The Robert Goren character is magnificient! Why hasn't he been nominated for an emmy? If Rita Moreno isn't nominated for an emmy for her performance as his mother, the emmy's are fixed! Please give the Goren character a woman. He deserves some love. Not Eames, she's too cynical re: love and romance. THey make better partners. Besides, I liked her better when i thought she was gay.

I don't understand why NBC messes with the Lawand Order:CI anyway.....I love Vincent.

to trachein, go on sometimes? my head hurts from reading your comments! law and order:ci was once a great show. for whatever reason Vincent Di Onofrio could not work an entire season was the downfall of the show. He and Kathryn Erbe have a great chemistry that Chris Noth and neither of his co-stars could come close to. Spilting the show this way they did has been a castrosphe!

Thanks Randy. I do go on sometimes.

They did it again! Kept the worst 2 on NBC and relegated the best of the L&O's to wither away on USA.
Wolf's ego must be immense to need to beat Bonanza's record!

trachein, interesting post. Thanks for going to the trouble

Update re impact of rights fees cut:

I just read a quote from Dick Wolf in the LATimes in which he said that he was forced to accept a cut in rights fees for both LO:OR and LO:CI but that the cuts would be absorbed through "belt tightening" and would not be visible to the viewer.

We'll see

re #6, #7 and #8

David, you are dead wrong. ABC did run second chance episodes of Monk during/after the first season. I am not sure that the NBC/Universal merger had yet occurred, so while NBC may have owned a piece of USA, it did not own the whole enchillada, as it does now.

At any rate, just becuase a show is run on a particilar network does not necessarily mean that it is also produced by the network (although that is becomming more and more comment). With regard to Monk, despite the fact that Monk is aired on USA, which is owned by NBC/Universal, it is produced by Touchstone which is part of the ABC/Disney family. Touchstone obviously incuded a provision in its deal with USA to allow for reruns on ABC, allowing ABC to reap some revenue from the show. That is why Monk reruns could, and did, air on ABC at one point in time (we're talking during/after the first season and on Friday or Saturday nights as I recall).

ABC had been offered Monk to start with and it only ended up an USA after ABC (and I think all of the other networks) turned it down. When ABC was in a total slump (pre-Lost, DH, etc), it aired episodes of Monk after they had aired on USA, potenitally to see if ABC would pick it up for a second season, rather than the show staying with USA. The ratings weren't good enough for ABC, but plenty good for Monk.

Just because a show airs on one network doesn't mean much, because it may be produced by a the production arm of another network (or an independent). It used to be that networks (or their parent companies) couldn't own their own shows, so the playing field was theoretically level, but when those rules were changed, all of the nets (or their parent companies) started production units. Nowadays, the tendency is for the networks to air shows produced in house as opposed to those from the arms of other networks or independents, to keep all the profits in house. This "cozy" relationship has resulted in several disptues/lawsuits, most recently between the creators of Will & Grace and NBC Productions, the producer/owner of the show. The W & G producers alleged that NBC Productions sold ongoing seasons of W & G for a "discount" to NBC rather than using cometitive bidding to get a better price. A similar dispute ran for a long time (and may still be ongoing) between X-Files producer Chris Carter, David Duchovny and Fox (alhtough I believe that this was about Fox's allegeldy making a sweetheart deal with FX to air reruns.

The split ownership can also benefit and show and its producers. This appears to be happening with Scrubs. Scrubs airs on NBC, but is produced by ABC/Touchstone. Since ABC gets the syndication profits as the producer, it has already told the Scrubs people that if they don't get renewed by NBC, ABC will pick it up for its final season (to increase syndication profits and given that ABC has no decent comedies). Last I heard, NBC was picking it up for a short 18-episode final season (*fingers crossed*)

With reagard to the LO: Original Recipie and CI renewals, I did not see any mention in the official NBCU press release or in any of the other commentary related to this arrangement how much of a hit Wolf had to take on the rights fees to either or both shows and what that may mean for them on a going-forward basis.

It would seem that LO:CI as it exists now, with the "dual cast" formal would be expensive, particularly for USA. Also, given the ratings that LO:OR is getting, NBC can hardly justify paying what it has paid for the show in the past. Will we be seeing less of the "expensive" cast members: Ed, Lieutenant and Jack (not to mention DA Branch?).

This sounds like a one-year deal, which means that LO:OR won't pass Gunsmoke as the longest-running drama, but I am glad that if next season is LO's last, then it will get a "proper" send off befitting a show of its stature.

I also did not see any mention of scheduling. I would presume that NBC will not put "repurposed" episodes of LO:CI (that's what USA calls it when they run last week's episodes) in the primo Tues at 9:00 pm slot. Maybe this will open up the slot for Friday Night Lights, which can't really lead off a night or be run at 10? Friday nights would be ideal for the "repurposed" LO:CI (although that is the night that USA runs the origianls of Monk and Psych).

I guess we'll know tomorrow, won't we.

From what I've read, Criminal Intent will rarely make it on NBC. How many episodes of USA's original series have we seen on NBC? Looks like CI will wither away in cable land, which is sad to see because up until two seasons ago, the series was great and intriguing.

ABC NEVER reaired Monk. Monk is on an NBC channel.