Hurricane Sandy wipes out 'Animal Practice' a week early, pre-empts NBC Thursday comedies

Of all the damage inflicted by Hurricane Sandy this week, this is definitely the most merciful. Due to schedule changes necessitated by coverage of the storm, NBC has put a bullet in freshman comedy Animal Practice one week early.

Recently canceled due to low ratings, Animal Practice was scheduled to air its seventh and final episode on October 31 before Whitney reclaims the Wednesday 8:00 PM time slot next week. However, a chain reaction of shifts in NBC's primetime schedule initiated by widespread power outages and network coverage of Hurricane Sandy caused the Peacock to pull it in favor of a new episode of 30 Rock.

Since it is a politically-themed episode, 30 Rock had to air before Election Day, but its usual 8 PM timeslot on Thursday has been commandeered this week by an encore presentation of Monday's storm-impacted edition of The Voice, pre-empting NBC's Thursday night comedies from 8–10 PM.

Ironically, the other program affected by the storm on Monday was the breakout hit Revolution, a drama about a world without electricity. A repeat of Monday's episode of Revolution will be shown on Friday at 8 PM.

Tuesday night comedies Go On and The New Normal were bumped from their 10–11 PM timeslot for an NBC News special on the hurricane, entitled "Sandy's Fury." So far, the network hasn't announced when the new episodes will air.

Over at ABC, Tuesday's episode of Private Practice was pre-empted by A Special Edition of 20/20: The Perfect Storm and will air on November 13, a week after the US presidential elections.

CBS was the first network to alter its primetime schedule on Monday, when the Eye replaced a new episode of Hawaii Five-O with comedy repeats and a CBS News special on the storm.

Stay tuned to TV Rage for further updates.