Surprise! Love Bites "later"; Apprentice Moves to Thursdays This Fall

Message: Apprentice joins the NBC fall schedule Thursdays at 10 this September. Love Bites will join the schedule later in the fall.

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – July 1, 2010 – NBC will debut the newly revised edition of its previously announced “The Apprentice” series on Thursdays (10-11 p.m. ET) beginning this Fall.
NBC and Donald Trump want to put America back to work -- and after a long wait, the boardroom will be open again for candidates who have lost their jobs as the network showcases an updated version of the popular original alternative series “The Apprentice,” with Trump returning to preside.
“Love Bites,” the hour-long romantic comedy anthology series that was previously scheduled for Thursdays (10-11 p.m. ET) beginning this Fall, will premiere later during the 2010-11 season.


"Everyone at the network loves 'Love Bites,' but for a number of reasons, it now makes sense to showcase the comedic anthology series a little later in the new season," said Mitch Metcalf, Executive Vice President, Program Planning & Scheduling, NBC Entertainment. "We're extremely fortunate to have a potent show such as the new and contemporary version of Donald Trump's 'The Apprentice' ready to step into the slot and keep our Thursday lineup moving forward from a position of strength."

Oh, and here's a paragraph from this morning's Cynopsis, indicating this program change had been long planned...

NBC decided to take its new hour-long romantic comedy Love Bites off the schedule for this fall, replacing it in the 10p Thursday time slot with Donald Trump's The Apprentice. Several issues befell the comedic anthology series recently as showrunner Cindy Chupack asked to depart the series; previously actress Jordana Spiro left the show because she was contractually obligated to remain on the TBS comedy My Boys; and the character played by actress Becky Newton must be reworked as she played a virgin in the pilot episode though in real life she is now pregnant. The Apprentice will air for 13 weeks and NBC may opt to launch Love Bites in or before January 2011. Production on Love Bites had not yet begun and will not start for several more weeks as executive producers work out all the extenuating issues. NBC continues to stick to the 13-episode order for Love Bites, produced by Universal Media Studios and Working Title Television.

Raycom's VPN is down due to their quarterly reset. I've asked the few people working today in Bham to contact Raycom to allow us to access their stations.