ABC Sets Feb. 2 Premiere Date for LOST Final Season, Chuck Returns for NBC; ABC Family Monday Originals in January

ABC announced that the premiere of the sixth and final season of LOST, will have a special all-night event on Tuesday, February 2, 2010. A recap special will kick off the night at 8:00 p.m., ET/PT, followed by the much anticipated two-hour premiere from 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT. The series will then air in its regular time period Tuesday nights from 9:00-10:00 p.m., ET beginning the following week, on February 9.
ABC has not announced anything else for 2010 in terms of schedule changes. LOST airing in the 9pm hour will likely have ABC move Scrubs and Better off Ted to the 8pm hour. Those comedies start airing in the 9pm hour starting Dec. 1 and will likely air there in January as well before LOST takes the hour starting in February. It is unclear what ABC will air at 8pm on Tuesdays in January. My guess? Shark Tank. ABC has some episodes still to air and they announced yesterday that repeats will air on Saturdays in January at 5pm ET starting Jan. 9. ABC will also air repeats of Shaq Vs. on Sundays at 5pm ET starting Jan. 3. Back to primetime, the forgotten will likely air Tuesdays at 10pm still in January and February. In March both Dancing with the Stars: The Results and V will return. They will air at 8pm and 10pm, but either time for each could work. The only other question mark for ABC will be Wednesdays at 10pm starting in January. Could Ugly Betty be on the move to that slot? Stay with us!

NBC's one-hour action-comedy series Chuck returns to the NBC lineup on Sunday, January 10 with all-new missions and two action-packed, back-to-back original episodes in its season premiere from 9-11 p.m. ET before the series -- starring Zachary Levi in the title role -- moves back to its regular day and time (Mondays 8-9 p.m. ET) beginning Monday, January 11. NBC has 19 hours of Chuck this season, so they are using three hours the first week.
In other programming news, a special two-hour episode of Heroes will be broadcast on Monday, January 4 from 8-10 p.m. ET and then the series moves to its new time slot (actually its old slot) of Mondays at 9 p.m. ET starting January 11. NBC has also announced they have ordered three more episodes of canceled drama Trauma. Why? For inventory reasons as they will need a few more hours to program. Trauma will air 10 episodes in 2009, so 6 episodes will remain to air sometime in 2010. It won't be airing Mondays at 9 in January that's for sure. Looks like it will return when maybe Heroes finishes up its run in February? Don't get too excited Trauma fans, NBC did the same thing by ordering more Lipstick Jungle last year and it remained canceled after that.

Finally, ABC Family will return its two original hit dramas, The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Make It or Break It one week earlier, moving to Monday, January 4 at 8:00-9:00PM ET/PT and 9:00-10:00PM ET/PT. The Secret Life of the American Teenager returns (8:00-9:00PM ET/PT) to complete its second season with 12 all-new episodes; Make It or Break It (9:00PM-10:00PM ET/PT) returns to complete its first season with 10 all-new episodes. The two series were initially scheduled to return on Monday, January 11, 2010.
The network has also created its first 3-hour block of original programming on Monday nights by setting the premiere date for the return of Greek on Monday, January 25 at 10:00 PM ET/PT. Greek will join the new Monday line up in the 10 o'clock hour, which will round out its third season with 10 episodes.
We will have more on ABC Family January 2010 at a later date, if anything has changed on the regular daytime schedule (7am-8pm).

ABC Family Changes Its Mind; George Segal to Star in TV Land Sitcom Pilot

Last Wednesday we mentioned a few ABC Family schedule changes happening this week, now one of them is not happening anymore. 8 Simple Rules is not coming back to the weekday 6pm hour starting Nov. 18 after all. Instead, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air will remain in the hour until further notice. As of now, 8 Simple Rules is not airing at all, but in October it aired on weekends (Sat 10-11am & Sun 11am-12pm). It is not airing now because of holiday movies. Stay with us and we'll let you know if it remains on weekends in January or if it gets a weekday slot. The other change we mentioned last week, will happen starting today, with What I Like About You returning to the schedule and airing weekdays in the 12 noon hour replacing one of the Full House hours (it will remain in the 3pm hour).

TV Land announced that George Segal -- esteemed comedy and drama actor on TV, stage and film -- has been tapped to star in the network's sitcom pilot Retired at 35. The sitcom, which was previously announced in October along with comedy pilot Hot in Cleveland, is TV Land's first foray into scripted comedy series and is being developed for TV Land PRIME.
Retired at 35 follows a successful businessman who decides to leave the rat race of New York City behind and move into his parents' Florida retirement home to reconnect with them, reevaluate his life and live the dream of retirement that so many are working towards. Segal will play the role of the father, who bonds with his son while showing him the glories of his newfound and liberated lifestyle.
Retired at 35 and Hot in Cleveland are in development for 2010 for TV Land PRIME along with the premieres of Everybody Loves Raymond and the reality series High School Reunion; First Love, Second Chance and She's Got the Look. TV Land PRIME is the network's primetime programming block designed to appeal to the attitudes, life stage and interests of people in their 40s.
Recently seen on the popular HBO series Entourage, and in ABC's Pushing Daisies, Segal starred for seven seasons as Jack Gallo in the NBC ensemble comedy Just Shoot Me! On the big screen, he was an Oscar-nominee for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and also starred in A Touch of Class, The Owl and The Pussycat with Barbra Streisand and Fun with Dick and Jane with Jane Fonda. He also starred on Broadway in Art, Rattle of a Simple Man and Gideon.
We'll let you know more casting for this sitcom (along with Hot in Cleveland) and if actually gets picked-up to series. If that happens, it will air for sure, but right now it is just a pilot.

ABC Family Schedule Changes Has 8 Simple Rules, Return of Bynes Comedy, Less 'Fresh'; 36th Annual People's Choice Awards Nominees

ABC Family Channel is making some schedule changes effective next week. Starting Monday, Nov. 16, weekdays at 12 noon will now be back-to-back episodes of the Amanda Bynes sitcom What I Like About You, which returns back to the schedule, replacing Full House. Full House will still remain airing in its 3 & 3:30pm slots. Then starting next Wednesday (Nov. 18), 8 Simple Rules returns to weeknights airing weeknights at 6:00pm & 6:30pm replacing The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Fresh Prince will still air weekends (usually Saturday nights after midnight) in the late night on most weekends and it will also remain on sister network Disney XD. As for 8 Simple Rules, it came back to the schedule last month on weekends but due to holiday movies it will not be airing on weekends in November and December...but who cares now since it will air weeknights again in its old 6:00pm & 6:3pm slot! Excellent news for the John Ritter, Katey Sagal, and David Spade-led sitcom.
Last month Grounded for Life returned to weekdays (4pm hour)...now more shows return. All in all a good chedule change as nothing is totally leaving the line-up, while two shows return to weekdays.

The nominees were for The 36th Annual People's Choice Awards are now in. We will only mention the TV categories. Winners will be revealed during the live broadcast of The 36th Annual People's Choice Awards which will be hosted by Queen Latifah from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2009 (9:00-11:00 PM, ET/delayed PT) on CBS. The first awards show of 2010, The 36th Annual People's Choice Awards honors fan favorites in television, movies and music.
Voting begins today at http://www.peopleschoice.com/ and www.myspace.com/peopleschoiceawards for all 35 categories and will end on December 8, 2009, except for "Favorite New TV Drama" and "Favorite New TV Comedy," which will remain open for voting until night of show. The TV nominees are:

FAVORITE TV DRAMA
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS)
Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
House (Fox)
LOST (ABC)
NCIS (CBS)

FAVORITE TV COMEDY
Desperate Housewives (ABC)
How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
Two and a Half Men (CBS)
The Office (NBC)

FAVORITE TV DRAMA ACTOR
Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy, ABC)
Hugh Laurie (House, Fox)
Kiefer Sutherland (24, Fox)
Mark Harmon (NCIS, CBS)
Matthew Fox (LOST, ABC)

FAVORITE TV COMEDY ACTOR
Alec Baldwin (30 Rock, NBC)
Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory, CBS)
Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother, CBS)
Steve Carell (The Office, NBC)
Charlie Sheen (Two and a Half Men, CBS)

FAVORITE TV DRAMA ACTRESS
Anna Paquin (True Blood, HBO)
Blake Lively (Gossip Girl, The CW)
Jennifer Love Hewitt (Ghost Whisperer, CBS)
Katherine Heigl (Grey's Anatomy, ABC)
Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: SVU, NBC)

FAVORITE TV COMEDY ACTRESS
Alyson Hannigan (How I Met Your Mother, CBS)
America Ferrera (Ugly Betty, ABC)
Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation, NBC)
Eva Longoria Parker (Desperate Housewives, ABC)
Tina Fey (30 Rock, NBC)

FAVORITE TV OBSESSIONDexter
Gossip Girl, The CW
The Hills, MTV
The Secret Life of the American Teenager, ABC Family
True Blood, HBO

FAVORITE COMPETITION
American Idol (Fox)
Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
Project Runway (Lifetime)
So You Think You Can Dance (Fox)
Survivor: Samoa (CBS)

FAVORITE SCI-FI / FANTASY SHOW (Mobile Voting Category)
Heroes (NBC)
LOST (ABC)
Supernatural (The CW)
Vampire Diaries (The CW)
True Blood (HBO)

FAVORITE TALK SHOW (Mobile Voting Category)
Chelsea Lately (E!)
The Ellen DeGeneres Show (Syndicated, Warner Bros.)
The Oprah Winfrey Show (Syndicated, CBS Television Distribution)
Live with Regis & Kelly (Syndicated, ABC Studios)

FAVORITE ANIMAL SHOW
Animal Cops
Dog Town
Dog Whisperer
It's Me or the Dog
Rescue Ink Unleashed

FAVORITE NEW TV DRAMA
Eastwick, ABC
FLASHFORWARD, ABC
Melrose Place, The CW
Mercy, NBC
the forgotten, ABC
The Good Wife, CBS
The Vampire Diaries, The CW
Three Rivers, CBS
NCIS: Los Angeles, CBS
V, ABC

FAVORITE NEW TV COMEDY
Accidentally on Purpose, CBS
Brothers, Fox
Community, NBC
Cougar Town, ABC
Glee, Fox
Hank, ABC
The Cleveland Show, Fox
The Middle, ABC
Modern Family, ABC

View the full press release.

ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas 2009 Edition; Ally McBeal Two-Part Reunion on ABC's GMA

A few weeks ago we highlighted ABC Family's Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas for 2009, but now we have the full 25 Days of Christmas schedule for 2009 that starts Tuesday, December 1, 2009! On that night the holiday fun begins with the classic animated special The Year Without a Santa Claus at 7pm followed by the basic cable premiere of The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause with a double premiere at 8pm and 10pm. The next night we have a double airing of Larry the Cable Guy starring Jason Lee at 7pm and 9pm. What Christmas would it be now without The Polar Express? ABC Family will air it on Dc. 3 at 6pm and 8:30pm. Other holiday movies include Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, Richie Rich's Christmas Wish, The Dog Who Saved Christmas, Home Alone 3, Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas, A Dennis the Menace Christmas, Naughty or Nice, Jack Frost, Holiday in Handcuffs, The Santa Clause 2, A Carol Christmas, Eloise at Christmastime, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Jingle All the Way, A Very Brady Christmas, The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas, Snow, Snow 2 Brain Freeze, Santa Baby, and the original movie premiere of Santa Baby 2 Christmas Maybe.
We also have many many specials such as Frosty's Winter Wonderland, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, Cranberry Christmas, Mickey's Christmas Carol, Winnie the Pooh & Christmas Too, A Miser Brothers' Christmas, Rudolph's Shiny New Year, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, The Little Drummer Boy, The Little Drummer Boy Book II, Pinocchio's Christmas, Rudolph & Frosty's Christmas in July, A Garfield Christmas, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, Gotta Catch Santa Claus, and the ABC Family premieres of A Flintstone Christmas, The Little Rascals Christmas Special, Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation, and Disney Prep and Landing. We also get holiday episodes of series like Full House and AFV.
See the full schedule for the Countdown (Nov. 10-30) and the actual 25 Days of Christmas (Dec. 1-25).
Other ABC Family December 2009 highlights includes an America's Funniest Home Videos marathon on New Year's Eve from 3pm-11pm, as we close out 2009 with laughs!

There will be no searching for your soul this week, because we have an Ally McBeal reunion! The Ally McBeal Reunion is airing as a two-part special on ABC's Good Morning America today (Monday, Nov. 2) & tomorrow (Tuesday, Nov. 3) during the 8:00 AM hour. Join David E. Kelly, Calista Flockhart, Gil Bellows, Peter MacNicol, Greg Germann, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Jane Krakowski, Lisa Nicole Carson and Vonda Shepard as they reminisce to Tom Bergeron about those short skirts, Fishisms, that dancing baby and more!
View an image of the cast reunited. And if you missed today's interview, view it right here!
And as a reminder, Ally McBeal: The Complete Series and Ally McBeal: The Complete First Season are both now available on DVD...order it today!
Tune in tomorrow morning for part two of the reunion! Baby...yeah...oh yeah!

Grounded for Life Returns to ABC Family; Comedy Central Acquires The Goode Family

Grounded for Life is returning to ABC Family in November. They made a last minute change and will return Grounded for Life on Monday, Nov. 2 airing weekdays in the 4pm hour, replacing What I Like About You, which will be leaving the line-up for now. The Donal Logue sitcom was airing on weekends (Saturdays 10-11am and Sundays 11am-12pm) until the end of September, when it was replaced by 8 Simple Rules in October, so now the sitcom returns...in a much better slot and more airings! Now all they need to do is add 8 Simple Rules back to weekdays, and I'll be happy!
View our previous blog post on ABC Family November 2009, which we highlighted the Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas (Nov. 10-30).

Comedy Central has acquired the animated sitcom The Goode Family for play starting in January. The series aired for 13 episodes this past summer on ABC and didn't deliver in the ratings on Wednesday nights before quickly being burned off to Friday nights. The Goode Family is from Mike Judge, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky, and there is also a slight chance Comedy Central can pick up the show for a second season and produce new episodes!
The series revolves around a family attempting to live an ultra-politically correct lifestyle and stars the voices of Mike Judge, Nancy Carell, Linda Cardellini, Dave Herman and Brian Doyle-Murray. It was pretty good, I thought.
Comedy Central is also in talks to pick-up Sit Down, Shut Up, the Fox animated sitcom that also was short-lived, Variety reports. Stay tuned if they do!

Speaking of animated comedies, look for the classic Halloween special It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown tonight at 8pm on ABC leading into ABC Comedy Wednesday comedies The Middle, Modern Family, and Cougar Town from 8:30-10pm. Good stuff!

ABC Family's 2009 Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas; Comedy Central Acquires Reruns of Philadelphia

While ABC Family Channel's annual 25 Days of Christmas programming doesn't start until Tuesday, December 1, like previous years they will still have the "Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas" that starts Nov. 10 at 7pm with the holiday movie Snow followed by the sequel Snow 2 Brain Freeze. Other holiday movies or specials airing are Santa Jr., Snowglobe, Eloise at Christmastime, A Dennis the Menace Christmas, Richie Rich's Christmas Wish, Gotta Catch Santa Claus, Christmas Caper, A Carol Christmas, Santa Who?, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, A Chance of Snow, Stealing Christmas, The Christmas Box, The Christmas Secret, The Christmas Wish, Once Upon a Christmas, Twice Upon a Christmas, Christmas in Boston, Christmas Do-Over, Chasing Christmas, Santa Baby, Holiday in Handcuffs, A Holiday to Remember, Unlikely Angel, Holly and Hal Moose: Our Uplifting Christmas Adventure, Sons of Mistletoe, The Christmas List, Miracle on 34th Street, Home Alone 4, Naughty or Nice, and the ABC Family original movie premiere of The Dog Who Saved Christmas starring Mario Lopez, Dean Cain, and Adrienne Barbeau.
Wow and this is just the countdown! Stay tuned for the actual 25 Days of Christmas schedule!

Comedy Central has reached a deal with Twentieth Television for the exclusive basic cable syndication rights to the critically-acclaimed FX comedy series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, in a multi-year deal that will see the series start its run on Comedy Central beginning in summer 2010. Following the limited summer 2010 window, the series with settle into its long-term, multi-year run in January 2011.
First-run seasons of Sunny will of course continue to air on FX. In addition to its current fifth season that runs through November 5, the network has ordered seasons six and seven which will air in 2010 and 2011 respectively. FX Productions will have produced 84 episodes though season seven.
The half-hour series, starring Charlie Day, Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, Kaitlin Olson and Danny DeVito, is currently in its 5th season and features the cast as self-centered owners of Paddy's Irish Pub in Philadelphia who will do just about anything, no matter how reprehensible, in an attempt to better their own situation. Serious issues such as racism, abortion, underage drinking, molestation, gun control, cancer and death somehow weave their way into the cockeyed universe of "The Gang." The characters are experts on every subject but actually possess expertise in nothing at all. They often use revisionist history to bolster their self-worth, which contrasts sharply with the true reality of their lives.

ABC Family October 2009 Has 8 Simple Rules Returning; Big Three To Air Obama Address on Wednesday

After a year off from the schedule, family comedy 8 Simple Rules is returning to the ABC Family line-up in October 2009! However, it will only air on weekend mornings starting Saturday, October 3. The series will air Saturdays 10-11am and Sundays 11am-12pm, both replacing Grounded for Life, which is now off the schedule totally. There will be times when one or even both of the airings will be preempted due to a movie, especially on Sundays. There are no other schedule changes on ABC Family October 2009, so the same schedule as September otherwise.
ABC Family last aired 8 Simple Rules for a month in the weekdays 3-4pm slot in September 2008 through early October 2008. Previously it was airing weekdays 6-7pm for well over a year. It's good to see the John Ritter/Katey Sagal comedy back on air, even if it is only weekends.
Elsewhere on ABC Family October 2009, the annual 13 Nights of Halloween begins Monday, October 19. Among the items we will see are hit movies such as The Goonies, The Addams Family, The Mask, Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Haunted Mansion, Scooby-Doo, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Batman, Batman Returns and Batman Forever. We will also see Halloween episodes of America's Funniest Home Videos on Mondays at 10pm.
Other ABC Family theatrical premiere for October are Coyote Ugly, Meet Joe Black, and Underdog.

