"Chuck" up at NBC

Before a single episode of its sophomore season has aired and before a single ratings point has been measured, NBC has given "Chuck" a full-season order.

"This show has really hit its stride and deserves a full-season commitment to carry out the producers' vision for this unique series," a press release quoted Teri Weinberg, executive vice president of NBC Entertainment, as saying.

"Chuck" - which stars Zach Levi as an underachiever toiling at a big-box store who gets the entire U.S. intelligence database downloaded into his brain - is a fun, larky show, but it didn't exactly set the boxes in the Nielsen Family households on fire last season. It was one of a handful of shows that the networks kept on the shelf after the writers strike ended - the thinking apparently being they liked these shows and wanted to bring them back this season, but were afraid if they returned after the strike and did the same middling numbers (or worse), it'd be hard to justify awarding them second seasons and the networks didn't have many new shows to replace them with so best to give them a splashy relaunch. ("Pushing Daisies" and "Dirty Sexy Money" are a couple of other examples.) It's rare for a show in "Chuck's" position to be granted a full-season order so quickly; maybe it really will hit the ground running or maybe NBC figures it's going to have bigger headaches elsewhere on the schedule.

Levi's breezily charming and the cast meshes well (some of Chuck's colleagues at the store are pretty annoying, though) and the show never takes itself vary seriously, so one hopes the show really is finding its creative footing and that viewers will be finding it come the fall. "Chuck" returns Monday, September 29 at 8 p.m.