most wonderful time of the year

The Rubik's Cube that is next fall's TV schedule began to take shape today with the announcement of NBC's plans. The week each year that the networks make their upfront presentations to their advertisers is a favorite of mine. Just like last year, I will soak up all the TV scheduling news I can find so I can start thinking about which shows to watch, which shows to record and which shows to skip.

This year I'm getting my upfronts news from a variety of sources. The major newspapers have blog-style coverage. The LA Times Show Tracker is a good place to start. Last year I liked The New York Times blog entries by Virginia Heffernan. I wouldn't have found them if I hadn't gone online to read Bill Carter's articles for the print edition. I'll also take a look at TV Squad, TV Barn, The Hollywood Reporter and our own local Tele-Buddy.

My friend Jimmy Kimmel traveled to New York to host ABC's upfront presentation, which will be held tomorrow. In past years, he had to run a repeat of his nightly show while he went to the upfronts. He'll air a new episode tomorrow night, which is important during the May ratings sweeps. The whole show takes place on a Santa Monica city bus. The show website makes it pretty clear that the bus show was taped in advance. Jimmy makes no secret about being inspired by David Letterman. He and his staff must have been thinking about Letterman's airplane show when they came up with the bus idea.