Friday, March 2, 2012

`JOEY' AND `APPRENTICE' GIVE NBC HIGH RATINGS HOPES.(ARTS & ENTERTA)

Byline: Associated Press

Joey from ``Friends'' may be moving across the country, but he's still to be in familiar territory.

NBC is very likely to give Matt LeBlanc's spinoff series, ``Joey,'' the same Thursday at 8 p.m. time slot that ``Friends'' is vacating at the end of this season, an NBC executive who spoke on condition of anonymity said on Friday.

The spinoff features LeBlanc's character, Joey Tribbiani, moving to Hollywood to further his acting career.

He moves in with a brainy nephew, 20, who's a rocket scientist.

Drea de Matteo, who plays Adriana la Cerva on ``The Sopranos,'' has signed on to play Gina, Joey's high-strung sister. Kevin Bright, Shana Goldberg-Meehan and Scott Silveri -- part of the creative team behind ``Friends'' -- are working on ``Joey.''

But the success of ``The Apprentice'' for NBC on Thursdays has taken some pressure off that time slot, which leads off the prime-time schedule on what is, in terms of advertising dollars, the most lucrative night on television.

The finale to the Donald Trump boardroom game was the third most-watched show of the season behind the Academy Awards and the post-Super Bowl ``Survivor'' episode. NBC has signed Trump for two more editions of ``The Apprentice,'' to air on Thursdays.

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