Seemingly on the heels of the announcement that the final season of ABC’s Lost would premiere in February 2010, it was announced that NBC’s Chuck would debut its third season with a two episode event on Sunday January 10 before moving back into its regular slot on Mondays at 8pm Eastern on January 11, six weeks earlier than the previously announced March 1 bow.

Rumor has it, although I haven’t witnessed it myself, that there have been many spots shown on NBC lately to promote the new premiere date (moved up from March 1 following the Winter Olympics) but that’s hardly surprising. What I’d be more interested in seeing is NBC promote the show while it’s airing, something which they didn’t seem to do an amazing job with last season.

Chuck Season 3 Art

Of course Chuck coming back does rather present a conundrum regarding how I’ll actually watch it. I don’t get surveyed by Neilsen so I don’t need to feel pressured to watch live in order to make my having watched count for something. Also, I’ve become quite comfortable with my current routine of watching House and Lie to Me on Mondays then How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory either in the Monday 10-spot or via DVR on Tuesday. As I cannot Tivo more than two shows in a timeslot, Chuck’s airing at 8pm makes me wonder how I’ll actually watch it.

Since the two-hour season premiere event will be on a Sunday, I expect I’ll likely watch that live. Maybe I’ll keep a closer eye on how quickly things get posted online. I’ve noticed that House gets put up on Hulu a week after it airs, so that’s something I will want to watch live. I’m not so sure about How I Met Your Mother, however. Maybe I’ll pay closer attention this week or look through my inbox and see when I received update notifications for my Hulu queue. I have a feeling that I’ll be watching Chuck online once it moves back to its 8pm Monday slot to conflict with House and HIMYM. I’ll consider an iTunes season pass, but I’m doing a bangup job watching Series 3 of the BBC’s Robin Hood and it’s almost done airing. I should get on that.

I’ll be glad to see the likes of Zach Levi, the lovely Yvonne Strahovski, and Adam Baldwin on the air on a semi-weekly basis with hopefully only a break for the Olympics as opposed to being pre-empted every other week last season for one reason or another. However, I find I’m no longer the rabid fan of the show I once was, having discovered a lot of wonderful shows via Netflix last winter.

My guess is I’ll keep an eye on the Hulu patterns for my Monday shows and make the call sometime between now and January 11 and see how things fly. I’ve also considered a season pass on iTunes to HIMYM, as purchasing the first season on iTunes and the second through fourth seasons on DVD has proved a most worthwhile investment.

One thing’s for sure, however, however I end up watching the rest of the season, I’ll be tuned into NBC on Sunday January 10 for the 2-hour season 3 premiere of Chuck.