THE SKED: Will NBC “Do No Harm”?

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NBC has dug a deep hole for itself on Thursdays, which used to be the crown jewel of its week.  Last night, its average in 18-49 year old viewers was a horrific 1.2, less than half of CBS and FOX’s numbers and just barely ahead of CW.  The night is due for a major shake-up, which will probably happen next season, but for now the network is tinkering with its sitcom line-up by–as it had previously announced–adding COMMUNITY and the new 1600 PENN to the night, and later in the Spring trying out a multi-camera version of UP ALL NIGHT.

That left the 10PM hour, which has been a disaster all season with the inexplicable scheduling of the Brian Williams newsmagazine ROCK CENTER in that prime real estate.  NBC will now make a change there, with the debut of its thriller DO NO HARM on January 31.  The show will try to get some heat by airing after the 1-hour series finale of 30 ROCK that night, although it’s not clear just how much heat there’ll be to be had. (Rock Center, for its part, will move to Friday nights at 10PM.  This will give NBC 2 consecutive hours of newsmagazines on Fridays with DATELINE at 9PM, following ABC’s model at least until March, when it’s not clear whether GRIMM will reclaim its 9PM slot or move elsewhere.)

The bigger problem is that based on the pilot (our report is here), Do No Harm is a pretty dim piece of work, a Jekyll & Hyde knock-off that doesn’t even make sense on its own pulpy terms, with no particular star power (Steven Pasquale is the lead) and considerably less class than its competition on ABC and CBS in the hour.

And in other NBC news, the network has announced that the lead role of Maria Von Trapp in its 2013 live telecast of THE SOUND OF MUSIC will be played by Carrie Underwood, whose previous acting experience consists of an episode of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER and a small role in the inspirational drama SOUL SURFER.  So Julie Andrews probably doesn’t need to worry too much about her legacy…