MTV Acquires Grounded for Life; CW Vampire Week, CBS Sunday Timeslot Changes

MTV has quietly acquired the sitcom Grounded for Life. The sitcom started on the cable network yesterday (Nov. 16) and they are airing it weeknights at 7:00pm & 7:30pm and also next day encores in the mornings at 9:00am & 9:30am. The sitcom is about a thirty-something Irish Catholic couple (Sean and Claudia) that deal with their three children as well as Sean's judgmental father and his carefree brother. Donal Logue and Megyn Price star in this 2001-2005 sitcom that aired on Fox and later The WB. On cable, ABC Family has been airing the series on and off since fall 2005, and they will continue to air it weekdays at 4:00pm & 4:30pm even with MTV acquiring the series.
Grounded for Life joins repeats of South Park (from sister network Comedy Central), which recently started airing on MTV at 8:00pm & 8:30pm. MTV also airs TeenNick's Degrassi: The Next Generation weekdays at 10:00am & 10:30am. It seems MTV is going with more scripted stuff rather than music now? Grounded for Life is the first sitcom airing on MTV that is not borrowed from another Viacom-owned network. Scrubs aired this past summer, but that was borrowed from Comedy Central/TV Land. They have been airing movies, too, such as Addams Family, Not Another Teen Movie, Kill Bill Vol. 2, Halloween: Resurrection, Scream 3, Phone Booth, and airing soon will be movies such as Bad Santa, Addams Family Values, Men in Black II & Dawn of the Dead.
Another scripted series is coming soon to MTV and we will let you know very soon! Hint: It is a classic '90s teen drama. And it is not on other Viacom-owned networks. Stay with us for more news!

The CW Network has announced plans for a special Vampire Diaries Marathon starting on Monday, December 14. This week-long event offers fans the opportunity to relive The Vampire Diaries saga from the very beginning and allows the uninitiated the chance to get into one of TV's breakout hits.
Airing two episodes each night from Monday, Dec. 14 through Friday, Dec. 18 (8:00-10:00p.m. ET/PT) beginning with the season premiere episode, The CW will rebroadcast every episode to date of its smash hit The Vampire Diaries in consecutive order across its entire primetime schedule that week. After just 10 episodes, The Vampire Diaries has become The CW's most-watched and highest-rated series among adults 18-34 this season.
And finally, CBS has swapped the timeslots for Sunday dramas Three Rivers and Cold Case. Three Rivers moves from 9pm to 10pm, while Cold Case goes from 10pm to 9pm. Both will be moved to their new timeslots for this coming Sunday (Nov. 22). As of now, it is only for one week, but the following week (Nov. 29), CBS has a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie airing. If the timeslots improve, I'm sure CBS will keep these new timeslots for both series. Both series have had sluggish ratings this season, especially first year drama Three Rivers.

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 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 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.

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.