Good news Chocolate Bear!

From TV.com

Now, one of the network's biggest question marks is allegedly heading back for a new season. Scrubs, which was rumored to be on its way out last week, has been renewed by NBC, says The Hollywood Reporter.

Citing "sources," the trade says the medical comedy starring Zach Braff will return for its seventh season and 18 more episodes. Scrubs debuted in October 2001.

Julian the Manatee and I are elated! I don't want to jinx myself, but NBC would have been stupid to cut bait on this show -- especially considering reports like this, from TV.com:

Moles inside NBC (who have been very busy and very talkative the past few days) say that The Black Donnellys, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and Crossing Jordan have been canceled, according to The New York Times.

Donnellys, about a group of Irish brothers who get involved in organized crime in New York City, is the youngest show of the three to get whacked. The show, created by Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco, is only months old, having premiered in February. Studio 60 getting shuttered isn't much of a surprise. The drama from the mind of Aaron Sorkin (West Wing) had long been rumored to go under the axe, which came to a boil with reports of its sets being torn down last week.

Knew it was coming, obviously. I suppose 18 more Scrubs episodes is a decent tradeoff for a pair of shows that were relatively new. Still, Studio 60 was genius and didn't deserve to go anywhere.

Bringin' "60" back...

For my 200th post, I figure I can provide at least a little good news... from Zap2it.com:

NBC has set a return date for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

The Aaron Sorkin drama, which arrived last fall as the season's most hyped show and vanished from NBC's schedule amidst sinking ratings, will move to Thursday nights at 10 p.m. starting on May 24, at least according to the network's website for the show.

Not-so-coincidentally, that Thursday is the day after the end of the crucial May sweeps period and it comes a week after the upfront presentation at which NBC will reveal to advertisers whether or not Studio 60 has a future on the network next season.

The show's chances for renewal are believed to be relatively slim. Savvy viewers will recall that this is a return of sorts for Studio 60. Last May, NBC announced that the series would air on Thursday nights at 9 p.m., only to run scurrying to Mondays after ABC moved Grey's Anatomy into the same time period.

Studio 60 had a solid premiere, but by the time February rolled around the series was drawing only around 7 million same-day viewers (factoring in DVR usage gave the series a boost). The last original Studio 60 aired back on February 19, before NBC shelved it a week earlier than expected for The Black Donnellys.

Of course, The Black Donnellys failed to even premiere big and NBC pulled the plug on that Paul Haggis-created drama after only six episodes, replacing it with The Real Wedding Crashers, which also didn't exactly dominate the time period.

NBC has yet to announce its specific intentions for the truncated Studio 60 return. Six episodes remain unaired.

Well, at least there's a little bit of good news there. There's really no hope that it'll come back, but it's a great show and it at least deserves to finish out its season.

Incidentally, I think it needs to be mentioned again that NBC wasted two really good shows trying to make a dent in the CSI: Miami time slot.

"Crash" and burn

Now, news that's less exciting... from Zap2it:

Having had less-than-stellar results with dramas in the 10 p.m. Monday spot this season, NBC will take a flyer on unscripted comedy to close out the year.

The network has set a premiere date for The Real Wedding Crashers, a hidden-camera show based on the hit 2005 movie. The show, produced by Punk'd maestros Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg, will debut at 10 p.m. ET Monday, April 23, following the return of Heroes. It takes the spot of The Black Donnellys; there's no word on when that show's remaining episodes will air.

A group of five improv performers will take to the churches and reception halls or our fair nation, posing as guests or cater-waiters or other attendees to disrupt the proceedings, presumably to make sure that the happy couple never forgets their wedding day.

One catch: The bride and groom know what's coming. They're in on the joke and will help the "crashers" reveal the hoax at the end of each episode. Some of the hijinks will even be designed to bring families closer together, presumably in more than just horror at the behavior of the crashers.

OK, so here's another example of a network giving up on being creative and original and giving in to unentertaining, cheap reality shows. This is even worse because two very good dramas have fallen to this 10 p.m. Monday time slot (Studio 60 and Donnellys).

It goes to show that a lead-in means nothing for certain demographics. As great as Heroes is, the crowd that watches it isn't just leaving their TV on NBC. It's different from American Idol's crowd. And you can't measure the quality of these two shows without putting them in a more protective time slot. Putting them up against CSI: Miami was the shows' downfall, not their quality. Shame, NBC, shame.

And I've been saying such nice things about NBC

I'm all for giving new shows the best shot you can, but don't do it at the expense of quality television that you're too lazy to promote correctly. From Variety:

NBC's The Black Donnellys will now preem Feb. 26, bumping Studio 60 off the sked a week early. NBC is pushing up the premiere date for The Black Donnellys -- and pulling Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip off the air a week earlier than planned. Donnellys, which was set to bow March 5, will now sign on Monday, Feb. 26, at 10 p.m.

Move gives Donnellys an extra week on the air with a first-run Heroes lead-in. Heroes is set to go into repeats after its March 5 episode. Premiere date change was announced Tuesday afternoon, hours after Nielsen confirmed that Studio 60 -- the current occupant of the post-Heroes timeslot -- dropped to its lowest ratings yet. NBC hasn't yet said when it plans to bring back Studio 60 for its final run of season one segs.

Decision to yank Studio 60 a week early will no doubt raise a new round of questions about the show's long-term fate. Insiders said the net still hasn't decided what to do with the show and that the sked change is mostly about giving Donnellys the best possible launch.