Chuck is an American spy action-comedy-drama television series created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. It premiered on the terrestrial television network NBC on September 24, 2007, airing on Mondays at 8:00 pm ET.Chuck centers on Chuck Bartowski (played by Zachary Levi), an "average computer-whiz-next-door", who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working in the CIA; the message embeds the only remaining copy of the world's greatest spy secrets into Chuck's brain. The first season of Chuck aired in 2007–08, containing 13 episodes. After the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, NBC renewed Chuck for a second season instead of extending the first to a full season of 22 episodes. The full-length second season originally aired in 2008–09. Episodes of Chuck are also available in various new media formats. The first through fifth seasons are available to purchase on DVD and Blu-ray. In the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, every episode is available for download from iTunes. Episode titles for Chuck are consistently formatted as "Chuck Versus...". For example, the pilot episode is titled "Chuck Versus the Intersect". This list is ordered by the episodes' original air date and not by the production codes, which show the order in which episodes were filmed. On May 13, 2011, NBC renewed Chuck for a fifth and final season consisting of 13 episodes. The series concluded with a two-hour finale on January 27, 2012.
It was announced on May 14, 2010 that NBC renewed Chuck for a fourth season of 13 episodes. It was announced on October 19, 2010 that NBC had ordered an additional 11 episodes of Chuck, rather than the original option of a back nine. The additional episodes brings the episode total for season four to 24, the largest for the series.