,” “Good Girls,” “Manifest” and “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.”

The NBC fall schedule consists of 10 hours of dramas, three hours each of “The Voice” and “Dateline NBC”, four hours of NFL programming and one hour each of reruns of dramas and “Saturday Night Live.”

“Our program strategy for NBC is singularly focused on driving growth by capturing audiences with can’t-miss event television and keeping them on the network with immersive scripted series,” said Frances Berwick, chairman, entertainment networks, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming. The network will be airing Super Bowl LVI and the 2022 Winter Olympics.

“We are leaning into pieces of the legacy that work, but not being precious about experimenting with things that can benefit from a change,” Berwick said.

Here is NBC’s fall schedule:

• Sunday: “Football Night in America”; “NBC Sunday Night Football”;
• Monday: “The Voice”; “Ordinary Joe”;
• Tuesday: “The Voice”; “La Brea”; “New Amsterdam”;
• Wednesday:  “Chicago Med”; “Chicago Fire”; “Chicago P.D.”;
• Thursday: “Law & Order: For The Defense”; “Law & Order: SVU”; “Law & Order: Organized Crime”;
• Friday: “The Blacklist”; “Dateline NBC”;
• Saturday: Drama reruns; “Dateline Weekend Mystery”; “Saturday Night Live” reruns.

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