WGN America Long Term Pick-Ups, Munsters/Addams Family Halloween Marathon; CBS Orders Full Seasons of NCIS LA, Good Wife

We previously announced that 30 Rock and Entourage were coming to WGN America in Fall 2011 and Fall 2010 respectively, now they have announced other deals officially. They have announced that they have also acquired How I Met Your Mother, Old Christine and Curb Your Enthusiasm for Fall 2010. How I Met Your Mother and Old Christine will be shared with Lifetime, while 30 Rock will be shared with Comedy Central. Spike TV and Comedy Central will also air Entourage. All of these are first time in syndication and they have spent a lot of money for these off-network deals, but they will be shared with other networks so the price tag is down for both parties and that the other networks don't see WGN America as a strong competitor in the general entertainment realm. WGN America is focusing on contemporary sitcom fare with a little more edge.
But they still will have classic TV! In fact this Halloween, WGN America will have marathons of The Munsters and Addams Family! The Munsters marathon will air on Friday, October 30 from 4pm-12am ET (1pm-9pm PT). That's 16 classic episodes! And on Halloween itself (Saturday, October 31) spends the day with The Addams Family with a marathon from 3pm-12am ET (12pm-9pm PT). That's an hour more than The Munsters as we get 18 classic episodes!
View the episode info for each marathon.

CBS has given full season orders to NCIS: Los Angeles and The Good Wife, the top two new series of the 2009-2010 season thus far in total viewers. NCIS: Los Angeles the number one new program of the season in total viewers and ranked second among all primetime programs, is averaging 17.47 million viewers, 4.1/11 in adults 18-49 and 5.6/13 in adults 25-54 over its three broadcasts so far. NCIS: Los Angeles has won its Tuesday (9:00-10:00 PM) time period in viewers and adults 25-54 every week this season and placed first in adults 18-49 twice.
The Good Wife, the number two new series of the season in total viewers, is averaging 13.70 million viewers, 3.0/8 in adults 18-49 and 4.2/11 in adults 25-54, winning its Tuesday (10:00-11:00 PM) time period in all key measures each telecast thus far.

Old Christine Coming to Lifetime in Fall 2010; 30 Rock Heads Locals in Fall 2011, ION Q2 Ratings Growth

Lifetime Television has acquired the cable rights to air reruns of The New Adventures of Old Christine starting Fall 2010 every weekday. Lifetime has reportedly paid $350,000 per episode to air the reruns.
It will join the Lifetime line-up with such off-net series such as How I Met Your Mother, Grey's Anatomy, Will & Grace, Desperate Housewives, Medium, and Wife Swap.
Old Christine is about a divorced mom who has got a handle on her career and motherhood, and a pretty good relationship with her ex-husband. Until, that is, he introduces her to his new girlfriend, a younger woman also named Christine.
As we previously reported, Old Christine will also air in local broadcast syndication starting in Fall 2010 airing on such stations such as WPIX in NY, KTLA in LA, and WCIU in Chicago.

Yesterday we mentioned 30 Rock was bought by Comedy Central and WGN America for a cable rerun deal beginning fall 2011, now Universal has sold the comedy to local broadcast syndication beginning in fall 2011 as well!
30 Rock has been sold to the Fox Television Stations and Tribune Broadcasting stations in the nation's top markets, including WNYW-TV New York (Fox), KTTV-TV Los Angeles (Fox), WGN-TV Chicago (Tribune) and WPHL-TV Philadelphia (Tribune).
Additional Fox stations include KDFW-TV/KDFI-TV Dallas, KRIV-TV/KTXH-TV Houston, KSAZ-TV/KUTP-TV Phoenix, WOFL-TV/WRBW-TV Orlando and KMSP-TV/WFTC-TV Minneapolis. Tribune stations that have also acquired 30 Rock include WDCW-TV Washington D.C., KCPQ-TV/KMYQ-TV Seattle, KRCW-TV Portland, WSFL-TV Miami, KSWB-TV San Diego, KTXL-TV Sacramento, WXMI-TV Grand Rapids, WPMT-TV Harrisburg and WNOL-TV/WGNO-TV New Orleans.

