• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, May 13, 2024

A new comedy series built around Reba McEntire for NBC is the highlight of a slew of new-content announcements from NBCUniversal last week in advance of the company’s Upfront Monday morning.

Among the big TV companies staging upfronts this week, NBCU was the first out of the starting gate with its plans for new shows.

NBCU announced Friday that NBC will have two new comedies and one new drama series premiering this fall.

Reba McEntire’s new multi-camera sitcom “Happy’s Place” (pictured above) will feature the 69-year-old country singer playing a woman who inherits a bar from her late father -- and in the process, learns she has a half-sister she never knew about who inherited half the business.

“Happy’s Place” will take up residence at 8 p.m. Eastern on Fridays, leading into “Lopez vs. Lopez” at 8:30 and two hours of “Dateline NBC” from 9 to 11.

The other new sitcom, “St. Denis Medical,” is described as a one-camera mockumentary-style series “about an underfunded, understaffed Oregon hospital where the dedicated doctors and nurses try their best to treat patients while maintaining their own sanity,” NBC said.

Stars of the show include Wendi McLendon-Covey (“The Goldbergs”), Allison Tolman and David Alan Grier. 

“St. Denis Medical” will lead off NBC’s Tuesday lineup this fall at 8 p.m. eastern followed by the return of “Night Court” at 8:30, the week’s third hour of “The Voice” at 9, and the return of the Jesse L. Martin detective series “The Irrational” at 10.

NBC’s new drama is “Brilliant Minds,” scheduled for 10 p.m. eastern on Monday following the week’s first two hours of “The Voice” from 8 p.m. to 10.

Zachary Quinto leads the cast of “Brilliant Minds,” which “follows a revolutionary, larger-than-life neurologist and his team of interns as they explore the last great frontier -- the human mind -- while grappling with their own relationships and mental health,” NBC said.

Elsewhere on the NBC fall schedule, Wednesday night prime time will once again be occupied by the three Dick Wolf Chicago shows -- “Chicago Med” at 8, “Chicago Fire” at 9 and “Chicago P.D.” at 10.

On Thursday nights, two of Wolf’s “Law & Order” shows remain -- the original “Law & Order” at 8 and “SVU” at 9.

But the 10-11 p.m. slot will now have the returning missing-persons drama “Found” in the fall, replacing “Law & Order: Organized Crime,” which will have its fifth season exclusively on Peacock.

Mid-season highlights on NBC include “The Hunting Party,” a police procedural, about a team of super-sleuths who track down the nation’s most dangerous killers; and a 10-part natural history documentary series, “The Americas,” narrated by Tom Hanks.

NBCU’s NBC press release on Friday was preceded on Thursday by new-content announcements for the company’s cable channels.

The list of new cable shows includes just one scripted drama, “Revival” on Syfy, based on the “Revival” comic books series about a day in Wisconsin when people who recently died rise from their graves and, unlike zombies, simply assume the lives they were living before.

New unscripted shows coming to NBCU’s cable channels include “Philly Homicide” on Oxygen; an as-yet untitled family reality series with Snoop Dogg and daughter Cori on E!; and “On Safari” on Bravo.