It's coming. The table is set, the players are on the field, the sails are raised, and the pretty maids are all in a row. Of course, I speak of the 2008-09 television schedule. In just a few short weeks viewers will be able to dine on a number of favorite and new dishes that are being served by the networks as well as the increasing number of cable channels who are delving into original programming.

While other fall seasons have come and gone with nary a whimper, this season may be different. Due to the prolonged Writers Strike many shows ended their seasons quite early. Programs like Life, Private Practice, Pushing Daisies, and Heroes haven't aired original episodes since the end of 2007. Heck, there hasn't been a new episode of The Shield since June of last year! So, the beginning of the 2008-09 season will be a second chance for some of these shows, particularly the ones that premiered last season, to show their worth to fans and the networks.

When you're a ratings-challenged fledgling network like the CW, you're going to do anything you can to get a leg up on the competition. Releasing sex-filled advertisements for your most high-profile show is a good start, but that alone won't get the job done. To that end, the CW has just announced that it's moving its fall premiere dates up to September 1st, well ahead of the beginning of the traditional broadcast season.

The idea behind the move is that you're already going to be hooked on Gossip Girl and Top Model by the time the other networks get around to premiering their fall shows, sometime around mid-to-late September. The season isn't the only thing the CW is starting early, however. Starting in November, they're also extending prime time, with original programming beginning at 6:30 on Sunday nights.

Check out CW's full premiere schedule after the jump.

NBC is trying to get a head start on all of the other networks by unveiling their new fall schedule not in the traditional month of May but six weeks earlier.

The network has announced that instead of unveiling their 2008-09 schedule in May, when all of the networks give their upfront presentations, they're going to do it a press conference next week. The press conference will be held at Rockefeller Plaza and will be headed by NBC chairman Ben Silverman and Universal Media Studios chairman Marc Graboff.

So, NBC's fall schedule sucks. At least, that's the message I'm getting today with the news that president of NBC entertainment, Kevin Reilly, has lost his job.

I'm trying to understand why NBC Universal president Jeff Zucker would hold on to Reilly for the crucial planning of the fall schedule after his lackluster performance with last fall's expensive-but-low-rated Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Kidnapped, etc. And this spring, NBC once again came in last in the ratings among the big four networks (NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX).

After NBC's upfronts presentation earlier this month, advertisers didn't really leap at any of the offerings on the new fall lineup (because they're boring). That's an obvious reason to get rid of Reilly, but it also doesn't put a lot of confidence in the fall schedule.

NBC released its fall 2007 schedule today. Here's a rundown on what new shows we'll see, when they'll air, and what old shows won't be coming back.

Returning: Friday Night Lights, Law & Order, Law & Order: CI, Law & Order: SVU, Deal or No Deal, 30 Rock, The Office, Heroes, Scrubs, ER, The Biggest Loser, Las Vegas, My Name Is Earl, 1 vs. 100, Dateline, Football Night In America, Medium, and Saturday Night Live.

New: The Bionic Woman, The IT Crowd, Chuck, Journeyman, Life, Lipstick Jungle, The Singing Bee, World Moves, and Heroes: Origins.

Out: Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, Crossing Jordan, The Black Donnellys, Kidnapped, Andy Barker, P.I., Identity, Raines, 20 Good Years, Grease: You're The One That I Want, The Real Wedding Crashers, Thank God You're Here.

Moving: Friday Night Lights moves to Friday nights at 10pm. On Thursdays, 30 Rock moves to 8:30, The Office to 9, and Scrubs to 9:30. Law & Order will move to Sundays at 8pm (in 2008). Law & Order: CI will be on USA Network first, then NBC will air the repeats.

After the jump, a rundown on the new shows and a look at the schedule.

That's one of the revelations in this Forbes mag piece about Jeff Zucker and NBC. It says that not only is it possible that NBC will cancel Law and Order (the first one, CI and SVU are pretty safe), Zucker and Kevin Reilly are thinking seriously about making The Office a one hour show.

Hmmm...a one hour Office? I don't know. Will that be too much of a good thing? Bigger isn't necessarily better.

Zucker also discloses that when NBC gives its upfront (on May 14), there will be 5 new shows announced: three dramas, one comedy, and one reality show. I've never been good at math, so I'll leave it to you to decipher what that means about which current shows will and won't return.

[via TV Tattle]

Every year, the networks have their pilot season. Many of the shows don't make it and you never hear about them again. Some actually make it on the air and onto the fall schedules. The networks are going to announce their new fall schedules in May (and we'll complete coverage here, of course), but Buzzsugar has a sneak peek at some of the pilots that are competing for a slot on the nets.

But it's not your typical sneak peek, it's a quiz! They list the plots for ten shows. Some of them are real, some of them are fake. Can you tell which is which? My favorite plot descriptions, whether they're real or not, are the comedy about "two soda salesmen on a never ending business trip," and the drama about "a girl raised by a pack of wolves who goes to boarding school."

(When you're done, the answers are here.)

Believe it or not, I don't watch much TV. With two daughters, five- and three-years-old respectively, and a set of five-month-old fraternal twins (boy and girl), there really isn't much time in the schedule to sit down and watch a show on a regular basis. Heck, by the time I turn on the television some evenings it's to watch Futurama and Family Guy on Adult Swim. So, the shows I do choose are ones that I know I'll watch on the regular basis because I'm reviewing them for TV Squad, or because I've already committed years of time on them already. With that in mind, here is the breakdown of what I'll be watching this fall.

Sunday: With Sunday Night Football dominating the NBC schedule for the first half of the television season, and the fact I do not watch football (yes, I'm un-American. So deport me!), I won't be watching much this day. I will probably get back into The Simpsons and Family Guy (and King of the Hill when it returns) this year since The West Wing is no longer with us.

Ok, I like TV... a lot. You might even say I'm a little obsessed. When I started making up the list for this post I was reminded of the time I took a gig in Alabama. It was only two months work, but those two months were April and May. I didn't know what kind of cable access I would have while there, and you don't want to go missing shows in April and May! So I set up a crazy four VCR system so I wouldn't miss anything. There were charts, graphs, and explicit instructions. Sunday the cable box needs to be left on this channel. Tuesday you need to change tapes in VCR1 and VCR2. Wednesday change the cable box to this channel. Etc. I left the whole mess in the hands of my roomate Jen and made for the Yellowhammer state. When I returned, it was to a huge stack of television goodness. Now, here is my viewing schedule for this season.

Sunday - I'll kick of my week with The Amazing Race at 8:00. I've forgiven them for the disaster that was the family season. At 9:00, flip to FOX and catch Family Guy and The War At Home. Medium takes over at 10:00. I'll be covering that one for the site this season, so it will get recorded on the computer while I watch live. VCR1 will grab Brothers & Sisters while VCR2 tapes Venture Bros. at 10:30.

Now that the CW has given us a look at their upcoming fall schedule, the only thing that was left in order for them to become a real network was a web site, which went live today. The site is fairly extensive, with individual pages for all the shows and a list of affiliate stations. And it's flashy as hell, with a preview video and everything.

Oh, and see that ugly green color behind the network's ugly '70s-era logo? It's... all... over... the... site. So if you missed the shag carpeting you used to sit on before your kindergarten nap time, go check the site out for a nice reminder.

[thanks to Jeff for the head's up.]

This is Upfronts week, when all the networks reveal their new fall schedules and tell us which new shows have made it and which old shows have been canceled. We'll have coverage every day this week (starting later today, with NBC's schedule.) Here's a handy guide to what's coming up:

• Today: NBC
• Tuesday: ABC
• Wednesday: CBS
• Thursday: FOX and The CW