NBC Announces New Premiere Date for "Quarterlife"

NBC Announces New Premiere Date for "Quarterlife" 1/25/08

NBC ANNOUNCES NEW PREMIERE DATE FOR HIGHLY ANTICIPATED INTERNET HIT 'QUARTERLIFE' ON FEBRUARY 26 AND REGULAR BROADCAST DAY BEGINNING SUNDAY, MARCH 2

NBC Will Debut the Broadcast Premieres of USA Hits "Monk" and "Psych" on Sunday, April 6

BURBANK - January 25, 2008 -- NBC announces a new premiere date for its critically acclaimed Internet series "quarterlife" from Monday, February 18 to Tuesday, February 26 (10-11 p.m. ET) before it settles into its new regularly scheduled day and time of Sundays (9-10 p.m. ET) beginning March 2.

As a result, "Monk" and "Psych," two hits from USA Network that were previously scheduled for their broadcast premiere on NBC on March 2 (9-11 p.m. ET), will now debut on Sunday, April 6 at 8-9 p.m. (ET) and 9-10 p.m. (ET), respectively.

Leading into the Tuesday premiere of 'quarterlife' will be the NBC hit unscripted series 'The Biggest Loser.' "'The Biggest Loser,' is one of the strongest shows on television right now among young viewers, especially young women, and we see this as a perfect opportunity to capture that audience with the highly anticipated broadcast premiere of 'quarterlife'," said Vince Manze, President, NBC Program Planning, Scheduling and Strategy, NBC Universal. "In addition, in its regular Sunday time period we're providing a young-skewing original scripted alternative in an hour where the competition will be mostly unscripted programming or encores."

The new series from Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick -- the creative team behind "My So-Called Life," "thirtysomething," "Legends of the Fall," and "Blood Diamond" -- "quarterlife" is the first network-quality series that was produced first for the Internet. Known for their incisive portrayals of relationships and experience during life's key passages, Herskovitz and Zwick take on the crucial years between 20 and 30 in "quarterlife," when so many of life's important decisions are made. "quarterlife" tells the ongoing stories of six creative people in their twenties. As with Herskovitz and Zwick's earlier series, at the center of "quarterlife" is a commitment to realism and the recognition of universal human themes through the truthful depiction of the way young people speak, work, think, love, argue, and just have fun.

The cast stars Bitsie Tulloch as Dylan("Lonelygirl15," "Lost," "West Wing"), Maite Schwartz as Lisa ("Medium," "Dexter," "House of Grimm"), Scott Michael Foster as Jed ("Greek," "The Horrible Flowers"), David Walton as Danny ("Heist," "Cracking Up"), Michelle Lombardo as Debra ("Click," "Entourage," "October Road"), Kevin Christy as Andy ("Love Don't Cost a Thing"), and Barret Swatek as Brittany ("Seventh Heaven," "40-Year-Old Virgin").

Starting with Dylan (Tulloch), a young woman whose overly truthful video blog (on quarterlife.com of course) spills the closest secrets of her friends, the show's characters - filmmakers Danny (Walton) and Jed (Foster), actress-bartender Lisa (Schwartz), geek-extraordinaire Andy (Christy), and still-tied-to-her-parents Debra (Lombardo) - chart the sometimes excruciating, sometimes comic, often emotional experiences that comprise coming of age in the 21st century. "quarterlife" is created and executive produced by Herskovitz and Zwick. The series is produced by longtime Herskovitz and Zwick associate, Josh Gummersall. Melanie Hall is chief operating officer of quarterlife.com.

"Monk" and "Psych" remain two of the most successful series on cable television.

On USA, "Monk" is telecast on Fridays (9-10 p.m. ET) and on Universal HD (11-12 p.m. ET). "Psych" follows on Fridays (10-11 p.m. ET). All new episodes of "Monk" and "Psych" returned to USA on January 11.

"Monk" the critically acclaimed original series starring Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award winner Tony Shalhoub, remains one of the highest-rated original scripted series in basic cable history.

Title star Shalhoub ("Big Night," "Wings," "Men in Black," "Cars") has earned three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and two SAG Awards for Best Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance as Adrian Monk -- a brilliant detective who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Monk's psychological problem costs him his position as a legendary homicide detective on the San Francisco Police force. Due to the tragic unsolved murder of his wife, Monk has developed an abnormal fear of germs, heights, crowds and virtually everything else, which provides an unusual challenge to solving crimes -- not to mention his day-to-day existence.

Traylor Howard ("Two Guys and a Girl," "Me, Myself and Irene"), Ted Levine ("Heat," "Moby Dick") and Jason Gray-Stanford ("Taken," "A Beautiful Mind") also star, with regular guest stars Emmy Clarke ("My House in Umbria," "Fur") as Julie Teeger and Stanley Kamel ("Inland Empire," "Mister Sterling") as Dr. Charles Kroger.

"Monk" is executive-produced by David Hoberman ("Raising Helen," "Bringing Down the House," "The Negotiator"), Andy Breckman ("Saturday Night Live," "The Late Show with David Letterman," "Rat Race"), Tony Shalhoub, Randy Zisk ("House," "Without a Trace') and Tom Scharpling ("The Best Show on WFMU"). "Monk" is from Universal Media Studios in association with Mandeville Films and Touchstone Television.

The #1 new show on cable in 2006, "Psych," stars James Roday ("The Dukes of Hazzard") as young police consultant Shawn Spencer, who solves crimes with powers of observation so acute the precinct detectives think he's psychic -- at least that's what he lets them believe. The series also stars Dulé Hill ("The West Wing") as Shawn's best friend and reluctant sidekick, Gus, and Corbin Bernsen ("Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," "L.A. Law") as Shawn's disapproving father -- who ironically was the one who honed his son's "observation" skills as a child. Also featured are Timothy Omundson ("Judging Amy," "Deadwood"), Maggie Lawson ("Crumbs," "Inside Schwartz") and Kirsten Nelson ("Everwood").

Guest-stars for the second season include Kerry Washington ("Ray"), Brian Doyle Murray ("Groundhog Day"), Tim Curry ("The Rocky Horror Picture Show"), Gina Gershon ("Snoops"), Lou Diamond Phillips ("La Bamba"), Kevin Sorbo ("Hercules"), Bianca Kajlich ("Rules of Engagement") and John Amos ("The West Wing").

"Psych" is executive-produced by Steve Franks ("Big Daddy"), Kelly Kulchak and Chris Henze. Mel Damski ("Picket Fences") serves as co-executive producer; Saladin Patterson ("Frasier", "The Bernie Mac Show") is consulting producer and Josh Bycel ("It's All Relative") is supervising producer. The executive story editors are Anupam Nigam and Andy Berman. "Psych" is from Universal Media Studios in association with Tagline Pictures.

Source: NBC Press Release