President Obama will be having his sixth primetime address tomorrow at 8pm ET/5pm PT. It will be a joint session to Congress on Health Care and the Republican response will follow. This will once again effect the big three networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC in primetime. Fox will pass on the address for the third straight time.
ABC will air the Presidential Address to Congress live at 8pm ET/7pm CT, so for the east and central, an all-new Wipeout will shift to 9/8 central, preempting Crash Course. Primetime: Crime will remain at 10/9 central. For mountain time, the Presidential Address to Congress airs live at 6pm MT, so the all-new Wipeout remains in its normal time of 7pm MT, but they will air a repeat of Wipeout at 8pm MT since Crash Course is preempted in the east. For pacific time, it is essentially the same as mountain. The Presidential Address to Congress airs live at 5pm PT, so the all-new Wipeout remains in its normal time of 8pm PT, but like the mountain time zone they will air a repeat of Wipeout at 9pm PT since Crash Course is preempted in the east.
For CBS they will air the Presidential Address to Congress live at 8pm ET/7pm CT, so for the east and central, they will just simply preempt scheduled repeats of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried in the 8/7 central hour. For mountain time, the Presidential Address to Congress airs live at 6pm MT, so nothing will be changed as repeats of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried will air in the 7pm MT hour as planned. For pacific time, it is essentially the same as mountain. The Presidential Address to Congress airs live at 5pm PT, so nothing will be changed as repeats of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried will air in the 8pm PT hour as planned. Repeats of Criminal Minds and CSI: NY will air at its normal times in all time zones.
Finally, for NBC they will air the Presidential Address to Congress live at 8pm ET/7pm CT, so for the east and central, they will just simply preempt the scheduled repeat of America's Got Talent in the 8/7 central hour. The all-new episode will remain at 9/8 central. For mountain time, the Presidential Address to Congress airs live at 6pm MT, so nothing will be changed as the repeat of America's Got Talent will air in the 7pm MT hour as planned. For pacific time, it is essentially the same as mountain. The Presidential Address to Congress airs live at 5pm PT, so nothing will be changed as the repeat of America's Got Talent will air in the 8pm PT hour as planned. The all-new America's Got Talent airs still in its normal time in all time zones as well as a repeat of Law & Order: SVU.
Fox will air its primetime schedule as planned, which will have the season premiere of the new fall edition of So You Think You Can Dance and the regular series premiere of Glee. The CW will launch America's Next Top Model with a two-hour premiere.

ABC Family Fall 2009; Me-Too August 2009 Daily Marathons; Summer 2009 TCA Tour: The CW

Our fall 2009 schedules barrage continues today with ABC Family September 2009! We are not 100% sure if it is their fall schedule but there will be a schedule change to the weekday line-up starting Monday, Sept. 14! The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air will now also air on weekdays! The show will air weekdays in the 6pm hour replacing My Wife & Kids, which moves to 1pm replacing Sister, Sister. Sister, Sister will still air in the 7am hour (and on BET and Gospel Music Channel). So how on earth is Fresh Prince airing on weekdays when ABC Family only had weekend rights? It is very interesting. It looks to me as Viacom (Nick at Nite and The N) will lose the rights to the series and ABC Family is now picking up the rights for weekday evenings as well. ABC Family will continue to air the series on Saturday nights as well. So it looks like TBS will still have the daytime rights while ABC Family has the evening rights on both weekdays and on weekends now. I'm not 100% sure if Viacom is losing rights, so we will have to see when we announce both the Nick at Nite and The N's fall schedules. The N has already replaced Fresh Prince since last night, as Degrassi now airs Mon-Thurs 2-4am...so is that the reason for removal? There is still a Fresh Prince week-long marathon scheduled on The N for Aug. 17-21 from 7pm-12am. Is that the farewell? Nick at Nite airs the show still Mon-Thurs nights from 3-6am, so no signs yet of removal, but with Everybody Hates Chris coming in September, maybe that is a replacement?
Elsewhere on ABC Family, The Secret Life of the American Teenager has its mid-season finale on Monday, Sept. 7 at 8pm. An all-day marathon will lead into it from 11am-8pm. 10 Things I Hate About You has its season finale the next night on Tuesday, Sept. 8 at 8pm. Lincoln Heights will have its season four premiere on Monday, Sept. 14 at 8pm, as Greek continues to air new season three episodes at 9pm. Ruby & the Rockits will air repeats at 8pm leading into new episodes at 8:30pm on Sept. 15 and 22, with the season finale on Sept. 22 at 8:30pm. AFV will air Tuesdays in primetime from 8-11pm starting Sept. 29, shifting the movie to Wednesdays 8-10pm starting Sept. 30. There will be an AFV marathon on Saturday, Sept. 26 from 3-11pm to get ready for the all-new season on ABC.
Movie wise, the ABC Family original movie The Wedding Date starring Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney premieres Sunday, Sept. 13 at 9pm. Theatrical movies include the premiere of Shanghai Noon and a special edition of Dirty Dancing.
View the full regular schedule for ABC Family September 2009.

The daily classic TV summer marathons continue on Chicago's Me-Too in August! This time with a twist! Every weekday spend the whole day and evening with a different Me-Too Marathon theme! There's never too much TV for Me-Too. One day you may time warp back to 1973, another day you may be enlisting in the military or spending a day on another planet. 10AM-10PM each weekday on Me-Too in Chicago!
The schedule for the month (Aug. 3-Sept. 4) in order is: First Episodes, Detective Day, S.W.A.T., Evil Twins, A Tribute to Norman Lear, 1953, 1963, 1973, 1983, 1993, A Tribute to Brandon Tartikoff, A Tribute to Fred Silverman, Award Winners, Before They Were Stars, Me-Too Mystery, Suspense Day, Spy with Me, The Fugitive, Me-Too Wants You, Sci-Fi Friday, Classic Kids, The Single Dads of Me, A Tribute to Bill Bixby, Sea Hunt, and Christmas in September. SOME of the shows you will see in this classic must-see month on Me-Too are Dick Van Dyke Show, Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Gilligan's Island, The Brady Bunch, Who's the Boss?, Benson, The Cosby Show, Cheers, Star Trek, Lost in Space, Get Smart, Bewitched, Barney Miller, Charlie's Angels, Starsky & Hutch, Hawaii Five-0, Hart to Hart, Police Woman, Kojak, S.W.A.T., I Dream of Jeannie, Mork & Mindy, Knight Rider, One Day at a Time, Maude, Good Times, The Jeffersons, All in the Family, Sanford & Son, I Love Lucy, Burns & Allen, Abbott & Costello, You Bet Your Life, Four Star Playhouse, Dragnet, Ozzie & Harriett, My Favorite Martian, McHale's Navy, Patty Duke Show, Combat, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Lucy Show, Rawhide, Jack Benny, Andy Griffith Show, Alfred Hitchcock, The Partridge Family, Love American Style, The Odd Couple, Streets of San Francisco, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, Webster, Diff'rent Strokes, Silver Spoons, T.J. Hooker, A-Team, Family Ties, Happy Days, Magnum P.I., and more! And that's the shows only through the 1983 day! They haven't announced from Aug. 14 and on yet. Who needs TV Land or any other classic network when you have a roster of shows like that!
View the schedule section on their website for episode info.

The CW is up today at the summer 2009 TCA press tour. Expected are panels for The Vampire Diaries, The Beautiful Life, Melrose Place, and Life UneXpected. Stay with us for any key announcements.

ABC Family Sitcoms Deliver Solid Ratings; ION Fall 2009 Preview; Mork & Mindy Sighting on Syfy

Surging by double-digit percentages across all key targets, ABC Family's hit original comedy 10 Things I Hate About You posted series highs in Females 12-34 (771,000), Teens 12-17 (511,000) and Female Teens (448,000) in its third episode on Tuesday, July 21, 2009. Week to week, 10 Things delivered impressive growth across the board, including by 45% in Total Viewers (1.6 million vs. 1.1 million), by 20% in Adults 18-34 (424,000 vs. 352,000), by 22% in Adults 18-49 (616,000 vs. 503,000) and by 26% in Viewers 12-34 (935,000 vs. 740,000). The three-week count so far for 10 Things is OK in total viewers so far with 1.6, 1.1, and 1.6 million.
ABC Family's newest original comedy, Ruby & the Rockits, launched on Tuesday (July 21) as the network's No. 2 comedy series debut on record in Adults 18-49 (654,000) and Women 18-49 (483,000), behind only the premiere of 10 Things I Hate About You (7/7/09). Ruby & the Rockits also stands as the net's No. 2 comedy launch on record in Total Viewers (1.6 million), Teens (489,000) and Females Teens (436,000), behind Roommates (3/23/09). Ruby & the Rockits built over its 10 Things I Hate About You lead-in by 6% in Adults 18-49 (654,000 vs. 616,000) and by 9% in Women 18-49 (483,000 vs. 444,000). The series also built on its lead-in in households (1.0 vs. 0.9) and matched its lead-in in total viewers with 1.6 million. Let's see if it can maintain or build on that this coming week and beyond. We're not calling this a success yet.

Central to its strategic re-branding as a destination for engaging appointment television, ION Television is aggressively moving forward with a full slate of new off-network and original primetime programming, beginning Monday, September 7.
Kicking off the schedule at 8:00 p.m. is the Emmy-nominated, off-network hit series Ghost Whisperer, which premiered to strong ratings on ION Television on Mondays starting in June. Ghost Whisperer now moves to four nights a week, Monday through Thursday at 8:00 p.m. Debuting at 9:00 p.m. is the off-net series Criminal Minds, which will air every Monday, with additional episodes airing Tuesdays (9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.); Wednesdays (10:00 p.m.); and Fridays (10:00 p.m.) ION Television has acquired all 91 episodes of the Emmy-nominated show thus far. The critically acclaimed and award winning Durham County, ION Television's first original series, will air Monday nights at 10:00 p.m.
This is just a sneak peek at ION Television's Fall 2009 line-up. We will have the full schedule very soon as we start out of annual fall schedules blog posts with a barrage of schedules every weekday starting Monday! We've got Lifetime, TBS, and so many more. Stay with us for all of them!

Syfy made a very last minute change that we couldn't even tell you about it in time. Last night (Thursday, July 23, 2009) instead of the movie War of the Worlds 2, they aired the sitcom Mork & Mindy from 11:30pm-2am ET/PT! What a treat that was! The first five episodes aired. If you missed it, don't worry because next Thursday night, they will air another marathon. That's Thursday, July 30 from 11pm-1am ET/PT this time, and they will continue the episodes in order. And again this wasn't originally scheduled either, as this will preempt the movie Cabin Fever.
The last time Mork & Mindy aired on Sci Fi was in November with an all-day marathon the day after Thanksgiving. I'll for sure let you know if more airings are added in, and let's hope we get some. Maybe this name change to Syfy was a good idea afterall! Na-nu na-nu!

Nick at Nite Replaces Fresh Prince in Primetime with Family Matters; 10 Things...Premiere Solid for ABC Family

Nick at Nite made a very last minute change late yesterday. They have replaced The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the Mon-Thurs 10pm hour with Family Matters effective yesterday (July 13). If you all recall, Family Matters was in the original schedule to air in the 10pm hour, but Nick at Nite changed their mind. Family Matters will still air Sundays at 10pm as well, so the 10pm hour is Sun-Thurs for Steve Urkel and the gang. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is now only Mon-Thurs in the 4am hour. Nick at Nite has not updated their schedule for next week (week of July 20) and beyond, so it is still showing Fresh next week in the 10pm hour. It is unclear what will air Fridays at 11pm since Fresh Prince of Bel-Air airs there and this week the Friday schedule is preempted. I would guess Family Matters will get to replace that hour as well.
This weekend Nickelodeon & Nick at Nite celebrate the SpongeBob 10th anniversary with a 50-hour marathon starting Friday at 8pm through Sunday at 10pm, preempting Nick at Nite on Friday, Saturday and for two hours on Sunday. Due to this marathon, George Lopez will air in the 1am hour this Sunday since it is preempted in the 9pm hour.
Stay tuned for the latest on this change and to see what will happen beyond this week. Looks like Fresh Prince did bad last week when it started airing at 10pm? Looks like Malcolm in the Middle did decent for premiere week? We shall see soon if anything changes. View the Nick at Nite July 2009 schedule thread to keep up with the up-to-the-minute details.

Last week's premiere of ABC Family's original comedy series 10 Things I Hate About You did solid in the ratings. ABC Family's newest original series launched as the net's No. 1 comedy series debut on record in Total Viewers (1.6 million), Adults 18-34 (509,000), Women 18-34 (396,000), Adults 18-49 (734,000) and Women 18-49 (574,000). The series stood as cable's No. 1 program in the time slot in Women 18-34 (396,000/1.2 rating), Women 18-49 (574,000/0.9 rating tied on rating), Viewers 12-34 (936,000/1.0 rating) and Females 12-34 (762,000/1.7 rating), and TV's No. 1 program in prime overall in Females Teens (367,000/3.0 rating) for Tuesday.
The comedy out-delivered the ratings for the now canceled comedies Sophie and Roommates. Roommates launched to 1.5 million viewers but that was out of the season finale of Secret Life of the American Teenager which did 4.49 million that night. 10 Things I Hate About led off the night in primetime and did 1.6 million on its own, making this more impressive.
10 Things I Hate About airs its second episode tonight and needs to do similar to the premiere's ratings. Because by episode two Roommates was down to just 440,000 viewers, and this show doesn't want to drop that much. Sophie was dead on arrival.
A second original sitcom Ruby & the Rockits will launch next Tuesday at 8:30pm following 10 Things I Hate About. Watch the second episode of 10 Things I Hate About tonight at 8PM ET/PT on ABC Family!

Fox Fall 2009 Premiere Dates; ABC Family July 2009

Fox has set the fall premiere dates for its new and returning series. The 2009-2010 season will kick off Wednesday, Sept. 16 with the sixth season premiere of So You Think You Can Dance at 8:00PM ET/PT, followed by the series premiere of Glee at 9:00PM ET/PT, the biting new one-hour comedy for the underdog in all of us that features a soundtrack of hit songs from past and present. Then on Thursday, Sept. 17, fan favorite Bones returns at 8:00 PM ET/PT and the second season of Fringe at 9:00PM ET/PT return. Brothers, the new family comedy starring Michael Strahan, premieres Friday, Sept. 18 in the 8:00PM ET/PT half-hour, followed by the return of comedy 'Til Death at 8:30PM ET/PT, and the second season premiere of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse wraps the night off at 9:00PM ET/PT.
The actual season begins on Monday, Sept. 21 with House jumpstarting its sixth season with a special two-hour premiere from 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT. Tuesdays at 8:00PM ET/PT will continue to be Hell's Kitchen until that wraps up on Oct. 13. Sunday, Sept. 27 marks the return of "Animation Domination" with the amazing 20th season premiere of The Simpsons at 8:00PM ET/PT, the series premiere of The Cleveland Show at 8:30PM ET/PT and the season premieres of Family Guy at 9:00PM ET/PT and American Dad! at 9:30PM ET/PT.
The second week of the season will see the second season of hit drama Lie to Me will premiere Monday, Sept. 28 at 9:00PM ET/PT following House. So You Think You Can Dance will air two nights per week when the original dance competition has its time period premiere Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 9:00 PM ET/PT, and later expands to two-hour performance shows beginning Tuesday, Oct. 27 from 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT, when Hell's Kitchen wraps. In addition, new Saturday late-night entry The Wanda Sykes Show (working title) debuts Saturday, Nov. 7 at11:00 PM ET/PT.
Fox will also have the MLB Playoffs with the ALCS this year and of course the World Series. ALCS is on Friday, Oct. 16; Saturday, Oct. 17; Monday, Oct. 19; Tuesday, Oct. 20; and if necessary on Thursday, Oct. 22; Saturday, Oct. 24; and Sunday, Oct. 25. The World Series airs Wednesday, Oct. 28; Thursday, Oct. 29; Saturday, Oct. 31; Sunday, Nov. 1; and if necessary on Monday, Nov. 2; Wednesday, Nov. 4; and Thursday, Nov. 5. So baseball will be preempting something at least once.
View the premiere dates in a list form.

This July on ABC Family will not see any regular schedule changes to the daytime line-up, but we have plenty to talk about. New single-camera comedy 10 Things I Hate About You launches on Tuesday, July 7 in the 8:00PM ET/PT half-hour. It will be followed by an episode of That '70s Show at 8:30PM ET/PT. 10 Things I Hate About You will have a special encore the same night at 9:00PM ET/PT if you missed it an hour earlier. Other regular encores every week are: Wednesdays at 12am, Thursdays at 4:30pm, and Saturdays at 10am.
Then on Tuesday, July 21 the multi-camera sitcom Ruby & the Rockits launches! It will air Tuesdays at 8:30PM ET/PT (replacing That '70s Show repeats) following 10 Things I Hate About You. Ruby & the Rockits will have a special encore the same night at 9:00PM ET/PT if you missed it a half-hour earlier...also 10 Things I Hate About You will have an encore at 9:30PM that night. Other regular encores every week for Ruby & the Rockits are: Wednesdays at 12:30am, Fridays at 4:30pm, and Saturdays at 10:30am.
View full details on these two original comedies, from our previous story. Can these two comedies do better than Roommates and Sophie?
Other original programming is the movie Labor Pains. Lindsay Lohan stars as an assistant at a publishing company who pretends to be pregnant in order to avoid being fired by her boss. It premieres Sunday, July 19 from 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT. Along with Lohan, the film includes an all-star cast with Cheryl Hines, Chris Parnell, Luke Kirby, Kevin Covais and Janeane Garofalo.

