Tonight NBC revamps its Thursday night lineup for the fourth time in just over a year as struggling Wednesday comedy “30 Rock” moves to its new night. But in doing so, NBC will fall back on an old sweeps tool that worked so well when it used to dominate Thursdays, the super-sized episode.

“My Name is Earl,” “The Office” and “Rock” all balloon to 40 minutes tonight. NBC hopes that the solid if not outstanding “Earl” and “Office” can boost the disappointing “Rock,” which has averaged a 2.4 rating in four Wednesday episodes.

“Rock,” which airs at 9:40 p.m., will then move to 9:30 two weeks from now, when “Scrubs” returns to the 9 p.m. slot.

NBC has shown patience with low-rated shows that it believes in this season. The network gave full-season orders to the critically acclaimed “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” and “Friday Night Lights,” whose ratings are well below what was expected, showing that it’s willing to stick with quality programs in the hopes that they’ll grow an audience.

That approach certainly worked with “Office,” a surprise pickup after a low-rated first season that has grown into NBC’s top-rated comedy, albeit among just four airing this season. And “Rock” creator Tina Fey is an NBC favorite, having helped restore “Saturday Night Live’s” reputation for biting satire during her time as head writer.

But for “Rock” to receive a full-season order, it will have to show improvement over Wednesday’s performance. It’s facing even tougher competition in ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” and CBS’s “CSI,” two of the top-rated shows on television.

NBC’s hope seems to be that those two shows appeal to a different, less-sophisticated audience than its four high-brow comedies. If “Rock” can draw a good audience among the adults 18-34 who favor “Earl” and “Office,” it may become NBC’s third struggling show to get a full-season order.

A look at this week’s top TV draws
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16
Time	Network	Program	Description
3 p.m.	ABC	“General Hospital” (DD)	Twenty-five years ago, 30 million people watched Laura marry Luke. Today they celebrate two and a half rocky decades by getting remarried.
8 p.m.	NBC	“My Name is Earl” (C)	Supersized episode 1: After Randy eats an herbal ointment, he begins seeing Earl and the gang as claymation figures. But will the California Raisins show up?
8:36 p.m.	NBC	“The Office” (C)	Reunited and viewers feel so good: Pam and Jim are back in the same episode after Dunder-Mifflin continues with its consolidation plans in supersized episode 2.
9 p.m.	CBS	“CSI” (D)	Freaky: Twin sisters who were unaware of each other’s existence, a la “The Parent Trap,” are murdered the same night in a decidedly un-Hayley Mills-like twist.
9:20 p.m.	NBC	“30 Rock” (C)	Supersized episode 3: “30 Rock” joins the Thursday lineup with Jack taking Tracy to a celebrity golf tournament. But can its awful ratings improve opposite “CSI” and “Grey’s Anatomy?”
10 p.m.	ABC	“Barbara Walters: 30 Mistakes in 30 Years” (A)	“The View” matriarch dishes on celebrity interviews and their bloopers in this sweeps special.
11:35 p.m.	CBS	“Late Show with David Letterman” (T)	The always-classy, and always funny, Ellen DeGeneres stops by.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17
Time	Network	Program	Description
7:30 p.m.	Speed	NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (S)	The season finale of the series is held in Homestead, Fla.
9 p.m.	CMT	“Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team” (R)	Season finale. Presumably, we find out who made the team.
9 p.m.	7:30 p.m.	College Hoops Classic (S)	Championship game, teams TBD.
10 p.m.	USA	“Monk” (D)	This should explain a lot: Monk’s absentee father shows up for the holidays in a special episode.
11 p.m.	HBO	“Real Time with Bill Maher” (C)	Season finale. The elections are over, the Democrats won … so Bill signs off, too.
11:35 p.m.	CBS	“Late Show with David Letterman” (T)	Because the 2008 election is just around the corner, John Edwards stops by.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18
Time	Network	Program	Description
Noon	ESPN	College Football: Michigan State at Penn State (S)	Will Joe Paterno’s broken bone keep him off the field for a second straight week?
3:30 p.m.	CBS	College Football: Auburn at Alabama (S)	Always a fierce SEC showdown.
8 p.m.	CMT	“Giants” (T)	Series premiere. Each week, a country music great is feted. This week it’s Reba McEntire, whose sitcom is also returning to the CW on Sunday starting tomorrow.
9 p.m.	TBS and HBO	“Comic Relief 2006” (A)	The long-running special returns.
11:30 p.m.	NBC	“Saturday Night Live” (T)	Ludacris hosts and performs.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19
Time	Network	Program	Description
Noon	NBC	Women’s Golf: ADT Championship	Final round of the ADT, which took 32 players, cut that in half after round two, and now has just eight players left in this final round.
1 p.m.	CBS	NFL: Colts at Cowboys (S)	Which Cowboys squad will show up, the one that beat the Panthers or the one that lost to the Redskins?
7 p.m.	CW	“Reba” (C)	Season premiere. Yep, it is back.
8 p.m.	History Channel	“Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story of the Mayflower” (N)	Impress your family with some obscure Pilgrim trivia on Thursday.
8:15 p.m.	NBC	“Sunday Night Football” (S)	In NBC’s second flexible scheduling game, the Broncos face the Chargers.
9 p.m.	Discovery	“Koppel on Discovery” (N)	Ted Koppel’s second Discovery special focuses on “Iran—The Most Dangerous Nation.”
9 p.m.	PBS	“Prime Suspect: The Final Act” (D)	The conclusion of Helen Mirren’s last appearance as Jane Tennison.
A = awards show or special, C = comedy, D = drama, DD = daytime drama, G = game show, K = kids, M = movie, N = news/documentary, R = reality, S = sports, T = talk/variety show.