NBC Pulls Friday Night’s Entire TV Lineup in Favor of Football

NBC’s usual Friday night lineup will be non-existent tonight because of football. Instead of Reba McEntire’s new sitcom Happy’s Place and Lopez vs Lopez, as well as Dateline, college football will be airing. Big Ten Countdown will kick off the night at 7 p.m. ET, with Nebraska going against Iowa in the Heroes Game at Kinnick Stadium at 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will take over the night’s entire lineup, meaning those who are not football fans will have to watch something else.

Luckily, Happy’s Place and Lopez vs Lopez will be back at their usual times next Friday, Dec. 6, and they will surely get fans into the holiday spirit. The episodes will be airing a bit later than usual, immediately following an airing of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Guest-starring Reba alum Steve Howey, Happy’s Place new episode “Ho-Ho-Howey” will center on the tavern’s health insurance on the verge on being canceled so Gabby comes up with a plan. It was previously announced that Howey would be appearing in the episode as Gabby’s potential sperm donor, reuniting Reba stars Howey, McEntire, and Melissa Peterman.

At 9:45 p.m. ET will be Lopez vs Lopez’s holiday special, “Lopez vs Santa.” In the episode, Mayan searches for the perfect Christmas gift for Chance while George has to settle a feud with Santa. Even though new episodes will not be airing tonight, the wait will be worth it when the two shows return next week along with Dateline NBC. At the very least, the shows are streaming on Peacock so fans can always take the brief break to catch up and relive their favorite moments of the seasons so far, which is better than nothing.

At the very least, many shows have been on break this week on NBC. The network also pulled the One Chicago shows last Wednesday in favor of Thanksgiving specials, such as Countdown to Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and A Saturday Night Live Thanksgiving Special. Last night also belonged to football fans, with Green Bay going against Miami at Lambeau Field and the former coming out on top, partly thanks to the cold weather.

Schedules are always a bit weird for the holidays, but things should be getting back to somewhat normal next week. Happy’s Place and Lopez vs Lopez are both streaming on Peacock in the meantime.