TV Land June 2009 Has Roseanne; ABC/Disney Now on Hulu

This June on TV Land they will launch sitcom Roseanne in TV Land PRIME, launch the second season of reality series She's Got The Look on a new night and time, and spend Father's Day with TV Land Rough n Rugged.
TV Land PRIME welcomes Roseanne to the network with a week long, primetime marathon beginning Friday, June 5. The marathon will air 8pm-1am each night and encore 1am-6am each night through Friday, June 12, before the series joins the regular schedule on Saturday, June 13. Roseanne is the quintessential sitcom about a working class family that put the "Real in TV" long before reality television became the norm. Travel back in time with the "Queen of Comedy" as TV Land PRIME chronicles the Conner family's ups and downs, laughs and love, and dreams - both real and imagined.
Roseanne will air Saturdays from 9pm-11pm & 2am-4am; Sundays from 12am-2am; Mon-Tues & Thurs 11pm-2am; Tues-Fri from 8pm-10pm (except 9-10pm on Thursdays); and Wednesdays & Fridays 1-2am. That's a whole lotta Roseanne! And good news for classic TV fans because Leave it to Beaver is renewed and on the June schedule airing Saturdays from 12-2pm. Three's Company is unfortunately off the line-up for now with the addition of Roseanne, as will be Hogan's Heroes & Green Acres. The other big change is late nights on weeknights. 2am-6am all get changed, with The Cosby Show airing in the 2am hour, 3rd Rock from the Sun will only air now at 3am, followed by the return of Scrubs at 3:30am, followed by M*A*S*H at 4am, Sanford & Son at 4:30am, The Jeffersons at 5am, and Good Times at 5:30am. So this does mean M*A*S*H is just once a night on weeknights, but it will still air on Sunday nights, but now 9pm-12am. We have the full schedule for you to click on below...so keep reading!
They're back again... and this time the stakes are bigger and better as 12 gorgeous women 35-and-over grace TV Land PRIME in season 2 of the modeling competition series that's like no other...She's Got the Look! For one very lucky winner, a second chance for a supermodel career, a life changing contract with the world famous Wilhelmina Modeling Agency, and a spread in Self magazine awaits. Watch the nationwide search, follow the drama as the number of contestants dwindles, and root for your favorite to win it all. Join in on the fun on a new night and time starting Thursday June 11, 2009 at 9pm for eight straight weeks through July 30. Encores of the show will air Thursdays at 10pm & 1am; Fridays at 12 midnight; Saturdays 10am & 1am; Sundays 3am; Mondays 11am; Tuesdays 2am; Wednesdays 10pm; and the next Thursday at 12 noon.
But before the premiere on June 11, catch a sneak peek at She's Got the Look season two on Wednesday, June 3 at 11pm following the finale of The Cougar.
It's Dad's Day and TV Land has 12 hours of rough rugged entertainment planned that will keep dad glued to his seat. Starting with a 7-hour block of movies featuring fights and sports, a classic Mel Brooks comedy and a 4 hour western block featuring popular episodes of Bonanza and Gunsmoke, Dad is sure to appreciate that you've kept him busy doing his most favorite thing: sitting on the couch and watching good manly TV! Catch the movies Slapshot 2, Slapshot, and History of the World Part 1.
Other TV Land PRIME movie premieres for the month are Another 48 Hours and Driving Miss Daisy.
View the full TV Land June 2009 schedule, with full highlights and one-time adjustments.

Hulu and The Walt Disney Company announced that Disney, through a subsidiary of ABC Enterprises Inc., has agreed to join NBC Universal, News Corporation and Providence Equity Partners as a joint venture partner and equity owner of Hulu, a leading online aggregator of video content. Upon closing, the agreement will enhance Hulu's programming lineup through the expanded online distribution of Disney's most popular current and library primetime series and library feature films. In particular, full-length episodes of hit current and library programs like Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Private Practice, Ugly Betty, Scrubs, Greek, Hope & Faith, Less than Perfect, Wizards of Waverly Place, Phineas and Ferb, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, General Hospital, The View and The Secret Life of the American Teenager will soon be streamed on Hulu on an ad-supported basis.
· Full-length episodes of ABC primetime programs like Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Samantha Who?, Scrubs, Private Practice and popular late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!
· Full-length episodes of hit ABC Family series like The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Greek
· Popular series from ABC Daytime and SOAPnet like General Hospital and The View
· Classic series from ABC's library like Hope & Faith, Less than Perfect, Commander in Chief, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and past seasons of the megahit Dancing with the Stars
· Select hit programs from Disney Channel like Wizards of Waverly Place and Phineas and Ferb which can be easily accessed from a new DISNEY location in the Channel section of Hulu.com
· Popular library titles from The Walt Disney Studios
· Short-form content including webisodes, sneak peeks and episode recaps from ABC Entertainment, ABC Family and SOAPnet
That is a lot and this is huge! ABC/Disney has bought 30% of Hulu. There is no date yet when all of this will appear, but we will let you know.

Stay tuned tomorrow for our regular blog DVD review and a look at what we think will be picked-up by NBC for both new and returning series. NBC has their "infront" on Monday and will announce what they will pick-up, but an actual schedule won't be announced until upfront week (week of May 18). NBC continues to be the oddball with this "infront" stuff.

ABC Family Pulls Sophie, Speeds Up Roommates; ABC Announces More Summer 2009 Series

After just five weeks on the air, ABC Family has pulled original single camera sitcom Sophie off the air completely. The show has failed to garner any ratings whatsoever on Mondays at 9:30pm. ABC Family still has 8 episodes left in the can, but no word yet if and when they will air at a later date. Sophie's lead-in is also an original sitcom. Roommates, a multi-camera sitcom, will still be on the air but it will be sped up. What do I mean? Well, now they will air four episodes a night so they can quickly finish the run. Roommates also hasn't gone well in the ratings, but is not worse than Sophie at least. This Monday (April 27) and the following Monday (May 4), Roommates will air from 9-11pm ET/PT, replacing a repeat of AFV in the 10pm hour for two weeks. 5 episodes have aired so far, and with this two four-episode block, all 13 will air. Then starting May 11, ABC Family will air movies in the Monday 9-11pm block through June 15 since June 22 ABC Family plans on launching new original drama Make It or Break It. Movies slated for May are Mean Girls, My Fake Fiance, and Legally Blonde.
We got the sense ABC Family was not happy with the performances publicly when they removed the Tuesday encores of both shows as we mentioned last week. These two were the first original sitcoms for ABC Family and they have two more coming this summer (10 Things I Hate About You on July 7 and Ruby & the Rockits on July 21). They are scheduled a bit better though. Those two will air in the 8pm hour on Tuesdays, which is better since they will have the sitcom block as its lead-in, such as My Wife & Kids (6-7pm) and That '70s Show (7-8pm) which both do very well. I think ABC Family should have had Roommates and Sophie in the 8pm hour and moved Greek to 9pm. That would have been better and made more sense. Sophie will for sure not be back for another season and Roommates is also likely not to return, unless it does a spike in the ratings in the next two weeks.
Roommates launched with 1.5 million viewers, but that was following the season finale of Secret Life of the American Teenager which did a strong 4.49 million. The premiere of Sophie only mustered 892,000 viewers. From there both shows saw even more declines. With Roommates dropping to 440,000 viewers by episode two and only 335,000 viewers for Sophie. They then hovered around those ratings for episodes 3-5, which is terrible numbers.

ABC has now announced more summer series news. Now we get more info on ABC News produced series for the summer along with some specials. We have completely new details on shows we haven't heard about yet. First, ABC will finally air the ABC News produced special Earth 2100 on Tuesday, June 2 from 9-11PM ET/PT. This special was previously set to air in early January. The special is hosted by Bob Woodruff, it takes viewers on a journey through what the next century could have in store and shows viewers what can be done to avoid disaster. Then on Sunday, June 21 and Sunday, June 28 from 9-11PM ET/PT on both nights we have the miniseries event Impact. We seem to have survived a catastrophic meteor storm...but something has changed and the moon is looming larger in the sky. What once was the most familiar object in the night now threatens to destroy all life on earth. A small band of international astronauts, scientists, and soldiers band together as our last best hope. David James Elliott, Natasha Henstridge, Steven Culp, and James Cromwell star in this highly anticipated miniseries.
Next up will be special Primetime series. Primetime: Family Secrets returns and will air Tuesdays at 10PM starting June 23 through and including July 21. Then starting July 28, Primetime: The Outsiders returns to air airing Tuesdays at 10PM through and including Sept. 8. Airing Wednesdays at 10PM starting June 24 will be Primetime: Crime and it will air through and including Sept. 9. ABC will also bring back the popular Primetime: What Would You Do? sometime in August, but no day and time has been set yet. Other ABC News specials are one-time specials on Wednesday, July 15 at 10PM for a special called Oil with Charles Gibson, preempting Primetime: Crime on this night. We also have an ABC News produced special called J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life airing the next night (Thursday, July 16) at 8PM.
So now we have most of the missing pieces for the ABC summer line-up. Still we need more schedules, but with the entertainment update we gave and now the ABC News update, we are almost set. ABC also announced it will air the CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock on Monday, August 30 from 8-11PM ET/PT. View more on all of this, including synopsis of all the Primetime series. And for a recap of all things ABC summer so far, please view that also.
CBS is just about the only network yet to announce any summer details, as ABC, NBC, Fox has already in different parts.

Fox Mid-Season Pilot Review: Sit Down, Shut Up - Premieres April 19; ABC Family Change; GSN Awards

Sit Down, Shut Up - Sundays 8:30PM ET/PT on Fox
Premieres Sunday, April 19, 2009 at 8:30PM ET/PT

There is a new kid on the block on Fox's Sunday night animation lineup, and this time it comes from Emmy Award-winning writer Michael Hurwitz of the series Arrest Development. Sit Down, Shut Up is an animated comedy about the staff of Knob Creek High School, a high school in a small Florida town, and much like in the drama series Boston Public, we find that the teachers can have as many (if not more) problems than their students. There is the acting principal Sue Sezno, and as the name suggests, she always says no. Of course, the upbeat vice principal Stuart Prozakian is always there to counter-balance her at all times. And there is an entire ensemble cast of teachers with their own respective problems.


Cast Details:

* Will Arnett as Ennis Hofftard
* Jason Bateman as Larry Littlejunk
* Kristen Chenoweth as Miracle Grohe
* Will Forte as Stuart Proszackian
* Tom Kenny as Happy
* Nick Kroll as Andrew LeGustambos
* Cheri Oteri as Helen Klench
* Kenan Thompson as Sue Sezno
* Henry Winkler as Willard Deutschebog


Will Arnett (Ennis) is best known to sitcom fans in his role as Gob Bluth on the series Arrested Development, but has also had many film roles including roles in Ice Age: The Meltdown, RV, and Monster-in-Law. He has also recently completed filming two upcoming films, G-Force and When in Rome.

Jason Bateman (Larry) is known to sitcom fans from the series Arrested Development and the 80s sitcoms Silver Spoons and The Hogan Family. He has also played roles in the films The Ex, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and Starsky & Hutch. He has recently signed a deal to develop, direct, and write original content for 20th Century Fox Television.

Kristen Chenoweth (Miracle) was recently nominated for an Emmy Award for her role in the series Pushing Daises and also has credits from the series Ugly Betty and The West Wing. She will soon be in the upcoming David E. Kelly legal drama Legally Mad.

Will Forte (Stuart) has spent several years on the series Saturday Night Live, and is considered to be a rising comedy star by many critics. He has also been in the films Baby Mama and Beerfest.

Tom Kenny (Happy) is no stranger to fans of animated series, as he is the voice of the very popular character SpongeBob SquarePants. He has also played roles in the Nickelodeon series CatDog and Rocko's Modern Life, and countless other animated series. In addition, he has made appearances at comedy clubs across the country and on the late night talk shows.

Nick Kroll (Andrew) is an up-and-coming actor that has starred in Cavemen, Best Week Ever, Worst Week, The Life and Times of Tim, and Reno 911. He is also a writer that co-authored the book "Bar Mitzvah Disco" and was a contributing writer on Chappelle's Show. He has also done some standup comedy at the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival as well as the Bonnaroo Festival.

Cheri Oteri (Helen) is known for her years on Saturday Night Live, and has also appeared in many films including Scary Movie, Inspector Gadget, Liar Liar, and Shrek the Third, among many others. She has had several guest appearances on series such as Just Shoot Me, Strangers with Candy, and Boston Legal.

Kenan Thompson (Sue) is another Saturday Night Live actor (currently in his fifth season) that is also known to a generation of youth that grew up on Nickelodeon in the 90s from the series Kenan and Kel as well as All That. He also starred with Kel Mitchell on the feature film Good Burger. Other major film credits for Thompson include Snakes on a Plane, Fat Albert, D2: The Mighty Ducks, and Rocky & Bullwinkle.

Henry Winkler (Williard) is the true "veteran" of the cast, known to fans all around the world as "The Fonz" from the hit sitcom Happy Days. He has also served as a producer for series including MacGyver, Hollywood Squares, Sightings, So Weird, among others. In 2003, he began writing a series of children's novels entitled "Hank Zipzer: The World's Most Amazing Underachiever," which are inspired by his struggle with learning challenges. He has also appeared on Arrested Development.


Pilot Plot:

For the review, we had the first and second episode of the series. The series is scheduled to air 5 of its 13 produced episodes for now, all in five consecutive weeks.

#1 "Pilot" (Airs April 19) - Knob Haven High School is facing some serious budget problems, and Sue Sezno knows the way to repair the budget problems: by soliciting donations from alumni. But the alumni will only be willing to do that if they can win the upcoming football game.

#2 "Miracle's Are Real" (Airs April 26) - Miracle Grohe decides to spread some spring cheer by giving her fellow colleagues some flowers (which actually turn out to be hemlock), placing the school into another financial crisis. The school carnival is the way to make this money, but this causes a bit of trouble between Sue Sezno and Helen Klench.


Analysis:

Catchphrases, stereotypes, and clichés. That is all that I saw in the two episodes that I received to review. The series lacks substance, and without that substance, it can't go very far. Over and over again, we are reminded in both of these episodes that Sue Sezno always says no, that Stuart Proszakian used to be a prison clown, that Ennis Hofftard is a womanizing jock, that Miracle Grohe has a baby that she carries with her at all times, that Willard Deutschbog is having a miserable life... I think that pretty much drives home my point. But where does the series go from that point? I can't see any real direction for the series in these two episodes.

It doesn't help either that the ensemble cast on the series is big--way too big in fact. There are basically nine different characters that make up the core cast of the series, and the writers have attempted to place every single one of these characters in a plotline in each episode. It would have been better to have had each episode focus on one major plot with just a few of the characters, but instead, with the series as it is, all we really have time for is several mini-plots that just reinforce the catchphrases, stereotypes, and clichés.

Both of the first two episodes basically focus on the same thing: budgetary problems at the school and how to fix those financial issues. One has to wonder if this is pretty much the direction that many or most episodes will go in. So far, it doesn't appear that there is much variety in the plots of the episodes, which doesn't matter anyway because the series doesn't have time to develop much of a plot with all of the characters and the catchphrases, stereotypes, and clichés. There were a few "chuckle" moments in the episodes, but there really wasn't anything that caused me to burst out into laughter. It is a shame, really, because I can see that with the characters and background of the series, that this could have the potential to be that kind of series.

However, one thing that I did think was a little nice and creative was the use of live action backgrounds for some of the scenes in the series. It reminded me a lot of the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and it is surprising that this style hasn't been used that much in other animated sitcoms.


Conclusion:

I honestly believe that this will be another one of the many Fox series that doesn't make it, although I could be wrong about that. Unlike the other animated series on Fox, this series is just too full of catchphrases and stereotypes to a point where it becomes outright obnoxious. The series really sounded good when I read about it, but there is some disconnect between the concept and what we actually have here. Not only is the series inconsistent with the other animated series on the Fox Sunday night lineup, but matters are only made worse by the fact that the series isn't that funny.

Still, I feel like the series could have the potential to be a good series under the right circumstances, but there is no way this show could go on for years--or even more than a handful of episodes for that matter--by repeating catchphrases, clichés, and stereotypes all the time. The series could work well if it had well-written storylines that were funny or even outright absurd (such as the ones on Family Guy), but the series just isn't meant to make it in the form that it is seen on the premiere episodes. I've been wrong about these things before, but I have a feeling that the series will be off the air before many episodes are even aired.


Final Numbers (out of 5 stars):

Watchability: 3/5
Funniness: 2/5
Overall: 3/5

-- Reviewed by skees53 on 04/17/09

Discuss the show after you watch it on Sunday, April 19 on our message board.

Related Links:

Fox.com Official Site

TV.com

epguides.com

Internet Movie Database

Wikipedia

Sit Down, Shut Up Photo Gallery

Now back to the news. ABC Family's original sitcoms Roommates and Sophie are not doing that well in the ratings. They air Mondays back-to-back starting at 9:00PM ET/PT. Now ABC Family is removing the encore airings that air late Tuesday nights at 12:00am & 12:30am, and replacing them with Whose Line Is It Anyway? starting this Tuesday (April 21). So if you watch these shows and like them, watch them live on Monday nights because now there will be no encore airings.

GSN announced that it will make television history with The Game Show Awards - the very first awards show exclusively aimed at celebrating excellence in the genre of games. The two and a half-hour, star-studded extravaganza will premiere on June 6, 2009 starting at 8PM ET/7PM CT only on GSN, and will honor classic and contemporary game shows, with special tributes to pioneers Bob Barker (The Price is Right), legendary game show producer Mark Goodson, and host Monty Hall (Let's Make a Deal). In keeping with the participatory nature of game shows and GSN's programming, fans will be able to vote for their favorite nominees online at GSN.com in several categories, including best/favorite host, model, announcer, contestant, catch phrase, sound effect and others.
View the full details an categories for the first annual Game Show Awards.

Stay tuned next week as we give you some classic TV sitcom appearances on game shows on GSN, in case you never saw them...and a sitcom is coming to CMT for a special weekend.

