And so the networks’ midseason shuffle continues. Better break out a scorecard.
Among the current announcements from TV strike-land:
• NBC is quickly picking up “quarterlife,” the online webisode drama series from acclaimed producers Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick (“My So-Called Life,” “thirtysomething”). It’ll debut Monday, Feb. 18 at 9 p.m., filling the old “Heroes” time slot. This continuing saga of “six creative people in their 20s” premiered on MySpace on Nov. 11 (alongside the social network site quarterlife.com). The 8-10 minute episodes, which arrive on MySpace Sundays and Thursdays at 12 midnight (repeating on quarterlife.com starting the next day), will get edited together to hour length for NBC airing (and nbc.com streaming). [Photo: "Quarterlife" star Bitsie Tulloch.]
• CBS’ new Jeffrey Tambor comedy “Welcome to The Captain” moves back a week to premiere Monday, Feb. 4 at 8:30 p.m. (Somebody forgot the State of the Union address gets covered Jan. 28.) That same night at 9:30 brings the third-season premiere of Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ “The New Adventures of Old Christine.”
• And of course there was ABC’s Friday announcement that “Lost” returns at 9 p.m. Jan. 31 -- a Thursday -- which puts one of the network’s big draws into a plum ad-sales spot, where ABC needs to maintain the kind of ratings “Grey’s Anatomy” pulled till it ran out of fresh episodes. “Lost” leads into the new Thursday 10 p.m. drama “Eli Stone,” about a young lawyer (Jonny Lee Miller) who’s either having prophetic visions or hallucinating due to an aneurysm. In addition, ABC pinpointed new-cycle premiere dates for “Dancing With the Stars” and “The Bachelor” (both Monday, March 17, with “Dancing” results show starting up again Tuesday, March 25). The reality hour “Oprah’s Big Give” gets going Sunday, March 2 at 9 p.m.