30 episodes of "The Office" next year!

Remember how I mentioned a few days ago that most shows these days only get between 22 and 24 episodes during a TV season? Well, with our ever-changing TV landscape, it looks like networks are trying to do anything they can to avoid low-rated reruns. This includes the aforementioned shift in the Lost schedule (no repeats and no breaks between episodes), which itself is mimicking the successful 24 model adopted by Fox a couple of years ago. Now NBC is jumping into the mix, announcing today that it has ordered 30 half-hour installments of The Office to air over the upcoming season. That's about 6 episodes more than we received this year.

I think there are a few reasons for this announcement (which is unprecedented for a sitcom): NBC is moving The Office back to the 8:00 p.m. (Utah time) hour, where it will go up against TV's two top shows (CSI and Grey's Anatomy). More new episodes mean more opportunities to gain ground during a really tough time slot, especially if CSI or Grey's is a rerun.

Additionally, I'm guessing NBC is trying to get all the leverage it can from a show that is still increasing in popularity, and that is likely to become more and more expensive to produce (due to the rising popularity of several of the show's stars). In other words, get as many episodes out now before Steve Carell and John Krasinski (Jim)--both of whom have rising movie careers--get too expensive to keep on the show.

Finally, NBC announced that it is renewing Scrubs for one last, abbreviated season (18 episodes I think). Having more episodes of The Office will help plug the holes left by the departing hospital sitcom.

I think The Office news is good overall. I just hope that the increased episode count means more episodes like the George Foreman-centric "The Injury" and less of episodes like the unnecessarily crude "Women's Appreciation." And for crying out loud, could we just lock Jim and Pam in a closet and force them to make out...er, make up...!?!?