CBS Season Finale Dates, Time Shifts; ABC Family Upfront, Sister Sister Reunion on Roommates April 13

CBS has announced its season finale dates for its regular season programming. But before that, they have scheduled a couple of special encores and special airings.
On Monday, April 20 at 10:00PM we get a special encore of The Mentalist at a special night & time. Then on Tuesday, April 21, at 8:00PM we get a special encore of The Big Bang Theory on a special night followed by a special encore of Two and a Half Men at 8:30PM on a special night & time. This means NCIS and The Mentalist will move to special times of 9PM and 10PM on this date only, but they will be encores as well, preempting a scheduled repeat of Without a Trace. Then the next night, on Wednesday, April 22 at 9:00PM will now be a repeat of Criminal Minds instead of a new one, but the scheduled new episode will now be at a special time of 10:00PM on the same night, preempting CSI: NY, which was scheduled to be all-new, too. Why are they trying all this? Not sure, could it be tests to see how they do in other timeslots?
That's not all! On Monday, May 18 at 8:00PM we get a special all-new episode of Rules of Engagement at a special time. The show will also air in its
its normal 9:30pm time on this date as well, which is the season finale. Earlier this week I was wondering where its 13th episode would be placed, now we got that answer with that special 8PM slot on May 18. And we also got our answer of what will air on Wednesday, May 20 at 8:00PM since Old Christine/Gary Unmarried would be finished by May 13. A special all-new Criminal Minds will air at a special time, which is part one of the season finale, leading into part two at its regular 9:00PM time.
OK, now lets move on to the CBS season finale dates. Cold Case has a two-part finale airing on two weeks, Sunday, May 3 and Sunday, May 10 at 9PM. Sunday, May 10 also as the season finales of The Amazing Race at 8PM and The Unit at 10PM. The next night, Monday, May 11, The Big Bang Theory wraps up its 24-episode season with a season finale at 8PM. On Wednesday, May 13, as we previously stated, Old Christine & Gary Unmarried have their season finales at 8:00PM & 8:30PM. The next night, Thursday, May 14, will be the season finale of CSI at 9PM. The next night, Friday, May 15, will have the season conclusions of all the Friday shows: Ghost Whisperer, Flashpoint, and NUMB3RS. On Sunday, May 17, CBS hands the night over to the finale of Survivor: Tocantins from 8-10PM, followed by the Reunion Show. On Monday, May 18, we have the season finales of How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, Rules of Engagement, and CSI: Miami from 8:30-11PM. On Tuesday, May 19
, the Tuesday crime dramas all have their finales: NCIS, The Mentalist, and Without a Trace from 8-11PM. On the final day of the season, Wednesday, May 20, we have a two-hour season finale of Criminal Minds from 8-10PM, followed by the season finale of CSI: NY at 10PM. There you have it, all the CBS finale dates in the regular season!

Earlier this week ABC Family announced their 2009 summer schedule and fall/winter premieres at its Upfront presentation in New York. The network's slate includes three new original series, returning hits, original movies and blockbuster theatrical acquisitions. The network finished 2008 as its best year on record, and the first quarter of 2009 just wrapped as the best quarter in its history.
Make It or Break It is a one-hour scripted drama, created and written by Holly Sorensen. Sorenson and Paul Stupin serve as executive producers. The pilot was directed by Steve Miner. Set in the world of competitive gymnastics, Make It or Break It follows a group of teen Olympic hopefuls as they train and prepare for their day in the spotlight. The cast includes Peri Gilpin and Candace Cameron Bure both make a return to series television in starring roles. Make It or Break It premieres Monday, June 22 at 9:00 PM ET/PT. ABC Family has ordered 10 episodes.
Then we have two new original comedies. 10 Things I Hate About You is a half-hour, single-cam comedy with director Gil Junger (who also directed the feature film of the same name) and executive producer and writer Carter Covington. Inspired by the hit movie, the Stratford sisters, Kat (Lindsey Shaw) and Bianca (Meaghan Jette Martin), are two very different people, which is evident as they start at their new high school with very contradictory goals. Kat is a strong-willed, in-your-face feminist looking to save the world and get out of high school as fast as she can. Bianca is a social butterfly carefully maneuvering the minefield of high school popularity. Can each sister find happiness after getting off to a very rocky start at new school Padua High? The original series will also star Larry Miller, who reprises his film role as the girls' over-protective father, and Ethan Peck (grandson of Gregory Peck) has been cast in the role of 'Patrick' (portrayed by Heath Ledger in the 1999 film). 10 Things I Hate About You premieres on Tuesday, July 7 at 8:00PM ET/PT. ABC Family has also ordered 10 episodes for this series.
Ruby & the Rockits is an ABC Studios half-hour multi-cam comedy executive-produced by Shaun Cassidy and Marsh McCall. Ruby & the Rockits follows Patrick Gallagher, a former teen idol who has chosen to lead a quiet life with his wife and two sons. But when his former Rockits band mate and brother, David, shows up unexpectedly with his new-found teenage daughter in tow, the Gallagher family's life becomes anything but normal. David, who refuses to give up his past glory days, comes to Patrick for help in raising Ruby while he continues to perform. Patrick must now put the past with David behind them in order to help raise Ruby and keep order within the rest of the Gallagher clan. The pilot was directed by Ted Wass. Alexa Vega, Katie Amanda Keane, Austin Butler, Kurt Doss , and former teen idol David Cassidy star. Ruby & the Rockits premieres on Tuesday, July 21 at 8:30PM ET/PT with a 10 episode order.
ABC Family thus far hasn't had much success with original sitcoms Roommates and Sophie, so we don't know if we will see more of those yet. Speaking of Roommates, Tim Reid guest stars this Monday, which marks a mini Sister, Sister reunion! Reid once again will play the father of Tamera Mowry, who plays Hope on the sitcom. Hope relies on more fabrications when her father shows up in "The Break-In," an all-new episode of Roommates, premiering on ABC Family on Monday, April 13 at 9:00PM ET/PT with guest star Tim Reid (Sister, Sister). Hope's father (Reid) comes to town for a surprise visit and quickly realizes that his daughter's life is in shambles and decides it is time for her to move home. In an effort to prove that her life isn't as big a mess as he thinks, she ropes Mark into pretending to be her boyfriend. She may not have a great job, but she is in "love." Can Mark use his acting skills to help Hope pull off yet another one of her lies or will Hope be on her way home with her father when all is said and done?
Additionally, three of the network's one-hour original series will mark their returns: The one number hit series The Secret Life of the American Teenager, which finished the first quarter of 2009 as cable's No. 1 original series in Viewers 12-34 and Females 12-34, will launch its second season on Monday, June 22, at 8:00PM ET/PT. 12 of the 24 episodes for the season will air in 12 straight weeks, with the midseason finale on Sept. 7. The critically acclaimed and NAACP Image Award-winning Lincoln Heights will premiere its fourth season on Tuesday, August 4 at 9:00PM ET/PT for 10 more episodes. And the third season of Greek will premiere on Monday, September 14 at 8:00PM ET/PT. Currently Greek is finishing up its second season order, which concludes on June 1, before 10 more episodes come in September for season three.
As far as movies go, Warner Bros. Pictures' Academy Award-winning (Best Animated Feature Film) Happy Feet will make its basic cable premiere on ABC Family in June 2009 (after making its broadcast debut on Friday, May 8 on ABC). The film features the voices of Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving and Anthony LaPaglia.
The network will also present the original movie premiere of Labor Pains, starring Lindsay Lohan, on Sunday, July 19 at 8:00PM ET/PT. Chris Parnell, Cheryl Hines, Luke Kirby, Kevin Covais and Janeane Garofalo also star. Legally Blondes, will be premiering on Sunday, August 2 at 8:00PM. Actress Jenny McCarthy will star in the network's new original holiday movie, Santa Baby 2, with Paul Sorvino and Dean McDermott. The movie will premiere in December during ABC Family's 12th annual "25 Days of Christmas" programming event which will feature over 200 hours of holiday-themed entertainment for the whole family from December 1- 25. In addition to Santa Baby 2, the network will feature classic holiday favorites such as Rudolph's Shiny New Year, Frosty's Winter Wonderland and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. ABC Family will also present the basic cable premieres of DisneyPIXAR's Academy Award-winning (Best Animated Feature Film) RATATOUILLE and Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause. And again this year, Christmas comes early with "Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas," which adds 16 additional days of holiday programming.
There were no sitcom or off-network series acquisitions details, so looks like nothing major is coming...or it is not ready to be announced yet.

TV Land and ION Schedule Special Brady, M*A*S*H Marathons; CW, ABC Family Announcements

TV Land has scheduled a marathon of The Brady Bunch on President's Day (Monday, Feb. 16) from 10am-2pm ET/PT. Who needs George Washington and Abraham Lincoln when you have Marcia Brady! Watch episodes such as Greg and Marcia both running for student body president. The hiding of the school goat and a hair tonic turns Greg's hair orange. View the episodes airing in this special marathon.
ION Television has pulled the movie The Diplomat for this Sunday (Sunday, Feb. 8), and replaced it with a special M*A*S*H block from 7-11pm ET/PT instead. M*A*S*H will also air in its regular 6-7pm airings on this date as well, so it is an all M*A*S*H night on ION from 6-11pm. Among the episodes airing is the two-part episode "Our Finest Hour," when newscaster Clete Roberts, reprising an earlier interview appearance, returns to update Korean War conditions when he conducts a series of television interviews with the leading characters of the 4077th. View the full schedule for this date.

The CW is making a few changes to its midseason schedule. Beginning Tuesday, March 3, freshman drama 90210 moves to a new timeslot on Tuesday nights, with encore episodes through March 24. The series will move up an hour to 9:00pm ET/PT from 8pm ET/PT. Then eight consecutive original episodes will air from March 31 through the season finale on May 19. Since 90210 is moving to 9pm, the second-season premiere date of the devilish dramedy Reaper moves up to Tuesday, March 3 (8:00-9:00 p.m. ET). All 13 original episodes will air consecutively through the season finale on May 26.
Finally, the season finale of the critically acclaimed freshman drama Privileged will air on Tuesday, February 24 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT. Encore episodes of Privileged will continue to air on Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT from January 28 through February 18. Then the new season of America's Next Top Model will premiere on Wednesday, February 25 at 8:00 p.m. ET.

ABC Family announced the pick-up of three pilots: the one-hour scripted drama Perfect 10, the single camera half-hour 10 things I Hate About You, based on the 1999 hit film, and the multi-camera half-hour Ruby and The Rockits. Each has been given a 10-episode order.
In addition, original series Greek and Lincoln Heights will return in summer 2009 for a third and fourth season respectively. However, Kyle XY will NOT return for a fourth season and the show will end its run in March. The network also has two original movies, Au Pair 3 Adventure in Paradise, (as we mentioned in our March highlights) starring Gregory Harrison and Heidi Saban, and another as-yet-titled original movie starring Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence, both to debut in early 2009.
Perfect 10, is a one-hour scripted drama, created and written by Holly Sorensen, who also serves as executive producer. The pilot was directed by Steve Miner. Set in the world of competitive gymnastics, Perfect 10 follows a group of teen Olympic hopefuls as they train and prepare for their day in the spotlight. The cast includes Chelsea Hobbs as gymnastic newcomer 'Emily Kmetko,' Ayla Kell as top gymnast 'Payson Keeler,' Josie Loren as the beautiful gymnast 'Kaylie Cruz,' and Zachary Burr Abel as the gym's resident hottie, 'Carter Anderson.' Peri Gilpin returns to series television in the role of 'Kim Keeler,' the mother of one of the female gymnasts.
10 Things I Hate About You is a half-hour, single-cam series with director Gil Junger (who also directed the 1996 feature film) and executive producer and writer Carter Covington. Based on the hit movie, the Stratford sisters, Bianca (Meaghan Jette Martin) and Kat (Lindsey Shaw), are two very different people, which is evident as they start at their new high school with very contradictory goals. Kat is a strong-willed, in-your-face feminist who is looking to save the world and get out of high school as fast as she can. Bianca is a social butterfly whose only concern is that she is popular, at any cost. As they both start a bumpy year at Padua High, can each girl get what she wants in the end, as they navigate the popular crowd, boys and their over-protective Dad? The original series will also star Larry Miller, who reprises his film role as the girls' father, and Ethan Peck (grandson of Gregory Peck) has been cast in the role of 'Patrick" (portrayed by Heath Ledger in the film).
Ruby and The Rockits is an ABC Studios half-hour multi-cam comedy series executive-produced by Shaun Cassidy and Marsh McCall. Ruby and The Rockits follows Patrick Gallagher, a former teen idol who has chosen to lead a quiet life with his wife and two sons. But when his former Rockits band mate and brother, David, shows up unexpectedly with his new-found teenage daughter in tow, the Gallagher family's life becomes anything but normal. David, who refuses to give up his past glory days, comes to Patrick for help raising Ruby while he continues to perform. Patrick must now put the past with David behind them in order to help raise Ruby and keep order within the rest of the Gallagher clan. Ruby and The Rockits was written by Shaun Cassidy and Ed Yeager, with teleplay by Ed Yeager (the pilot was directed by Ted Wass). Alexa Vega, Austin Butler, Patrick Cassidy, and former teen idol David Cassidy star.
No time frames for these have been announced yet, but don't forget the first two original sitcoms launch on ABC Family this March!

ABC Family March 2009 Highlights; CBS and CW Schedule Changes

This March on ABC Family, there will be no schedule changes to the weekday line-up, but primetime will be changing. First on Monday, March 16, Kyle XY will have its third season finale at 9pm. A marathon of the previous nine episodes will air from 11am-8pm, with the 10th and final third season episode airing at 9pm. On Sunday, March 22, ABC Family presents a marathon of The Secret Life of the American Teenager from 2pm-11pm, because the next day, (Monday, March 23) the series will have its first season finale at 8pm. ABC Family will encore the previous two episodes that night as well from 6-8pm, leading into the finale. Leading out of the finale will be the ABC Family premiere of two original sitcoms at 9pm and 9:30pm! As we previously mentioned, ABC Family had two original sitcoms in the works: Roommates and Sophie. Roommates is a multi-camera sitcom about a group of friends trying to figure out love and life in their post-collegiate years. The ensemble cast includes, Tyler Francavilla, Dorian Brown, Tommy Dewey, David Weidoff and Tamera Mowry. 13 episodes will air.
Sophie is a single-camera sitcom and is a heartwarming and comedic tale of a lovely young woman having the worst year of her life. The cast includes Natalie Brown, Sebastian Spence, Jeff Geddis, Amy Lalonde, Mimi Kuzyk, Sara Botsford, Chantelle Chung and Catherine Brub. 13 episodes also will air. We willhave much more on these two sitcoms shortly, with hopefully pilot reviews as well.
ABC Family has two other sitcoms in development, but have not been ordered to series yet.
Replacing The Secret Life on Mondays starting March 30 at 8pm will be the second half of the second season of GREEK! 10 more episodes will air leading into the two original sitcoms. GREEK will also have a marathon of the first ten episodes of the season leading into the second half premiere, from 11am-8pm.
In other ABC Family March 2009 news, new original movie Au Pair 3 Adventure in Paradise will premiere on Sunday, March 15, 2009 from 8pm-10pm following the first two movies from 4-8pm. Among the acquired movies, they will have premieres of Notting Hill and Eight Below while replaying movies such as Dr. Dolittle, Home Alone 2, Jumanji, and Grease.

CBS will air a one-time special edition of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric in primetime on Wednesday, January 28 at 8:00pm ET/PT instead of a repeat of Old Christine. The repeat of Old Christine will slide down to 8:30pm instead, preempting a repeat of Gary Unmarried.
Meanwhile, The CW has moved 13: Fear is Real to Fridays at 9pm effective tonight! 13 was previously airing encores on Fridays, now they will be all-new. I wonder if it lasts, if it will make it to Friday the 13th on Feb. 13? The season finale is scheduled for Feb. 20. Replacing 13 in its original Wednesdays at 8pm slot will be encores of Privileged. I don't see how that will do any better?

Finally, we leave you today with some sad news. Veatrice Rice, the quiet but foul-mouthed on-air security guard on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live, has died. Though she is not a sitcom star, she was great in comedy. I was heavily shocked last night when I saw the tribute they aired. I had no idea she was sick, but found out today she was battling cancer. I did notice she started wearing a wig this past fall, but didn't think much of it. Veatrice will be heavily missed. She was part of a trio of on-air security personalities (herself, Guillermo and Uncle Frank). She was great with Guillermo and Uncle Frank and her bits with them, especially the SNN: The Worst "___" Team on Television will be heavily missed. She also had great solo bits on the show such as her "make your own" instructions, her bits with the Land o Lakes Butter lady, her interview with John McCain, and her impression as Sarah Palin. And who can forget her "sex tape" with Ryan Phillipe? She will be deeply missed every night. Try to give someone a blank stare-down look today in honor of her. We leave you today with the on-air tribute they did last night. As Veatrice would say, shut up you a**hole! Dumba**! Miss V was 59 and leaves behind her husband John.

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.

ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas 2008, Special Election Day Blog DVD Review: Comedy Central Salutes George W. Bush

Last month we gave you the Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas schedule for 2008. The Countdown airs from Nov. 16-30, but now we have the actual 25 Days of Christmas schedule for 2008!
25 Days of Christmas starts off with a Dr. Suess night including the ABC Family premiere of the special Dr. Seuss' The Hoober-Bloob Highway. Also airing that night are double airings of the Jim Carrey holiday movie Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas and the holiday special Dr. Seuss on the Loose. Other movies airing the first week are The Polar Express, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Harry Potter movies, and the basic cable premiere of Cars. Things get rolling the first weekend with all-day events with sitcom Christmas episodes of Step by Step and Sabrina the Teenage Witch in the mornings, followed by movies such as Home Alone 3, Home Alone 4, Eloise at Christmastime, and Richie Rich's Christmas Wish.
Other new highlights for the month include lots of America's Funniest Home Videos & Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Christmas episodes, the TV premiere of the special Cranberry Christmas, the basic cable premiere of the classic animated special A Garfield Christmas, the ABC Family premieres of classics Mickey's Christmas Carol & Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too, the basic cable premiere of the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the ABC Family original special A Miser Brothers' Christmas, the ABC Family Original Movie Snow 2 Brain Freeze starring Tom Cavanagh and Ashley Williams, and the ABC Family Original Movie Christmas in Wonderland starring Patrick Swayze and Carmen Electra.
We also get many items we have seen before such as Full House Christmas episodes, the holiday specials, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, Jack Frost, Rudolph's Shiny New Year, The Year Without a Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys, Frosty's Winter Wonderland, The Little Drummer Boy, Rudolph & Frosty's Christmas in July, Pinocchio's Christmas, and more! Other movies include Santa Clause 2, Jingle All the Way, All I Want for Christmas, Holiday in Handcuffs, A Carol Christmas, White Christmas, and it wouldn't be Christmas without A Very Brady Christmas!
Check out the full night-by-night ABC Family 25 Days of Christmas schedule for 2008!