ION Television announced across the board viewership growth during the second quarter 2009. Overall, ION Television's household delivery in primetime increased 59%, while primetime delivery for adults 25-54 shot up by 74% year over year. In addition, June 2009 attracted the highest viewership in primetime of any month since ION officially re-launched in 2008, with year over year viewing doubling in the demo.
The popularity of ION Television's off-net series and its movies has resulted in this successful viewership growth trend. NCIS continued its solid performance with a quarterly average of over 1 million households for the first time.
This fall, in addition to the off-network debut of Criminal Minds, ION will launch their first ION Television original series, Durham County.

30 Rock Reruns Coming to Comedy Central, WGN America in Fall 2011; NY's WWOR Makes Historic Change

30 Rock is heading to off-network syndication in fall 2011 and has already sealed a cable deal. Both Comedy Central and WGN America have acquired the off-network cable rights to the critically acclaimed but ratings challenged comedy. They both will share the cable rights to the sitcom airing weekdays starting fall 2011 and have paid a combined $800,000 an episode, approximately speaking. That is similar in price to FX's buy of Two and a Half Men, but that was only FX buying it and not a shared deal. FX starts Two and a Half Men in fall 2010.
30 Rock will be coming to cable the same time it starts local broadcast syndication as well. That usually doesn't happen, as usually it takes 3 years or more for a show to hit cable after it hits local broadcast syndication, as is the case with Two and a Half Men. So far 30 Rock has not had any local station clearances for fall 2011, but that is still a while away. If the series gets canceled after next season, that might not even happen anyway.
Comedy Central currently airs only two actual sitcoms--Scrubs and Just Shoot Me. 30 Rock would make a nice pair with Scrubs, but Scrubs' deal would be over by fall 2011, unless they renew it. As for WGN America, they are trying to be an all-around network, as they have also acquired Entourage for fall 2010 and South Park for this fall, both as we previously announced. This type of programming is geared for their late night line-up. Classic TV will still be a big part of WGN America's line-up as well, so don't fret!
30 Rock is entering its fourth season on NBC this fall, airing Thursdays at 9:30pm ET/PT. We will certainly have more on the syndication deal as we get more information.

WWOR (My9) in New York is making some drastic and historic changes starting next week. Historic because they are moving the long time 10pm newscast to 11pm and removing the weekend newscast totally! We first reported this on our message boards on Monday, but we wanted to do a story on this as well. WWOR will air The Wendy Williams Show now weeknights at 10pm following MyNetwork TV programming, replacing the hour-long 10pm newscast with Brenda Blackman and Harry Martin. The Wendy Williams Show is a encore from earlier in the day from sister station WNYW (Fox5), which will air it at 10am. So the WWOR news moves to 11pm, and will now only be 30-minutes but will be continued to be anchored by Blackman and Martin. Law & Order: Criminal Intent shifts from 11pm to 11:30pm weeknights as a result of this change. On weekends, the news hour is completely gone--so on Saturdays we now get The King of Queens at 10pm and on Sundays the second run of House at 10pm.
There are tons of other changes during the day on weekdays starting July 13 as well, most notably are sitcoms now from 1pm-2:30pm with One on One, Scrubs, and That '70s Show. WWOR is preparing for the fall as they are cutting the double-runs of canceled shows to just one airing like Family Court with Judge Penny and Trivial Pursuit. WWOR will also have a big hole to fill in the fall when Tyra Banks Show moves from syndication to The CW Daytime.
Sister station WNYW is also making changes. This week they added a test-run of Beyond Twisted, which is an eight-week trial run on Fox owned stations (WNYW New York, KTTV Los Angeles, KDFW Dallas, WJVK Detroit, KSAZ Phoenix and KMSP Minneapolis) at 12am. Then starting next week, Good Day NY expands into the 9am hour as well, bumping the canceled Morning Show with Mike & Juliet to 12 noon for now. As we mentioned, The Wendy Williams Show will air weekdays at 10am on WNYW. And the second run of Everybody Loves Raymond moves from WWOR to WNYW, airing weeknights at 12:30am. WWOR will air the first run but will move it to weekdays at 6:30pm. Finally, starting July 20, another test run show will air on WNYW. Weekdays at 11am Deadlock or Wedlock (a sort of a Divorce Court spin-off) will get a six-week trial run on Fox owned stations in New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Tampa, Phoenix, Orlando and Memphis.
View the full changes for WWOR and WNYW in a list form. We will have more on WWOR and WNYW later this month (along with cable networks and other NYC market stations) in our annual fall schedules barrage blog posts! So stay tuned!

