"Studio 60" to Return May 24

NBC has "announced" its most hyped show of the 2006-2007 season "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" which disappeared midway through February sweeps will return to the schedule on Thursday, May 24 at 10/9c, a week after the "ER" finale and a day after the conclusion of May sweeps.

The fact that the network has not rushed to announce the return of the show in an official press release (and they did so only by putting the return date on its homepage) and the fact that it will return only after the end of the important "sweeps" period do not bode well with the show's future.

It means a) NBC knows the show would spoil its sweeps performance, b) it will not take into account the ratings for the final 6 episodes because it announces the new fall schedule 10 days before the show even returns. For these reasons, the show's chances for renewal are considered slim.

Last year at this time, "Studio 60" was the most talked about pilot of the new TV season because of an all-star cast and Aaron Sorkin at its helm. After a solid 13+ million premiere in September, the show went on to lose about half that audience with the last episode on February 19 pulling in 6,4 million viewers.

The network replaced the show with mob drama "The Black Donnellys" on February 26 and then reality series "The Real Wedding Crashers" on April 19 but both shows ended up wasting its plum "Heroes" lead-in audience.

The Monday at 10 p.m. timeslot was however lucky for NBC's other on-the-bubble drama "Friday Night Lights" when it pulled in a series-high of 8,29 million viewers in its one-time-only airplay on October 30.

Previous time-slot occupant "Medium" was also more successful in the timeslot. The drama tied with "Law & Order" for 35th place in the overall year-end rankings averaging 11,2 million viewers in the 2005-2006 season.

NBC moved "Medium" to Wednesdays at 10 this season only to see its ratings plummet as well.

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