‘Frasier’ to Take ‘Seinfeld’s’ Thursday Spot

“Frasier” is going back where everybody knows its name.

NBC will move the Emmy-winning comedy from Tuesdays to Thursdays next season, industry sources said, filling the slot vacated by “Seinfeld.” The network’s revised prime-time lineup will also feature seven new series, consisting of four sitcoms, two dramas and a Sunday sports show opposite “60 Minutes.”

Moving “Frasier” represents a sort-of homecoming for that program and its star, Kelsey Grammer, since the “Cheers” spin-off premiered on Thursday and now returns to claim the 9 p.m. slot that its ancestor occupied for years.

NBC officially unveils its new schedule today, setting off the annual ritual in which networks announce new programs and sell advertising time for the coming TV season. The other networks will follow and have been closely monitoring front-running NBC in formulating their own plans.

NBC declined comment, but the network is expected to surround “Frasier” with three sitcoms from the producers of “Friends,” which will again lead off the “Must-See TV” parade at 8 p.m. Thursdays. Rounding out the night will be “All My Life,” a new comedy starring “Married . . . With Children’s” Christina Applegate, and “Veronica’s Closet,” the first-year show with Kirstie Alley.

Sources said NBC will shift “Just Shoot Me,” the comedy starring Laura San Giacomo and David Spade, to 9 p.m. Tuesdays, filling the void left by “Frasier.”

“They really had to make sure that Thursday night was as strong as it could possibly be,” said one television executive to explain the “Frasier” move, citing the enormous profits NBC reaps from that night, due in part to income from studios advertising their new movies.

The network may also have felt compelled to fortify Thursday to protect its $850 million investment to renew “ER”--which closes out the night--for three more seasons.

Two other new series, like “All My Life,” come from producers of current NBC hits. “Encore! Encore!,” starring Nathan Lane as an opera singer who takes over the family vineyard, is produced by the trio behind “Frasier” and looks bound for Tuesdays after “Mad About You.” “ER” producer John Wells is responsible for “Trinity,” a drama about a family living in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen penciled in for Friday nights.

In the wake of ABC canceling “Ellen,” it’s also notable that NBC has ordered a comedy featuring a leading gay character.

“Will & Grace,” about the friendship between a woman and a gay man, will join the network’s Monday lineup along with “Conrad Bloom,” which focuses on a young advertising executive. “Suddenly Susan” and “Caroline in the City” will reportedly continue Mondays at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., respectively.

Bo Derek also makes her series debut in “Wind on Water,” a soap opera about a ranching family set in Hawaii. The series will air Saturdays, along with the network’s current action shows “The Pretender” and “Profiler.”

Other programs returning to NBC’s schedule are the dramas “Law & Order” and “Homicide” in their current time slots, plus the sitcoms “3rd Rock From the Sun,” “Working” and “NewsRadio”--the last surviving after teetering on the brink of cancellation.

NBC has dropped such shows as “The Naked Truth,” “Fired Up,” “Men Behaving Badly,” “Jenny” and “Players.”

The NBC schedule contains 14 situation comedies--four less than the unprecedented number in last fall’s lineup. Drama programs still remain in short supply, however, relative to the network’s competitors, with NBC instead going with five editions of the news magazine “Dateline NBC,” which will air on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday nights.

NBC produces “Dateline” as well as several of its new series. Producing and thus owning programming has become a priority for the networks, who want to share in the potentially lucrative sale of reruns into syndication.

ABC and the WB network will release their new schedules on Tuesday, with CBS, UPN and Fox locking in their selections later in the week.

Struggling ABC is expected to add at least seven new shows, including a Saturday-night revival of “Fantasy Island” and a sitcom featuring twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who previously appeared on the network in “Full House.”

There are also tentative plans to move the legal drama “The Practice” and second edition of “20/20” from Monday to Sunday nights, following “The Wonderful World of Disney,” when the “Monday Night Football” season begins.

Perhaps emboldened by “Seinfeld’s” absence, insiders say the WB intends to relocate its Wednesday comedies “The Wayans Bros.,” “The Jamie Foxx Show” and “The Steve Harvey Show”--which all feature mostly African American casts--to Thursday nights in the fall. Such an approach would mirror the strategy Fox has employed to counter NBC, whose popular comedies don’t perform as well in African American households.

Having enjoyed success with the teen dramas “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Dawson’s Creek” on Tuesday nights, the WB will likely court a slightly more mature crowd Wednesdays with two twentysomething shows: “Felicity,” described as “Ally McBeal in college,” and “Charmed,” about a trio of witches.

Sources say WB has also ordered “Hyperion,” a small-town drama that will follow the family show “7th Heaven” on Monday nights.

By expanding into Thursdays, the WB will now program five nights a week. The other fledgling prime-time network, UPN, has also stated plans to offer five nights of programming in the fall.