NBC: Home of the homeless TV shows

At right: “Hello, Andy? Listen, about that time slot...”

PASADENA, Calif. -- In a parallel universe where everyone has TiVo, or at least knows how to program a VCR, the number one network in the land is NBC. But back here in Ye Olde Real World, where people still follow the TV listings, NBC's got a problem: a wealth of promising shows that it's having trouble getting to the public.

  That point was made so emphatically during NBC's winter previews this week that I actually felt sorry for Kevin Reilly, the former FX whiz who's now head of entertainment for NBC. He's got all these ideas bursting out of his head and nowhere to put them.

  Sure, he's got the hit of the year in “Heroes.” He's got “Sunday Night Football” now, too, and three other shows that are doing well enough that on Wednesday, Reilly announced he's renewing them, along with “Heroes,” through 2008 ("My Name Is Earl," "The Office" and "Law & Order: SVU").

  “Vision is a word that gets thrown around a lot but is in short supply,” he told critics on Wednesday. “And when you've got it, you grab it.”

  And put it on the schedule … where people will see it … right?

  That is NBC's dilemma. On Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Reilly is forced to hand over key time periods to cheap ratings-boosters while his worthier shows languish.

  “Friday Night Lights,” the football drama that may have the most talented young cast in television, is dying on the vine because Reilly can't find an 8 p.m. (CT) spot on the schedule for it. (The show airs 7 p.m. Wednesdays.)

  “30 Rock” won a Golden Globe for comedy last week, but it hasn't won a renewal because hardly anyone's watching (at 8:30 p.m. Thursdays).

  What NBC presented to critics Wednesday only made matters worse:

  “Andy Barker, P.I.,” a laugh-out-loud takeoff on detective shows that reunites Andy Richter, Conan O'Brien and former O'Brien jokewriter Jonathan Groff. Problem: NBC already has four well-made comedies; where's it going to put this one?

  “The Black Donnellys,” a brilliant drama about a troubled Irish family in New York, from Oscar winner Paul Haggis (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Crash,” not to mention a CBS show from the '90s, “EZ Streets,” that is still legend among critics). Dilemma: Another 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. show with no place to go on NBC's schedule.

  And then there's “Raines,” an odd-looking but intriguing vehicle for Jeff Goldblum, who plays an investigator who solves murders by appearing to converse with the victims. Of these three, only “Raines” has a time commitment, and it's not much of one -- taking the place of “ER” for two weeks in March.

  Meanwhile, Reilly said Wednesday he's bringing back the Penn Jillette-hosted “Identity” (“What's My Line” with jacked-up suspense) and yet another game show, “1 vs. 100,” to help “Deal or No Deal” keep his audience figures high.

  Reilly also picked up six episodes of an American version of “Thank God You're Here,” a hit show from Australia in which comics walk into a scene and improvise their way out. Sounds like “Whose Line Is It Anyway,” which ABC famously used for years to kill time on Thursday nights.

  He's got an hour of “Dateline” clogging up his schedule, which is a news program only if you find it newsworthy that perverts are trying to pick up your kids on the Internet. And on Sunday nights, when he should be airing “Friday Night Lights,” he's forced to schedule “The Apprentice” and Donald Trump, who escalated his feud with Rosie O'Donnell at TV critics' tour while simultaneously blaming the media for escalating the feud.

  Reilly told the critics, “What I really feel right now inside (NBC) is a confidence in terms of what we're doing. … We continue to be bold and to take big swings.”

  Unfortunately for fans of great TV, Reilly's job is predicated not on faith, but works.

  Other news from NBC:

  NBC will take “Passions” late this summer to make way for a fourth hour of the “Today” show that will start this fall. This means KSHB will either have to move “Kansas City Live” to 11 a.m. weekdays or delay “Today.” Reilly said the network was looking at ways to continue “Passions” on the Web. NBC news executives offered no details on who would host the fourth hour of “Today,” but said it would look a lot like the first three hours.