NBC

For most of my 35 years covering television, I'd write a story for the day after the Emmy Awards about TV's biggest week filled with dozens of new fall TV series and your returning favorites.

Not this year. 

Fans of This Is Us, Law & Order: SVU, The Blacklist, Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. must wait until November for new episodes while NBC fills the next two months mostly with The Voice, game shows and reruns during the pandemic.

As I reported last week, ABC and CBS are doing the same.

Update 2 p.m. Thursday, July 23: Just heard from Michael Williams, The Voice contestant who's singing at Kings Island today through Sunday, and July 30-31. He says he's passing on college this fall for some "exciting" out-of-town projects with "some amazing artists/writers."

Here's an update on the 18-year-old Deerfield Township resident who was singing in the Festhaus country music revue a year ago:

Before the Reds open the delayed 2020 baseball season, WVXU will repeat its production of Rod Serling's Reds baseball comedy, O'Toole From Moscow, at 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 21.

Written during the Cold War, Serling's O'Toole From Moscow is about confusion between Russians and the Reds which results in a Soviet Union embassy staffer playing outfield for the Cincinnati baseball club.

Count WLWT-TV among the many NBC affiliates not broadcasting the 30 Rock reunion tonight with Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, Jack McBrayer and Jane Krakowski.

About half of the NBC stations nationwide are refusing to air the one-hour special because the affiliates consider the 30 Rock: A One-Time Special  "too much of a promotion for the company's new Peacock streaming platform," Vulture reports.

Michael Williams' pop star dreams were sidetracked Tuesday night on The Voice, when a viewers' vote eliminated the 18-year-old Deerfield Township resident after the wild card competition.

Michael Williams' pop star dreams stayed alive Monday night when he learned The Voice viewers voted to keep the 18-year-old Deerfield Township resident in NBC's competition.

Mason's Michael Williams encountered a different kind of four-way Monday – a four-way knockout on The Voice to determine which singer advances to NBC's live show on May 4.

Kelly Clarkson loved Michael Williams' performance on NBC's The Voice, but fellow judge Nick Jonas was the one who hit the buzzer Monday night to add Williams to his team.

Update 1:30 p.m. Tuesday Nov. 12: Late night TV hosts Seth Meyers and Conan O'Brien aired tributes Monday night to Rick Ludwin, their former NBC mentor who died Sunday, Nov. 10, in Los Angeles.

A dozen new primetime TV series – 66% of the 18 new shows – arrive this week as broadcasters cling to the arcane notion of a "premiere week" immediately following the Emmy Awards.

WVXU-FM will produce Rod Serling's O'Toole From Moscow, a 1955 TV comedy about confusion between the Soviet Union and the Cincinnati Reds, as a radio drama.

Here's my annual Fall TV guide, as the season kicks off today with the new Kelly Clarkson, Tamron Hall and Judge Jerry daytime shows; HGTV's A Very Brady Renovation at 8 p.m.; and a Monday Night Football doubleheader.

Thirteen was a very lucky number for Cincinnati's American Ninja Warrior finalists, as nearly half of the contestants advanced to the four-week Las Vegas finals in Monday's telecast.

And it was a historic night for the show. For the first time in 11 seasons, two women completed the course in a city finals. Only one woman had done that in the previous 10 seasons.

We know how many. We just don't know who. NBC tells me that 13 contestants from the Cincinnati American Ninja Warrior finals airing Monday will advance to the four-week national finals in Las Vegas where the winner gets $1 million.

Who are the 13? We'll find out 8-10 p.m. Monday, Aug. 19, when NBC broadcasts the Cincinnati finals taped Memorial Day weekend. It was shot the night after filming the Cincinnati auditions broadcast July 8.

For "a show about nothing," Seinfeld definitely gave us plenty: Close talkers, low talkers, regifters, Festivus, snacking double-dippers, the Soup Nazi, puffy shirts and the Manssiere support undergarment for men – not that there's anything wrong with that.

It's like the circus rolled into town – a high-tech TV circus starring acrobatic ninjas cheered by hundreds of onlookers.

A dozen 18-wheelers hauled the rigging, lights and 32 cameras to The Banks for NBC's American Ninja Warrior obstacle course on Second Street, in front of the GE Global Operations Center building between Race and Vine streets.

Even though you may have missed the Jan. 2 entry deadline for American Ninja Warrior, filming here this weekend, you still have a shot at competing on the NBC reality show through the "walk-up line."

Walk-up line information was announced late Monday on the A. Deign & Co. Facebook page.

Only three new shows will debut this fall in NBC's new "year-round lineup," as the network saves The Good Place, Manifest, Will & Grace, Blindspot and a new sitcom starring Saturday Night Live veteran Kenan Thompson for later in the 2019-2020 TV season.

Expect to see a lot of familiar faces on NBC in the next 12 months.

Second Street between Elm and Walnut will be closed Saturday, May 18 through Memorial Day for production of NBC's American Nina Warriorr competition.

Updated 10 a.m. Friday May 17: Only tickets for overnight taping sessions of NBC's American Ninja Warrior are available for Memorial Day weekend.

Guess who's coming to Taste of Cincinnati?  NBC's American Ninja Warrior fans!

Producers for the reality TV competition will construct their obstacle courses on Second Street for 10 days in May, overlapping with the annual Taste of Cincinnati food festival Memorial Day weekend (May 25-27) on Fifth Street.

Jason Momoa's Aquaman, opening Friday, Dec. 21, reminds me of Patrick Duffy's similar  Man From Atlantis on NBC more than 30 years ago, the first TV series for the future Dallas star.

Duffy played Mark Harris, the lone survivor of the legendary sunken continent of Atlantis. He could breathe underwater, swimming with his webbed hands.

Monday, Nov. 26 update: Cris Collinsworth: A Football Life repeats at 8:15 p.m. today, Monday, Nov. 26, if you missed it last weekend. It follows NFL Total Access.

Original post Friday, Nov. 23: “Probably to this day the smartest football player that I’ve ever played with on the field.”

That’s how former Bengals quarterback Boomer Esiason describes his pal – and favorite target -- Cris Collinsworth in Cris Collinsworth: A Football Life premiering 8 p.m. tonight (Friday Nov. 23) on the NFL Network.

Former Bengals Esiason, Ken Anderson, Anthony Munoz and Sam Wyche – plus NBC Sunday Night Football partner Al Michaels -- are among the 12 people interviewed for the one-hour documentary.

Here they come! Nine new shows– half of the 18 series to debut on the five broadcasting networks – premiere during the Fall TV season's biggest week.

It's one and done for Luke Null, the Cincinnati area's first Saturday Night Live cast member.

The 2008 Lakota East High School graduate will not return for the 44th season this fall, according to Deadline.com.

ABC had "Lost," a TV show about the survivors of a plane crash. This fall, NBC will have a new airline drama that could be called "found."

I'm not talking about comedian Harry Anderson's magic tricks. Or his love for singer Mel Torme. Or his laid-back jeans-and-sneakers under his judicial robes presiding over NBC's "Night Court" (1984-92).