Well, today is Election Day and we urge you all to get out and vote. We also will celebrate Election Day with a blog DVD review that is very fitting, as we say goodbye to George W. Bush! We take a look at Comedy Central/Paramount's Comedy Central Salutes George W. Bush: Thanks for the Memories!. The DVD includes one episode each of Bush from South Park, That's My Bush, Lil' Bush and Lewis Black's Root of All Evil. See skees53's Blog DVD Review of Comedy Central Salutes George W. Bush: Thanks for the Memories!:

Comedy Central Salutes George W. Bush: Thanks for the Memories! (Comedy Central DVD, $14.98) gives George W. Bush a sendoff from the White House in a way that only America's favorite TV network devoted to comedy can do. The DVD compiles some memories of the past eight years into a single disc for your enjoyment. The DVD includes one episode each from South Park, That's My Bush, Lil' Bush and Lewis Black's Root of All Evil.
The DVD begins with the South Park episode "Mystery of the Urinal Deuce," where Cartman decides to "prove" that Kyle was responsible for the terrorist attacks of 9/11... but Kyle finds a group of conspiracy theorists that say that they can prove that Kyle was NOT responsible, and that in fact, George W. Bush was responsible for the attacks. Unfortunately, finding out this knowledge (even if it is wrong) lands Kyle and Stan in a position where they have to run from Dick Cheney trying to kill them with a careful shot.
In the That's My Bush episode "An Aborted Dinner Date," we find George trying to have a romantic evening with Laura, but he also has a commitment to meet with people on both sides of the abortion issue... a very butch feminist that is pro-choice and an aborted fetus that is (of course) pro-life. It isn't going to be a romantic evening, that is for sure!
In the Lil' Bush episode "Iraq/First Kiss," George has to find the perfect gift for his father for Father's Day, so he goes to the first place we'd all think of to look for it—Iraq. In the second part of the episode, the gang is trying to see who will be the first to kiss a girl.
Besides the three sitcom episodes included, there are other Comedy Central programs (or clips) included, such as a full episode of Lewis Black's Root of All Evil (featuring a trial between Dick Cheney and Paris Hilton), clips from Last Laugh '06, Last Laugh '07, Mind of Mencia, and standup comedy from Comedy Central.
The DVD is presented in a pretty standard case with a drawing of Bush standing in front of the White House collecting his memories and preparing to move out... complete with his copy of "My Pet Goat," the missing 2000 Florida ballots, a bowl of pretzels, a picture of Karl Rove (affectionately autographed "Turd Blossom"), and a "Mission Accomplished" banner hanging on the White House. Oddly enough, when you watch the DVD, you'll notice that the main menu is exactly the same as the cover art. And if you like that cover art and menu art, you'll be even more pleased to know that they included a poster with the exact same artwork inside the case.
The audio and video quality are about what we would come to expect for series as recent as these--pretty good. In fact, there really aren't any problems to note in this area. The only unfortunate thing about the DVD is that there are no special features at all, although in a sense, a compilation such as this one can stand on its own without special features.
This isn't a bad DVD to pick up if you can find it cheap somewhere, but really, if you are a fan of the series included on here, you'd probably be better served to just pick up season sets of those series. The episodes presented aren't exactly episodes that stand out, but rather seem to just be random episodes about Bush. Still, this DVD can provide a few hours of laughter while Bush is outside having his "Heckuva Moving Sale."
-- Reviewed by skees53
(4/5 stars)

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South Park TV.com Page
Lewis Black's Root of All Evil TV.com Page

ABC Family November Highlights, Two New Sitcom Pilots Picked-Up; TBS Orders Third Season of My Boys

This November on ABC Family, there will not be any regular schedule changes, so 8 Simple Rules will not return as of now. There is still a lot happening on the cable network in November, though! Sitcom My Wife & Kids will get a lot of special airings: Tuesday, November 4 (following an all-new Lincoln Heights) from 9-10pm, a few 1-2pm airings (Friday, November 14, Friday, November 21, and Wednesday, November 26), and a special Saturday night stunt on Saturday, November 22 from 12am-1:30am.
Lincoln Heights will have an all-day marathon on Tuesday, November 11 from 12-8pm leading into an all-new two-hour finale from 8-10pm. After the finale, original encores airing weeknights at 12 midnight will be off and Whose Line is it Anyway? will air regularly on Mon-Thurs 12-1am.
Movie premieres include Garfield, Curious George, Dr. Dolittle 2, Dr. Dolittle 4: Tail to the Chief, The Bodyguard, and Aladdin. Holiday movie premieres include A Carol Christmas, Unlikely Angel, Snow Dogs, Mrs. Santa Claus, The Family Man and A Dennis the Menace Christmas.
Finally, ABC Family will get a jump start to "25 Days of Christmas" on Sunday, November 16 with a "Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas." The countdown airs Nov. 16-30. Movies like Holiday in Handcuffs, Christmas Caper, Home Alone 3, Home Alone 4, and more. View the full "Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas" schedule.
We will return in the coming weeks with the actual "25 Days of Christmas" schedule for Dec. 1-25....stay tuned! I can't believe we are nearing the holiday season already.

Meanwhile, ABC Family has greenlit two sitcom pilots: Ruby and The Rockits and 10 Things I Hate About You.
10 Things I Hate About You, a half-hour, single-cam series is directed by Gil Junger (who directed the movie as well) and executive produced by Carter Covington, who also penned the pilot script. Based on the hit movie 10 Things I Hate About You, the Stratford sisters are two very different people and that is evident as they start at their new high school with very contradictory goals. Kat is a strong-willed, in-your-face feminist who is looking to save the world and get out of high school as fast as she can. Bianca is a social butterfly whose only concern is that she is popular, by any cost. As they both start the year out bumpy at Padua High, can each girl get what she wants in the end as they navigate the popular crowd, boys and their over-protective Dad? The series is produced by Prodco, Inc.
Ruby and The Rockits, is an ABC Studios' half-hour multi-cam comedy series executive produced by Shaun Cassidy (Invasion) and Marsh McCall (Carpoolers), and directed by Ted Wass. The series follows Patrick Callahan, a former teen idol who has chosen to lead a quiet life with his wife and two sons. But when his former Rockits band mate and brother, David, shows up unexpectedly with his new-found teenage daughter in tow, the Callahan family's life becomes anything but normal. David, who refuses to give up his past glory days, comes to Patrick for help raising Ruby while he continues to tour. Patrick must now put the past with David behind them in order to help raise Ruby and keep order within the rest of the Callahan clan. Ruby and The Rockits was written by former teen idol Shaun Cassidy and Ed Yeager, with teleplay by Ed Yeager. Alexa Vega, Austin Butler, Patrick Cassidy and former Partridge Family teen idol David Cassidy star
New ABC Family original series previously announced are the comedy half-hour series Roommates (multi-cam) and Sophie (sine-camera), both scheduled to debut in early 2009. If these two new pilots make it on air, they will join Roommates and Sophie.

TBS's single camera comedy My Boys is stepping up to the plate again as the network orders a third season of the critically acclaimed original sitcom. TBS has ordered nine episodes of the series, which is set to return first quarter 2009.
The series stars Jordana Spiro as PJ Franklin, a 20-something sportswriter looking for love in Chicago. Surrounding PJ is her mostly male group of friends, played by Kyle Howard, Reid Scott, Michael Bunin, Jamie Kaler, with Jim Gaffigan and Kellee Stewart co-stars as essentially the only female influence in PJ's life.
My Boys premiered to critical praise on TBS in November 2006. When the show returned to complete its first season in summer 2007, it scored 22% growth among adults 18-34. The series' second season grew its audience to more than 1.5 million viewers, a 14% increase over the first season.
While that is true, it was losing a lot of its Bill Engvall Show lead-in numbers, so I'm a bit surprised it was renewed for a third year.

ABC Family Schedule Change; TV Land PRIME Begins Tonight; Winner of Nick at Nite's Fido Awards

ABC Family will make a schedule change starting next week (Monday, October 13). From 3-4pm back-to-back episodes of Full House will air weekdays instead of 8 Simple Rules. Full House used to air in this time period before 8 Simple Rules moved from 6-7pm to 3-4pm last month. As of now, 8 Simple Rules will be off the line-up totally, while Full House also will still air in its other weekday slot of 12-1pm.
ABC Family has listed the change as Oct. 13-31 only, but that doesn't mean it won't be in effect for November as well. ABC Family November will be announced soon and hopefully 8 Simple Rules is either back from 3-4pm or placed in another time period. We will certainly let you know! There are no other changes to the line-up starting October 13.

As a reminder, TV Land premieres its new TV Land PRIME block in primetime tonight. This is NOT your Father's TV Land. Beginning, tonight, October 6, 2008, the network launches TV Land PRIME, a new primetime programming destination designed to appeal to the attitudes, life stage and interests of people in their 40s and 50s, catering specifically to people in their mid-40s. Equipped with a new logo, color scheme and on-air graphics, as well as the premieres of the original series Myths & Legends and the hit sitcom 3rd Rock From The Sun, TV Land PRIME will air Monday through Friday, 9PM to Midnight ET/PT with programming that is entertaining, engaging and escapist. Moving forward, all of TV Land's original programming, including the return of hit franchises High School Reunion, She's Got The Look, and the original series The Cougar, contemporary television series acquisitions and movies will premiere solely in this daypart. Scrubs, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and the Friday MovieLand block round out the TV Land PRIME schedule.

Last night Nick at Nite aired the 1st Annual Worldwide Fido Awards! And the winner was...a toilet-flushing, skateboarding bulldog named Gabe from Bellingham, Washington (bow) wowed the celebrity judges of Nick at Nite's First Annual Worldwide Fido Awards -- telecast on Sunday, October 5 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT -- to fetch top dog honors. The champ triumphed over five other talented finalists, including a deep diving Labrador Retriever and a Schubert-humming Golden Retriever. All were revealed, showcased and saluted in the one-hour canine competition honoring the family dog, hosted by actor/comedian Fred Willard and judged by Kevin Nealon, Vivica A. Fox and dog trainer to the stars Tamar Geller.
View the full press release.

ABC Family's 10th Annual 13 Days of Halloween for 2008; Television's Most Memorable Moments Down to Top 20 Finalists

For the tenth year in a row, ABC Family brings viewers fright-full evenings during its "13 Nights of Halloween" programming event. The ABC Family movie premieres of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III and The Addams Family will join other Halloween themed programming airing the 13 nights leading up to Halloween (October 19-October 31).
Other movies and specials airing include Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II, The Witches, Gremlins, The Haunted Mansion, Beetlejuice, Addams Family Values, Casper Meets Wendy, Teen Witch, Hocus Pocus, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Scooby-Doo Movie, Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Clue, Godzilla, Scariest Places on Earth and on Halloween night the classic Poltergeist. You can also catch Halloween episodes of ABC Family's sitcoms such as 8 Simple Rules, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Full House, and others in their respective timeslots.
Read the full press release.

Last month we announced that the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards (Sept. 21 on ABC) will honor television with the most memorable television moments! Top 40 moments (20 comedy and 20 drama) were posted for viewers to vote on and now it is down to 20! With more than 100,000 votes posted already, television fans have selected their Top 10 Comedic and Top 10 Dramatic moments in the Television Academy's first ever public vote to determine America's number one moment in each category. The voting continues at emmys.abc.com through September 15, and the results will be announced in a special segment on this year's 60th Primetime Emmy® Awards airing live on Sunday, September 21, 8-11pm ET on ABC.
From the original list of 40 moments as selected by representatives from the Academy, the media and the production company, the list now includes many of television's highest rated moments, as well as some of its most emotional, funny and dramatic scenes.
From The Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show to the entire Cosby Show family singing a Ray Charles song, from hearing the Goodnights on The Waltons to the disappearance of the island on Lost, fans have been able to narrow 40 of "Television’s Most Memorable Moments" down to 20, and finally to viewers' favorite comedic and dramatic moment. The original 40 clips to vote on were chosen by Ken Ehrlich Productions (producers of this year's Emmy Awards), Television Academy leadership and a select group of the nation's top television journalists. Among the shows in the top 20 now are top moments from Ellen, Friends, I Love Lucy, All in the Family, The Cosby Show, Grey's Anatomy, Lost, Dallas, and Roots.
Vote today if you haven't already!

Fall Schedules Central: ABC Family September 2008; WGN's Mork and Mindy and Coach Marathons; Nick at Nite Gets Original Animated Series for 2009

It's that time of year again where we give you the fall line-ups for the cable networks. TV Land September 2008 is the only one we have given thus far...but now more will be posted. We start off our consecutive fall line-ups with ABC Family September 2008 today.
As we mentioned a lot already, ABC Family will be adding reruns of the popular ABC 2001-2005 sitcom My Wife & Kids starring Damon Wayans. Now we have the full details. The show will launch on Monday, September 1 with a Labor Day marathon from 12pm-10pm. Then effective Tuesday, September 2 My Wife & Kids will join the regular ABC Family line-up airing weeknights at 6:00pm & 6:30pm ET/PT replacing 8 Simple Rules, which will move to 3:00pm & 3:30pm replacing the second Full House hour, which is now gone. Full House will remain at 12 noon and 12:30pm ET/PT. My Wife & Kids will also air Sunday mornings at 10:00am & 10:30am. There will be no other schedule changes to the line-up. To see how the full regular schedule looks, I advise to you view our ABC Family September 2008 thread.
Other ABC Family September highlights include the six-hour mini-series Samurai Girl airing Friday, September 5 through Sunday, September 7 at 8pm-10pm each night, with the whole six-parter airing back-to-back 4-10pm on Sunday. The Secret Life of The American Teenager concludes its first half of the season on Tuesday, Sept. 8 at 8pm, but before that a marathon will air from 11am-8pm. Finally, Lincoln Heights returns for an all-new season the following week on Tuesday, September 15 at 8pm, but before that catch-up with memorable episodes from 11am-8pm earlier in the day.
In the coming days you'll see the September line-ups for Lifetime, WGN America, TV One, FX, TBS, WE tv, ION Television, Nick at Nite, BET and The Hallmark Channel. Broadcast wise, we will do WPIX's fall line-up, and possibly WNYW and WWOR, since I'm in New York. We will also do a Canadian fall lineup on one day with all the notable Canadian Cable stations such as TV Land Canada and DejaView.

We recently gave you details on WGN America's Golden Oldies Week (Aug. 4-7), now WGN America has released that it will have a Mork & Mindy slot on Tuesday, August 19 from 8-10pm ET (5-7pm PT)! It is sort of strange that Mork & Mindy will be isolated on its own for this one-time-only marathon. Other shows usually aired during a theme week.
There will be many new shows coming to WGN America this fall that I will reveal sometime this week in our ongoing fall 2008 series reports. One of the series that will air this fall is the '90s ABC sitcom Coach. We will have more on its regular slot later in the fall schedule, but in August Coach will get a block on Friday, August 29 from 8-10pm ET (5-7pm PT). It will also get a full-fledge marathon the following day, Saturday, August 30 from 12 noon to 7pm ET (that's 9am-4pm PT). Coach is coming just in time for the football season! We don't have episode info for the Coach marathons yet, but we do have the episodes for the Mork & Mindy block on Aug. 19...head on over to our message board to view that.

Nick at Nite will bring in another original animated series. They had one some years back called Fatherhood, from Bill Cosby, now they will have another come in summer 2009. As TV's home for the modern-day family comedy, top-rated Nick at Nite has green-lit Glenn Martin DDS., the first television series from Michael Eisner's Tornante Animation, cuing production on 20 episodes of the original, stop-motion primetime program. Giving the American family a whole new look, the 'trailblazing' series buckles up with the Martins in their toothbrush-topped dental mobile as they leave suburbia behind in the rear-view mirror and embark on a cross-country adventure. Eisner and the newly formed division of The Tornante Company -- Tornante Animation, have enlisted Eric Fogel -- the creative force behind MTV's hit Celebrity Deathmatch -- to help design the series.
Nick at Nite will promote the series a lot leading up to the premiere in Summer 2009. This will also give them an extra promo push for the hit comedy Everybody Hates Chris, from co-creator and narrator Chris Rock and inspired by his real-life childhood experiences, which will launch in September 2009.

60th Annual Emmy Awards Nominations; Summer 2008 TCA Press Tour: ABC, Day 2

The 60th Annual Emmy Nominations were made just moments ago. Here are the nominees for the main categories:

BEST COMEDY SERIES
Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)
The Office (NBC)
Two and a Half Men (CBS)
30 Rock (NBC)
Entourage (HBO)
SURPRISE OMISSION: Pushing Daisies & Ugly Betty. I had them in my predictions, but Curb and Men made it instead.

BEST COMEDY ACTOR
Tony Shalhoub, Monk (USA Network)
Steve Carell, The Office (NBC)
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock (NBC)
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men (CBS)
Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies (ABC)
SURPRISE OMISSION: None. I had this category all right!

BEST COMEDY ACTRESS
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty (ABC)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Old Christine (CBS)
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who? (ABC)
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds (Showtime)
Tina Fey, 30 Rock (NBC)
SURPRISE OMISSION: Ana Friel. I had her instead of Dreyfus.

BEST SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTOR
Kevin Dillion, Entourage (HBO)
John Cryer, Two and a Half Men (CBS)
Rainn Wilson, The Office (NBC)
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
Jeremy Piven, Entourage (HBO)
SURPRISE OMISSION: None. I was all right again.

BEST SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTRESS
Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty (ABC)
Amy Poehler, SNL (NBC)
Jean Smart, Samantha Who? (ABC)
Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies (ABC)
Holland Taylor, Two and a Half Men (CBS)
SURPRISE OMISSION: Surprising Poehler is in this category and no Jenna Fischer this year.