TV Land Orders Make My Day, Originals Update; Night Court Reunion on 30 Rock; ABC Family New Season Dates for Kyle XY and Teenager

TV Land is about to make your day. Continuing its push into original non-scripted series, TV Land has ordered a hidden-camera series, Make My Day, from producer Michael Davies and Sony Pictures Television.
Make My Day revolves around people who are unwittingly put through a series of "weird and wonderful" surprises and coincidences set up by friends and family members. TV Land has ordered six episodes of the hour-long series. It's based on a successful format from British production company Monkey Kingdom that aired on the U.K.'s Channel 4 in 2001-03. To me this sounds like Nick at Nite's now defunct series Hi-Jinks. Make My Day will premiere on TV Land's primetime schedule next year, on the TV Land PRIME block, most likely on Wednesday nights.
Coming soon to TV Land PRIME, the countdown to the next exciting season of TV Land's highly rated original series High School Reunion is on! The second season of this successful TV Land original series brings together high school alumni from Chandler, Arizona 20 years after their graduation as they gather for two weeks in exotic Kauai, HI. The fun is slated to begin on Wednesday, February 18, 2009. Other originals include new series The Cougar launching April 15, 2009 and the new season of She's Got the Look on June 10, 2009. The 2009 TV Land Awards are slated for Sunday, June 14, 2009.

We are having sort of a Night Court reunion tomorrow night on NBC. Three of the cast members from the hit show will guest star on NBC's 30 Rock at 9:30pm tomorrow (November 13) as themselves. Series star Harry Anderson (Judge Harry Stone), Markie Post (Public Defender Christine Sullivan), and Charlie Robinson (Clerk Mac Robinson) will reunite. Also in the episode, Jennifer Aniston returns to primetime television as a free-spirited, "fatal Attraction"-like stalker named Claire Harper. She randomly shows up in New York to visit Liz (Tina Fey) and Jenna (Jane Krakowski). Claire zeroes in on Jack (Alec Baldwin) upon first sight and claims him for her own. She is dressed very well from the videos, I've seen. Very stunning.
Kenneth (Jack McBrayer), distressed and let down over the new page uniforms, turns to Tracy (Tracy Morgan) for some cheering up. To make Kenneth smile again, Tracy has a surprise involving the cast of Night Court.
The only thing that would have made this "reunion" better if they had Dan Fielding himself, I guess John Larroquette is busy on ABC's Boston Legal. Roz (Marsha Warfield) and Bull (Richard Moll) would have been nice to see as well. Oh well, three stars is better than nothing! Click click (as the Night Court theme goes)!

Following ABC Family's celebrated "25 Days of Christmas" programming event, ABC Family will start the new year strong by bringing back two of its hit original series this January. The break-out summer hit The Secret Life of the American Teenager returns on a new day (Monday) with twelve all-new one hour episodes beginning Monday, January 5 from 8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT. And season three of Kyle XY will premiere a week later with ten all-new one hour episodes beginning Monday, January 12 from 9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT, on a new time.

NBC Switches 30 Rock and Scrubs Slots; Female TV Stars Give Stess Secrets

Starting next Thursday (April 24) NBC will switch the timeslots for 30 Rock and Scrubs for the last three episodes of the season for both. 30 Rock was airing at 8:30pm on Thursdays but now will be moving to 9:30pm, where Scrubs was airing, while Scrubs will move to 8:30pm. Is this move because of Grey's Anatomy returning with new episodes on ABC? I don't think so. I think NBC is probably trying to bring more of an audience to critically acclaimed 30 Rock following The Office, which does well in the 18-49 rating demo.

A number of female celebrities are participating in Johnson's newest online campaign in the feature "Celebrity Stress Secrets." Johnson's, the skin care expert, has announced the launch of a new online campaign and microsite to promote its award-winning Melt Away Stress line of skin care products. "Celebrity Stress Secrets" features nearly 20 videos of unscripted stress tips and interviews from experts and celebs including Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty), Dr. Michelle Callahan, psychologist and life coach, and Susan Cernek, Glam Media’s Lifestyle Editor.
Additionally, the site will also include quotes from a range of celebrities including Alison Sweeney (The Biggest Loser), Stacey Dash (Clueless), Roselyn Sanchez (Without a Trace), Constance Marie (George Lopez), Nia Long (Big Shots) and Bonnie Somerville (Cashmere Mafia) on how they deal with stress. Further, the site is hosting the Express Your Stress competition, where women submit their stories on dealing with stress in hopes of winning a Girlfriend's Getaway to Jamaica.
Visit their website for more information! Check out their YouTube page for videos, such as Ana Ortiz's Advice For Young Women and De-stress Techniques.
And don't forget Ana Ortiz and the rest of the hilarious Ugly Betty cast return with all-new episodes starting next Thursday (April 24) at 8/7 central on ABC!

NBC Announces Post-Strike Returning Series, Next Season Renewals; Fox Summer 2008 Plans

Yesterday we gave you CBS' return dates for new post-strike episodes with the number of new episodes expected. Now NBC has released their returning series, but they didn't release how many new episdodes we can expect like CBS did.
NBC will resume the broadcast of many of its scripted series in April with new original episodes following the settlement of the Writers Guild of America strike, including The Office, 30 Rock, My Name Is Earl, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, among other programs.
For the Thursday sitcoms, My Name Is Earl will return with a one-hour episode on Thursday, April 3; the Emmy Award-winning 30 Rock will begin on Thursday, April 10; likewise, the Emmy-winning The Office also resumes with new episodes on Thursday, April 10; and Scrubs will come back with original episodes beginning Thursday, April 10 as well.
Thursday drama ER also will come back on Thursday, April 10 with new episodes following the complete run of Lipstick Jungle, which concludes on March 20. Celebrity Apprentice will conclude on March 27.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit will return with fresh episodes on Tuesday, April 15. Law & Order resumes with more original episodes on Wednesday, April 23. Meanwhile, Medium (Mondays, 10-11 p.m. ET) continues in originals.
NBC has not announced what they will do with Las Vegas and Friday Night Lights yet. Journeyman and Bionic Woman seem like they won't return ever. While Chuck, Life, and Heroes were renewed for next season but will not return this season. I was surprised by the Life renewal.
We will keep you up to date of further developments for NBC. We still will have details on ABC, Fox, and The CW, when they announce their plans.

But in a strange move, Fox has already announced plans for its summer slate. So You Think You Can Dance will kick off the summer season on Thursday, May 22 and Wednesday, May 28 from 8-10pm on both nights. Then it will air Thursdays at 9 and Wednesdays 8-10pm. Then reality series When Women Rule the World(working title), will debut with a special two-hour premiere Monday, June 2 from 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT before the series will air in its regularly scheduled time period beginning Monday, June 9 at 9:00 ET/PT.
All-new episodes of Fox favorites The Moment of Truth, Hell's Kitchen, Cops and America's Most Wanted will continue through the summer. The Moment of Truth will continue with all-new episodes, but it will be airing Thursdays at 8:00PM ET/PT starting June 12. After premiering Tuesday, April 1 at 9:00 PM ET/PT Hell's Kitchen will continue to heat up, while counting down to the winner, with all-new episodes on Tuesdays at 9:00 PM ET/PT.
Fan favorite Bones continues airing encores on Mondays at 8:00 PM ET/PT all summer, and House moves to Tuesdays at 8:00 PM ET/PT with encores starting May 27. Second runs of Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? will join encores of Sunday night's animated comedies starting June 1 at 7PM.

Day 71: WGA's Strike; My Name is Earl on TBS March; Golden Globe Winners

Today is the 71st day of the strike. The strike infected Golden Globes news announcement aired last night and it did less than 6 million viewers in the preliminary numbers. Usually the awards show gets more than 20 million. The strike is sure affecting these awards. Let's hope the strike ends before the Oscars air on Feb. 24 or at least a side deal is made so that the show can go on as normal rather than a towed-down ceremony or just a news announcement of the winners.
The WGA made a side deal with a company on Friday. They stated:
The Weinstein Company (TWC) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced that they have signed a comprehensive independent agreement. While the details are not being disclosed, the deal addresses the issues important to writers, including New Media. As a result of this agreement, Writers Guild members will now be able to work with The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films, the genre division under the TWC banner.
So this is good news for that company and movie fans.

As we have mentioned before My Name is Earl is coming to TBS in reruns. It will start off as a once a week play in March before getting the five-days-a-week treatment in Fall 2009. The show will air Monday nights at 10:00pm & 10:30pm ET/PT starting March 3. My Name is Earl joins the TBS Monday night line-up of all-star comedies starting this March. Starring Jason Lee as the outrageous Earl Hickey, this smart and irreverent sitcom is sure to start your week off with laughs.
Monday nights at 10 pm ET, immediately following Family Guy.
For the complete primetime schedule for TBS starting in March and to discuss this piece of news, click HERE!

The Golden Globe winners were announced last night. Cable series and stars ruled the television portion, taking 10 of the 11 wins. The only network win was for Tina Fey of 30 Rock for best actress in a comedy or musical. The WGA strike could have been a factor for this. Thankfully there was no ceremomy because I would have been upset for all these cable wins...and I'm sure many others would agree. Mad Men won for best drama, Extras won for best comedy or musical and Longford won for best mini-series or TV movie.
To view the full list of winners for the television portion, click HERE!

Tonight is a big night that I have to mention what is on. Lots of new material...but just one sitcom....Notes from the Underbelly on ABC at 9:30. CBS and The CW's sitcom line-ups will be in repeat mode. Elsewhere...Kyle XY returns with new episodes on ABC Family at 8/7 central, followed by an encore at 9 and midnight. That is one very underrated show. Prison Break returns for Fox followed by the second episode of Sarah Connor Chronicles. Can the latter beat the Chronicles curse? It seems all shows that had that word in the title failed. And Dance War has its first live episode, so that should be entertaining, as last week was just the auditions.

Customizable Versions of Classic TV Music; Beaver Reunion Video

SmartSound Software, Inc., the leading provider of music and scoring technology for film and video professionals, today announced the launch of four new customizable music libraries featuring all original music from the film and television catalog of EMI Music Publishing, one of the world's largest music publishers. Each track is licensed for unlimited use in home movies and is encoded to work with SmartSound-enabled applications, including many leading video editing software products. This nostalgic music combined with SmartSound's patented technology allows users to set the music into any length scene and listen to all possible arrangements that have a musical beginning and ending fit exactly to the scene.
Each library includes ten tracks. They can be purchased directly from SmartSound at http://www.smartsound.com/moviemusic for $39.95 each or just $99 for all four discs as a set. Here are the TV Classics Library details:
EMI TV Classics -- Memorable music from favorite TV shows of the 1960s and 1970s. Includes music from such popular shows as Batman, Bewitched, The Avengers and Lost in Space.

In case anyone missed it this morning, ABCNews.com has put up the video of the Leave it to Beaver reunion segment. Tom Bergeron, host of Dancing with the Stars, conducted the interview. Can you believe Barbara Billingsley is 91?? Anyway, see for yourself by clicking HERE. There are two video links there on the right.

Yesterday we reported that tonight's Grey's Anatomy will encore on Friday at 9 on ABC, but now ABC has decided not to. Private Practice will now air on Friday, October 5, 2007 at 9:00 PM ET/PT. This episode will be a repeat telecast of the Wednesday, October 3, 2007 broadcast.

