NBC kills the already-undead Awake, Bent, Best Friends Forever, and Are You There Chelsea, picks up Dane Cook sitcom

For every blessedly saved show there must be some blood spilled, and so NBC has made its Sophie's Choice to cull the herd to make room for the new, the good stuff it's hanging onto, and Whitney. Fortunately, these final blows on the killing floor are softened a bit by pretty much knowing well in advance that Bent and Best Friends Forever—the shunned, unwanted series the network had already been starving to death—weren't long for this world. Anyway, their cancellation is now official, as it is for Awake and Are You There Chelsea, two different visions of parallel universes: one in which a cop deals with the mysterious deaths of different members of his family, and one in which Chelsea Handler's fictionalized life makes for good comedy. Likely you've long ago said goodbye and/or "What the hell is this? Well, I'm not watching it" to most of these, so the news comes as somewhat less of a shock.

And in finishing up, NBC also sounded the death knell for all remaining pilots that have not yet been picked up to series—including Kari Lizer's multicamera comedy with Minnie Driver, and the Scott Bakula-starring Daddy's Girls—making as its final selection for its bold new future Next Caller, the sitcom in which Dane Cook is a chauvinistic asshole and also plays a DJ on television. This marks the ostensible last of the NBC scheduling news, except for that official renewal of The Office that is still expected to go through sometime soon. At this point, that may be the only bit of remaining news to make it to next week's upfronts, which are now pretty much devoid of all surprise. Hopefully they have some good snacks or something.