BEST DRAMA SERIES
Lost (ABC)
House (Fox)
Damages (FX)
Boston Legal (ABC)
Mad Men (AMC)
Dexter (Showtime)
SURPRISE OMISSION: None really...no Grey's Anatomy though, I had that over Damages.

BEST DRAMA ACTOR
Hugh Laurie, House (FOX)
James Spader, Boston Legal (ABC)
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad (AMC)
Gabriel Bryne, In Treatment (HBO)
Michael C. Hall, Dexter (Showtime)
Jon Hamm, Mad Men (AMC)
SURPRISE OMISSION: None, maybe Denis Leary. 6 made it instead of 5.

BEST DRAMA ACTRESS
Glenn Close, Damages (FX)
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer (TNT)
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU (NBC)
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace (TNT)
SURPRISE OMISSION: None, maybe no Elizabeth Moss of Mad Men. Why Hargitay again?

BEST SUPPORTING DRAMA ACTOR
Zeljko Ivanek, Damages (FX)
William Shatner, Boston Legal (ABC)
John Slattery, Mad Men (AMC)
Ted Danson, Damages (FX)
Michael Emerson, Lost (ABC)
SURPRISE OMISSION: None. I had this all right, but I had T.R. Knight instead of Ivanek.

BEST SUPPORTING DRAMA ACTRESS
Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Candice Bergen, Boston Legal (ABC)
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Diane Wiest, In Treatment (HBO)
SURPRISE OMISSION: I had this all right except for two...Oh and Wiest were in instead, but that is not a surprise.

View the full list of nominations by clicking HERE. The 60th Annual Emmy Awards air Sunday, September 21 at 8pm on ABC.


Today is day two of the ABC portion of the summer 2008 TCA press tour. More ABC shows will be on the panel today along with ABC Cable Networks such as ABC Family and Disney Channel. But first, I want to say a few things I missed yesterday on day one. Lost will still fulfill its final 48 episode order. Due to the strike this past season, only 14 aired, so ABC is likely to tack on an extra episode for the next two seasons so 48 episodes will be there. Also, this is Zach Braff's final season on Scrubs, no matter if ABC continues it in 2009-10. Braff did say if ABC were to bring it back for a second season on ABC, then he would guest star or direct some episodes.
Anyway, today up at the panel were the cast and producers of Disney Channel's movie The Cheetah Girls One World, ABC Family's mini-series Samurai Girl, and ABC Daytime's soap opera One Life to Live, celebrating its 40th anniversary. Then after lunch it was all ABC at the panel with a great session with ABC Showrunners Greg Berlanti (Dirty Sexy Money, Brothers & Sisters, Eli Stone), Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives), Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof (Lost), Silvio Horta (Ugly Betty), and Shonda Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice). Then after that it was back to shows itself with the stars and producers of Dirty Sexy Money, Private Practice, and Desperate Housewives. Finally, ABC's portion of the TCA tour concludes with the All-Star party with the stars of ABC, Disney Channel, ABC Family and SOAPnet.
As for some details, ABC Family has ordered 13 more episodes of the hit drama The Secret Life of the American Teenager making its season order to 23. The current batch of episodes will conclude on Sept. 9 and the new batch will air starting in January, possibly with the return of its other hit show Kyle XY for its third season. Samurai Girl is a mini-series for now, but it could be a series in the future...Sept. 5-7 is when this three-part event will air. ABC Family will launch the second season of Greek on Tuesday, Aug. 26 and the third season of Lincoln Heights on Tuesday, Sept. 16. The Disney-ABC first run syndicated series Wizard's First Rule will appear on local stations on weekends starting the weekend of November 1.
On the Showrunners panel, the big questions were for Shonda Rhimes about Katherine Heigl. No Heigl is not leaving the show. No Heigl is not going to get killed off. And no Shonda didn't think Heigl withdrawing her name out of Emmy contention was a slap to the face to the writers! End of story on that! The media needs to MOVE ON! In Desperate Housewives news from this panel, Marc Cherry said he thought of the idea of the jumping ahead 5 years during a baseball game he attended with Steve McPherson. Lost wise we learned that Daniel Dae Kim (Jin) will indeed appear this season "in some form" without revealing any details. Ugly Betty wise, it is all but confirmed that there will no Henry in the picture for Betty.
Following that there were panels I mentioned for Dirty Sexy Money, Private Practice and Desperate Housewives. I can't believe some reporter asked Lucy Liu how will it feel turning 40 in January.
I think that is about all that was noteworthy from today. Stay tuned for CBS tomorrow!

July 7 Reminders; Remembering Lilyan Chauvin

Some great programming is coming starting July 7 and we want to remind you all of all the new stuff.
First, WGN has an '80s week with ALF, Family Ties, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial and The Cosby Show all this week from 8-10pm ET (5-7pm PT). Read our original story for more details.
Hangin' with Mr. Cooper joins the ION Television line-up this Monday, July 7 airing weeknights at 5:00pm & 5:30pm ET/PT. Read our original story for details.
The Steve Harvey Show launches this weekend from 4-5pm, but it will officially join the line-up on Monday airing weekdays 4-5pm and weekends 12-1pm. Read our original story for details.
Remember starting Monday, July 7, we get two Family Matters airing a night now and also an overnight encore from 4-5am on Nick at Nite. Read our original story for more details.
Popular sitcom That '70s Show is now also on ABC Family as it launched this 4th of July with a marathon but it will regularly start on Monday airing weeknights 7-8pm, in addition to other slots. Read our original story for the complete details on that.
Classic TV western Maverick also launched with a 4th of July marathon but it officially joins the regular line-up on Monday airing weeknights at 6pm and Saturdays at 8am. Read our original story for all the details.
Finally, well this isn't a July 7 premiere, but it is a week of July 7 premiere, as we mentioned yesterday that drama Joan of Arcadia is coming to the Sci Fi Channel airing Fridays at 8pm starting July 11.

That sure is a slot of shows launching on July 7! Lucky 7 indeed! I hope I didn't miss anything we covered already. I think this reminder was needed, in case anyone forgot something. Happy watching on lucky July 7!

We leave you today with another TV passing. Lilyan Chauvin passed away at her Studio City home on Thursday, June 26, 2008 after a 40 year battle with breast cancer complicated by recent onset of congestive heart disease. She was not just an actress, she was also a host, DGA director, WGA writer, former VP of Women in Film, author, teacher and private coach.
Nominated for the Emmy Award in The Young and the Restless her dedication to the arts won her recognition to for Excellence in moral quality media. She was also a series regular on Days of Our Lives.
She held recurring roles on Mission Impossible, General Hospital and Falcon Crest. She guest starred on many series as well such as Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, One Day at a Time, Magnum P.I., Baywatch, Hart to Hart, Fantasy Island, The Bob Newhart Show, Dragnet, Adventures of Superman, Perry Mason, Friends, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, ER, Malcolm in the Middle, Alias, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The X-Files, Murder She Wrote, Frasier, USA High, The Pretender, Shashta McNasty, and recently on Ugly Betty.
On the big screen, she is known for her roles in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me if You Can, the Coen brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There, Stephan Hopkins' Predator 2 and she is also widely recognized for her role as Mrs. Tremont in Private Benjamin.
She will certainly be missed. She was 82.

ABC Family Picks-Up Weekend Rights to Fresh Prince; CBS Fall Premiere Dates

In a shocking move, ABC Family has picked-up rights to air The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air beginning in August. You might be thinking, uh isn't it already on TBS and Nick at Nite/The N? Yes, you're of course right. This will be a three-way shared deal (with a record breaking four cable networks involved). This is at least the second three-way deal I have heard of, with the first being That '70s Show (FX, The N, ABC Family), but the first involving four networks. That '70s Show's deal is very complicated that I can't figure out what times each of those networks can air the show.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air deal is pretty easy to figure out. ABC Family will be airing the series weekend evenings only starting Saturday, August 2. The show will air Saturday nights from 11pm-2am ET/PT and sometimes as well on Sundays back-to-back at 11 & 11:30pm ET/PT, if a movie doesn't go until midnight.
So, ABC Family will have weekend evening rights to the series. TBS has the daytime rights. Nick at Nite/The N (AKA Viacom portion of the deal) will now only have weekday evening rights (as they lose the seven days evening rights...what no more all-night seven nights Fresh marathons??), which means Fresh Prince of Bel-Air will not be airing on weekends anymore on both networks and that will be in effect starting next week (the deal starts in July actually). So the Nick at Nite schedule will change a bit. Family Matters, which launches this Sunday with a marathon from 9pm-4am, will get more timeslots because of this! Family Matters will take over the Saturday (early Sunday) slots at 12-2am and 2-3am and Sunday evenings 11pm-12am. Home Improvement will now air Saturdays 11pm-12am and 1-2am, while The Cosby Show will take over Sunday nights (early Monday) 1-2am. So Fresh Prince will only air weekdays...Mon-Thurs 11:30pm & 2-3am and Friday nights 12:30am & 3-4am. The N will air it weeknights at 8-9pm and 1-2am, as weekend airings for that network will also be removed. And TBS will continue to air it weekdays 9-10am.
For the full Nick at Nite schedule effective this Monday, head on over here. ABC Family won't be making any other changes in August when Fresh Prince comes.
If you're a Family Matters fan, then I have compiled an upcoming episodes list for Nick at Nite, that I thought might be handy. They are skipping season one because Urkel didn't become big until season two. Season one will air after this rotation finishes, which means we will have to wait until season nine ends. Tune in this Sunday for the launch marathon!

CBS announced premiere dates for the fall premieres of its new and returning series, which include a pre-season debut for Survivor: Gabon and the launch of its Thursday and Friday drama series in early October. CBS will introduce everything else from its schedule beginning Monday, Sept. 22, the official start of the 2008-2009 season. The only reason the premieres of the Thursday and Friday night dramas have been scheduled outside of premiere week is to accommodate the scheduled Presidential Debate on Sept. 26 and the Vice Presidential Debate on Oct. 2.
Here are the 2008-09 CBS premiere dates:

Thursday, Sept. 18
8-9 p.m.: Survivor (17th edition)

Monday, Sept. 22
8-8:30 p.m.: The Big Bang Theory (2nd season premiere)
8:30-9 p.m.: How I Met Your Mother (4th season premiere)
9-9:30 p.m.: Two and a Half Men (6th season premiere)
9:30-10 p.m.: Worst Week (series debut)
10-11 p.m.: CSI: Miami (7th season premiere)

Tuesday, Sept. 23
8-9 p.m.: NCIS (6th season premiere)
9-10 p.m.: The Mentalist (series debut)
10-11 p.m.: Without a Trace (7th season premiere)

Wednesday, Sept. 24
8-8:30 p.m.: The New Adventures of Old Christine (4th season premiere)
8:30-9 p.m.: Project Gary (series debut)
9-10 p.m.: Criminal Minds (4th season premiere)
10-11 p.m.: CSI: NY (5th season premiere)

Saturday, Sept. 27
8-9 p.m.: Crimetime Saturday
9-10 p.m.: Crimetime Saturday
10-11 p.m.: 48 Hours Mystery (season premiere)

Sunday, Sept. 28
7:00-8 p.m.: 60 Minutes (41st season premiere)
8-9 p.m.: The Amazing Race (13th edition)
9-10 p.m.: Cold Case (6th season premiere)
10-11 p.m.: The Unit (4th season premiere)

Friday, Oct. 3
8-9 p.m.: Ghost Whisperer (4th season premiere)
9-10 p.m.: The Ex List (series premiere)
10-11 p.m.: Numb3rs (5th season premiere)

Thursday, Oct. 9
9-10 p.m.: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (9th season premiere)
10-11 p.m.: Eleventh Hour (series debut)

ABC Family July 2008: That '70s Show and Nanny 911 Join; WPIX Announces 60th Anniversary Bash

ABC Family Channel has announced its July 2008 schedule and it will see the launch of sitcom That '70s Show and reality series Nanny 911. That '70s Show will launch on Friday, July 4 with a 4th of July marathon from 11am-7:30pm, leading into a Harry Potter weekend marathon. The sitcom will then air weekdays starting Monday, July 7 from 7pm-8pm, replacing Grounded for Life. The sitcom will also air on a Friday primetime block from 8-10pm and 12-1am starting July 11. Grounded for Life will air Fridays 10-11pm starting then, too. Grounded for Life will also continue to air weekdays 10-11am, but the 11am Saturday airing will be That '70s Show starting July 12. So this means That '70s Show will be on three cable networks after it joins ABC Family. It will air in primetime on The N starting later this month (9-10pm and 12-1am weeknights) and will continue to air on FX in the daytime and late nights. Is there no time restrictions for this show on these channels? Seems odd since other shows with shared cable deals can only air at certain times. Anyway, Thursday nights in primetime starting July 17, ABC Family will air the canceled Fox reality series Nanny 911 from 8-11pm every Thursday.
New original series The Secret Life of the American Teenager will premiere July 1 and air Tuesdays at 8PM and new episodes continue of original series The Middleman Mondays at 8PM. ABC Family also has an original movie called Picture This! on Sunday, July 13 starring Ashley Tisdale and Kevin Pollack.
For more on ABC Family July 2008, I urge you to click HERE.

A few weeks ago we announced WPIX is doing a 60th anniversary marathon and special on Saturday, June 14. Now today they made the official announcement.
The year was 1948, the price of a stamp was 3 cents, a subway ride 10 cents, and a gallon of gas a whopping 16 cents when WPIX hit the air on June 15 as New York City's first independent television station.
For 60 years, the award-winning WPIX-TV has been New York's home for groundbreaking television, and to celebrate, WPIX will air WPIX at 60 Birthday Bash, a special marathon of classic programming on Saturday, June 14 (from 12 noon to 9pm) followed by a one hour retrospective hosted by News Anchors Jim Watkins and Kaity Tong. Beginning at noon, the PIX at 60 Birthday Bash will feature 9 hours of vintage programs: The Little Rascals, Abbott & Costello, The Three Stooges, The Adventures Of Superman, Get Smart, My Favorite Martian, I Dream Of Jeannie, The Odd Couple and The Honeymooners. 9 hours...19 episodes...and all the nostalgia you can cram into a day. Did you know Abbott and Costello were the first non-baseball players to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame (for Who's On First?) or that Jeannie's bottle in I Dream of Jeannie was actually a bottle of Jim Beam painted gold? Interstitials will run throughout the Birthday Bash and will feature PIX program trivia and fun facts.
At 9 pm, WPIX will air a 60th Anniversary Special hosted by Jim Watkins and Kaity Tong. The hour-long program will take a look back at WPIX from 1948 to 2008. Today, WPIX is the CW11, the home for great programs like The CW11 News, America's Next Top Model, New York Mets baseball and many first run and syndicated hits. In the last 60 years, WPIX has celebrated many milestones including the first instant replay (July 17, 1959 Yankees vs. White Sox) and The Rolling Stones' first New York TV appearance on WPIX's Clay Cole Show (1964). From the Giants to the Yankees to the Mets...from Cap'n Jack McCarthy to Officer Joe Bolton to Bozo the Clown...From Dawson to Buffy to Serena, the WPIX 60th Anniversary Special will track the stations' growth from a small independent station to the powerhouse it is today.
Remember playing the PIX PIX PIX game? Did you warm your hands over The Yule Log fire? Do you long for Peanut Butter and Jelly Time? WPIX is inviting viewers to share their favorite memories at cw11.com/60 which will also feature expanded online coverage of WPIX's rich history.
In addition, WPIX has created a commemorative insert which will run in Newsday and amNewYork on June 13 featuring a comprehensive timeline of PIX's greatest moments with vintage photographs.
For more details, including episode info for the vintage programming on June 14, click HERE.

ION Fall 2008 Schedule, Dead Zone and Mr. Cooper Also Join; ABC Family Upfront

Yesterday we gave you some details on ION Television's upfront, with the announcement of ER coming in June. Later in the evening ION sent us the full details of their acquisitions and plans for Fall 2008.
ION Television solidified its evolution into a popular, general entertainment network aimed at the 25-54 demographic. At its 2008 sales presentation to the advertising community, held at the New York Public Library in New York City, the Upfront highlighted ION Television's exciting, contemporary programming initiatives for the 2008-2009 television season and promised strong partnerships for advertisers in an ever-changing and competitive marketplace.
ION Television's new campaign is called the "Positively Entertaining" network branding, showcasing a powerful new primetime lineup and the expansion of the network's programming block to 4 p.m.
This Fall, viewers will see a great new lineup of top shows during the week and on weekends. RHI Entertainment, ION Television's exclusive partner in weekend primetime programming, will deliver 12 original movies, including three Westerns, during the 2008-2009 season. RHI's high-caliber content has brought impressive ratings returns, demonstrating how well the ION platform does with quality programming. The award-winning producer and distributor of groundbreaking miniseries and movies for television will continue to provide original programming, as well as quality library titles.
We mentioned in the past and recent days, that ION has acquired Boston Legal & M*A*S*H for this fall, ER starts next month and Criminal Minds & Ghost Whisperer for Fall 2009, but now ION has given more announcements for more series!
USA Network's original series, The Dead Zone, a science fiction/suspense series from Debmar-Mercury, will appear on ION Television's Fall primetime schedule airing Thursday nights. The hit drama stars Anthony Michael Hall as Johnny Smith, a man who awakens from a six-year coma to discover that he has psychic abilities.
Through a deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, the hit sitcom, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, will be on the ION Television Fall lineup airing weekdays. Mark Curry plays Mr. Mark Cooper, a single teacher and basketball coach at a high school in Oakland, California. The cast also includes Raven-Symoné, Holly Robinson Peete, Nell Carter, Omar Gooding and more.
ION clearly said at their upfront, that they are not "the Mama's Family channel" anymore and thus the show will be off the line-up by the fall, as of now. That is not to say it won't ever return, but as of now, they are trying to move forward. Recently introduced shows such as The Drew Carey Show, Quantum Leap, Family Feud and The Steve Harvey Show will remain on the network in the Fall.

