As Dinan mentioned a few days ago, this week brings us the network TV upfront presentations, where the new fall lineups are trotted out in the hopes that advertisers will buy up as much air time "up front" as possible. Given their announced schedule for next season, NBC better hope the open bar works in their favor, at least where the new shows are concerned.

THE NEW

Fathom posits what it would be like if a new oceanic life-form was discovered by a bunch of people played by actors you've never heard of. Seriously, this could be the fake show on Joey. I'm also worried that the promo blurb on the NBC website mentions something called the "South Antarctic Sea," which I'm pretty sure doesn't exist.

My Name is Earl is a sitcom about a low-level hood who wins the lottery and tries to go straight. The blurb promises a show with "a voice and style all its own," which is about the best thing you can say about the combination of Jason Lee and Jamie Pressley.

The Apprentice: Martha Stewart shouldn't be a surprise, but what was surprising to me is that this will run along with the Trump version (but the day before and an hour earlier). I'd have much rather given The Donald a half-season off. That would be a good thing.

E-Ring sounds like it should be about a sex toy, but it's actually about intrigue within the Pentagon. It stars Benjamin Bratt and, in what may be the strangest casting ever, Dennis Hopper as military types trying to keep the military-industrial complex from crashing and burning. I suppose this is NBC's attempt to atone for/get the fans of JAG back on board.

Speaking of sex toys, Inconcievable is a drama set at a fertility clinic. The blurb suggests that the drama will be more personal than natal, which to my mind makes it sound like a fairly typical medical drama, but without the gore. Ming Na furthers her reach into the sub-specialty of medical acting by starring alongside unknown people deemed insufficiently awed by the majesty of the ocean to be in Fathom.

Finally, NBC jumps on the personal makeover bandwagon with Three Wishes, hosted by Amy Grant. She and her team go to small town America and change the lives for people who need help, blah blah blah.

Mid-season will bring two sitcoms: Thick and Thin about a newly thin and single woman, and Four Kings about four young people on the cusp of adulthood, aka Friends: The Next Generation. Seth Green stars in the latter, which may or may not help.

THE OLD

Most notable change here is that The West Wing gets moved to Sunday at 8 pm, making all sorts of ripe cross-marketing potential with the installment of Dateline that'll air before it. E-Ring gets its old slot.

Most notable omission from the schedule is Scrubs. From what I've read elsewhere, it and Fear Factor will return mid-season to plug holes.

While theoretically new, NBC is returning to an old practice of showing movies on Saturday, though they also mention airing reurns of current shows to give them more exposure. Good luck with that.