Tune in tonight on NBC for the Comedy Done Right sitcoms starting at 8/7 central with My Name is Earl followed by the season premiere of 30 Rock and an all-new one-hour episode of The Office.

TV Land Brings Back Brady Bunch...For Now, Nick at Nite Notes; TBS Gets Earl Window; More Notes

This might be just for two weeks, but The Brady Bunch is coming back to TV Land. The Brady Bunch has been added to the schedule airing Tues-Fri at 11am starting Tuesday, October 2. It might be just for weeks of Oct. 1 and 8 (replacing a second Green Acres), as Designing Women is slated to still launch Tues-Fri at 11am starting Oct. 15. We will keep you up to date. As the theme song starts, "here's a story," this certainly is a story to watch!
Meanwhile, if you haven't noticed, but since Saturday, Nick at Nite has added a last minute Fresh Prince of Bel-Air marathon. It is a 6 night marathon that will run through Thursday. 11pm-5am each night (Saturday it was 12-5am). Home Improvement and George Lopez are still kicking off each night. And speaking of Home Improvement, it will get a 9pm-3:30am marathon this Sunday (Sept. 30).

We've mentioned before that TBS has gotten the 5-days a week syndication rights to the NBC sitcom My Name is Earl starting Fall 2009, but now we have some more good news. Starting this April, they can air the series back-to-back one night a week, like they do with shows like House of Payne. So Earl will get a sneak peek a full 1 1/2 years before its syndication launch!

Emmy voters have spoken and now viewers have a chance to catch up on the NBC Emmy Award-winning comedy 30 Rock, when Bravo airs a six episode mini-marathon on Sunday, September 30th from 1:00 4:00 PM ET/ PT. Six sure-to-become classic episodes of the critically acclaimed comedy will include fan favorites featuring Paul Reubens as a bizarre foreign prince, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) getting set up on a blind date with a lesbian, and Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) becoming an NBC page for a day. 30 Rock is told through the comedic voice of Fey playing Liz Lemon, who heads the variety show TGS while clashing with the ever-meddling head honcho Jack Donaghy.
30 Rock, with special guest star Jerry Seinfeld, premieres Thursday, October 4th at 8:30 PM ET/PT on NBC.
And finally, Firebrand TV is finally rescheduled on ION. It will start Monday, Oct. 22 airing weeknights at 11pm. Full details, click HERE.

TV Land's CASA Stunt Full Details; Network Notes

We mentioned this a lot already, but TV Land has issued yet another press release on the CASA Family Day. As part of its commitment to Family Day - A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children(TM), TV Land will pre-empt regularly- scheduled programming and "go dark" on September 24 from 6pm to 7pm (ET/PT) to encourage families to dine together. Viewers tuning in to The Family Day Dinner Hour will see photos submitted to TVLand.com of various families sharing meals and spending time together. Packaged like a scrapbook, the hour will display montages of the photos along with Family Day graphics, all set to easy-listening Americana and Jazz music.
To further promote Family Day, TV Land will air a two-hour block of classic family dinner-themed episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, Sanford & Son, and M*A*S*H on Sunday, September 23, from 8pm to 10pm (ET/PT).

Fox has announced the premiere date for season 7 of 24. The innovative, addictive, Emmy Award-winning television series 24 resets the clock for Season Seven with a special two-night premiere event Sunday, Jan. 13 from 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT and Monday, Jan. 14 from 9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on Fox.
In keeping with Fox's commitment to airing original programming year-round, the intense season will unfold in 24's regular 9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT time period beginning Monday, Jan. 14, and will continue to air all originals all season into June.
NBC.com today announced the launch of its new service, "NBC Direct," which will allow users to download and view NBC's popular primetime and late-night entertainment programming on their desktops for up to one week after broadcast. This new feature provides yet another platform on which fans will be able to enjoy NBC Entertainment content.
The first version of this new feature, which will begin beta testing in October, will allow users to download full length episodes for viewing on Windows based PCs. Each original episode will be licensed to users for viewing through "NBC Direct" for one week following broadcast and will then expire. The downloaded file will provide users with an improved overall viewing experience compared to traditional streaming video. The list of programs available at launch will include Heroes, The Office, Life, Bionic Woman, 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Later in the beta launch, users will be provided the free subscription option that will allow them to pre-select their favorite NBC programs they want to watch. Those shows will be automatically delivered to their computers as soon as they are available after the original broadcast. The downloadable player will also have filtering technology, which will prevent it from playing any stolen copyrighted material.