The following is an outline of ION's Fall 2008 schedule, but could change, so it is not set in stone:

Mondays-Fridays
4:00PM The Steve Harvey Show
4:30PM The Steve Harvey Show
5:00PM Hangin' with Mr. Cooper
5:30PM Hangin' with Mr. Cooper
6:00PM The Drew Carey Show
6:30PM M*A*S*H

Mondays-Thursdays
7:00PM Family Feud
7:30PM Family Feud
8:00PM Quantum Leap

Mondays-Wednesdays
9:00PM Boston Legal
10:00PM ER

Thursdays
9:00PM The Dead Zone
10:00PM The Dead Zone

Fridays-Sundays
7:00PM-11:00PM RHI Entertainment on ION

6:00PM (and if any other slots on weekends are added) weekends will be known closer to the Fall.
We will have an interview with ION very soon (if all goes well), and will try to answer everything in our on going "Seven Questions With..." series. So stay tuned!

Moving on to another upfront, ABC Family also had their upfront yesterday! They outlined ABC Family's plans for Summer and Fall of 2008. Scheduled to debut this summer are new original drama series including The Middleman (Monday, June 16) and The Secret Life of the American Teenager (Tuesday, July 1). In addition to the summer series, ABC Family will premiere Samurai Girl, a special event premiering with six hours over three nights this Fall (September 5, 6, 7) and has ordered a third season of Lincoln Heights (Fall 2008), a second season of Greek (Fall 2008), and a third season of Kyle XY (January 2009). The 11th annual 25 Days of Christmas event will feature an original movie and special as well as the basic cable premieres of The Chronicles of Narnia and Cars.
Rerun wise, joining the successful line-up of acquired series, including America's Funniest Home Videos, What I Like About You, 8 Simple Rules and Gilmore Girls will be the newly acquired sitcoms That '70s Show premiering this June and My Wife and Kids premiering this September. We gave you news on both of these already, though.
New ABC Family original movies include The Circuit starring Michelle Trachtenberg on Sunday, June 8 and Picture This starring Ashley Tisdale on Sunday, July 13. In addition, ABC Family presents the new original movie Snow 2: Brain Freeze starring Tom Cavanaugh and Ashley Williams, the sequel to the highly successful Snow during the 25 Days of Christmas.
In the works for 2009 are an original sitcom and a half-hour dramedy. Roommates, the network's first foray into a half-hour sitcom, will premiere with thirteen episodes in 2009. Roommates is about a group of friends trying to figure out love and life in their post-collegiate years. The ensemble cast includes, Tyler Francavilla, Dorian Brown, Tommy Dewey, David Weidoff and Tamera Mowry (Sister, Sister).
Sophie, an all new original half-hour series will also premiere in 2009 with thirteen episodes also. Sophie is a heartwarming and comedic tale of a lovely young woman having the worst year of her life. The cast includes Natalie Brown, Sebastian Spence, Jeff Geddis, Amy Lalonde, Mimi Kuzyk, Sara Botsford, Chantelle Chung and Catherine Bérubé.
For more details on ABC Family's Upfront highlights, I suggest you click HERE! You can also discuss the new there. We should have ABC Family's June schedule in the coming days so you will know when That '70s Show will be airing!

Stay tuned next week as we preview the broadcast network upfronts, in our annual preview. We will let you know what we think ABC, The CW, CBS and Fox will do (NBC has already announced their fall schedule, so we can't preview them) for the fall.
Upfront week is week of May 12, starting with NBC, but they already announced their 2008-09 schedules.

3 More RTN Affiliates; More Step by Step on ABC Family

Retro Television Network (RTN) announced that it will partner with Four Points Media Group to add RTN affiliates in Austin, TX; Utah; and West Palm Beach, FL. The new affiliates will launch this year in Austin on a digital stream of KEYE-TV, in Utah on analog station KUSG and in West Palm Beach on a digital stream of WTVX.
Great news for those markets...it had been awhile since we gotten some RTN news, so don't worry, more will come I'm sure. It is sure growing fast!

We posted that ABC Family changed their minds about putting Step by Step back to weekday afternoons, and the show would only air continue to weekdays at 9am. Well, we got SOME good news now for Step by Step fans...the show will continue to air weekdays at 9am but now starting March 15 it will also gain Saturday and Sunday mornings from 7-8am....so four episodes a weekend! Better than nothing! It will replace Sister, Sister on weekends.

We will end today with a preview of what is to come this week on the blog. Tomorrow we will have a review of the new Fox sitcom The Return of Jezebel James, which launches Friday. We will highlight ION April 2008 and TV Land May 2008 as well this week. We will also have a review of the new ABC sitcom Miss Guided in the coming days, as it will launch next Tuesday with a special preview episode.

ABC Family Changes Their Minds; No Reunion on Today Friday; ABC Picks Up Reality Series For 2008-09; NBC Pulls Quarterlife

A few weeks ago we announced a few changes for ABC Family starting in March. One of them was Sabrina, the Teenage Witch leaving the 2-3pm weekday slot in favor of Step by Step...but looks like ABC Family has decided not to do that, as Sabrina, the Teenage Witch will remain in that slot. All the other changes we mentioned will still be on, though. Sorry Step by Step fans! The show will still air weekdays at 9am, though!

NBC's "Together Again" reunions on Today has come to an end today with the Knots Landing reunion. Remember we mentioned we would announce what reunion will take place on Friday, as they didn't announce it yet? Well looks like they couldn't book anyone, so there will no reunion on Friday unfortunately. We mentioned they had listed a Taxi reunion in the advanced listings, but it seems they couldn't book them. Hopefully we get more "Together Again" installments in the future...and when they do, you'll know here first!

ABC Entertainment announces early pick-ups of alternative series for next season (2008-09), including America's Funniest Home Videos, Dancing with the Stars, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Supernanny and Wife Swap.
No surprises here, as all are doing very well in the ratings. I'm surprised no early pick-up was announced for Dance War and The Bachelor, but I think those will return anyway. I think Oprah's Big Give will also do huge this week and that will return next season.
These alternative series pickups join the scripted series pickups already announced a few weeks back.

Finally, after just one airing, NBC has pulled new drama Quarterlife from the schedule. The show premiered on Tuesday at 10pm on a special night and time and did just a 2.2 HH rating and 3.13 million viewers. That is pathetic even when a repeat airs. The show was slated to air Sundays at 9, but that is not happening. NBC will schedule a repeat of Deal or No Deal this Sunday at 9 to go up against ABC's premiere of Oprah's Big Give. Then repeats of Law & Order will air for the rest of the month on Sundays at 9.

We shall be back with more, if anything breaking happens. Don't forget to come back this weekend for our pilot review of Unhitched and tomorrow for our monthly classic TV essay!

ABC Picks Up 9 Series for Next Season; ION Picks Up M*A*S*H; ABC Family March Changes

The strike will most likely officially end today after the vote...no doubts. We will keep you up to date on it certainly. Today is day 100.
ABC Entertainment announced pickups for nine of its most popular shows, returning broadcast television's most successful fall series. ABC Entertainment ordered episodes of Brothers & Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Dirty Sexy Money, Grey's Anatomy, Lost, Private Practice, Pushing Daisies, Samantha Who? and Ugly Betty.
On average during Fall 2007 (10 complete weeks: 9/24-12/2/07), ABC was the No. 1 network among Adults 18-49 (3.9/10), delivering the top position in the key young adult sales demo on 7 of the first 10 weeks of the season and ranking No. 1 during the November Sweep for the third consecutive year. In addition, ABC claimed eight of the Top 20 highest-rated TV shows among young adults during the fall, including five of the Top 10 freshman series.
Now these 9 are not the only ones returning, these 9 are just the early pick-ups. Missing are Dancing with the Stars, The Bachelor, America's Funniest Home Videos, Boston Legal, Women's Murder Club, among others. Most of those, if not all, could also be back next season. Cavemen, Carpoolers, Notes from the Underbelly, October Road, Big Shots are in danger...and possibly Cashmere Mafia. Jury is still out on Eli Stone, but it needs to pick up in the ratings more.

ION Media Networks, Inc. today announced it has entered into an agreement with Twentieth Television to air the television series, M*A*S*H, on ION Television starting this Fall. The agreement marks the latest addition of programming to the ION network's primetime lineup. This comedic drama melds humor, social, political commentary and often heart-wrenching plotlines to provide ION's broad audience with a perennial favorite that redefined the boundaries of television programming.
More details will come closer to the premiere, but it is not certain yet if local broadcast channels will lose rights to the show this fall when ION launches it, since ION is technically a broadcast channel. TV Land and Hallmark Channel air the show on cable and will continue to do so, as this deal is not exclusive.

Since Family Matters' contract is expiring at the end of this month on ABC Family (it will move to Nick at Nite in June), they will make changes to ther March line-up. Sister, Sister will move to both Family Matters hours (Mon-Sun 7-8am and Mon-Fri 1-2pm). Sabrina, the Teenage Witch will lose its weekdays 2-3pm slot and move to every morning 8-9am. Step by Step will return to afternoons and air weekdays 2-3pm, which will be in addition to its 9am slot. And finally, weekends from 10am-12pm will be a block of Grounded for Life, with sometimes early movies in there.
To view these changes and to discuss this, click HERE!

Day 25: WGA's Strike; ABC Family Acquires What I Like About You; TV Land Scores in November

We are in day 25 of the strike. Non-writing staffers of The Tonight Show are being laid off on Friday we hear, but Letterman's production company will pay its nono-writing staff from their own pockets. Conan O'Brien is also paying out of his own pocket for his non-writing staff.
Meanwhile NBC has made a schedule move that seems like it was done for the strike. NBC's new dramedy Lipstick Jungle, based on the best-selling novel by Candace Bushnell - and starring Brooke Shields, Kim Raver and Lindsay Price - will premiere on Thursday, February 7 at 10:00 p.m. ET. ER will continue in the Thursdays 10:00 p.m. ET time slot through January when the Emmy Award-winning drama series completes its current run of original episodes.
Fox finally announced its holiday line-up. Nothing really except on Christmas Eve we get the movie Cheaper by the Dozen and on Wednesday, December 26 we get the broadcast premiere of Christmas with the Kranks starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis. But why a day after Christmas?

I guess trying to bank on the success of Jennie Garth on Dancing with the Stars, cable network ABC Family will begin airing reruns of the sitcom What I Like About You in January. The sitcom starred Amanda Bynes and Jennie Garth as sisters. The show had a decent four season run on The WB/CW from 2002-06. The show will air weekday afternoons at 4:00pm & 4:30pm ET/PT starting Monday, January 7, replacing 7th Heaven. We asked ABC Family if 7th Heaven would return and they said no, as the show will be moving to The Hallmark Channel. So that answers that. As for What I Like About You, The CW Daytime will still air it at 3:30pm in January from what we see in their listings. We'll keep you posted if that changes. So fans can watch it basically from 3:30-5pm on two channels!
Elsewhere on ABC Family January, the second half of season two of the hit original drama Kyle XY will return on January 14 airing Mondays at 8pm for 10 episodes! A marathon of 9 of the 13 episodes from the first half of the season will air before it from 11am-8pm. The fourth season of another original drama, Wildfire will start a week later, Monday, January 21, and air Mondays at 9pm. Other highlights include, the annual The 700 Club Special Programming will air from 9am-11am for two weeks, week of Jan. 14 and 21, thus Step by Step will be pre-empted for those two weeks at 9am. A marathon of the 700 Club will air on Sunday, January 27 from 12pm-12am. As for movies, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants will get a basic cable premiere on Jan. 6, and a lot of movies will be airing on the ABC Family for the first time, such as Mean Girls, Pleasantville, Bring It On Again, and the TV premiere of Bring It On: In It To Win It.

TV Land scored huge gains among its target demo of Adults 25-54 as well as its core audience of Adults 40-54 for the month of November (10/29/07-11/25/07). The success of the network's regularly scheduled Friday Night Movie Block, a M*A*S*H Mail Call Marathon, the original special Entertainment Weekly and TV Land Present: The 50 Greatest TV Icons and the network's "Overstuffed Thanksgiving Weekend" led the network to score double-digit gains in rating and delivery among A25-54 and total viewers over last year. November was also the most-watched month among A25-54 for the year.
TV Land's November prime time line-up scored a 0.4 rating, 406,000 viewers, up +33% in rating and +24% in viewers among A25-54. Among total viewers in primetime, TV Land delivered nearly 944,000 total viewers, up +15% over last year. In total programming day, TV Land averaged a 0.3 rating and 295,000 viewers among A25-54 for the month, representing a +50% gain in rating and a +19% climb in viewers versus November 2006. It was also the most-watched month among A25-54 in total day this year. Additionally, the network attracted an average of 633,000 viewers for the total programming day, an increase of +13% over November 2006. Among its core audience, Adults 40-54, TV Land averaged a 0.6 rating, 317,000 viewers in prime time, up +50% in rating and +39% in viewers versus last year. In total programming day, the network posted a 0.4 rating, 227,000 viewers, up +33% in rating and +26% in viewers.
Click HERE for the full highlights.

Day 24: WGA's Strike; Hallmark Channel Acquires 7th Heaven, Cheers, I Love Lucy; Animated Dennis the Menace to DVD!

It is day 24 now of the writers' strike. It is still early in the day, but no news yet on an agreement. We do have some news. Talk show host Carson Daly has crossed the picket line. Which means his show, NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly, will soon be back with new episodes. The half-hour talk show airs on NBC late nights at 1:35am. Unlike other talk show hosts like Kimmel, Letterman and Leno, Daly is not a member of the WGA, so it was easier for him to cross. The WGA is however disappointed. No word yet when we will see new episodes, but I'm betting starting next week.

Hallmark Channel has just completed a major deal to acquire several award- winning series, including the critically acclaimed 7th Heaven, the ever popular Cheers and classic baby boomer favorite, I Love Lucy, along with additional episodes of Matlock and Touched By An Angel from CBS Television Distribution. The deal also includes rights to 12 off-net holiday movies, including Finding John Christmas, Town Without a Christmas and When Angels Come to Town.
7th Heaven is the first show that will be ready to launch on Hallmark Channel as early as January of 2008 with Cheers having the next window later in 2008 and I Love Lucy in January of 2009. Matlock has been renewed through 2011, with a similar extension for Touched By an Angel.
Now what does this mean for ABC Family still airing 7th Heaven? That fate will be revealed on tomorrow's blog as we announce ABC Family January. Come on back for that...it will include a new show for ABC Family!
As for Cheers and I Love Lucy, Hallmark says it is not an exclusive cable deal, so TV Land could still run it, but Cheers is expiring from TV Land in September 2008 and I Love Lucy expires on TV Land in December 2008, which makes me think TV Land will not renew both series and Hallmark will just air it. That is still awhile away, so we will find out more details soon. I bet Cheers will launch next fall on Hallmark. Anyway, stay tuned for further details! We hope to have the January line-up soon. For now click HERE to view the press release and to discuss this big news!

Finally, a personal favorite of mine, the '80s animated series Dennis the Menace is finally coming to DVD this March! Dennis The Menace: Trouble, Trouble Everywhere debuts on DVD March 18, 2008 from Fox Home Entertainment.
In Dennis The Menace: Trouble, Trouble Everywhere entire nations can't run and hide. If they did, they surely would when lovable troublemaker Dennis Mitchell pays a visit! Like most families, the Mitchells love taking vacations, but wherever they go, young Dennis seems to wind up in the center of numerous hilarious catastrophes. Whether he’s chasing crooks in Venice or kangaroos in Sydney, outrunning Mayans in South America, or bulls in Spain – or even proving that erupting volcanoes in Hawaii wreak less havoc than he does, Dennis is always drawn to find trouble, wherever it is!
I wish it was a full set with full episodes and not just a best of set. I hope this sells well so we can get all of them on DVD in the full form. Episodes on this set are: "Dennis in Venice," "Mayan Mayhem," "The Big Candied Apple," "A Royal Pain," "Dennis and the Kangaroo Cavalry," "Dennis Plasters Pamplona," and "Black and Blue Hawaii."
To read more about this and to discuss this, click HERE!

Samantha Who Picked-Up for Full Season; ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas Schedule

After just three airings, ABC has ordered a full season of at least 22 episodes of the new sitcom hit Samantha Who? starring Christina Applegate, various trades are reporting. So, ABC hasn't released a press release yet, but it is a done deal! This all comes after last night it hit a series high Monday night among adults 18-49 (preliminary 4.9 rating/11 share) and viewers (preliminary 15.4 million), as well as other measurements.
Samantha Who? stars Christina Applegate as a woman who suffers from amnesia after an accident - and is mortified to discover that she used to be a pretty horrible human being. Jennifer Esposito, Kevin Dunn, Melissa McCarthy, Tim Russ, Barry Watson and Jean Smart also star. The show airs Monday at 9:30 PM ET/PT on ABC! Get hooked on it!
Speaking of ABC, tonight they are airing the classic animated special, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown at 8/7 central, pre-empting Cavemen & Carpoolers. The two sitcoms will return next week, but will again be preempted on Nov. 20 and Nov. 27 (as of now) for two more classic Charlie Brown specials. Thanksgiving on Nov. 20 and Christmas on Nov. 27.

ABC Family Channel has announced their annual 25 Days of Christmas line-up to us and as always it is filled with holiday movies, specials, animated classics, holiday sitcom episodes and two original movies! Among the classic specials are Rudolph's Shiny New Year, The Year Without a Santa Claus, and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town. The holiday movies include The Polar Express, The Santa Clause 2, Jingle All the Way, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and the classic A Very Brady Christmas! In addition, ABC Family will host the basic cable premiere of The Incredibles. The two original movies are Holiday in Handcuffs and Snowglobe. Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina, The Teenage Witch) and Mario Lopez (Dancing with the Stars) star in the amusing holiday tale of Holiday in Handcuffs, a story about a modern young woman who has a breakdown at Christmas and desperately kidnaps a handsome guy to take home to her parents. Can she keep her misdeed a secret from her family and convince them that they are a happy couple or will their Christmas be ruined? Snowglobe starring Christina Milian (Love Don’t Cost A Thing) and Lorraine Bracco (The Sopranos). A mystical Snowglobe transports Angela (Milian), who longs for the perfect Christmas away from her boisterous family, into an idyllic Christmas winter wonderland. But, when the two worlds unexpectedly collide, Angela struggles to reconcile the situation and ultimately has to make a choice about what really defines her perfect Christmas. Perfection comes in different kinds of packages! The cast also includes Josh Cooke, Matthew Keeslar and Ron Canada. And The Harry Potter weekend returns with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
In addition in their regular timeslots, you'll see holiday episodes of your favorite ABC Family sitcom reruns like Full House, Family Matters, 8 Simple Rules and more!
Click HERE to see the full line-up and to discuss this annual stunt! You won't want to miss this!

ABC Family October Changes; JustMyShow Interviews M*A*S*H Stars

ABC Family Channel will be making some changes in October, which will be their fall line-up. There are no new shows being added, but America's Funniest Home Videos is returning after a brief break, and will air weeknights at 10pm, shifting Whose Line to weeknights at 12 midnight. So, that means Smallville is gone again. The other notable change is 7th Heaven moving from 8:30am to 4pm...talk about a big move. Some sitcoms will be shifted a bit because of that. An extra Sister, Sister will air now at 8:30am, Step by Step moves to 9am, as Sabrina, the Teenage the Witch takes the 2-3pm slot since it is being moved out of 4-5pm. That is just weekdays.
Let's move on to weekends. Back-to-back Step by Step replaces Sister, Sister from 8-9am, back-to-back Full House replaces Step by Step at 9-10am, and a Sabrina, the the Teenage Witch double shot replaces Full House 10-11am. Hope you're not confused! Other events for the month include a 7th Heaven 12-hour marathon on Oct. 7, 13 Days of Halloween stunts from Oct. 19-31, and more!
I suggest you view this information by clicking HERE!

M*A*S*H is turning 35 next month and our friend Eric from Just My Show is celebrating the big birthday with longtime cast members Mike Farrell (B.J.), William Christopher (Father Francis Mulcahy), and Jamie Farr (Klinger). And as a special guest, they have Todd Susman as well. Todd Susman served as the M*A*S*H PA announcer throughout the 11 year run of the series.
It is his longest podcast yet...over an hour and twenty minutes of M*A*S*H memories! Talk about a big M*A*S*H bash! And that is not all either. Like usual, special bonus clips are available including a 10 question segment with Mike Farrell!
Click HERE to view all this and you'll be happy you did!

ABC Family Makes September Changes, Boy Meets World Dropped; ION Acquires 48 Hours Mystery

We mentioned a few weeks back that ABC Family Channel will not be making any changes in September. Now they are. They will be making some last minute changes. The weekend morning schedule starting September 1 will be changing a bit. Sister, Sister joins the weekend line-up airing Saturdays and Sundays from 8-9am. Step by Step and Full House will thus move up an hour each at 9-10am and 10-11am, replacing Boy Meets World which was at 10-11am on weekends. That's not all the bad news for Boy Meets World fans...it will also be removed from the weekday line-up starting Wednesday, Sept. 5 from its 3-4pm slot, replaced by more Full House. So, August 31 is the last airing as of now. Has the show's contract expired? Maybe, I'm not sure, but it might not be either since it was originally listed in the September schedule. Did ABC Family forget to just remove it and noticed they had it on the schedule? Who knows. I'll see what I can find. Boy Meets World also airs on the Disney Channel, but I'm not sure yet if it will remain in September there either. I'll find out. Anyway click HERE to discuss and read the changes.

ION Television today announced a multi-year acquisition deal with CBS Television Distribution to air the highly rated, hour-long television news program, 48 Hours beginning in the fourth quarter of 2007 airing weeknights.
Hosted by Erin Moriarty, one of the veteran CBS News correspondents, the newsmagazine blends real-life news events with expert storytelling, shedding new light on true-crime cases and examining issues facing everyday Americans. Under terms of the agreement, previously aired installments of 48 Hours will be updated with new graphics and wraps by Ms. Moriarty, who will provide the audience with new findings in ongoing investigations. Ms. Moriarty has been a correspondent for 48 Hours since June 1990 and has a law degree. She previously had been the consumer correspondent for CBS This Morning and the CBS Evening News.
So this show will be added probably in October, I'd say, which will be this fall. Let's hope this means ION expands a bit, at least in the afternoons, say Mon-Thurs 3-6pm, and adds more classic sitcoms that we have been waiting for like Perfect Strangers, Diff'rent Strokes, Silver Spoons and the return of sitcoms like Alice & Growing Pains. We don't want to lose out by adding 48 Hours, which will more than likely be sometime between 6-11pm.

ION Television September and ABC Family September; TVComedyClassics.com Launches

ION Television and ABC Family have announced its September line-ups, and both don't have any schedule changes really. I'm thinking both, or at least ION, will have changes in October, and that will be their fall line-up. Let;s start with ION September. There is one change, but it really isn't a change. They will add the 11PM hour on weekdays and air a show called Firebrand TV starting September 24. As we mentioned during their upfront release, it is a new interactive entertainment and marketing platform that features TV advertising as pop culture. A first-of-its-kind multi-platform experience that gives consumers interactive access to their favorite brands, products and promotions. Firebrand programs only the best TV commercials as a reflection of pop culture in an environment rich with consumer touch points. It will air weeknights at 11PM, except Tuesdays where it will air at 10PM. The popular primetime line-up of Mama's Family, Who's the Boss?, and The Wonder Years will continue on in September. Let's hope in October we get some expanded hours, say 3-6PM being added Mon-Thurs in addition to 6-11PM? If not, let's hope we get some new shows at least, like Perfect Strangers.
RHI on ION Movie Weekend in September includes movies such as Fatal Error with Robert Wagner and Bridge of Time with Susan Dey; mini-series such as the six-hour Larry McMurtry's The Streets of Laredo and four-hour ones such as Ford: Man & His Machine and Degree of Guilt. The 1996 documentary Titanic will also air...not to be confused by the 1997 blockbuster movie.
To discuss and to read more about ION September, click HERE.

As for ABC Family, as I mentioned there will be no schedule changes in September to the regular schedule. However, two of their original series will have season finales, while one will have its season premiere. Kyle XY will have its fall season finale on Labor Day at 8PM, with an all-day marathon before the finale. The series will return in January with 10 additional episodes. Greek will ends its first season a week after on September 10 at 9PM. Meanwhile, the second season of family drama Lincoln Heights will start Tuesday, September 4 for 10 more new episodes. New animated series Slacker Cats will continue on Mondays at 10PM. On Sunday, September 16 ABC Family premieres its new original movie Big Liar on Campus, Ryan Pinkston fibs his way into the school. The movie also stars Kate Mara, Teri Polo, Craig Kilborn, and Carmen Electra.
A to be determined marathon is on Sunday, September 21...all-day. It will probably be a marathon of Ugly Betty or Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, or another ABC series premiereing its new season that week. We will let you know, when confirmed.

FremantleMedia will launch TVComedyClassics.com, a new web portal that will make a selection of comedy programming from its archives available to consumers for download to own or rent. TV series from the UK such as Tommy Cooper Half Hour, The Howerd Confessions, George and Mildred, Love Thy Neighbour and Bless This House, among others, with new content being added regularly. The website will host comedy selections from FME's archives from across the decades, featuring performers like Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howerd, Eric Sykes, Sid James, Penelope Keith and Jim Davidson. The company is currently exploring content opportunities with other independent production companies and is looking to extend the TVComedyClassics brand locally around the world.

If we have more news we will be back.

Another Change of Title for Applegate's Sitcom; ABC Family Schedule Change

We mentioned last week that ABC was changing the name of the new Christine Applegate sitcom coming this fall from Sam I Am to Samantha Be Good because of Dr. Seuss' estate, but it seems Samantha Be Good was just a working title Now ABC has changed it to Samantha Who? according to TVGuide. That is a bit better, but will Seuss' estate come knocking on the door again as "who" is pretty big in Seuss' books, but I doubt they can make them change this.
The sitcom premieres this fall on ABC airing Mondays at 9:30pm right after Dancing with the Stars' performance shows.
In other ABC news, for the next two weeks on Fridays, George Lopez repeats will air from 8-9pm and Kyle XY will air at 9pm, instead of 8pm. Ratings is the reason for the change, as it would make sense for a family sitcom to lead-off the night.

ABC Family has made some minor changes to its line-up that will take in effect on Monday (July 2). New addition Sister, Sister is not doing too well in its 2-3pm slot, so ABC Family will bring back its veteran sitcom Step by Step from 8-9am to 2-3pm. Sister, Sister will be moved to just the weekdays at 8am half-hour and 7th Heaven makes its return to the line-up, airing weekday mornings at 8:30am. Sabrina, the Teenage Witch was airing weekdays at 9am, now they will move it to 4-5pm, its old slot, replacing Full House, which will just be 12-1pm now!
It looks like everything else is doing decent, including the new weekday evening line-up from 6-8pm of 8 Simple Rules and Grounded for Life.

TBS Acquires My Name is Earl for Fall 2009; ABC Family Removes Heaven; The N's New Show

Yesterday we mentioned TBS has acquired reruns of the sitcom The Office, hours later they issued a press release announcing that its NBC neighbor My Name is Earl is also coming to TBS! The show will not be repurposed this fall like The Office, but TBS will get five-days-a-week play for Earl starting in Fall 2009, just like The Office! Also included in the deal are digital rights for broadband streaming and on-demand.
What a day for TBS, announcing two acquisitions in one day. TBS has reportedly paid close to $1 million an episode.
Local channels will also get the show for daily play in fall 2009, but no buys as of yet.
To view the press release and to discuss this news, click HERE.

ABC Family will remove 7th Heaven from the line-up effective this weekend. The show was only airing weekend mornings at 7am & 8am. ABC Family will replace the show with the same thing that airs weekdays from 7-9am...an hour each of the sitcoms Family Matters and Step by Step. Heaven probably wasn't doing that well in the mornings.
No idea if 7th Heaven will return to another slot, but so far it is off the schedule completely after this change.

The N has issued an update for July. The 12-3am marathon for the week of July 2 is...Laguna Beach. Yes, the MTV show. It will launch July 2 from 6pm-6am and air in nightly marathons that week from 12-3am. That is not all, though...it will air weeknights at 8pm & 12am that week and until further notice. Weird. Maybe just for the summer. They should air Growing Pains. Anyway, click here for the highlights.

WABC-7 in NY Wins May Sweeps And Highest Rated Channel in the Nation; ABC Family Adds More 'Heaven' in June

WABC-TV is New York's most watched broadcast station for the twenty-eighth consecutive rating period, delivering a 4.1 rating/11 share in DMA Households, Monday-Sunday sign-on to sign-off in Nielsen's May 2007 sweeps, providing WABC-TV with a huge 52% lead over its nearest competitor. With each rating point representing 73,670 Tri-State area TV households, Channel 7 attracts a larger audience than any other station in the NATION!
WABC won all the local news races, along with the network news race at 6:30pm, and has strong syndicated programming like Live! With Regis & Kelly, Oprah, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! Not to mention the primetime programming such as Grey's Anatomy, Dancing with the Stars and Desperate Housewives.
It just amazes me how strong this channel is and it beats the local competition in everything. WABC won everything except the 7-9am weekday morning show race, with WNBC's Today show winning by 0.4 of a rating over Good Morning America, 4.2 to 3.8. WABC did win last May, 4.5 to 4.1.
For full details, including how the local syndicated airing of the sitcoms like King of Queens on WWOR and Everybody Loves Raymond on WPIX did, click HERE.

And remember last week when we posted the new June line-up for ABC Family Channel? Well family drama 7th Heaven will only be airing Sundays at 7 & 8am we reported...but now ABC Family has also added Saturday mornings at 7 & 8am starting June 16. I guess that is better than nothing. Weekday airings of 6pm will be removed by 8 Simple Rules on June 12.

Fox and The CW Upfront 2007-08: Fall 2007 Schedule; ABC Family Adds 'Sister', '8 Simple Rules'

Your first look at Fox's official line-up!

Fox 2007-08
Fall 2007

Sundays
7:00PM NFL Postgame
8:00PM The Simpsons
8:30PM King of the Hill
9:00PM Family Guy
9:30PM American Dad

Mondays
8:00PM Prison Break
9:00PM K-Ville (NEW!)

Tuesdays
8:00PM New Amsterdam (NEW!)
9:00PM House

Wednesdays
8:00PM Back to You (NEW!)
8:30PM 'Til Death
9:00PM Bones

Thursdays
8:00PM Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
9:00PM Kitchen Nightmares (NEW!)

Fridays
8:00PM The Search for the Next Greatest American Band (NEW!)
9:00PM Nashville (NEW!)

Saturdays
8:00PM Cops
9:00PM America's Most Wanted


January 2008:

Sundays
7:00PM King of the Hill
7:30PM American Dad
8:00PM The Simpsons
8:30PM Family Guy
9:00PM The Sarah Connor Chronicles (NEW!)

Mondays
8:00PM K-Ville (January)/Prison Break (Spring)
9:00PM 24

Tuesdays
8:00PM American Idol
9:00PM House

Wednesdays
8:00PM Back to You
8:30PM The Return of Jezbel James (NEW!)
9:00PM American Idol Results Show
9:30PM 'Til Death

Thursdays
8:00PM Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
9:00PM Canterbury's Law (NEW!)

Fridays
8:00PM Bones
9:00PM New Amsterdam

Saturdays
8:00PM Cops
9:00PM America's Most Wanted

Fox has not yet scheduled a slot for mid-season comedy The Rules for Starting Over.
To recap, Fox will launch two new dramas, one new comedy and three new reality series in the fall. Two new dramas and two new sitcoms will launch in mid-season.

Discuss Fox's 2007-08 line-up here.



Your first look at The CW's official line-up!

The CW 2007-08

Fall 2007

Sundays
7:00PM Online Nation (NEW!)
7:30PM The CW Now (NEW!)
8:00PM Life is Wild (NEW!)
9:00PM Top Model Encore

Mondays
8:00PM Everybody Hates Chris
8:30PM Aliens in America (NEW!)
9:00PM Girlfriends
9:30PM The Game

Tuesdays
8:00PM Beauty and the Geek
9:00PM Reaper (NEW)

Wednesdays
8:00PM America's Next Top Model
9:00PM Gossip Girl (NEW!)

Thursdays
8:00PM Smallville
9:00PM Supernatural

Fridays
8:00PM WWE Smackdown!


Mid-Season:

Coming off the bench in mid-season are returning drama series One Tree Hill and returning reality series Pussycat Dolls Present along with two new reality series Crowned and Farmer Wants a Wife.

Discuss The CW's 2007-08 line-up here.


ABC Family has made changes to its June line-up and will be adding two sitcoms to its afternoon and evening line-up! Joining the line-up at 2 & 2:30 p.m. weekdays starting June 11 will be the Tia & Tamara sitcom Sister, Sister! Also joining the line-up, airing weekdays at 6 & 6:30 p.m. starting June 12 (a movie will air here on June 11 for that night only) will be the John Ritter sitcom 8 Simple Rules! Now because of these changes, ABC Family will edit some other timeslots. Step by Step which was airing 2 & 2:30 p.m. will move to 8 & 8:30 a.m. weekdays. 8 & :30 a.m. was Boy Meets World, now that will move to afternoons at 3 & 3:30 p.m. Full House was 3 & 3:30 p.m., now that will move down to 4 & 4:30 p.m., replacing Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which is now going to be weekdays at 9:00 a.m, replacing America's Funniest Home Videos. Grounded for Life will return to the weekday line-up and air at 7 & 7:30 p.m. 8 Simple Rules and Grounded for Life will replace 7th Heaven and Smallville. Smallville is going to be moving to 12 midnight replacing America's Funniest Home Videos. It will only air Wed-Fri because original encores air in the slot on Monday and Tuesday nights. What about 7th Heaven? It will only air Sunday mornings now at 7 & 8 a.m...ouch.
To view the full schedule, click HERE.

ABC Family Upfront: That '70s Show Coming in 2008, More AFV Episodes Bought; ABC Delays 'Trees' Until 2007-08

ABC Family Channel today outlined their plans for summer and fall of 2007 as well as exciting new online initiatives. Scheduled to debut this summer is the second season of ABC Family’s highest rated original series Kyle XY (Mondays at 8 starting June 11 for 13 episodes), the angel mythology continues when Fallen (August 3, 4 and 5) returns with four new hours, and new series Greek (July for 10 episodes) and the animated series Slacker Cats (August) join the lineup. In addition to the summer series, ABC Family has ordered a fourth season of Wildfire (January 2008 for 13 episodes) and a second season of Lincoln Heights (September for 10 episodes). ABC Family's 10th annual 25 Days of Christmas programming event, will feature over two hundred hours of holiday-themed entertainment for the whole family from December 1- 25. In addition to classic holiday favorites like Rudolph’s Shiny New Year, Frosty’s Winter Wonderland and Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, this year's holiday event will also feature two original movie premieres, Snow Globe (working title) and Holiday in Handcuffs starring Melissa Joan Hart and Mario Lopez, as well as the basic cable premiere of The Incredibles. 25 Days of Christmas will launch with the first ever Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas which adds eleven additional days of holiday programming and a third original holiday movie.
ABC Family has acquired the Tom Bergeron hosted episodes of an American television institution, America’s Funniest Home Videos which premieres this October and has also acquired reruns of the popular comedy That 70’s Show premiering in 2008. Another keystone event for the network is 13 Nights of Halloween which includes a new original movie, Nature of the Beast, a classic story of boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy turns into werewolf, starring Eric Mabius (Ugly Betty) and Eddie Kaye Thomas.

Rookie drama Men in Trees will NOT return now on May 10 and 17 at 10pm. ABC will hold all the remaining episodes (five of them) for next season. Instead ABC has slotted sneak preview of new drama Traveler on Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 10:01PM ET/PT. Traveler will air regularly on Wednesdays at 10 this summer starting May 30.
A Lost Clip Show is scheduled to air on Thursday, May 17, 2007 at 10:04 PM ET/PT immediately following the intense Grey's Anatomy season finale!
The Lost Clip Show is also still scheduled to air on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 from 8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT.