Archive for May, 2010
The CW Shapes Up for Fall 2010
Posted by Melanie McFarland in Cancellations, Casting alert, Commentary, The Pick-Up Game, Tune In Info on May 19th, 2010
Jessica Lowndes, AnnaLynne McCord, and Jessica Stroup return in "90210."
The CW will not officially reveal its schedule until Thursday morning, which is when yours truly will be on a plane. Not to worry; the blog will be updated with the official schedule soon after it is released. Besides, enough information has trickled into the trades for us to talk about a few important details and make some educated guesses as to where new series will land on the schedule. Or, we should say, the first version of its schedule, because almost every network tweaks its lineup once the upfronts come to a close.
Before we get to the new stuff, here’s a round-up of the current news: “One Tree Hill” was officially picked up earlier this week, joining previously announced CW renewals “90210,” “Life Unexpected,” “The Vampire Diaries,” “Gossip Girl,” “America’s Next Top Model,” “Supernatural,” and “Smallville.” Additionally, the CW confirmed today that “Smallville’s” 10th season will be its last.
Gone from the schedule (thereby proving there is a Higher Power that cares for us all) are “Melrose Place,” “High Society,” “Fly Girls” and this season’s “here today, gone tomorrow” prizewinner, “The Beautiful Life: TBL,” which barely made it out of the gate. Their departure from the TV landscape will doubtless be mourned by…someone.
On the other hand, if they hadn’t been cleared away, The CW wouldn’t have any place to put its new additions, “Nikita” and “Hellcats.”
“Nikita” is a reboot of the franchise that began with Luc Besson’s (freaking awesome) cult action film “La Femme Nikita,” which was remade for American audiences as the awful “Point of No Return” starring Bridget Fonda. The character of Nikita resurfaced in a Canadian-produced action drama that ran for about five seasons on USA Network, and was played by Peta Wilson. Maggie Q takes over the role in the new version, which also has her going rogue.
The first TV version of “La Femme Nikita,” it must be mentioned, was part of a late-’90s, early ’00s girl power trend on television that included “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Xena: Warrior Princess,” and “Alias.” Considering that we live in a time in which Paris Hilton, the Kardashians and “Girls Gone Wild” are celebrated pop culture fixtures, returning “Nikita” to TV is — in concept — a breath of fresh air.
On the other hand, it’s on The CW. If someone doesn’t screw it up, there’s still the question of whether it’ll pull the ratings to survive. With McG as an executive producer, there is hope.
“Nikita” is joined on the schedule by “Hellcats,” a drama about competitive cheerleading starring Aly Michalka and Ashley Tisdale. If “Nikita” is a nod to what The CW used to be (in its previous incarnations, UPN and the WB), “Hellcats” seems to fit in perfectly with what the tiny broadcast network is now.
Question is, where will they appear on the schedule? Currently there are two obvious opportunities, one on Wednesday nights, and one on Fridays, where “Smallville” has been able to hold on to its audience. The CW’s schedulers have been known to slide veterans into different timeslots in the hope of finding a perfect pairing so really, it’s foolish to guess what the network’s lineup will look like. But why should that stop us?
Keep reading after the jump for our scheduling guesswork.
CBS Announces Its Fall 2010 Schedule
Posted by Melanie McFarland in Cancellations, The Pick-Up Game, Tune In Info, TV News on May 19th, 2010
William Shatner stars in the new comedy "$#*! My Dad Says."
Guess what’s no longer fashionable this year among CBS’s programming executives? Stability.
Year after year, CBS touted the potency of its schedule, explaining that its across-the-board strength made it unnecessary to make any drastic changes. There is something to be said for that, even in the new world of shifted viewing. People create habits around their weekly TV consumption, and the last thing a successful network wants to do is make it hard for audiences to find their favorite shows.
On the other hand, in any cutthroat business, one would be stupid not to leap into an opening when one sees it. CBS’s decision to move top-rated comedy “The Big Bang Theory” from Monday nights at 9:30 to Thursdays at 8 just makes sense. CBS’s Monday night block remains solid, and with NBC trying to maintain its Thursday night comedy perch with series that receive much higher critical praise than ratings, why not trump the Peacock by offering a comedy that’s set to finish the 2009-2010 season firmly in the Nielsen top 20 as competition?
The hope is that “Big Bang” will serve as a potent lead-in to “$#*! My Dad Says,” a new comedy from “Will & Grace” executive producers David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, starring William Shatner. “$#*!” has already gotten a great deal of attention thanks to the Twitter feed that inspired it, in which struggling writer Justin Halpern logs the colorful observations made by his 74-year-father.
“Big Bang” isn’t the only major move from Monday nights. “CSI: Miami,” currently airing Mondays at 10, moves to Sundays in the same timeslot. Wednesday night’s “CSI: NY” moves to 9 p.m. Fridays, bumping “Medium” up to 8 o’clock…and “Ghost Whisperer” into Cancellation Land. Reality stalwart “Survivor” is moving up from Thursday nights to Wednesdays at 8. In fact, the only lineup that remains unchanged is Tuesday’s.
New dramas include “Hawaii Five-O,” “The Defenders” and “Blue Bloods,” all of which are being tested in 10 p.m. slots. Meanwhile Chuck Lorre, the executive producer behind “Big Bang” and “Two and a Half Men,” is becoming to CBS what Seth MacFarlane is to Fox, introducing yet another comedy, “Mike & Molly,” to Monday nights. The previously announced “Criminal Minds” spinoff, starring Forest Whitaker, is on deck for midseason.
Earlier this week CBS cleaned house, slicing a number of underperformers from its schedule including “Accidentally On Purpose,” “Gary Unmarried,” “Ghost Whisperer,” “Cold Case,” “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” “Numb3rs,” and late season entry “Miami Medical” from the schedule. (“Three Rivers,” which premiered last fall, dried up a long time ago.)
CBS’s fall schedule is below, with new series highlighted in bold. All times are ET/PT.
MONDAY
8 PM “How I Met Your Mother”
8:30 PM “Rules of Engagement”
9 PM “Two and a Half Men”
9:30 PM “Mike & Molly”
10 PM “Hawaii Five-O”
TUESDAY
8 PM “NCIS”
9 PM “NCIS: Los Angeles”
10 PM “The Good Wife”
WEDNESDAY
8 PM “Survivor”
9 PM “Criminal Minds”
10 PM “The Defenders”
THURSDAY
8 PM “The Big Bang Theory”
8:30 PM “$#*! My Dad Says”
9 PM “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”
10 PM “The Mentalist”
FRIDAY
8 PM “Medium”
9 PM “CSI: NY”
10 PM “Blue Bloods”
SATURDAY
8-10 PM “Crimetime Saturday” (aka procedural repeats)
10 PM “48 Hours Mystery”
SUNDAY
7 PM “60 Minutes”
8 PM “The Amazing Race”
9 PM ” Undercover Boss”
10 PM “CSI: Miami”
Keep reading after the jump for descriptions of the new series, taken from the press release.
ABC Announces Its Fall 2010 Schedule.
Posted by Melanie McFarland in Cancellations, The Pick-Up Game, Tune In Info, TV News on May 18th, 2010
Julie Benz and Michael Chiklis star in the new series "No Ordinary Family." Photo by Eric McCandless, courtesy of ABC.
With a few exceptions, ABC generally has no problem shuffling its schedule around each fall. Unless we’re talking about a series that serves as an important tentpole such as “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Desperate Housewives,” or “Dancing with the Stars,” no show is too good to escape a few timeslot swaps.
This is particularly true when you also consider the network’s fondness for gorging on pick-ups. The 2010-2011 season, for example, will see ten new ABC shows premiere. Ten.
Yet the schedule for the coming season also shows plenty of evidence of stability. If it ain’t broke, ABC sure as heck isn’t going to fix it. And unlike past seasons, if a program clearly isn’t working, it’s not on the schedule. Nobody should be shocked to notice the absence of “Scrubs” from the fall schedule, for example. Ditto for the sadly performing “Happy Town” or the late spring entry “Romantically Challenged. ” The cancellation of “FlashForward” must be a downer for a number of fans, but honestly, ABC gave it a shot. As much as we loved “Ugly Betty,” we love the idea of series regular Vanessa Williams joining the cast of “Desperate Housewives” even more. And yes, we adored comedy underdog “Better Off Ted.” Instead of watching it continue to fade into oblivion, however, let’s consider ourselves to be better off with fond memories of its short-lived brilliance.
But let’s look at what is working for the Alphabet…
Wednesday nights. At long last, ABC has a comedy block worth cherishing, which is why “Modern Family” and “Cougar Town” are staying right where they are, at 9 and 9:30p.m. “The Middle” made less noise on Wednesdays, but performed well enough to remain in play, while new series “Better Together” (description below) is hammocked between it and “Modern” at 8:30. New legal drama “The Whole Truth” follows at 10.
“Castle” on Mondays. The 10 o’clock slot is a tough one on most nights of the week, but until “Castle” came along none of the other networks could find anything to go up against “CSI: Miami.” Nathan Fillion’s vehicle sputtered at first, but toward the end of the season it managed to crack the Nielsen top 20 a few times. More importantly, “Castle’s” ratings gains gave ABC its first successful crime procedural in several seasons.
Thursdays and Sundays. The Shonda Rhimes one-two punch of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Private Practice” remain in place at 9 and 10p.m., with new drama “My Generation” kicking off the night at 8. The network’s Sunday lineup of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “Desperate Housewives” and “Brothers & Sisters” remains intact.
This leaves Tuesdays and Fridays as ABC’s 2010-2011 experiments. Of the two nights Tuesdays is the higher stakes enterprise, highlighted by “No Ordinary Family,” probably best described as a live-action version of The Incredibles. “Dancing’s” results show follows at 9 with the faux-documentary style police drama “Detroit 1-8-7″ at 10.
“V,” by the way, has been pushed back to midseason, the same time of year we’ll see new shows starring Elisha Cuthbert (“Happy Endings”), Matthew Perry (“Mr. Sunshine”), and a new medical drama from Shonda Rhimes (“Off the Map”) about sexy doctors in the jungle. We suspect a few of them will be forced to go shirtless from time to time. This is only a guess.
The Friday night lineup and the rest of the schedule follows. New series are in bold. (And yes, Friday’s new entry “Secret Millionaire” is the same series that ran during the 2008 holiday season on Fox.)
MONDAY
8p.m. “Dancing with the Stars”
10p.m. “Castle”
TUESDAY
8p.m. “No Ordinary Family”
9p.m. “Dancing with the Stars: Results Show”
10p.m. “Detroit 1-8-7”
WEDNESDAY
8p.m. “The Middle”
8:30p.m. “Better Together”
9p.m. “Modern Family”
9:30p.m. “Cougar Town”
10p.m. “The Whole Truth”
THURSDAY
8p.m. “My Generation”
9p.m. “Grey’s Anatomy”
10 p.m. “Private Practice”
FRIDAY
8p.m. “Secret Millionaire”
9p.m. “Body of Proof”
10p.m. “20/20”
SATURDAY
8p.m. “Saturday Night College Football”
SUNDAY
7p.m. “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
8p.m. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”
9p.m. “Desperate Housewives”
10p.m. “Brothers & Sisters”
Descriptions of the new series, taken from the network press release, come after the jump. (Please note: if a show is not listed on the above schedule, it is set to premiere during midseason.)
Fox Announces Its 2010 Schedule
Posted by Melanie McFarland in Cancellations, The Pick-Up Game, Tune In Info, TV News on May 17th, 2010
Will Arnett and Keri Russell star in "Running Wilde."
In years past, Fox had a habit of sending a slew of non-starters out for the fall season, along with “House,” its undisputed scripted hit, and “Bones,” which in recent seasons has become a strong performer. As a result, it was hard to take most of what Fox had to say about its fall season seriously at the upfronts because it was generally accepted that most of the new shows wouldn’t make it past the holidays. Fox didn’t truly enter the game until midseason, when “American Idol” and “24″ began their premiered.
This started to change last year once “Bones” began holding its own on Thursdays. Paired with the struggling but creatively solid “Fringe,” the dramas gave the network its most solid toehold outside of “Idol.” Then “Glee” came along with its critical acclaim, awards and coolness factor. Suddenly Fox has no reason to wait for January, and its four new comedies and three dramas sound like real contenders.
Out of these seven new series, three (drama “Lonestar” and comedies “Raising Hope” and “Running Wilde”) premiere in the fall. The comedy entries are worth noting because along with “Glee,” which airs at 8 p.m. Tuesdays with the new series at 9 and 9:30, they represent Fox’s attempt to build a lighter weeknight block to rival what ABC has created on Wednesdays with “Modern Family,” “The Middle” and “Cougar Town.” Naturally Fox is not crazy enough to put these comedies directly against ABC’s Wednesday night tent; not only are they untested, but Fox hasn’t launched a successful half-hour comedy that isn’t a cartoon since…can you remember? We can’t.
One move on the schedule may worry fans a bit, and for good reason: “Human Target” now airs on Friday at 8p.m. with “The Good Guys,” which gets its first run this summer, following at 9p.m. Tonally speaking, these two series go together quite well. The problem is that on Fox’s schedule, the Friday night slot is still the place where series go to die. (Remember “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”? “Dollhouse”?)
Viewers will also notice that “American Idol’s” results show is now only half an hour long. Perhaps Fox is preparing for the inevitable day when “Idol” will — shock — no longer be the powerhouse on its schedule. And perhaps that day is closer than we imagine, with Simon Cowell soon to exit the series.
But, back to the new blood. Fox’s third addition for fall is “Lonestar,” a primetime soap with Texas oil as a backdrop. That airs on 9p.m. Mondays following “House.”
The rest of the new series, including executive producer Shawn Ryan’s (‘The Shield”) new series “Ride-Along,” will premiere in midseason. (Premiere date and timeslot for “Terra Nova” is TBD.)
Fans are in the process of bidding farewell to “24,” and you won’t see “Past Life” or “Sons of Tucscon” return to the fall 2010 schedule. Word is that the ax also has fallen on “The Wanda Sykes Show.”
Here is the schedule as listed on the Fox press release. All times are ET/PT, and new series are in bold.
MONDAY
8PM “House”
9PM “Lonestar”
TUESDAY
8PM “Glee
9PM “Raising Hope”
9:30PM “Running Wilde”
WEDNESDAY
8PM “Lie to Me”
9PM “Hell’s Kitchen”
THURSDAY
8PM “Bones”
9PM “Fringe”
FRIDAY
8PM “Human Target”
9PM “The Good Guys”
SATURDAY
8PM “Cops”
8PM “Cops”
9PM “America’s Most Wanted”
SUNDAY
7PM “The OT’
8PM “The Simpsons”
8PM “The Cleveland Show’
9PM “Family Guy”
9PM “American Dad”
MIDSEASON:
MONDAY
8PM “House”
9PM “Lonestar/ “Ride-Along”
TUESDAY
8PM “American Idol”
9:30PM “Running Wilde”/ “Mixed Signals”
WEDNESDAY
8PM “Raising Hope”
8:30PM “American Idol: Results”
9PM “Glee”
THURSDAY
8PM “Bones”
9PM “Fringe”
FRIDAY
8PM “Human Target”
9PM “Kitchen Nightmares”
SATURDAY
8PM “Cops”
8:30PM “Cops”
9PM “America’s Most Wanted”
SUNDAY
7PM “The Simpsons” (repeats)
7:30PM “American Dad”
8PM “The Simpsons”
8:30PM “Bob’s Burgers”
9PM “Family Guy”
9:30PM “The Cleveland Show”
Read descriptions of the new series, taken from the network’s press release, after the jump.
NBC Announces Its Fall 2010 Schedule
Posted by Melanie McFarland in Cancellations, The Pick-Up Game, Tune In Info, TV News on May 17th, 2010
Editor’s note: This week brings the network upfronts, which take place in New York. The upfronts are a traditional industry practice in which networks unveil their fall schedules to advertisers, hoping to get them to commit ad dollars to blocks of programming ahead of their premiere. To regular viewers, however, this is the week during which we find out whether our favorite programs will be coming back in the fall.
IMDb’s TV blog will be regularly updated with information on the day the networks unveil their schedules. NBC and Fox are up first.
Although NBC officially presented its fall schedule to advertisers on Monday, the big news already hit the airwaves last Friday when various industry news outlets reported that long-running series “Law & Order” was getting the ax. While this was not surprising from a ratings standpoint (viewership for first-run episodes has been feeble this season, to put it kindly) it was a shock to those who believed NBC would at least let Dick Wolf achieve his goal of breaking the record set by “Gunsmoke,” which ran for 20 seasons. Alas, “Law & Order” will only tie that record, leaving “The Simpsons” as the only series to go beyond that mark.
Shocking news, yes; whether it is good or bad is a matter of personal opinion. Same goes for the cancellations of “Trauma,” “Mercy” and “Heroes,” all of which had their share of die-hard fans…just not enough of them. The light in all of this darkness, however, is that NBC seems confident that it has a strong schedule for the fall — and for the first time in a long time, that declaration does not on the face of it seem laughable.
Better still is the news that cult-fave spy comedy “Chuck” has a place on that schedule, remaining on Mondays at 8 p.m.
NBC is serious about strengthening its Thursday comedy presence, keeping its block largely intact save for the addition of new comedy “Outsourced.” According to reports “Parks & Recreation,” which vastly improved in it second year, is set to return in midseason. (Or sooner, if “Outsourced” doesn’t work.) Additionally, the network is maintaning the evening’s tone at 10p.m. with the introduction of the hour-long comedy “Love Bites,” starring Becki Newton (of “Ugly Betty”) and Jordana Spiro (of “My Boys”) as two of the last remaining single girls in their group of friends.