And finally, as a reminder the first two original sitcom airings of the new season start tonight with the series premiere of Back to You and the season premiere of 'Til Death. The laughs start at 8/7 central on Fox.
Our final ratings for each night will return this week on our message boards (see General Sitcoms board)

NBC, Fox, ABC, CW Notes, Includes '30 Rock' Renewal for 07-08 Season; Interview with Maureen 'Marcia Brady' McCormick

We have more schedule notes to tell you, but before I start on that, NBC has renewed rookie sitcom 30 Rock for the 2007-08 season, despite not that good ratings. The show is a critical hit and stars Tina Fey. The show returns Thursday, April 5, with a special super-sized episode from 8:40 p.m. to 9:20 p.m. ET before moving to its new 9:00 p.m. Thursday slot the following week.
Sticking with NBC, we mentioned a few days ago that they would cut The Black Donnellys short and will remove starting on April 23, but after this week's bad ratings, NBC has pulled it effective immediately. A second hour of the new NBC improv series Thank God You're Here will air instead. April 16 is still TBD, but if Thank God does well, NBC is likely to air that again.
And Fox has also pulled a show they promised to air until after its April 20 airing. Friday drama The Wedding Bells will be pulled two weeks earlier than expected. The show will be replaced by encores of Bones starting April 20. A movie will air next Friday. This Friday will be the last for this short lived drama. Meanwhile, Fox will bring back Trading Spouses to Thursdays at 9 starting April 12. April 12 & 19 will be encores and the season finale will be a two-part episode on April 26 and May 3.
The CW is saying that 7th Heaven will have its series finale on Sunday, May 13 at 8 p.m. This looks like it actually will be the series finale as the ratings haven't been that good on Sundays. 7th Heaven aired Mondays at 8 for years prior to this season. Over 7 million tuned in to last year's finale, which was labeled a series finale until The CW made a last minute renewal.
The CW's mid-season drama Hidden Palms finally has a date, but it will launch in the summer. The CW has slotted it for Wednesday, May 30 at 8 p.m. One Tree Hill will follow at 9 p.m. and will be new for the first three weeks Palms airs. The CW is expected to air eight episodes of Palms. The show focuses on Johnny Miller, a teen who is struggling to come to terms with two tragedies in the strange and artificial atmosphere of Palm Springs. The show is produced by Kevin Williamson.
Finally, ABC has confirmed to us that the final two Thursdays of the season following all-new Grey's Anatomy episodes will be the return of Men in Trees. Trees has five episodes left, but ABC will only air two of them (May 10 and May 17 at 10), and hold the other three over for next season likely.

For those of you who are Three's Company fans like myself, know all about the great Chris Mann. Mann of course wrote the wonderful book Come and Knock on Our Door, and Mann continues to write. He just did an article/interview for TV Guide. He interviewed Marcia Brady herself--Maureen McCormick! Maureen will be featured in the new season of Celebrity Fit Club, premiering on VH-1 on Sunday, April 22. Maureen will also be reunited with her fellow Brady Bunch gang in the 5th TV Land Awards airing also on April 22 (tapes on April 14), accepting the Pop Culture Award. Mann talks to Maureen about all of that, turning 50, her overcome of bulimia and much more! Click HERE to view this great piece! The Brady Bunch Complete Series DVD is on sale, but before you buy it, don't forget to read our review.
Mann will have another interview with Maureen in the May issue of Get Active! magazine, available nationally at Bally Total Fitness and several other health and fitness clubs. That story, will probably also will be posted on GetActiveMagazine.com sometime next month, will have more details of her Celebrity Fit Club experience and her inspiring personal transformation, as well as her fond memories of her mother. Mann also asked her if people still say, "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia" to her and she said, "Oh, yeah! All the time!"