Mix chef Emeril Lagasse with producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (Designing Women) and what do you get? Bam! A fall sitcom called Emeril, one of six new series announced by NBC Monday.

        Emeril, which replaces 3rd Rock from the Sun at 8 p.m. Tuesday, is one of three new comedies. NBC will start the season in September with just eight situation comedies, down from a peak of 18 four years ago.

NBC FALL LINEUP

Sunday: 7 p.m., Dateline NBC; 8 p.m., Weakest Link; 9 p.m., Law & Order: Criminal Intent; 10 p.m., UC: Undercover.   Monday: 8, Weakest Link; 9, Third Watch; 10, Crossing Jordan.   Tuesday: 8, Emeril; 8:30, Three Sisters; 9, Frasier; 9:30, Scrubs; 10, Dateline NBC.   Wednesday: 8, Ed; 9, The West Wing; 10, Law & Order.   Thursday: 8, Friends; 8:30, Inside Schwartz; 9, Will & Grace; 9:30, Just Shoot Me; 10, ER.   Friday: 8, Providence; 9, Dateline NBC; 10, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.   Saturday: 8, movie.

        The network also dropped its Sunday movie for the first time since 1972, scheduled two hours of the Weakest Link game show and added a second Law & Order spin-off among its three new dramas.

        NBC also canceled The Weber Show, The Fighting Fitzgeralds, Daddio (with Cincinnati native Kevin Crowley), First Years, DAG, 3rd Rock, The Michael Richards Show, Titans, Tucker, Deadline and the XFL.

        No changes were made on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday by Jeff Zucker, the former Today show producer named NBC Entertainment president in January.

        The new comedies:

        Emeril (8 p.m. Tuesday): The New Orleans master chef and star of Emeril Live (8 p.m. daily, Food Network) essentially plays himself in a comedy about his work and home life. Lisa Ann Walter (The Parent Trap) co-stars as his producer; Sherri Shepherd (The Jamie Foxx Show) plays his stage manager.

        Scrubs (9:30 p.m. Tuesday): Think of this as ER the comedy, or George Clooney's old E/R sitcom. A trio of interns (Sarah Chalke, the second “Becky” on Roseanne; Zach Braff, The Broken Hearts Club; and Donald Faison, Felicity) explore the wacky world of hospital patients and staffers in a series from Bill Lawrence (Spin City).

        Inside Schwartz (8:30 p.m. Thursday): NBC's elusive search for a successful sitcom to follow Friends has led to this: A young sportscaster (Breckin Meyer, The Insider, Clueless) fantasizes about having conversations with sports figures who give him relationship advice. Strike three!

        The dramas:

        Law & Order: Criminal Intent (9 p.m. Sunday): Dick Wolf promises to show cases from the criminals' perspective in this police drama starring Vincent D'Onofrio(Men in Black), Kathryn Erbe (Oz), Jamey Sheridan (Shannon's Deal) and Courtney B. Vance (Boston Public, The Tuskegee Airmen).

        UC: Undercover (10 p.m. Sunday): A team of high-tech Justice Department spies (Jon Seda, Homicide: Life on the Street; Vera Farmiga, Fifteen Minutes; and Bruklin Harris, Dangerous Minds) will face its toughest foe in September: ABC's The Practice.

        Crossing Jordan (10 p.m. Monday): Call this a female version of CBS' surprise CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Jill Hennessy (NBC's Law & Order) plays Dr. Jordan Cavannaugh, a Boston medical examiner working with her dad (Ken Howard, The White Shadow) for an erratic boss (Miguel Ferrer, Lateline).

        NBC also will move Third Watch to 9 p.m. Monday, one of TV's toughest time slots, against Everybody Loves Raymond, Ally McBeal and Monday Night Football. Vicki Lewis' Three Sisters, a midseason entry, moves to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

        Midseason shows: Former Seinfeld star Julia Louis-Deyfus and Hank Azaria(Mad About You, Tuesdays with Morrie) will star in NBC midseason sitcoms. A third comedy will be produced by Sex and the City writer Jenny Bicks.

        Lopez deal: NBC also revealed a deal with Jennifer Lopez to perform a TV concert, produce three other music/entertainment specials and develop a half-hour sitcom “loosely based on her family and neighborhood,” NBC says.

        NBC news: Neal Shapiro, Dateline NBC executive producer, has been named NBC News president. He replaces Andrew Lack, who was promoted to NBC president and chief operating officer-elect last week.

        Mr. Shapiro was a producer for ABC's PrimeTime Live before joining Dateline NBC in 1993. He is married to ABC News correspondent JuJu Chang.

        E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/kiese

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