Parenthood Delayed

NBC announced on Friday that its new series, "Parenthood," will be delayed until early 2010 because Maura Tierney, one of the show's stars, is undergoing a "medical evaluation," the New York Times reports.

Production on the series about the reunion of a multigenerational family in California has been postponed eight weeks because of Tierney's illness, the nature of which the network declined to comment on.

Tierney was expected to play a woman with financial problems who returns home to live with her parents, in the series loosely adapted from the 1989 film, "Parenthood."

NBC will replace the sidelined show with "Mercy," a medical drama that had been scheduled to premiere midseason. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the "Mercy" cast will start work on the series earlier than planned, to have it ready for a September debut.

This is the second delay the series has been faced with, Popeater reports. Production on the pilot was shut down for two days in April after NBC executive Nora O'Brien died unexpectedly on the set of the show, in Berkeley, California.