More excitement is brewing about the new J.J. Abrams action series “Undercovers,” starring Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as ex-spies pulled back into the game when a friend disappears. That leads in to the still-potent “Law & Order: SVU,” which will be followed by Dick Wolf’s latest entry in to the franchise, “Law & Order: Los Angeles,” which sounds like the same formula on a different coast.
Here’s NBC’s Fall 2010 schedule and short descriptions of its new series, taken from the network’s press release. All times listed are ET/PT and new series are in bold. As always, feel free to share your take on NBC’s new schedule in the comments area.
MONDAY
8-9 p.m. - “Chuck”
9-10 p.m. – “The Event”
10-11 p.m. - “Chase”
TUESDAY
8-10 p.m. – “The Biggest Loser”
10-11 p.m. – “Parenthood”
WEDNESDAY
8-9 p.m. – “Undercovers”
9-10 p.m. – “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”
10-11 p.m. – “Law & Order: Los Angeles”
THURSDAY
8- 8:30 p.m. – “Community”
8:30-9 p.m. – “30 Rock”
9-9:30 p.m. - “The Office”
9:30-10 p.m. - “Outsourced”
10-11 p.m. - “Love Bites”
FRIDAY
8-9 p.m. – “Who Do You Think You Are?”/”School Pride”
9-10 p.m. – “Dateline NBC”
10-11 p.m. – “Outlaw”
SATURDAY
Encore programming
SUNDAY
7- 8:15 p.m. — “Football Night in America”
8:15-11:30 p.m. — “NBC Sunday Night Football”
SUNDAY MIDSEASON (beginning March 2011)
7-8 p.m. – “Dateline NBC”
8-9 p.m. – “Minute to Win It”
9-11 p.m. – “The Celebrity Apprentice”
Descriptions of the new series are after the jump.
The Official CW Fall 2010 Schedule
Posted by Melanie McFarland in Commentary, The Pick-Up Game, Tune In Info, TV News on May 21st, 2010
Aly Michalka, Robbie Jones and Ashley Tisdale star in "Hellcats"
As promised, here is the official schedule The CW released yesterday. We made a few predictions as to how it would shake out on Wednesday, and it looks like a couple of our wild guesses actually came to pass.
The development I am the most curious to discuss with fellow viewers is The CW’s decision to move “Supernatural” to Fridays. “Smallville” seemed to do OK there during the ’09-10 season, so it’s not the worst thing to happen…still, this Winchester fan is a tad concerned. (Not to mention a bit miffed to have to sacrifice her Friday nights due to her allegiance to Sam and Dean…darn.)
All times are ET/PT. New series are in bold. Descriptions taken from the network press release follow.
MONDAY
8 PM “90210″
9 PM “Gossip Girl”
TUESDAY
8 PM “One Tree Hill”
9 PM “Life Unexpected”
WEDNESDAY
8 PM “America’s Next Top Model”
9 PM “Hellcats”
THURSDAY
8 PM “The Vampire Diaries”
9 PM “Nikita”
FRIDAY
8 PM “Smallville”
9 PM “Supernatural”
New series descriptions
“HELLCATS” is a coming-of-age story about Marti Perkins, a young, pre-law student at Lancer University in Memphis, Tennessee. Marti is cool, hip and alt, but her world flips upside down, literally and figuratively, when she loses her scholarship, and realizes the only way she can stay in school is by reigniting her dormant teen gymnastic skills to win a place on Lancer’s legendary cheerleading team, The Hellcats. Against her every instinct, Marti goes for it and makes the squad, and is thrust into a world of camaraderie, backstabbing and the intersection of sports, backroom academia and big money. Marti’s new roommate, Savannah Monroe, a petite, peppy Texan, is among the diverse cast of athletes, undergrads, family and friends, all set on the sprawling campus of a powerhouse college football program in the deep South.
“NIKITA” When she was a deeply troubled teenager, Nikita was rescued from death row by a secret U.S. agency known only as Division, who faked her execution and told her she was being given a second chance to start a new life and serve her country. What they didn’t tell her was that she was being trained as a spy and assassin. Ultimately, Nikita was betrayed and her dreams shattered by the only people she thought she could trust. Now, after three years in hiding, Nikita is seeking retribution and making it clear to her former bosses that she will stop at nothing to expose and destroy their covert operation. For the time being, however, Division continues to recruit and train other young people, erasing all evidence of their former lives and turning them into cold and efficient killers. One of these new recruits, Alex, is just beginning to understand what lies ahead for her and why the legendary Nikita made the desperate decision to run.
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