NBC have released their 08/09 TV season schedule. Of interest to me is the news Heroes will return as a 3-hour "event" as part of a "major relaunch" for the superhero series, which faced a nasty backlash when the second season failed to live up to expectations. This "event" will be comprised of an hour-long catch-up and a 2-hour season premiere. The third season will be split into 2 halves (the first arriving in Sep '08, the second in Feb '09).
Meanwhile, it's great news for the BBC, because NBC have purchased Merlin -- a 13-part series, starring Richard Wilson, that makes its UK debut this autumn in Doctor Who's slot. The NBC airings are scheduled for spring '09. It's a rarity for a UK TV show to be shown on a major US network in primetime, so this is a real coup for the Beeb. Can you believe the Yanks aren't just producing their own remake, and have bought the show before anyone's actually seen it?
Other NBC shows arriving in the autumn include: Crusoe, an adaptation of the classic Daniel Defoe novel; a full season of the Knight Rider remake; Christian Slater in My Own Worst Enemy, playing a Jekyll & Hyde-type character; a globe-trotting billionaire who uses his wealth to help the world hands-on in The Philanthropist; a supernatural drama about a mind-reading paramedic in The Listener; a spin-off to the US version of The Office; a US remake of Aussie sitcom Kath & Kim; celebrity chef Marco Pierre White follows his protege Gordon Ramsey to the USA, hosting reality TV cooking show Chopping Block; and a mini-series based on a comic-book, starring Val Kilmer and Stephen Dorff, about an amnesiac who may have assassinated the first female President, in VIII.
