Parks and Recreation gets a second season

NBC today announced its fall plans, giving advertisers a partial look at four new dramas and two new comedies it will add to this coming fall’s schedule. While they did give 4 existing shows a renewal, the remainder of their “on the bubble” series hoping to return next season continues to be up in the air, including Chuck and Law and Order.

Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios had this to say at the event:

We are thrilled to be announcing such an awesome slate of new series that build on our existing quality brand and deliver emotional, human stories. NBC will strive to make viewers feel and our shows represent the full range of human emotion from laughter to tears. We can’t wait to share these concepts with our audience and our advertising partners.

The new series for the fall will include the two medical action-dramas Trauma and Mercy. Also picked up was the one hour dramedy movie-make-over, Parenthood, which is being developed by ImagineTV and stars Peter Krause and Maura Tierney. Finally, for midseason they announced the apocalyptic series Day One, a much hyped series for several months now.

On the comedy side of things they announced that 100 Questions for Charlotte Payne will get picked up, in addition to the Joel McHale/Chevy Chase comedy Community.

Two freshmen, midseason series Southland and Parks and Recreation were also given second seasons, both receiving 13 episode orders. Southland has been a modest hit for NBC this midseason, with ratings declining in the past few weeks, but still stronger than anything else they've debuted this year. Heroes was also given a pickup (as expected) as was Patricia Arquette's Medium, which will most likely get a 13 to 18 episode pickup next year.

As reported over the weekend, Chuck and Law and Order were not given renewals yet, though both have been given a strong chance at a renewal for next season. The traditional fall schedule for NBC will not be released until May 19, which is also when the remaining renewals will be provided. NBC also noted that Day One will premiere out of its 2010 Winter Olympics coverage, and that six new Saturday Night Live Weekend Update primetime specials will air next season as well.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter