ION Television December 2009 Highlights; Meet the Browns Heads to Syndication

This December 2009 on ION Television it is time to celebrate the holidays with Christmas movies, including an original movie premiere! There will not be any changes once again to the regular schedule, so you'll know when to find your favorites still like Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer, NCIS and in daytime like Family Feud and Reba.
ION Television's first originally produced television film, the holiday themed A Golden Christmas, is set to make its world premiere on on Sunday, December 13 at 9:00 PM, ET. This two-hour film marks the first of a dozen originally produced made-for-television movies that ION Television is slated to roll out throughout 2010. The movie stars Andrea Roth, Jason London, Nicholas Brendon, Bruce Davison, Elisa Donovan and Alley Mills. The film is produced by MarVista Entertainment; directed by John Murlowski; and written by Jay Cipriani.
The movie is about one summer a long time ago, when a little girl and a little boy were brought together by a very special dog. They played all summer long, it was puppy love. Then the summer ended and they never saw each other again until…years later when her parents (Davison and Mills) retire and decide to sell their house. Jessica (Roth), recently widowed, decides she needs to start over and moves back home with her son. She hopes to buy the old house as a Christmas surprise, however, her plan goes awry when she discovers that her parents have already sold it. What she does not know is that the house has been sold to the very same person that she spent that magical summer with years ago.
Elsewhere on ION December 2009, other movie premieres for this month are theatrical premieres of March of the Penguins and Mission to Mars. Encore airings of films include Batman, Miami Vice, Who's Harry Crumb?, Heat, Eraser, Karate Kid II, and The Medallion. Holiday movies airing are 2008 films Christmas Town and The Christmas Clause, joining ION's original movie The Golden Christmas.
View the full schedule and details on ION Television December 2009.

Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns is heading to broadcast syndication already starting next September (2010) on stations covering 70% of U.S. TV households, including Fox-owned stations in New York, Dallas, Houston and Washington, D.C. In other top ten markets it will air on Weigel (Chicago), Tribune (Philadelphia) or Peachtree (Atlanta) owned stations. Distributor Debmar-Mercury already has Tyler Perry's House of Payne in syndication. Both series air new episodes on TBS on Wednesday nights. Meet the Browns is the top series on TBS this season in the adult 18-49 demo. It debuted on the cable network in May 2009 after a successful ten episode trial run in January. After tonight's episodes, 42 total episodes will have aired with much more to come. About 90 episodes total will be expected to be available by fall 2010.
Debmar-Mercury is poised to launch two more series that will premiere on cable and, if successful, move quickly into first-run syndication like Payne and Browns. The series are Are We There Yet, featuring Ice Cube, for TBS and an untitled project starring Jon Heder that will air on Comedy Central.

Cougar Town Special Marathon on SOAPnet, ION Television November 2009; TV Land Makes Changes to Yesterday's Changes

SOAPnet announced that it will air a four-episode marathon of ABC's hit comedy Cougar Town on Saturday, November 14 from 5:00PM to 7:00PM. The critically acclaimed series airs Wednesdays at 9:30PM ET/PT on ABC. They are doing this to attract even more new viewers to the program. The show has done very well in the ratings, especially in the 18-49 demo. The Cougar Town marathon will include four previous episodes ("Pilot," "Into the Great Wide Open," "Don't Do Me Like That," and "I Won't Back Down") previously broadcast on ABC earlier this season.
Courteney Cox stars as Jules, a recently divorced single mother exploring the honest truths about dating and aging in our beauty and youth obsessed culture. While most women in their twenties go through life experiencing the challenges and often humorous pitfalls of meeting men, Jules took on the responsibilities of marriage and raising a son. Now in her forties, she embarks on a journey to self-discovery whilst surrounded by fellow divorcees and singletons eager to live or re-live a time gone by.
Along for the journey are her friends and family: Laurie (Busy Philipps), the younger, feisty co-worker who encourages her to get out there and have some fun; Ellie (Christa Miller), the sarcastic, unapologetic confidante content with her life and marriage to her average, but loveable husband, Andy (Ian Gomez); ex-husband Bobby (Brian Van Holt), a classic under-achiever who'll test her patience as they attempt to raise their teenage son, Travis (Dan Byrd); and newly divorced neighbor Grayson (Josh Hopkins), who proves to be a catalyst of sorts for Jules.

This November on ION Television, we don't have any schedules changes, as of now, but we have a lot of movie premieres. ION airs movies Fridays in primetime and all-day on Saturday & Sundays (3pm-11pm). Movie premieres for the month are On Deadly Ground, Breach, Heist, Miami Vice, Out for Justice, Waterworld, Demolition Man, and The Rookie. Encore airings include Hunt for Red October, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Last Boy Scout, Batman Forever, Sphere, Pale Rider, Magnum Force, and The Enforcer.
So the regular weekday schedule will remain the same as it is now, with Reba at 4, Family Feud from 5-7p, Ghost Whisperer at 7, and in primetime Ghost Whisperer at 8, followed by various nights and times of NCIS, Criminal Minds, and Durham County.
See the full ION Television November 2009 schedule.

Yesterday we announced some TV Land schedule changes that starts today...and now they have made changes to those changes. Bonanza will still replace Gunsmoke at 3pm, leaving Gunsmoke only at 2pm on weekdays, but now Bonanza will remain in its 4pm and 5pm hours. That means All in the Family (originally scheduled to air 4pm) will now air back-to-back in the 6pm hour replacing Little House on the Prairie, which leaves the weekday schedule now. It will remain Sunday nights (early Monday mornings) from 4-6am. Sanford & Son (originally scheduled to air 5pm) will now get the 7pm hour, replacing Andy Griffith, Hogan's Heroes and Brady Bunch hours. Andy Griffith Show will still be replacing series from 8-10pm weekdays (Fridays it is 8-9pm), as we announced yesterday. However, Cosby Show will replace Andy's Monday block from 10pm-12am. Other little changes include two-hour episodes of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on weekends from 8-10am, Gunsmoke & Bonanza on Sundays are now 10am-3pm, and Andy Griffith is now 3pm-9pm on Sundays. M*A*S*H follows on Sundays from 9pm-11pm, as Roseanne gets an additional hour now on Sundays airing 11pm-2am. Also a personal bummer for me, the Three's Company marathon slated for this Saturday (Oct. 31) from 12:30pm-8pm, will be replaced by Sanford & Son and it gets two more hours, too, airing from 12:30pm-10pm.
See the full changes and the full TV Land schedule now.

Nick at Nite Changes Midnight Hour; Season 2 of Durham County Premieres in January on ION

If you were watching Nick at Nite last night, they made a very last minute change. Every night in the midnight hour is now another hour of The Nanny instead of Malcolm in the Middle. So this means The Nanny is now 11pm-1am. Malcolm in the Middle will remain in the 8pm hour every Sun-Thurs and weekends 1-2am. In other changes, it seems Everybody Hates Chris has gained the Friday 9pm hour from Nickelodeon, so now it airs an extra night in primetime since it already was airing Sun-Thurs in the hour.
For the week of October 19, which is next week, Nick at Nite has listed Glenn Martin, DDS in the 8pm half-hour from Mon-Thurs, so that means Malcolm in the Middle is only 8:30pm. We are not certain yet if this is only for that week or until further notice. So stay with us!

The lesson that "love hurts" is well learned by the characters who inhabit the eerie suburb of Durham County when the original scripted primetime series launches its second season on ION Television in January, 2010. The series, which debuted this fall, returns to the bleak and disturbing landscape of an alienated suburbia with a new star villain – Michelle Forbes, known for her intense portrayals on the hit HBO series True Blood and In Treatment this year.
Produced by Muse Entertainment and Back Alley Films, Durham County unfolds season two in the aftermath of the devastating impact of serial killer Ray Prager (Romano Orzari) on the lives of its characters, anchored by Homicide Detective Mike Sweeney (Hugh Dillon), his now estranged wife Audrey (Hélène Joy) and their traumatized teenage daughter Sadie (Laurence Leboeuf). While the true villain of the first season turned out to be Sweeney's former high school classmate and new neighbor, the evil threat in the second season comes from a woman who develops a close bond with Mike, the brilliant, but deeply troubled forensic psychiatrist Pen Verrity (Michelle Forbes). Rejected by her husband and grieving for a daughter we can't be certain she didn't kill, she sets her sights on having Mike Sweeney - at any cost.
The series just completed its first season of six episodes on ION Television on Monday (Oct. 12), but the ratings for the series dropped a lot from first to the sixth episode, with the lowest episodes doing a 0.2/0 HH rating/share.

Fox Fall Pilot Review - The Cleveland Show - Premieres September 27; ION Adds More Ghost Whisperer

The Cleveland Show - Sundays 8:30PM ET/PT on Fox
Premieres Sunday, September 27, 2009 at 8:30PM ET/PT

Rather than attempt to explain the premise of The Cleveland Show myself, I thought I would let the words of the show's main voice actor, Mike Henry (voice of Cleveland), explain it.

"Cleveland has kind of had enough in Quahog - he kind of realizes that he wants his own friends, his own sidekicks, his own stories. So he sets out to California to make it in a way that we'll have to keep a secret until the show starts, and then he ends up somewhere else, which we'll also keep a secret until the show starts. But he basically goes home – he goes to his hometown in Virginia and rekindles an old high school flame."

The above explains this show far better than I could. I'll go ahead and warn you, though, that if you're one of the people who detests both of Seth MacFarlane's comedies (Family Guy, American Dad), you can stop reading *now* as, though the show generally has a cohesive pilot (that, as a bonus, usually makes sense) it is still very clearly a Seth MacFarlane show.


Cast Details:

A word of caution here: Because of the animated nature of this show, none of the cast will be physically present in any episodes, and many characters may rotate in-and-out based upon the needs of the episode. Also, as is common in animation, one voice actor may provide the voice for multiple characters.

* Mike Henry as Cleveland, Rollo
* Sanaa Lathan as Donna
* Reagan Gomez-Preston as Roberta
* Kevin Michael Richardson as Cleveland Jr., Lester the Redneck
* Seth MacFarlane as Tim the Bear, English Father

Mike Henry (Cleveland, Rollo) performed stand-up and improv and acted in commercials for several years before meeting Seth MacFarlane in 1995. Henry was a writer and producer on Family Guy for the series' first six seasons. He voices many of the characters he created, including "Cleveland," "Cleveland Jr.," "Herbert," "The Performance Artist," "Consuela" and "The Greased-Up Deaf Guy." His additional acting credits include Scrubs, Gilmore Girls, Yes, Dear, American Dad! and Robot Chicken. Henry and his brother are the creators of the internet-based series Kicked in the Nuts.

Sanaa Lathan (Donna) was recently seen in Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys alongside Perry, Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodard. In 2004, Lathan earned a Tony Award nomination for her performance in the revival of the Broadway classic, A Raisin in the Sun. She later reprised her critically acclaimed role as "Beneatha Younger" in the television adaptation of the play alongside Sean Combs. Lathan's most recent credits include her NAACP Image Award-nominated roles in Something New and Nip/Tuck. She previously starred in Out of Time, Alien vs. Predator, Brown Sugar, Love and Basketball and The Best Man.

Reagan Gomez-Preston (Roberta) and her mother, at age 14, made a trip to Los Angeles with Dateline documenting their journey for an episode about young actors. Within a few of weeks of landing in Los Angeles, she had booked the remake of Freaky Friday with Shelley Long. Shortly after, Gomez-Preston landed a starring role on the Robert Townsend series The Parent Hood, and with his guidance and support, she co-wrote one of the series' most-watched episodes on teen rape. Her other TV acting credits include Love, Inc., Carmen: A Hip Hopera, ER, That '70s Show, JAG and One on One. Her feature film credits lead roles in Never Die Alone opposite DMX, Love Don't Cost a Thing and Beauty Shop with Queen Latifah. Gomez's additional film credits include the independent films Doing Hard Time and Trois 3: The Escort.

Kevin Michael Richardson (Cleveland Jr., Lester the Redneck) is no stranger to animation. He has voiced hundreds of characters for films, commercials and video games, including Family Guy and American Dad! Richardson was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for his work as The Joker on the animated series The Batman. He has also voiced characters on The Boondocks, The PJs and The Penguins of Madagascar. His feature film roles include Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Matrix III and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Richardson starred in the television series The Knights of Prosperity and recently appeared in the drama series The Cleaner.

Recurring Cast Members include Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy, American Dad!) as Tim the Bear, English Father, Jason Sudeikis (Saturday Night Live), and Arianna Huffington (author & columnist).


Pilot Plot:

Episode #1: "Pilot" (Airs September 27, 2009)

After Peter (Peter Griffin, from Family Guy) destroys his house one too many times, Cleveland has had enough and decides to move to California with his son Cleveland Jr. Along the way, Cleveland decides to stop in his old hometown of Stoolbend, VA where he meets an old high school love interest and hits it off.


Analysis:

Here's the thing about this: As a self-contained episode, this program was OK. The episode feels something that would be consistent in tone and quality from the early years of Family Guy, before the show got consumed with cutaway gags and time-filling jokes that run on for too long. It really does harken back to a time before Family Guy lost its way.

On paper, I should really like this show. But there's this nagging feeling I keep having when watching. Perhaps it's because they took the 2nd least interesting character from Family Guy (really, is there any character less interesting than Meg?) and gave HIM his own show. This, at least in the first cut of the pilot, is even referenced in a line by Stewie before Cleveland & son drive off into the sunset, with Stewie remarking in shock that it's *Cleveland* getting his own show?

Also, a note: The first quarter of the episode – the expositional cold open - at least in the version I viewed, *is* set-up as seemingly your usual Family Guy adventure. It has the same musical transition, your usual Family Guy characters (Quagmire, Joe, Peter, Stewie, Brian, et al.), and doesn't become The Cleveland Show until the main theme hits a few minutes in. You'll know when the transition occurs as the show suddenly shifts from full-frame to widescreen in a nice effect.

Pilots often aren't the strongest episodes of a series, and do tend to get better. This episode left me neutral, so there IS room to grow from here.


Conclusion:

I was a huge fan of the show that Cleveland Show is replacing. I absolutely adored King of the Hill, and it's the second show cancelled largely due to Fox's own ineptitude (the list would have been three had they not backpedaled on Family Guy itself). When Fox wants a show to die, it schedules it in the 7-8 PM hour on Sunday nights. They did this to Futurama and they did it to King of the Hill. King of the Hill was one of the best animated comedies I've ever seen, and I can say there WILL be a contingent of viewers who, missing King of the Hill and wary of Seth MacFarlane's growing stranglehold of Fox, will be unusually cool to The Cleveland Show due to its origin and timeslot alone.

But, there's a lot of potential here, and it'll be interesting to see in which direction things go. The Cleveland Show is a nice detour from the madness that is your average episode of Family Guy, but I've yet to see evidence of how they're going to sustain this show beyond a few episodes. Yes, there are new characters to play off of. But you can't really get away with simply making the show a clone of Family Guy (nor American Dad!), and I'm not sure if Cleveland is an interesting or dynamic enough character to be the focal point of a weekly television series. Of course, they've turned simple background characters into stars of popular spin-offs before - that's the genesis of half of 1970s television right there! Still, I'm neutral at best about the ability of this show to be interesting, good, or funny long term. Consider me "cautiously optimistic."


Final Numbers (out of 5 stars):

Funniness: 4/5
Watchability: 4/5
Overall: 4/5

-- Reviewed by Seth on 09/25/09

Discuss the show after you watch it on Sunday, September 27 on our message board.

Related Links:

Fox.com Official Site

TV.com

epguides.com

Internet Movie Database

Wikipedia

The Cleveland Show Photo Gallery

Preview:





ION Television will be adding another hour of Ghost Whisperer starting Monday, Oct. 5. Ghost Whisperer currently airs Mon-Thurs at 8pm and also Wednesdays at 9pm. The series has done so-so in the ratings and is not doing as well as Criminal Minds or NCIS. But still they will add another airing on Mon-Thurs. The new airing will be Mon-Thurs at 7pm, so it will now air back-to-back on Mon-Thurs from 7-9pm, and yes Wednesdays it will be a triple shot from 7-10pm. Ghost Whisperer at 7pm will be replacing Reba, which will move to 4-5pm, as we mentioned. So Reba won't get to air for two hours after all.
Anyway, as for Ghost Whisperer, if this doesn't help its ratings, I can see ION removing the 8pm hour and airing something else.
View our full ION Television October 2009 schedule.

ION Television October 2009, More Programming Hours; Remembering Henry Gibson

This October 2009 on ION Television will see a few schedule changes. First, ION Television will add the 11pm hour every weekday. Currently, ION only has the 11pm hour on Mondays with Durham County's instant encore, but starting Tuesday, Sept. 29, Tues-Fri at 11pm will be Criminal Minds. It will replace Paid Programming. So we gain an hour on weekdays! Starting Monday, Oct. 5, M*A*S*H will leave the line-up, as we get another hour of Reba from 4-5pm. Reba will continue to air 7-8pm as well.
Moving on to weekends starting in October, ION will be adding 3 more hours to both days! Yes, that means the start time goes from 6pm to 3pm on Saturdays and Sundays! Movies will rule on weekends but there are times when there will be a filler in the 3pm half-hour or 3pm hour even. Right now the filler is TBD, but I'd expect maybe Reba or something to fill in.
ION will have many movie premieres this October, as movies airs Fri-Sun. The premieres are The Rainmaker, The Medallion, The Departed, The Perfect Storm, Wild Wild West, The Return, On Deadly Ground, and Breach. Among the encore airings are Heat, A Bronx Tale, Inside Man, Above the Law, The Specialist, Hard to Kill, The Break-Up, Patriot Games, and more. If you say you missed Heat, then you are crazy since ION is airing it so many times. No excuse for missing that 1995 movie!
View the full ION Television October 2009 schedule.

Henry Gibson, a wry comic character actor whose career included Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Nashville and Boston Legal, died Monday at his home in Malibu after a brief battle with cancer.
Gibson's breakthrough came in 1968 when he was cast as a member of the original ensemble of NBC's top-rated Laugh-In, on which he performed for three seasons. Each week, a giant flower in his hand, he recited a signature poem, introducing them with the catch phrase that became his signature: "A Poem, by Henry Gibson."
After Laugh-In, he played the evil Dr. Verringer in The Long Goodbye (1973), the first of four films in which he appeared for director Robert Altman. Their second collaboration came in Nashville (1975), in which Gibson earned a Golden Globe nomination and a National Society of Film Critics supporting-actor award for his performance as unctuous country singer Haven Hamilton. He also wrote his character's songs.
In television, Gibson's recent work included a five-season stint as cantankerous Judge Clarence Brown on ABC's Boston Legal and providing the voice for sardonic, eye-patched newspaperman Bob Jenkins on Fox's animated series King of the Hill.
His previous TV work include appearances on The Joey Bishop Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, My Favorite Martian, The Dick Van Dyke Show, F-Troop, Bewitched, Love American Style, Fantasy Island, The Dukes of Hazzard, Smurfs, Magnum P.I., Simon & Simon, The Love Boat, The Fall Guy, Knight Rider, Newhart, Evening Shade, MacGyver, Sisters, Coach, The John Larroquette Show, Maggie Winters, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Early Edition, Charmed, Becker, Malcolm in the Middle, and the short-lived Cracking Up.
Gibson was a true character actor and will be missed. He was 73.

Jamie Foxx Show Returns to BET; Premiere Ratings for ION's Durham County and Criminal Minds

The Jamie Foxx Show last aired on BET in March 2008...and now it will return! Effective Monday, September 28, 2009, Jamie Foxx Show returns to BET's daytime line-up. The sitcom will air 9-11am and 3-4pm starting Sept. 28. We are not sure yet if the morning airings will be every week or just that week, as we only have the schedule through this month. Also, finally joining the weekday schedule is Everybody Hates Chris. Currently it is only airing on weekends, but that will change starting Sept. 28 when Chris will air weekdays 12-1pm and 5-6pm. This means The Game will move to 11am-12pm and 4-5pm. Chris will still air on weekends as well (Saturdays 2-3pm and Sundays approx. 12-1pm).
The additions of Jamie Foxx and Everybody Hates Chris has removed Sister Sister, One on One and Smart Guy from the weekday line-up. However, Smart Guy will still air Saturdays 11am-12pm following a block of Proud Family from 9-11am. The Game airs Saturdays 12-2pm leading into Chris.
As of now it seems Sister Sister and One on One are off the line-up totally. Sister Sister launched on BET this summer in July, while One on One has been airing since last October. Stay with us for more on if these shows will return, as we haven't seen the October schedule yet. Maybe they are just benched like Steve Harvey Show?

ION Television launched their new series Durham County on Monday at 10pm and it did an OK 0.5/1 HH rating/share following the ION premiere of new acquisition Criminal Minds, which did a better 0.8/1 HH rating/share (we don't have total viewer numbers). However, Durham County's pilot did re-air at 11pm immediately following the premiere airing, and the pilot is encoring all this week at 11pm...so will that help next Monday? We'll have to see. Ratings for Tuesday and last night are not available yet for primetime, so we'll have to wait and see if Criminal Minds and Ghost Whisperer is helping ION every weekday. Tonight NCIS returns to the schedule after having like six weeks off.
And stay tuned for ION October 2009 schedule...there will be a few days with time expansions. We'll announce that soon!

ION Television Removes Weekday Boston Legal; Timeslots for Ghost Whisperer on WE tv and Syfy

Today on the fall schedule barrage we have a minor edit to tell you about. We released the ION Television Fall 2009 line-up, which starts Sept. 7, but now ION has made a minor change. Weekdays in the 5pm hour will be now another hour of Family Feud replacing Boston Legal. Boston Legal will still air in the fall on Wednesdays at 9pm. Family Feud will now air for two-hours in a row from 5-7pm. This change will actually start next week (Monday, Aug. 24).

ION Television will be airing Ghost Whisperer Mon-Thurs at 8pm as we mentioned, but now we can give you the timeslots for the show on cable on WE tv and Syfy. WE tv will the show weeknights at 7pm ET starting Monday, Sept. 7. WE tv won't be making any other changes in September, so that means series like Hope & Faith, Dharma & Greg, Girlfriends, and The Golden Girls will remain in their current timeslots.
Syfy will air Ghost Whisperer on Monday nights from 7pm-11pm also starting Monday, Sept. 7. A marathon of Ghost Hunters will be its lead-in on Sept. 7 (8am-7pm). The rest of the regular schedule will remain intact in September as well, with the daily daytime rotation marathon from 8am-4pm, Star Trek Enterprise at 4pm, Stargate Atlantis at 5pm, Stargate SG-1 at 6pm, Lost at 1am, and X-Files at 2am. Various programming airs from 7pm-1am each night with originals, blocks, and movies. Among highlights, 31 Days of Halloween begins October 1 on Syfy. So lots of marathons such as Friday the 13th: The Series and movies are planned and will preempt the schedule until 7pm each night.

The N Adds Full House; ION Gets More Blockbuster Theatrical Films

The N is adding Full House to their schedule this fall! Starting Monday, August 31, The N will add Full House to its primetime line-up. Full House has been sitting in the Viacom vaults since April of this year, when it aired on sister network Nick at Nite. It was last seen at 6am. Full House will be replacing The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air by airing weeknights from 8pm-12am ET/PT. Fresh Prince's contract is expiring from Viacom, so both Nick at Nite and The N will be removing it at the end of this month. Fresh Prince will now air on Disney-owned ABC Family (as we mentioned twice already) and Disney XD (I'll have more on XD soon) in the evening, while TBS still has the daytime rights. Full House will also still be shared, with The N having the evening rights and ABC Family continuing to have the daytime rights.
We can't release The N schedule for September just yet. They will be renaming to TeenNick starting Sept. 28. Will we see more schedule changes? Stay tuned. But for now the only change in early September is the addition of Full House. I doubt it will continue to air 8pm-12am weeknights, so stay with us for more on this.

ION Television has acquired over 40 new A-list feature film titles through multiple theatrical film deals with NBC Universal Domestic Distribution (NBCU) and Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution (WBDTD). The newly acquired titles will begin airing later this month and will continue to roll out on ION Television's schedule throughout the fall and into 2010.
The package from NBCU includes over one dozen hit movies including The Break Up, starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn debuting on Sept. 1; Miami Vice, starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James. Other titles in the package include the Back to the Future trilogy, Inside Man and The Hitcher.
The network has also expanded on its existing agreement with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, bringing its current library to over 100 high profile Warner Bros. films in the ION library. The 30-plus additional films in the new package include the Academy Award® -winning documentary March of the Penguins, the award-winning Troy, starring Brad Pitt, and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, also starring Brad Pitt, Oscar® nominee Casey Affleck and Mary-Louise Parker. Additional titles include The Matrix Revolutions, The Matrix Reloaded, GoodFellas, Ladder 49, City by the Sea and Taking Lives.

Boomerang Fall 2009 Schedule; ION's Durham County

Today's Fall 2009 schedule is...Boomerang! The classic animated series network from Turner Broadcasting. Boomerang airs classic series such as The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo Where Are You?, Tom & Jerry, Pink Panther, Smurfs, and so much more. I just wish I had this network! They will be adding so many series on their fall schedule, which begins Monday, August 31.
The series joining or returning to the schedule are Valley of the Dinosaurs, Gerald McBoing Boing, Krypto the Superdog, Super Globetrotters, Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch, Boomerang Zoo, The Adventures of Gulliver, MGM Cartoons, Secret Squirrel, Those Meddling Kids (Josie & the Pussycats, Speed Buggy, Jabber Jaw), Pebbles & Bamm Bamm, 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, Scooby-Doo Where Are You?, and The Flintstones Comedy Show.
Unfortunately a few series have to leave as a result. Pound Puppies, Dynomutt, Fantastic Max, Hong Kong Phooey, The Jetsons (80s), Huckleberry Hound, Atom Ant, Thundarr, Centurions, SWAT Kats, and 2 Stupid Dogs will be leaving the schedule.
Among the highlights for September is a Scooby-Doo Labor Day Weekend marathon with Scooby-Doo Where Are You? on Saturday, Sept. 5 from 2-9pm and The New Scooby-Doo Movies on Sunday, Sept. 6. from 2-9pm. Boomerang Theater (Mon-Wed) movies for the month include Popeye the Sailor Meets Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp, I Yabba Dabba Do, and The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones.
View the full Boomerang Fall 2009 schedule. Special thanks to ToonZone.net and NickandMore.com for posting this. That's one schedule I didn't have to post myself at least!

We announced ION Television's September 2009 line-up a few weeks back. It included the premiere of original drama Durham County. It will air Mondays at 10PM starting Monday, Sept. 7 with an immediate encore at 11PM, as we stated already. Now ION has announced they will encore the first episode four more times! They will encore the first episodes all that week at 11PM instead of airing paid programming. So you have six chances to watch the premiere episode --during the premiere at 10PM on Sept. 7 or during the five 11PM encores that week (Sept. 7-11) at 11PM. After the premiere week, only the Monday 11PM encore will remain.
Also, ION has launched a multi-tiered, interactive experience website, durhamcountysecrets.com, that introduces users to the show and its cast. Clips, sound bites and photos provide a sneak peek inside the neighborhood where no secret stays buried forever. In addition, users can upload their own secrets, view secrets from others and send them to a friend. Twitter (www.twitter.com/Durham_County) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Durham-Cunty/117054392149) sites are also created so users can discover hidden and locked clips that require a code in order to view.
The award-winning Durham County follows the troubled world of Homicide Detective Mike Sweeney (Hugh Dillon). Sweeney becomes personally involved in a murder investigation after moving his family to quiet suburbia for a fresh start when his partner is killed and his wife Audrey (Hélène Joy) is diagnosed with breast cancer. Produced by Muse Entertainment and Back Alley Films, the series has received 13 Gemini Award Nominations and five wins.

ION Television Fall 2009 Schedule; Summer 2009 TCA Tour: CBS; 2009 TCA Awards Winners

ION Television has officially announced their full Fall 2009 schedule. We gave you a preview of what was to come a week or so ago, but now we have the full schedule! The changes will be all made in primetime. The 4pm-8pm schedule will remain the same, so we still have M*A*S*H, Boston Legal, Family Feud and Reba airing every weekday. As we mentioned, Ghost Whisperer goes from Mondays at 8pm to Mon-Thurs at 8pm starting Sept. 7. Criminal Minds joins the schedule and will air Mondays at 9pm, Tuesdays 9pm & 10pm, Wednesdays at 10pm, and Fridays at 10pm...that's five airings a week! New original series Durham County will air Mondays at 10pm and will have an instant encore at 11pm on Mondays as well. So, the 11pm hour on Mondays will not be paid programming anymore! Returning to the schedule after having August off is NCIS airing Thursdays at 9pm and 10pm, replacing Total Theatre Thursday. Boston Legal, which will still air in the daytime schedule, will now only be Wednesdays at 9pm in primetime. The ION Monday & Wednesday movie will be replaced, just like Thursday. ION Movies are now weekends only airing Fridays through Sundays. As far as weekends, the movies continue but instead of M*A*S*H leading into the movies at times, it will now be Reba.
ION Movie premieres for September 2009 are big hits! The Break-Up, Outbreak, A Bronx Tale, Inside Man, and Patriot Games are the premieres. Encores for the month are Matrix Reloaded, The Specialist, The Enforcer, The Gauntlet, and Magnum Force.
View the full ION Television September 2009 schedule and highlights.

CBS is the first broadcast network up at the summer 2009 TCA press tour. It gets underway at 9am PT with the Executive Session. Schedule after that has panels for The Goode Wife & The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, a research presentation on the latest findings about the relationship between TV and the Internet, then lunch time with gourmet lunch packages, a special press conference, panels for Accidentally on Purpose, The Doctors, Medium, and the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards. The Stars Party closes things out in the evening with stars of CBS, The CW, Showtime and CBS Television Distribution. Stay with us all day for news here as it happens!
Let's Make a Deal, a new take on the classic game show where audience members dress in outlandish costumes to win cash and prizes by making deals with the host, will premiere Monday, October 5, (check local listings) on the CBS Television Network. Emmy Award-winner Wayne Brady will host the new daytime series produced by FremantleMedia North America. When it joins the CBS Television Network daytime schedule, it will be replacing Guiding Light. Guiding Light will have its last telecast on Friday, September 18, 2009. Programming for this time period from September 21-October 2 will be announced shortly, but starting Oct. 5, it will be Let's Make a Deal.
The original series was a television game show staple during the 1960's and 70's when it was hosted by Monty Hall from 1963-1977. While later versions aired in syndication and primetime, the game show is best remembered for the years hosted by Hall, who will serve as a creative consultant on this latest version.
Up tomorrow at the press tour will be The CW and Showtime! NBC will be Wednesday, Fox on Thursday, FX on Friday, and ABC closes it out on Satuday.

The Television Critics Association marked the 25th anniversary of its awards on Saturday night (Aug. 1) with a ceremony looking back at the history of the organization and its tradition of honoring quality television programs.
HBO led all the networks with three trophies at the Television Critics Association Awards, winning for Outstanding New Program of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Mini-Series & Specials and Outstanding Achievement in News & Information. Sitcom The Big Bang Theory won Outstanding Achievement in Comedy. Its star, Jim Parsons, received the Outstanding Individual Achievement in Comedy award. Full winners:

PROGRAM OF THE YEAR: Battlestar Galactica (Syfy)
OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM: True Blood (HBO)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: Mad Men (AMC)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NEWS & INFORMATION: The Alzheimer's Project (HBO)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMING: Yo Gabba Gabba (Nickelodeon)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MOVIES, MINI-SERIES & SPECIALS: Grey Gardens (HBO)
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad (AMC)
HERITAGE AWARD: ER (NBC)
CAREER ACHIEVEMENT: Betty White

Lifetime Fall 2009 Schedule; Nick at Nite, Spike TV, ION Changes Starting Today

Welcome to our annual look at the Fall 2009 schedules for cable networks! We launch our fall schedule barrage with Lifetime's Fall 2009 schedule! Their schedule will launch on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009 with a totally different weekday line-up! In the 8am hour now will be Less than Perfect and Will & Grace, replacing an hour of Still Standing, which is now totally gone. In the 9am hour we now have Frasier replacing an hour of Less than Perfect. Reba moves to 10am-12pm replacing an hour each of Frasier and Will & Grace. Wife Swap block now moves to 12-3pm instead of 2-6pm, replacing Desperate Housewives. Housewives moves from 12-2pm to 3-5pm leading into the two new additions to weekdays--Grey's Anatomy and Medium! Grey's Anatomy will air weeknights at 5pm & 6pm and late nights at 1:30am. It will also have a weekly airing on Mondays at 11pm. Medium will air weeknights at 7pm & 8pm and will also air in primetime on Tuesdays at 9pm and 10pm. Late nights will still have Will & Grace at 11pm-12am & 1am on most nights and Frasier in the 12am hour on most nights.
Original series wise, Lifetime will continue to air new episodes of Drop Dead Diva and Army Wives on Sundays starting at 9pm with many encores following and during the week and on Thursdays we have Project Runway and Models of the Runway starting at 10pm with also many encores following. The Sunday dramas will last into October, while the Thursday reality will last into November. Coming in October to Mondays will be original sitcoms Rita Rocks for a second season and the new original sitcom Sherri. They premiere Monday, Oct. 5 and we will have more on those soon.
How I Met Your Mother is moving from Mondays 7-8pm to Saturdays 1-2am. Looks like it didn't do well in the ratings? Sitcoms Still Standing and Cybill will totally be off the line-up.
View the full Lifetime Fall 2009 schedule. And stay with us for the next few weeks each weekday for more fall schedules! TCA tour is also on the horizon! Busy, busy time of year!

We have many schedule changes beginning today. First off, Nick at Nite will edit their schedule a bit. Starting tonight, Mon-Thurs, The Nanny will now air in a three-hour block from 11pm-2am. The 12am hour replaces Malcolm in the Middle and the 1am hour replaces Family Matters, which shifts over to 2am, replacing The Nanny. So now Mon-Thurs have three big marathon blocks of George Lopez from 9-11pm, The Nanny 11pm-2am, and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from 3am-6am. The only non-marathon block is Malcolm in the Middle from 8-9pm and Family Matters 2-3am. Wouldn't it be better if Family Matters was 1-3am and The Nanny just 11p-1a?
On Fridays, The Nanny will also take over the 12am hour replacing Malcolm in the Middle, so Malcolm will now not air on Friday nights at all. On Saturdays though, it will air in the 10pm hour and 12am hour, in between The Nanny at 11. On Sundays Malcolm will remain at 12am.
View the full schedule starting tonight (Monday, July 27, 2009). And stay tuned for Nick at Nite's August 2009 highlights still. They still haven't fully announced it.

Next up we have minor changes for Spike TV and ION Television. Well Spike TV is not that minor, but we only care about Married...with Children. Spike is removing that from the weekday line-up, and replacing it with all day CSI and CSI NY marathons. This week it is all CSI from 9am-8pm from Mon-Thurs and Spike's Most Amazing Videos on Friday. CSI NY is mixed in next week from 9-11am Mon-Thurs. Married...with Children will still air Sundays 9am-10:30am and at times 1-2am. When will it return to weekdays? We are not sure yet. It could even move back to TV Land? We'll certainly let you know first, so stay with us!
Finally, the last major change starting tonight is for ION Television. They are removing NCIS and replacing it with movies starting tonight. NCIS was airing Monday nights back-to-back from 9-11pm. It is unclear why they are removing NCIS because it was their highest rated program by far. Maybe they are saving it for September when they can air it more? We're not certain, but we'll let you know if it is returning when we announce their full fall line-up. We hinted at their fall line-up on Friday. For now, view the movies airing Monday nights and more in their updated August 2009 schedule. Monday movie premieres include Matrix Revolutions and Matrix Reloaded.

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!

ION Television August 2009 Highlights; Comedy Central Orders Original Sitcom

This August on ION Television, there will be no regular changes, so August 2009 will look the same as July 2009 in terms of the regular schedule. So for weekdays starting at 4pm we have M*A*S*H, Boston Legal, Family Feud, and Reba leading into primetime with Ghost Whisperer and NCIS on Mondays, Boston Legal on Tuesdays, and movies the rest of the week.
The movie premieres for August on ION are Dave, Cocktail, Hard to Kill, Blazing Saddles, End of Days, Suspect, Matrix Revolutions, Wyatt Earp, The Specialist, and four movies in the Clint Eastwood Weekend on August 29 and 30: The Gauntlet, Magnum Force, Dead Pool and The Enforcer.
Encores movies airings are Unlawful Entry, Batman, Soldier, Double Impact, Tango & Cash and Assassins. It looks like the full M*A*S*H Sunday airings are preempted this month for movies in primetime, but we still do get M*A*S*H in the early part of the evening usually.
View the complete ION Television August 2009 Highlights.

Employing the same unique formula used for the launch of Tyler Perry's two successful sitcoms, Debmar-Mercury, the television distribution and syndication arm of Lionsgate, announced that Comedy Central has ordered an initial run of 10 episodes of a new, untitled sitcom starring Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite, Blades of Glory) from Gary Sanchez Productions and Debmar-Mercury.
The production company led by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy, and distributed by Debmar-Mercury, the untitled, multi-camera sitcom for Comedy Central will star Heder as an out of work computer IT specialist who leaves the big city and returns to his small home town, where he moves back in with his parents and younger brother. Ferrell, McKay and Henchy will write and produce the series.
They have initially ordered 10 episodes of the Heder sitcom and will then have the option to order an additional 90 episodes upon a successful first-season run. Debmar-Mercury would retain the rights to take the series into syndication after its run on Comedy Central.

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

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

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

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

ION Television July 2009; RTN Coming to New York City, Announces More Shows

ION Television has announced its July line-up. But before we relay that to you, the change they were making we told you about starting June 8, is now NOT happening. This means Family Feud will stay in the 6pm hour and Reba will remain in the 7pm hour. Previously they were going to be switched, but they changed their mind.
Now back to July. Effective Monday, June 29, the 4-6pm weekday hours are changed. Previously we mentioned ER would return weekdays at 5pm starting June 29, with M*A*S*H moving to the 4pm hour. Now that is not happening either. Boston Legal will be airing weekdays at 5pm now! And Boston Legal will remain Tuesdays in primetime from 8-11pm as well. M*A*S*H will however still move to the 4pm hour as previously announced. Everything else will remain the same.
Movie premieres for July are Revenge, Uncle Buck, Wildcats, Batman Returns, Mother Knows Best, Terror in the Family, Passenger 57, and Training Day. Movies encores for July are Assassins, Pacific Heights, True Crime, Best Friends, Falling Down, Lethal Weapon 2, and Just Cause. Movies on Friday, July 3 and Saturday, July 4 are still TBD, so stay tuned!
View the full ION Television July 2009 schedule and highlights.

Retro TV is FINALLY coming to the Big Apple! Yes, RTN is coming to the New York market. Retro Television announced today that is has entered into an agreement with Multicultural Broadcasting's WSAH to begin airing RTN starting Wednesday, July 1 in New York. RTN will air on the primary channel of WSAH-TV and will be available to cable, satellite and over the air viewers immediately. WSAH is actually based in Bridgeport, CT, though. So, there will be areas in the NY/NJ market that don't get this station on cable.
The new WSAH will air RTN 24/7 with great shows like Quincy, Dragnet, Alfred Hitchcock, Emergency! and many more. According to RTN's Neal Ardman "WSAH brings millions of cable and satellite viewers to the RTN family and we are beyond excited to launch our custom feed this July. We now New Yorkers will be thrilled with the Prime time all the Time lineup of RTN."
Sean Kim, COO of Multicultural Broadcasting said, "We are very excited to continue our relationship with Retro and looking forward to providing New York viewers with best programming from the '60s, '70s and '80s."
RTN is currently in or under contract in 75% of the US with its unique format of providing custom feeds to most markets.

RTN has also picked-up the rights to air 7 more shows, in addition to the Universal-owned shows they air. All 7 series are from independent production companies. The shows they have picked-up are:
I Spy - starring Bill Cosby and Robert Culp (1965-68, 82 episodes)
The Rifleman - starring Chuck Connors (1958-63, 168 episodes)
The Cisco Kid - Starring Duncan Renaldo (1950-56, 156 episodes)
Daniel Boone - Starring Fess Parker (1964-70, 165 episodes)
Peter Gunn - Starring Craig Stevens (1958-61, 114 episodes)
The Adventures of Robin Hood - Starring Richard Greene (1955-60, 143 episodes)
Black Beauty - Starring Black Beauty (104 episodes)
These series will launch on RTN this July across the nation.

ION Switches Reba and Feud; ABC Summer Sitcom Changes; Remembering Michael Ross

We gave you details on ION Television's June 2009 line-up already with the addition of Ghost Whisperer to the Monday night line-up starting June 1, but now they have made a switcharoo on weekdays that will start June 8. Reba will now move to weeknights in the 6pm hour, as Family Feud now switches to the 7pm hour. The switch was made due to Reba's poor ratings and also because Lifetime airs the series at the same time. Now ION will air the sitcom in the 6pm hour, an hour before Lifetime starts their 7-9pm weeknight block of Reba. Family Feud will air on most nights in the 7pm hour on weeknights, especially Mondays and Tuesday, but the other nights on weeknights you can see a movie start earlier.
View the full updated ION Television June 2009 line-up. We will have more on ION next week with their July line-up. We mentioned before ER would return to weekdays starting June 29, but now we hear that is not happening. What will happen? Come on back next week and see!

We have lots of ABC sitcom news for the summer for you today. First off, we have some breaking news. Just premiered animated comedy The Goode Family will air an additional episode at 9:30pm this coming Wednesday (June 3) instead of a new episode of Surviving Suburbia. The Goode Family will also air in its regular 9:00pm Wednesday time slot on this date as well. Why? Ratings. Suburbia did terrible and was pulled right away, but The Goode Family didn't do that hot either losing a lot from the big lead-in from Wipeout, but ABC is giving it more of a chance. If this change does better, expect ABC to double-pump The Goode Family until further notice to perhaps complete more of its 13 episode-run. Originally only 6 were slated to air.
We previously reported that the three remaining episodes of In the Motherhood would air Fridays at 9:30pm starting June 5. Now that isn't happening. ABC will double-pump repeats of Samantha Who? for three weeks in the Friday 9pm hour on June 5, 12 and 19 now instead. Then Samantha Who? will move to Thursdays at 8pm starting June 25, with new episodes (it has 7 episodes left to air). In the Motherhood will air its three remaining episodes at 8:30pm on Thursdays on June 25, July 2 & 9. It is unclear what will air in the 8:30pm slot thereafter, but it will likely be more Samantha Who? ABC has not announced what will air Thursdays 9-11pm yet starting June 25, as I doubt we get both Grey's and Private Practice repeats...maybe just Grey's and something like new crime drama Castle repeats? Then on Fridays at 9 starting June 26, we get According to Jim repeats on a new night and time (Remember the series finale is this Tuesday in the 8pm hour). The following week, July 3, Surviving Suburbia moves to Fridays at 9:30pm with new episodes following repeats of According to Jim at 9. I bet we won't see Suburbia until July 3 now, as I don't expect it to return to Wednesdays following the June 3 Goode Family test.
Elsewhere, 7 new episodes of Better off Ted and repeats of Scrubs will air in the 9pm hour on Tuesdays starting Tuesday, June 23 following episodes of the upcoming competition series The Superstars. This is a good way for the brilliantly done Better off Ted to be sampled before it returns with more new episodes in January 2010.
I applaud ABC in airing all of these comedies this summer! View these changes in a list form, if you get confused. And if we have more updates, we will bring it to you first...so keep checking!


TV producer/writer/director Michael "Mickey" Ross, best known for his work on hit sitcoms All in the Family, The Jeffersons and Three's Company, died Tuesday (May 26) in Los Angeles from complications of a stroke and heart attack. Ross, along with business partners Don Nicholl & Bernie West, made his mark in the 1970's with the breakout CBS TV sitcom, All in the Family, for which he won a writing Emmy in 1973. They were nominated two other times, another one for All in the Family and one for Three's Company. The trio were known as "NRW" until the death of Don Nicholl in 1980. So now only Bernie West remains from this historical team.
Mickey also was part of the creation for ABC's Three's Company spin-offs The Ropers and Three's a Crowd. He also wrote for Maude, another All in the Family spin-off. In 1976 NRW also created and produced the short-lived sitcom The Dumplings for NBC starring James Coco. Mickey also directed many episodes of Three's Company. NRW also wrote the pilot episode for Chico and the Man.
Before all of his hit series were born, he was a part of many shows in the '50s and '60s such as The Garry Moore Show, The Perry Como Show, Sid Ceasar's Hour and The Martha Raye Show. The latter is how he developed a relationship with Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin, later forming All in the Family. And decades later in 1998, Mickey appeared on screen for an interview on the E! True Hollywood Story for Three's Company.
Aside from his TV work, Ross and his wife founded the Michael and Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies at The City College of New York -- Ross's (and Bernie West's) alma mater. Memorial service will be held this Sunday (May 31) at 11 a.m. Mount Sinai Hollywood Hills on 5950 Forest Lawn Dr. in Los Angeles, CA.
Mickey will certainly be missed and my good friend and author of the Three's Company book Chris Mann tells me he loved farce comedy and that's how he viewed Three's Company with John Ritter as the ultimate farceur. Mickey rejoins Don Nicholl now up in the heavens recreating TV comedy. Rest in Peace, Mickey and you'll be deeply missed. Mickey Ross was 89.

Fox Upfront 2009-10: Fall 2009 Schedule; ER Returns to ION June 29

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

Fox 2009-10

Fall 2009

Sundays
7:00PM NFL Overrun/Animated Repeats
8:00PM The Simpsons
8:30PM The Cleveland Show (NEW!)
9:00PM Family Guy
9:30PM American Dad!

Mondays
8:00PM House
9:00PM Lie to Me

Tuesdays
8:00PM So You Think You Can Dance

Wednesdays
8:00PM So You Think You Can Dance Results
9:00PM Glee (NEW!)

Thursdays
8:00PM Bones
9:00PM Fringe

Fridays
8:00PM Brothers (NEW!)
8:30PM 'Til Death
9:00PM Dollhouse

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


January / Spring 2010:

Sundays
7:00PM Repeats
7:30PM American Dad
8:00PM The Simpsons
8:30PM Sons of Tucson (NEW!)
9:00PM Family Guy
9:30PM The Cleveland Show

Mondays
8:00PM House
9:00PM 24

Tuesdays
8:00PM American Idol
9:00PM Past Life (NEW!)

Wednesdays
8:00PM American Idol Results Show
9:00PM Human Target (NEW!) / Glee (spring)

Thursdays
8:00PM Bones
9:00PM Fringe

Fridays
8:00PM Brothers (NEW!)
8:30PM 'Til Death
9:00PM Dollhouse

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

NOTES: For fall, Fox has ordered one new drama, one new comedy, and one new animated comedy, with a fall version of summer hit So You Think You Can Dance. For midseason, Fox has ordered two new dramas and one new comedy.
The new event drama, Human Target (Wednesdays at 9 in January), will premiere with a special preview Sunday, Jan. 17 at approx. 8:00 PM ET/PT following the NFC Divisional Playoff game. 24 will also launch its season that night from approx. 9-11PM ET/PT.
On Saturday, Nov. 7 from 11:00 PM-Midnight ET/PT, Wanda Sykes returns to Fox to host The Wanda Sykes Show (working title). And at 12 midnight ET, for a half-hour each Saturday night will see an animated comedy encore from "Animation Domination."
On the shelf but not scheduled yet is a second year of Kitchen Nightmares.
More coming...

Discuss Fox's 2009-10 line-up. You'll find the official press release there, too...with more detailed information.


Back to some other news of the day, ION Television will bring back reruns of ER starting Monday, June 29. The series has been on and off the schedule because of low ratings. Now ION will give it another shot, airing it weekdays at 5PM replacing an hour of M*A*S*H, which moves to the 4pm hour now replacing drama Quantum Leap. Quantum Leap will now be off the schedule. No other changes will be made, as of now, starting June 29...so this is a preview of their July schedule. We are not sure if any other changes are being made in July, but we will let you know in our official July write-up very soon. ER last aired in March and April on Monday nights at 8pm.
We won't have as many news stories this week due to the upfronts, but we'll try to have something different as a secondary story each day. Tomorrow could be hard since we have two announcements (ABC and CBS). We have some WGN America and Sci Fi schedule news we want to share with you later this week...so come on back for that and of course network fall schedules! Fun week!!

SitcomsOnline.com 2009-10 Upfront Preview: The CW; ION and TV Land Start 'Whisperer' and 'Roseanne' Early

The CW is dropping Sundays this fall, so they will only program Mon-Fri. With only 10 hours a week of programming, space is limited. And to make things worse, they have 0 sitcom pilots in development, so all of their new series pick-ups will be dramas.
Here is the SitcomsOnline.com The CW 2009-10 preview:

New Series Already Picked-Up: None.
New Series We Think That Are Almost Good To Go: Melrose Place (drama), The Beautiful Life (drama), and Vampire Diaries (drama).
New Series Perhaps Picked-Up for Mid-Season: Body Politics (drama) and Gossip Girl: Lily (drama).

OUR FALL 2009 PREDICTION:

Mondays
8:00PM Gossip Girl
9:00PM Vampire Diaries (NEW!)

Tuesdays
8:00PM 90210
9:00PM Melrose Place (NEW!)

Wednesdays
8:00PM America's Next Top Model
9:00PM The Beautiful Life (NEW!)

Thursdays
8:00PM Smallville
9:00PM Supernatural

Fridays
8:00PM The Game OR One Tree Hill
9:00PM One Tree Hill OR Privileged

Comments: The CW needs help and they need to improve ratings. With zero comedy, they are not a balanced network and have similar types of shows. For Mondays, Gossip Girl will likely continue to be leading off Mondays and they can try new drama Vampire Diaries at 9pm, as One Tree Hill can help another night. This block needs to do more than 3 million. Tuesdays should have the classic remake with 90210 and now Melrose Place. Melrose needs to do much better than 90210, which hasn't done too well, especially this spring. Wednesday will of course have America's Next Top Model followed possibly by a drama that is focused on models called The Beautiful Life, a new series from Ashton Kutcher. That could be the fit The CW was looking for, instead of wasting the timeslot with repeats of 90210. Thursday is The CW's best night I think...with Smallville and Supernatural, nothing needs to change here. Fridays will have to change, though. They need to be more aggressive. The CW could redevelop sitcom The Game into a one-hour comedy, as they have mulled the idea. I think they should go for that and it would be a nice way to start off the night. At 9pm instead of the Top Model repeats, how about being more aggressive and airing One Tree Hill? I'm not sure if that goes well with The Game, but nothing on the schedule with The Game goes with it but Top Model. The CW is not likely to bring back Everybody Hates Chris for a fifth season. Look for that in syndication next fall with repeats on Nick at Nite and BET. Reaper is the only other on the bubble show with a shot, but I don't see it returning. It is said ABC Studios is shopping the series for first-run syndication, and perhaps it would air on CW stations on Sundays with new episodes, since affiliates are now going to program Sundays this fall. A long shot of happening, though. People keep saying Privileged has a shot...why? With those terrible numbers it had, it has no shot I think unless Fridays is an option instead of The Game. Which come to think of it, that makes sense and could go well with One Tree Hill.
For midseason, they should for sure pick-up The Body Politic. It sounds actually good and has a nice cast including Gabrielle Union, Tim Matheson, Jay Hernandez, and Brian Austin Green. It is said the Gossip Girl spinoff called Lily starring the gorgeous Brittany Snow is being passed, but I think they will need it come midseason, so they should order 6 episodes. If not, they will order another drama like Light Years to fill the void.
You can say goodbye to the following shows Stylista, Reaper, Privileged, Everybody Hates Chris, 13: Fear is Real, 4Real, Easy Money, In Harm's Way, Valentine.
The CW needs help for sure, I think they should start each weeknight with a proven show (Gossip Girl, 90210, Top Model, Smallville, The Game/One Tree Hill). It baffles me why they had no sitcoms in development. Too many dramas that are centered for female teenagers is too much.
Discuss your thoughts on our prediction and feel free to make suggestions of your own.

Remember, next Thursday (May 21) is the actual date when we will find out The CW's plans for the 2000-10 season. So, come on back next Thursday and we will let you know the details and you can see how much we were right (or wrong). Stay tuned on Saturday for our annual "weekend before upfronts rumbling."
And as a reminder, stay tuned next week for all the final schedules released by all the networks! We will put them up as soon as they are released by the networks, so this will be your home to see them first!


We have some schedule news! First, ION Television will launch Ghost Whisperer in June! It was slated to begin in the fall, but will start earlier than expected. The show will air Mondays at 8pm starting Monday, June 1, 2009. It will replace two Reba episodes. Reba will continue to air weeknights in the 7pm hour and at times in the 8pm hour Wed-Fri, depending on the movies. For fans of Ghost Whisperer, or if you want to watch the show for the first time, the first five episodes will air in June (June 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29). So this is an update to the ION Television June 2009 schedule we previously announced.
Ghost Whisperer will lead into two episodes of NCIS at 9 and 10pm on Monday nights.

Elsewhere, TV Land made a very last minute schedule change YESTERDAY that was in effect immediately! Some of you probably saw Roseanne airing from 9-10pm and 12-1am, airing between The Cougar. Roseanne was not set to launch on TV Land until June 5, so it started on May 13--three weeks earlier than planned. Roseanne will leave Nick at Nite effective immediately because of the change. It was only airing late nights on weekends anyway. Family Matters takes over the Roseanne slots on Nick at Nite. View the updated Nick at Nite May 2009 schedule.
Back to TV Land, we also told you before that a second Married...with Children marathon was set for Thursday, May 14 (tonight) from 10pm-1am, and now TV Land has made that a weekly thing. So look for The Bundys every Thursday night in TV Land PRIME. Also, starting tomorrow the 6pm weekday hour will now be The Beverly Hillbillies, replacing Hogan's Heroes and Green Acres, which are leaving a few weeks earlier than planned. In the 7pm hour will be The Andy Griffith Show, as that show will air 7-9pm now. Though on Mondays it will still air its 7pm-12am marathons. Roseanne will air Tues-Fri in the 9pm hour and 12-1:30am on most nights. On Fridays, Roseanne will air from 9pm-2:30am, which means the TV Land PRIME Movie is gone. Will it remain in June? That still remains to be seen.
On weekends, Roseanne is airing 1am-4am on Saturday nights and 1-3am on Sunday nights. Hogan's Heroes gets a half hour airing a week now, airing Sundays at 10am. The Cosby Show seems to be airing with Roseanne a lot, and gains the 11pm-1am slot on Saturday nights. And Three's Company moves from 1am-4am to 4am-6am on Saturday nights. Looks like 3rd Rock from the Sun is totally gone on this schedule!
View the FULL new schedule that is in place now! Couple of points, TV Land will be going "off the clock" starting tomorrow...so the timings of shows will be way off. Just giving you a heads up, if you're taping something. And we're not sure what this means for June, as we already announced a schedule for that. As of now, these new changes are through the end of May. We will update you on any updates to the TV Land June schedule as soon as we get it. Stay tuned!

Come on back tomorrow for news on a sitcom coming to Lifetime in June!

ION Television June 2009, Acquires More Warner Movies; TV Land Heats Up This Summer

I'm back after a day off. Todd filled in nicely, as usual. Well anyway, we have news on ION Television June 2009 today. But first they made some May schedule changes. On Wednesdays we now get primetime movies from 9-11pm following Reba. So Boston Legal will only be Tuesdays (8-11pm) now. And on Sundays it will be M*A*S*H every Sunday from 6pm-11pm! M*A*S*H will still air weekdays in the 5pm hour as well. Primetime movies will now be Wed-Sat, with times varying. View the updated May schedule.
Now for June 2009, those changes are also in June. There are no other changes. So weekdays still looks like this: Quantum Leap, M*A*S*H, Family Feud, Reba from 4pm-8pm. In primetime, we have Reba in the 8pm hour every weekday but Tuesday, NCIS from 9-11pm on Mondays, Boston Legal from 8pm-11pm on Tuesdays, primetime movies from 9-11pm on Wed-Fri. We have many June movie premieres: Assassins, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Batman, Just Cause, Major League II, Sudden Impact, Pacific Heights, and True Crime. Encore airings are The Outlaw Josey Wales and Young Guns II.
View the full ION Television June 2009 schedule.

Sticking with ION, reinforcing an aggressive commitment to build its primetime schedule with high-profile, event-driven programming, ION Television has acquired a major new feature film package from Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution (WBDTD) which includes exclusive windows for multiple Oscar winner The Departed and acclaimed hit Ocean's Thirteen. The movies will air immediately beginning this month, with broadcast runs as far out as 2010.
This announcement underscores ION Television's continued positioning as a leading network destination for "A-list" feature films. This movie package expands upon ION's current roster of hit films from WBDTD, which will now boast nearly 70 titles. In addition to The Departed and Ocean's Thirteen, the new WBDTD film package features a dozen hit movies, including Heat, starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro and directed by Michael Mann; The Matrix Reloaded, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Ann Moss, written and directed by The Wachowski Brothers and produced by Joel Silver; The Perfect Storm, starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg; Passenger 57, starring Wesley Snipes; and Assassins, starring Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Banderas and Julianne Moore, produced by Joel Silver and directed by Richard Donner; among many other films.

TV Land's got a scorching summer schedule kicking off this June that includes the premiere of three original reality series, an exciting celebrity-filled tribute to Michael Douglas as this year's recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award, blockbuster movies and the addition of Roseanne -- all premiering in TV Land PRIME, the network's new primetime programming block designed to appeal to the attitudes, life stage and interests of people in their 40s.
The network's summer schedule kicks off on Friday, June 5 with a week-long launch event of the hilarious sitcom Roseanne starring Roseanne Barr. Then, on Thursday, June 11, a new season of the TV Land hit She's Got the Look” -- a reality show modeling competition searching for the next great supermodel over the age of 35 -- kicks off. Both of these we have mentioned alrady. On Sunday, July 19 TV Land will air a special presentation of the AFI Life Achievement Award honoring celebrated actor Michael Douglas. And on Wednesday, August 12, TV Land premieres two brand new original series back-to-back with How'd You Get So Rich? -- starring Joan Rivers -- and the hidden camera show Make My Day. TV Land's signature Friday night PRIME Movie block will continue to air star-powered movies all summer long including Born on the 4th July, Back to School, Driving Miss Daisy, Another 48 Hours and Doc Hollywood.
View more on these summer series and specials!

ABC Announces First Batch of Summer 2009 Schedule; ION Ratings Go Up, Schedule Changes

A few days back we gave you a peek at some of ABC's summer schedule. All of that was right basically but now we have more details! So let's take a look night-by-night! As we knew, the new cycle of The Bachelorette launches May 18 from 9-11pm, but its timeslot launch is Monday, May 25 from 8-10pm. We are not sure how long the cycle will run, since there will be for sure a Men Tell All and After the Final Rose specials, so maybe the finale won't be July 13 and could last longer? We'll let you know. So what will air at 10pm on Mondays? I guessed a second season of Here Come the Newlyweds, and I was right! ABC will air that series for eight straight weeks from May 27-July 13 at 10pm on Mondays. Following the run of that, ABC will launch a new series starting July 20 at 10pm. The reality series Dating in the Dark will air for six weeks making it last through all of August. The show is a unique alternative series that asks the age-old question, "Is Love Blind?" Each week, three single men and three single women, all looking for love, will move into a house together, but be totally sequestered from the opposite sex. While they will have no chance of seeing each other in the light, they will have the opportunity to date in a completely dark room.
Tuesdays will not change until after the NBA Finals are over. Prior to the NBA finals will be filler programming, including two burn-offs of Opportunity Knocks. Then after the NBA Finals (which airs Thursdays, Sundays, and Tuesdays from June 4-18) ends, ABC will launch The Superstars on Tuesdays at 8pm starting Tuesday, June 23. The Superstars, a fresh take on an old favorite, is based on ABC's classic "Wide World of Sports" series, The Superstars, which pitted athletes from all different sports against each other to determine the best athlete in the world. Eight celebrities are paired with eight professional male and female athletes to compete against each other in varying sporting events. Each week a team will be eliminated until one team is ultimately crowned the winner. The six-episode series will be shot entirely on location at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. The finale is set for Tuesday, July 28. As for rest of Tuesday, it is unknown still what will air from 9-11pm starting June 23. And it is unknown what will air following the run of The Superstars starting August 4. As I said, this is only the first batch details.
Moving on to Wednesdays, as we mentioned, Wipeout will have its season premiere on a new night starting Wednesday, May 27 at 8pm. And ABC has 16 episodes this season, well one aired already, as ABC aired the Wipeout Bowl (the 6th one produced) on Super Bowl Sunday. We get new obstacles and a new twist to the big balls! Cannot wait for this as this will last throughout the summer on Wednesdays at 8! Following Wipeout, for six weeks, as we mentioned we get the animated comedy The Goode Family! The Goode Family is a new animated series from he King of the Hill crew Mike Judge, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky. With standards always changing, no matter how hard you try to be good, it's virtually impossible these days... especially for the Goode family. Gerald and Helen Goode are a couple who live by the motto WWAGD ("What Would Al Gore Do?"). We first thought the series would be aired back-to-back at 9pm & 9:30pm, but now that is not the case. It will air in the 9pm half-hour only. So we get 6 of the 13 episodes produced. Following The Goode Family will be the new night of the Bob Saget sitcom Surviving Suburbia. That sitcom launched to decent ratings on Monday at 9:30 and will air five more times in that slot (through May 11) before moving to Wednesdays at 9:30pm starting May 27 for six more episodes for an original summer run. So ABC will air at least 12 of the 13 episodes produced. I really think this sitcom has potential and ABC could use it next fall to launch new traditional comedies. Both comedies will run through Wednesday, July 1. Starting Wednesday, July 8, we get a second season of the game show I Survived a Japanese Game Show! It is an unscripted reality/game show -- actually a show within a show - that takes an eye-opening, behind-the-scenes look at 12 Americans who are whisked away to Japan to compete in the ultimate Japanese game show. This season we get 10 episodes, so it will last into September. It is unknown what ABC will do at 10pm, but The Unusuals has five episodes remaining in its first season episode order if they want to air originals of that. The series launched last night to good ratings. The series will air for four more straight weeks through May 6, before the Lost two-episode season finale on May 13. So five episodes will for sure air out of its ten episode order. If ABC chooses to air the remaining five in the summer, it would air from May 27 through June 24, for five straight weeks. That would give ABC an entire night of originals on Wednesdays from 8-11pm. If that is the case with The Unusuals, they have not announced what would air Wednesdays at 10pm starting July 1. Or they could hold those episodes for next fall, if the series returns.
There has been nothing announced for Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays. We have specials and stuff, though. Thursday, May 28 will be The Scripps National Spelling Bee from 8-10pm, as we told you. And Sunday, May 24 is the first part of the miniseries Diamonds from 9-11pm, also as we told you. It concludes on Tuesday, May from 9-11pm. ABC has another miniseries in the works called Impact.
Finally, Saturdays at 10pm is a rotating wheel to burn-off remaining episodes of canceled series. Pushing Daisies returns to the schedule from Saturday, May 30 through Saturday, June 13 at 10:00pm for its final three episodes. Then Eli Stone returns on Saturday, June 20 through Saturday, July 11 at 10:00pm for its final four episodes. Then finally Dirty Sexy Money returns on Saturday, July 18 through August 8 at 10:00pm for its final four episodes (which includes the unaired Thanksgiving episode!). It'll be weird seeing the Thanksgiving episode first since they aired three other episodes after that.
Well there you have it, the first batch of ABC summer. Of course more timeslots needs to be announced and we will let you know as soon as we hear what they are! Will Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? return in August for its 10th anniversary? We shall see!

First quarter 2009 has been a record breaking time for ION Television, with double digit growth in primetime viewership among households as well as in the key adults 25-54 demo. ION has delivered more adults 25-54 than at any other time in its history and ION's top five most watched episodes ever in households (HH) all aired during the first three months of this year. ION's extraordinary growth is a continued reflection of the success of its strategy to build viewership through its acquisitions of critically acclaimed off-network series in primetime.
Primetime delivery for households was up 26%, while adults 25-54 rose 44%, year over year. Also during this time period, viewership for adults 25-54 exhibited double digit growth across every hour in primetime: The 8:00 PM hour was up 20%, the 9:00 PM hour grew 49% and the 10:00 PM hour rose 62%.
ION's primetime off-network series continue to deliver. NCIS and Boston Legal have both grown significantly since their launch in fourth quarter 2008. In fact, NCIS delivered ION's top five most watched episodes ever (HH), reinforcing ION's mission in attracting more viewers than ever. NCIS averaged over one million total viewers in first quarter 2009, up 27% among households and up 31% among adults 25-54. Boston Legal's first quarter 2009 performance has grown 18% among households and 17% among adults 25-54.
ION's ratings gains provide the network with considerable momentum as it prepares its programming schedule for the 2009-10 season and beyond. That schedule will feature 12 originally produced movies a year, the new first-run series Durham County, The Border and The Guard; and the newly acquired off-network hits Ghost Whisperer and Criminal Minds.
Speaking of ION Television, they have just announced some changes to April. They are not major changes, though. All of the RHI movies have been pulled for the rest of April. So this Saturday (April 11) from 6-11pm we will get a M*A*S*H marathon instead. Other replacements include a Boston Legal block on Friday, April 17 from 8-11pm, big screen movies and more M*A*S*H. We already told you for May, the RHI movies would be leaving, so now it is earlier than planned. The Lonesome Dove four part mini-series is still slated to air the weekend of May 2-3, then after that there is no more RHI movies scheduled. More mainstream big screen movies will air. Check out the revised April schedule so you know what is on a particular day.

Stay tuned tomorrow for ABC Family upfront update!

ION Television May 2009 Adds Reba; Nick at Nite Ratings Climb; Charles in Charge on NBC.com

As I hinted yesterday, ION Television has acquired a sitcom! They will start this sitcom on Monday, April 27! That date will mark the start of the ION Television May 2009 lineup! And the sitcom is...Reba! The WB/The CW 2001-2007 Reba McEntire sitcom joins the ION Television line-up on Monday, April 27 airing weeknights at 7:00pm & 7:30pm. It will also air Monday nights and Friday nights at 8:00pm & 8:30pm. And whenever a movie airs during weekdays in primetime (such as the weekly Thursday slot) and starts at 8:30pm or 9pm, Reba will air leading into it. The sitcom is distributed by 20th Century Fox. Reba also airs on cable on Lifetime TV as well, but ION Television is considered a broadcast station. Reba hasn't aired on broadcast stations since it aired on The CW Daytime. It will be weird because from Tues-Fri, Lifetime also airs Reba in the 7pm hour. That is very strange ION decided to air it at the same time! Did they not realize? Sound off on this on our Twitter page!
The addition of Reba, will cause some shifting. The Drew Carey Show has been removed, as Quantum Leap, M*A*S*H, and Family Feud move back an hour each from 4pm-7pm to make room for Reba at 7:00pm & 7:30pm. ER has also been removed, as Reba will take over Mondays in the 8pm hour as well. Also, after the weekend of May 2-3, starting May 9, RHI Entertainment movies and miniseries will no longer air! We're not sure yet if this is the last of the RHI programming, since the deal expires soon, but the last scheduled programming is May 2-3 with the four-part, eight-hour miniseries Lonesome Dove. Big screen movies will replace RHI the following weekend, May 9-10.
Among the big screen movie premieres this month are American President, Lethal Weapon, Lethal Weapon 3, The Hunt for Red October, Presumed Innocent, The Mask, Angel Eyes, and The Fugitive! The big screen movie encores this month are Octopussy and Rocky IV.
View the complete schedule and highlights for ION Television May 2009!
Stay tuned tomorrow as we announce what sitcom is joining Lifetime in May. And I promise you, it isn't something airing elsewhere! We will also have our review of upcoming new sitcom for ABC starring Bob Saget called Surviving Suburbia tomorrow on the blog. Big Friday!

Nick at Nite scored its most-watched quarter ever in first quarter 2009 (Nielsen Media Research 12/29/08-3/29/09) with Adults 18-49 and Men 18-49. Driven by hit family programming like George Lopez, Nick at Nite produced double-digit gains among A18-49 and W18-49 this quarter, and has delivered 16 consecutive months of year-over-year growth in delivery. Nick at Nite closes the first quarter of 2009 as the number-one cable network with W18-49 in total day, and the number-two network with A18-49.
The first quarter for 2009 marked Nick at Nite's most-watched quarter ever with A18-49 and M18-49, averaging a 0.6 rating (690,000 viewers) among A18-49 (up 20%) and a 0.4 rating (254,000 viewers) among M18-49. Nick at Nite ranks as the number-one basic cable network for W18-49 in total day for the first quarter of 2009, averaging a 0.8 rating (436,000 viewers) among W18-49, up 14% over last year. The network is number two in total day with A18-49 in the quarter as well. The network delivered 1.5 million total viewers on average, up 5% in viewers over the same time last year. In primetime, Nick at Nite averaged a 0.7 overall rating and 1.7 million total viewers for the quarter. George Lopez is the network's highest-rated program and has experienced growth of 40% in rating since its launch in September 2007. George Lopez averaged a 0.7 A18-49 rating and 791,000 viewers among A18-49 in the first quarter of 2009. "Whappppah!" "I got this," indeed George!

For fans of Charles in Charge (and Scott Baio), the first season of the popular sitcom (with an amazing theme song) from 1984-85 is now available for enjoyment on NBC.com at any time! You can see the first season in its entirety featuring all 23 episodes. Charles in Charge has been added in the vintage section called "Video Rewind" joining other vintage series such as The A-Team, Simon & Simon, Alfred Hitchcok Hour, and Emergency! Charles in Charge is the first vintage sitcom to be added in the Video Rewind, though! Hopefully we get more Universal-owned sitcoms added to Video Rewind soon such as Amen, Out of this World, Still the Beaver, Harry and the Hendersons, and Bachelor Father. Those would be great because they are not on DVD, while Charles in Charge is. Even though they are on DVD, Gimme a Break and Kate & Allie would be good to have on here, too.

According to Jim Return Delayed To April 14; ION Television Upfront 2009

Earlier this month we told you that According to Jim returns to ABC with its final 12 episodes starting March 24, but then President Obama scheduled a news conference during that time, thus delaying Jim's return. So it was assumed According to Jim would return the following week (March 31), but as we first broke the news a few days ago on our message board, that is not the case. According to Jim will now return Tuesday, April 14 with back-to-back episodes for six straight weeks, giving it its final 12 episodes. So if that all goes well, the series finale is now May 19 instead of the originally planned May 5. As we have seen, things change, so keep checking back with us. You ever know, ABC might schedule two episodes on another night (Friday?) to finish earlier, say May 12.
So why didn't ABC return Jim next week (March 31)? It wouldn't have made sense to launch it that week and then have to preempt it the following week, as ABC had already scheduled It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown for April 7. So instead, on March 31, we get encores of the first two episodes of the hilarious new sitcom Better Off Ted! So if you have missed those two episodes, you need to watch on that night!

Underscoring its commitment to build its primetime programming schedule, ION Television announced plans to develop and produce 12 original films a year, with the first film set to premiere in fourth quarter 2009. It was announced yesterday at ION Television's Upfront presentation.
ION Television plans to commission originally produced films and offer integrated marketing opportunities to advertisers who seek an alternative and expanded way to reach the consumer. Genres being explored include drama, romance, thriller, action and holiday -- all of which will be created to appeal to the broad based general entertainment audience that ION Television continues to attract. These films will complement the ION Television's growing library of blockbuster and critically acclaimed films from the major movie studios.
The announcement reinforces ION Television's strategy of expanding its programming mix through a strong combination of quality major network TV series, as well as signature originals produced specifically for ION Television. These films will join a line-up that includes the previously announced off network series Ghost Whisperer and Criminal Minds and the new original acquired series Durham County, The Guard and The Border. New programming will begin roll out on ION Television starting this fall. Ghost Whisperer, Criminal Minds, and Durham County are expected to launch first and air back-to-back-to-back.
ION Television has garnered major increases in primetime viewership among adults 25-54 since the launch of its re-branding campaign last fall. The dramatic growth in ratings includes a 30% increase among adults 25-54 in primetime (2008-09 season to date vs. 2007-08 season to date). Primetime household viewership for the same period was up 16%.
ION Television will also remove up to two more hours a day of paid programming on weekdays. We will have more on that and ION's Fall 2009 schedule soon. Keep checking back. Wonder if ION will start at 2pm now on weekdays or end two hours later after 12am since two hours of Paid will be removed? Currently on weekdays, the network programs from 4pm-11pm. 2pm-11pm or 4pm-1am sounds good!


As for tonight, tune in for the series premiere of comedy In the Motherhood and the return of Samantha Who? all starting tonight at 8/7 central on ABC!

WGN America Spring Changes Includes Bullwinkle, WWE Superstars; ION Schedule Change

Spring is in the air and WGN America will be make some changes this spring! First, America's Funniest Home Videos is re-added at 7pm ET (4pm PT) every Tuesday now (it already airs the other weekdays in the slot) starting Tuesday, March 17 replacing an airing of Star Trek: The Next Generation. TNG will still air 8pm, 9pm and 1am ET on Tuesdays and Saturdays at 12 noon ET for now...keep reading below. Then Tuesday nights (well Wednesday mornings technically) from 4am-5:30am starting March 31 will be a second consecutive night of Corner Gas replacing Moesha. Moesha will still air Thursday nights (Friday mornings technically) in that slot...but not for long...keep reading.
Then the week of April 13 is when the majority of the changes start! The weeknight 1am ET rotating hour will now have Funniest Pets & People on both Monday and Tuesday nights replacing AFV and Star Trek: TNG respectively. Reno 911's Thursday 1am airings migrate to Wednesday nights replacing ALF. ALF will still remain on Sundays on Outta Sight Retro Night, though. ALF has suffered a bit of a ratings let-down, but they are still keeping it on Sundays at least. The big change on WGN America will be the WWE Superstars series airing every Thursday on WGN America at 8pm ET and encoring at 11pm ET starting April 16. Thursdays in primetime will also see the series Around the World For Free at 9pm ET and 12am ET right after WWE Superstars. So what is Around the World for Free? Alex Boylan (winner of The Amazing Race, Season 2) attempts the impossible: he strips himself of all monetary funds, and with only a backpack and the help of an online community, sets off on a mission to circumnavigate the globe. So on Thursdays at 1am ET we will see Scrubs because its Thursday 11pm ET airings are preempted and at 4am ET Bob & Tom Show will air since its 12 am ET slot is preempted on Thursdays. This is bad news for Moesha fans because now the show will only air once a week at 5am ET on late Thursday nights (early Friday mornings). And for more bad news, Moesha will be gone after the end of June and will be replaced by more Funniest Pets & People. At least Moesha will still be on The N.
Moving to weekends, on Saturdays... Hollywood and Dine is going national. The local Cleveland produced food show on WJW, hosted by David "Mossman" Moss, will be syndicated on WGN America starting Saturday, April 18 at 12 noon ET and airing every Saturday at noon ET. Following Hollywood and Dine at 12:30pm ET will be Cultivating Life with Sean Conway. Both will replace an airing of Star Trek: TNG, so that series will only be in primetime on Tuesday nights by then. An episode of Boston Legal will follow at 1pm ET replacing a Bob & Tom Show airing, but that Bob & Tom airing will be moved to a Sunday slot of 11am ET. More on Sunday in a bit, but back to Saturday. The Saturday evening Boston Legal still remains in its slot. And the biggest news for us is that the classic '60s animated comedy The Bullwinkle Show is coming to WGN America on Saturday nights starting April 18! It will air Saturdays at 12 midnight ET (9pm PT) replacing an airing of The Honeymooners. Bullwinkle will follow two Scrubs episodes at 11 & 11:30pm ET. I'm still trying to find out what package of Bullwinkle this is, but I'm guessing it is the 98 episode package from The Program Exchange. It would be cool if it were all 130 episodes, though, including the Rocky episodes. And of course The Honeymooners will still air on the Outta Sight Retro Night on Sunday evenings, so the half-hour removal on Saturday nights is not a problem. So back to Sundays, we said Bob & Tom Show is in a Sunday slot of 11am ET, replacing Whacked Out Videos, which moves to Sunday nights at 3am ET replacing one of the Homicide: Life on the Street episodes, but that will still remain at 4am ET. The other Sunday change is at 12 noon ET with an encore of WWE Superstars replacing that Boston Legal airing, so both of its airings are on Saturdays starting April 18.
That's all for now, but Sean Compton of WGN America promises us that we will see more sitcom themed weeks this summer as we did last summer! Also, they will change up the Outta Sight Retro Night on Sundays in September a bit...so that will be cool to see what they add. So just because not much is added this spring, doesn't mean anything. WGN America is working on lots of classic TV stuff, and Bullwinkle is not a bad idea! Yes, ALF did well for them but it has weakened, but they are still airing it on Sundays at least. Stay tuned and keep it with us for all WGN America news!

Just a few days ago we gave you ION's April 2009 schedule saying that M*A*S*H would return to weekdays starting March 30. Well that is still happening...but two weeks earlier now! M*A*S*H will take over the 6pm hour on weekdays starting this Monday now (March 16). And in a twist, Family Feud will move to the 7pm hour from Mon-Thurs! Feud was supposed to be totally off the line-up by March 30, but ION is indeed keeping it! Feud will replace an airing of ER on Mondays and an airing of Boston Legal on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and a scheduled M*A*S*H hour or movie on Thursdays. So the only thing leaving is Steve Harvey Show...and two weeks earlier than planned. So tonight is the last night actually. This is tough news because BET removed it as well a few weeks back. Everything else we reported for April is intact, including the movies.

ION Television April 2009; Nick at Nite Changes Mind; SOAPnet Gets Gilmore Girls

This April on ION will see a schedule change! The 6pm hour on weekdays is changing starting Monday, March 30. The Steve Harvey Show and Family Feud is being cut from the line-up and being replaced by M*A*S*H, which returns to weekdays after only airing weekends the last few months. M*A*S*H will also air sometimes in the 7pm hour on Thursdays, if the Thursday movie doesn't start earlier than 8pm. As for movies, ION is really showing us more big screen movies and seems to be preempting the RHI movies more in April. The big screen premieres for April are Jurassic Park III, Malice, Keeping the Faith, Deep Blue Sea, The American President, You've Got Mail, and The Negotiator. And the premieres of most of these are on Thursday, but there are a few that will be on a special Wednesday or Sunday airing as well. Some of these movies will run until 10:30pm only, so a filler episode of M*A*S*H will air...and in one case the movie ends at 10pm, so there is a 48 Hours Mystery sighting (April 23)!
RHI movies include movies from the Jane Doe, Mystery Woman, and McBride movie franchises, and movies such as Shapeshifter, In the Beginning and Bloodknot.
View the full ION Television April 2009 highlights with everything you need to know!

Nick at Nite has changed their mind! And it hasn't been even a week yet! The new schedule that was originally was supposed to be for a week (week of Feb. 23), was extended to March 2 and beyond...but now after just two weeks, the schedule prior to the Feb. 23 change returns! So, Home Improvement is back at 9pm and George Lopez's second airing is back at 10:30pm. This schedule returned last night and we only knew about it hours in advance, so we couldn't post it on the blog yesterday. So no more George Lopez at 9pm and a third Family Matters at 10:30pm. George is back to two episodes in the same hour, 10-11pm and Family Mattters is back to two episodes only from 11pm-12am, while Home Improvement gets it second airing back as it was only airing at 9:30pm, now it is 9-10pm again.

SOAPnet has also acquired all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls from Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. This acquisition is shared with sister network ABC Family, which has been airing the show for a few years now. Gilmore Girls will begin airing on Saturday, April 4, at 9PM and 10PM. The series will also air on Sundays from 6-8PM. Gilmore Girls revolves around single mother Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) and her daughter, and best friend in the world, "Rory" (Alexis Bledel). Set in a storybook Connecticut town populated with an eclectic mix of everyday folks and lovable lunatics, Gilmore Girls is a humorous multigenerational series about friendship, family and the ties that bind. The series was created by Amy Sherman-Palladino. There will be some changes to weekends as a result, The O.C. moves to 8am (Sat & Sun). One Tree Hill moves to 9 & 10am (Sat). Beverly Hills, 90210 moves to 11am-3pm (Sat) and 9am-1pm (Sun). And the General Hospital Marathon moves to 1-6pm (Sun). There will be no changes to weekdays.
Meanwhile, SOAPnet has also acquired more movies and is producing original series. The theatrical titles the network has acquired from Twentieth Television are How Stella Got Her Groove Back, The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Brokedown Palace, Object of My Affection and The Fabulous Baker Boys. The titles from Disney ABC Domestic Television include While You Were Sleeping, Tuck Everlasting, Bounce, Three Men and a Baby, Three Men and a Little Lady, Miami Rhapsody and Adventures in Babysitting. The movies will begin airing in March.
As for originals, Holidate is a reality special that takes two women who are looking for love but having no luck with the suitors in their individual cities and transports them into each other’s lives. The women will temporarily trade homes, spend time in each other's cities and date the men in each other's lives. They'll be able to communicate with each other throughout the journey. Holidate begins production in March and will premiere this Fall. In addition to Holidate, the other reality series in development from ABC Media Productions is Mother/Daughter Project (working title). In the series, celebrity mother-daughter pairs with huge relationship issues are brought together to work out their problems under the guidance of a renowned therapist. The format is from Outline Television and will be produced in association with ABC Media Productions.
The scripted series in development are Julia's Tango and Santa Monica. Julia's Tango is a one hour scripted series set in Buenos Aires. Despite her great job and devoted boyfriend, Julia feels stifled by a life of endless routine. On an impromptu trip to her hometown of Buenos Aires, she abandons it all to turn her family home into a bed & breakfast. With the help of her girlfriends, Julia embarks on an unpredictable detour she didn't know she needed. The format of the series is from Endemol. SOAPnet will produce the series in conjunction with Endemol. Santa Monica is a one-hour dramedy about four twenty-something best friends living together and embarking on adulthood. The series follows their journeys as they cope with obstacles in love lives, family lives and careers. Whether they're dealing with a broken heart or a career setback, they take comfort in the fact that they always have each other.

ION To Add Two Canadian Dramas; The CW Picks Up 6 Returning Series for 2009-2010 Season

ION Television announced the acquisition of two new one-hour original dramatic series, The Border and The Guard, each making their U.S. debuts on ION later this year.
ION Television has signed a deal with Fireworks International, the television and digital programming distribution arm of ContentFilm, to secure the exclusive U.S. original broadcast rights for The Border, the award-winning procedural crime drama series. The Border follows members of the elite Canadian Immigration and Customs Security Unit working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to secure the border on both sides of the line.
ION Television, in a separate deal with Lionsgate, also secured the exclusive U.S. original broadcast rights for The Guard, an original action-drama series focusing on the members of a Coastguard Search and Rescue team. ION also has all U.S. television, digital media rights, Internet streaming and video-on-demand rights for both shows.
The Border, which garnered two prestigious Gemini Awards with ten nominations, including Best Dramatic Series, is a hard-driving crime drama featuring strong, topical stories from terrorist threats and drug smuggling, to trafficking in illegal organs and underage brides, to corporate and international espionage -- and brings a cool lens to the grit of urban life. Stars include James McGowan, Sofia Milos, Grace Park, Graham Abbey, Mark Wilson, Jim Codrington, Jonas Chernick, Nazneen Contractor and Catherine Disher.
The Guard, produced by Halifax Film and Brightlight Pictures Inc., is shot in the scenic wilderness of Squamish, British Columbia. A character-driven ensemble series, it focuses on the lives of four imperfect, offbeat and sometimes difficult, but heroic Canadian Coast Guard Rescue specialists who face danger daily out on the Pacific Ocean, saving lives as they search for meaning in their own. This gripping, high-action drama series stars Steve Bacic as Duty Captain Miro Da Silva, Jeremy Guilbaut as Rescue Specialist Andrew Vanderlee and Sonya Salomaa as First Mate Laura Nelson. David James Elliot (JAG, Closer to Home) also guest stars in the recurring role of David Nelson.
ION Television also as previously announced will have the original series Durham County coming later this year. Not to mention reruns of the popular crime series Criminal Minds coming in the fall. Is ION going after the CBS audience with three original series and many off-network crime dramas?

The CW announced early pickups of six series, including five of the network's signature dramas and the reality hit America's Next Top Model, which will all return in Fall 2009. The series receiving early pickups for next season are The CW's Monday tandem of sophomore sensation Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill, which combined to lift The CW to become the fall's #1 network on Monday with women 18-34. Both Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill have scored double-digit gains compared to their previous seasons. Freshman hit 90210 has improved the network's Tuesday night by double-digit increases in key demos. Wednesday anchor America's Next Top Model, which consistently wins its time period with young women, will also be back with superstar Tyra Banks and new groups of aspiring models for cycles 13 and 14.
Also renewed were the network's established Thursday team of Smallville, which will be going into its ninth season, and Supernatural, which after posting ratings growth this season, will enter its fifth season next year.
The jury is still out on series such as Everybody Hates Chris, The Game, Privileged, and Reaper. More pickups won't be announced most likely until the May upfront.

ION Television March 2009 Highlights; Early Edition Delayed on Sci Fi

ION Television has finally released its full March 2009 schedule and highlights. As we told you, they made changes to the schedule starting today...and that schedule will be in effect in March. Steve Harvey Show and Family Feud will now air in the 6pm hour rather than have back-to-back full hours Mon-Thurs. While the 7pm hour will be ER on Mondays and Boston Legal on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, with Total Theatre Thursday on Thursday. The Thursday movies will now be two in primetime on Thursday nights, with most airing 7-9pm and 9-11pm, although a few start earlier than 7pm if they are longer movies. And on most Fridays now, RHI movies are removed in favor of more blockbuster movies from Warner Bros. The Thursday movies premieres The Outlaw Josey Wales, Tango & Cash, Goodfellas, and Batman Forever. Friday movies include the premiere of Three Kings and encores of movies such as Batman Forever. The RHI movies/miniseries for the month include the three-part, six-hour Larry McMurtry's Dead Man's Walk, Human Trafficking, Noah's Ark, Invasion, and Magical Legend of the Leprechauns in time for St. Patrick's Day. And as we mentioned, the premiere of the miniseries The Color of Magic on Sunday, March 22 from 7-11pm.
So head on over to our ION Television March 2009 schedule thread to discuss and to see the schedule, list of movies, and RHI movies/miniseries for the month.

We mentioned Sci Fi was launching Early Edition on Monday, March 9, but now Sci Fi has delayed it. It was set to launch weekdays at 4pm starting the 9th, but now Sci Fi has opted to go with a second episode of Lost instead. Lost will also still air weekdays at 1am, as scheduled. Previously, Lost was just airing Monday nights in primtime (now replaced by Star Trek: TNG), but they moved it to weekdays 1am and Tuesdays 7-9pm. The Tuesday evening airings will be gone though in March replaced by two Star Trek: Enterprise episodes, so Lost will air 4pm and 1am weekdays. Sci Fi has not said when Early Edition will be rescheduled, but as of now early April schedules do not list it.
We also mentioned originally that Highlander was having a marathon on Mach 19. That that is NOT happening, but Sci Fi has moved that same marathon to Thursday, April 2 from 8am-9pm, with an airing of the movie Highlander: The Source at 9pm, followed by two more episodes at 11pm and 12am. Also in April, instead of Daytime Rotation marathons for two weeks, starting Monday, April 13 through April 27 we get movies from 8am-4pm...mostly movies that are mini-series or related, like The Odyssey and Stephen Kings movies. The Daytime Rotation marathons earlier in the month (April) include Tru Calling, Invasion, Joan of Arcadia, and Jeremiah. Then The Sentinel and Jericho are a few after the two week movies.

ION HD Launch Delayed, Details on Switch to DTV on June 12; Retroality.TV Interviews Gilligan's Island's Dawn Wells

We mentioned twice about ION Television going HD. First the initial report, then the launch date of Feb. 16. Obviously that launch date to HD didn't happen yesterday. ION says it wanted to "reduce consumer confusion" surrounding Congress' decision to move the DTV hard date to June 12, so ION Television announced it will push back its launch in high definition one month to March 16 instead. ION was planning to launch in HD on Feb. 16, in 20 markets where it has TV stations. Now those same 20 will launch March 16, with the other 40 stations coming on board later in the year.
B&C reports, ION's 40 other stations are still going to make the transition to digital on Feb. 17, but about two thirds of the nation's roughly 1,800 TV stations will be delaying pulling the plug on the analog version of their primary signal after the administration asked, and Congress consented, to move the date.
So, yes the transition to DTV was supposed to take place today. But President Obama, the House, and Congress moved the date to June 12 instead citing that most people were still not ready. Many stations will still make the transition to digital today, but the entire country won't be ready until June 12. This will the government more time to set up call centers and get DTV-to-analog converter box coupons to ALL viewers, though it will also create some confusion as viewers now have several analog cut-off dates to contend with.
So if you still have an old television with no cable or satellite, I urge you to head to DTVAnswers.com for information on how to still watch TV. This is a big mess, as February sweeps was moved to March because of this and now it isn't happening on Feb. 17 anymore. I haven't mentioned this on the blog at all, but we urge you to head to DTVAnswers.com for any questions and how to get a converter box if you're TV is not ready.

Our buddy Chris Mann has his February cover feature posted on his website Retroality.TV. This time he goes one-on-one with Gilligan's Island's Mary Ann herself--Dawn Wells! I cannot believe she is 70, she still practically looks the same! Dawn "Mary Ann" Wells (now a film actors boot camp mentor) opens up about her Mary Jane scandal/arrest, Michael Phelps' bong fiasco, the upcoming Gilligan's Island feature film, and Tina "The Movie Star" Louise's 40-year Island exile.
I'll share some interesting quotes from Chris' interview with Dawn:
ON HER ARREST
"I had that horrible experience with that fake arrest. It wasn't fake--I was arrested but it wasn't legitimate. He's in jail now, as a matter of fact, the guy who arrested me. And the sheriff has also been under investigation for false arrest. It was a very unfortunate situation. And I was very, very aware of what the press can do. ... It was very, very difficult. And I finally said to somebody, "I'm not sure if Britney Spears has two boys." I don’t believe anything I read anymore."
ON CO-STAR TINA "THE MOVIE STAR" LOUISE
"(The 2004 TV Land Awards) was very awkward, though. I'd heard there was a rumor that she wouldn't sit with us, or she wanted to get paid to sit with us ... So she didn't sit with us. But afterward, we all took a picture with Sherwood Schwartz. And then after that somebody wanted to interview us, and Tina and I sat down together for the first time ever. And she was very complimentary about the show. I almost fell off the chair. (She said,) 'The little kids really like it, and I'm reading to kids and kids appreciate it.' And I thought, 'Well, maybe it's taken this much time to realize how grateful we all should be for that show.' I haven't run into her (since), but we're always very civil."
For the rest of the great questions from Chris to Dawn Wells, check out his FULL interview at Retroality.TV. It is about 4-parts long, so great job by Chris! He even has video excerpts from Entertainment Tonight and The View! Coming soon from Chris will be an interview with Janet Wood herself--Joyce DeWitt! And speaking of interviews, we here at SitcomsOnline.com also have some in the works that you will love to read. I won't give it away until it is official, but many of you will enjoy them! Stay tuned...

ION Adds More Boston Legal, Reduces Harvey, Feud; Dancing with the Stars Professional Pairings Announced

ION Television will be making a schedule change starting Monday, Feb. 23. The line-up will be altered between 6-8pm, leading into primetime. Currently we had an hour of The Steve Harvey Show at 6 followed by back-to-back Family Feud at 7pm. Well, those two shows will now be cut to one episode each and air in the 6pm hour Monday through Thursday. So Harvey at 6pm followed by Feud at 6:30pm. So what about the 7pm hour now? On Mondays it will be an episode of ER, which will lead into an episode of ER at 8pm. So we get two ER episodes a week now. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we get another episode of Boston Legal at 7pm. This means Boston Legal will air Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 7-11pm on both nights. That's eight episodes! Denny Crane indeed! On Thursdays, the Total Theatre Thursday Movies will air from 7-9pm and 9-11pm. There will be no other encores and such anymore on other days. RHI Entertainment movies will continue Fridays through Sundays from 7-11pm, however there will be times it will be preempted, such as last Sunday when M*A*S*H aired instead and again this Friday when ION launches the big screen movie Solider (1998) with a double airings from 7-9pm and 9-11pm.
We're not sure yet of the March schedule, but one could assume these changes will head on over to March as well. We'll let you know as soon as we can! But for now, view the updated ION Television February 2009 line-up.

On Sunday the cast of the new season of Dancing with the Stars was announced. Today the professional partners of each celebrity was revealed. We already knew Denise Richards was paired with Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Chuck Wicks was paired with his girlfriend Julianne Hough. Now we get the rest! Jonathan Roberts, Kym Johnson, Mark Ballas, Derek Hough, Cheryl Burke, Lacey Schwimmer, Edyta Sliwinska, and Karina Smirnoff all return for another season. We have two newcomers, too! 2006 U.S. National finalist Dmitry Chaplin and 10 Dance Youth National champion Chelsie Hightower make heir debuts.
View the full list of professional partners with their celebs!

TV One March 2009 Highlights; ION Finally Airs RHI Mini-Series That Was Slated for November 23

This March, TV One springs forward with more great programming! On Sunday, March 1 beginning at 12pm, TV One presents a throwback afternoon with a six-episode marathon of the classic private eye series A Man Called Hawk starring Avery Brooks in the title role. Then we have some schedule changes to the regular line-up happening on weekdays starting Monday, March 2. Sitcom Eve returns to the TV One weeknight comedy line-up airing weekdays at 7pm. This addition has caused a shift in the sitcom line-up which will now air as follows: 5:00pm Good Times, 5:30pm Sanford and Son (replaces The Parent'hood), 6:00pm Good Times, 6:30pm Half & Half (replaces The Hughleys), 7:00pm Eve (replaces Half & Half), 7:30pm Half & Half. So Parent'hood and The Hughleys are now off the line-up.
Then beginning on Saturday, March 7, Sanford & Son will be added to the TV One Saturday morning comedies which will now air the following line-up: 6:00am All About the Andersons (two back-to-back episodes), 7:00am Where I Live (two back-to-back episodes), 8:00am All of Us (two back-to-back episodes replaces Cedric the Entertainer Presents), 9:00am Good Times (two back-to-back episodes), 10:00am The PJs (two back-to-back episodes), 11:00am Sanford & Son (two back-to-back episodes replaces All of Us). So Cedric the Entertainer Presents is now off the line-up.
On Saturday, March 21 beginning at 12 Noon to 8pm, TV One celebrates L.A. Fashion Week with the "Eve-Diva Style Marathon", an all-day sitcom marathon showcasing episodes of Eve that focuses on the Diva Style fashion business run by main character Shelley Williams played by rapper/actress Eve and her two business partners Janie (Natalie Desselle-Reid) and Rita (Ali Landry).
Finally, on Saturday, April 4 at midnight, the clues are in, the facts are adding up, and the players are exposed as TV One airs the one-hour shocking finale of the action series Day Break starring Taye Diggs.
So there you have it, TV One March 2009. No other changes will be made to schedule. Before March, don't forget about February and the Feb. 22 marathon of South Central!

ION Television, the "Positively Entertaining" general entertainment network available to over 94 million homes, and RHI Entertainment, the leader in the production and distribution of groundbreaking movies, miniseries and series for television, announced the U.S. television premiere of The Color of Magic, a four-hour production premiering on ION Television on Sunday, March 22 at 7:00 p.m. ET. This movie was rescheduled from November 23.
Based on the first two books in best-selling author Terry Pratchett's hugely popular Discworld series, The Color of Magic stars Oscar nominee Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Toy Soldiers, Rudy), Emmy nominee Tim Curry (IT, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Kinsey) and David Jason (RHI's Hogfather). Additionally, Emmy Award-winning actor Brian Cox (Bourne trilogy, Running with Scissors) serves as the narrator and Christopher Lee (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Star Wars Episodes II and III) takes on the vocal role of Death.

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!

Hallmark Channel March 2009, Timeslots for Golden Girls, Cheers Returns; ER Returns to ION

We were the first to let you know that The Golden Girls was acquired by The Hallmark Channel and WE tv for play starting in March 2009, now we will be the first to let you know the launch date and complete days and times for The Golden Girls on The Hallmark Channel!
Beatrice Arthur, Rue McClanahan, Betty White and Estelle Getty star as four South Florida seniors sharing a house, their dreams and a whole lot of cheesecake. Bright, provocative, clueless, and hilarious, these lovely mismatched ladies form the perfect circle of friends. Experience an entire day of laugh-packed episodes from this landmark television series as The Hallmark Channel launches with an all-day marathon on Sunday, March 1 from 8:30am-3:00am ET/PT! Then the show will air Monday-Friday starting March 2 from 9am-10am (replacing The Waltons), 4pm-5pm (moving I Love Lucy to 3-4pm) and 11pm-1am (replacing Murder, She Wrote). The show will air on weekends as well...Saturdays starting March 7 from 7:30am-9am (cutting I Love Lucy's block in half) and Sundays starting March 8 from 10am-12pm (cutting 7th Heaven's block in half). So The Waltons and Murder, She Wrote seem to have left the regular line-up totally. But since those two are leaving and The Golden Girls is coming, one other show will return as well! Cheers returns to the Hallmark Channel line-up airing weeknights 2am-3am replacing an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger. Walker's 1am airing will be replaced by a double shot of I Love Lucy as well from 1am-2am weeknights. Don't worry Walker fans, the show will still air weeknights at 7pm and 8pm, but now from 11pm-3am weeknights on Hallmark are all sitcoms (Golden Girls, I Love Lucy, Cheers)! We still don't have WE tv's March schedule, as soon as we do we'll let you know when Golden Girls is airing over there and other changes they might have.
View the full Hallmark Channel March 2009 line-up!

Meanwhile over on ION Television, they also will have a returning series. ER returns to ION next week starting on Monday, Feb. 9 airing Monday nights at 8:00pm ET/PT replacing one airing of NCIS. NCIS will still air Mondays from 9-11pm. ER didn't do so well on ION and was replaced quickly last fall. Now the series is back for another try. NCIS and Boston Legal have done very well for ION and ION hopes ER can do similar numbers. ER will start with the season 12 episode "No Place to Hide" and go in order from there.
In other ION news, NBC's recent miniseries Last Templar (2009) will air on ION on Saturday, Feb. 7 and Sunday, Feb. 15 from 7-11pm on both nights. The two-part mini-series starring Mira Sorvino and Victor Garber did so-so for NBC doing average in viewers but not so good in 18-49.
If you forgot the rest of ION February 2009, head on over to our thread for more details.

TBS Orders 80 Episodes of Meet the Browns; NATPE Day 2 Updates; ION Goes HD on Feb. 16

Tyler Perry was at the NATPE yesterday in Las Vegas, and announced that TBS has picked-up 80 additional episodes of the sitcom Meet the Browns. TBS has not officially announced it yet, but will soon. Meet the Browns is currently airing Wednesdays at 9pm and is in the middle of its first 10 episodes, and now TBS will order 80 more episodes. This is very similar when TBS ordered 100 episodes of House of Payne after its initial 10-episode run, but those 10 aired in select markets on broadcast stations and not on TBS. The first two episodes of Meet the Browns marked cable's second-highest premiere for an original sitcom behind only Tyler Perry's other series, House of Payne premiere in June 2007. So far six episodes have aired and it is averaging 3.4 million viewers, 2.2 million households, 910,000 adults 18-34, 1.9 million adults 18-49 and 1.8 million adults 25-54. Very solid for TBS. After this 10-episode run, these new 80 episodes will likely launch in the summer on TBS and the series will likely also go into off-network syndication like House of Payne has. Meet the Browns could launch in off-network syndication as early as fall 2010. Pretty fast since they will have many episodes in the can. How can they tape so many so fast?

In other NATPE news, we have some cable news from the conference. style Network has acquired the exclusive off-network rights to Supernanny from Disney-ABC Domestic Television. style will get all five seasons of the reality series and will begin airing the reruns in Fall 2009. ABC has not yet announced if Supernanny will get a sixth season, but it is very likely.
A new premium cable channel will launch this fall. The new premium cable channel will be called epix. epix will be joint a venture between Paramount Pictures, MGM and Lionsgate. epix will make movies and entertainment accessible on multiple platforms. The network will combine new and classic feature films and original television series from studios including Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate. epix will have exclusive access to Paramount, Paramount Vantage, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies released theatrically on or after January 1, 2008 and MGM, United Artists and Lionsgate titles released theatrically on or after January 1, 2009. It will also have access to more than 15,000 motion picture titles spanning the studios' vast libraries and will feature new original television series and live event programming. Among the films they will air are The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Duchess, Iron Man, Cloverfield, Defiance, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, New in Town, The Spiderwick Chronicles and Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail. epix also will have the rights to all 17 re-mastered James Bond movies as well as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It doesn't look like any classic TV or older TV series will air on this network.
Finally, Connection III Entertainment's weekend half-hour Made in Hollywood and Made in Hollywood: Teen Edition have been picked up by CBS owned-stations for first-run syndication in fall 2009. 21 markets have been bought. Made in Hollywood will enter its fifth season while spinoff Teen Edition will enter its fourth season. Made in Hollywood features set visits with directors, writer, producers and actors as they work on upcoming movies. The Teen Edition covers all that and also shows teens what kinds of jobs are available in the film industry and how to get them. In NY, Made in Hollywood already airs on WCBS, Saturdays at 3am, but the Teen Edition airs on WLNY, an independent station, Wednesdays at 9am.

ION Television will launch in high definition (HD) providing a fully enhanced HD simulcast of the newly rebranded "Positively Entertaining" network, beginning Monday, February 16. ION Television HD will initially roll out to 20 markets within ION's 55 market footprint – including top DMA's like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago – with additional roll-outs to occur throughout the year. The first phase of the ION TV HD launch will reach over 46 million households. ION Media Networks' digital TV brands, Qubo and ION Life, will also be launched across digital platforms in high definition later in 2009.
Viewers can look forward to a mix of compelling television series, theatrical and made-for-television movies and specials on ION Television HD. The ION Television network features hit programs from CBS Television, NBC Universal, RHI Entertainment, Sony Pictures Television, Twentieth Television and Warner Bros., among others.
ION Television in HD will be launched from its newly designed, state-of-the-art transmission platform via expanded satellite transponder capacity. That national distribution will then be delivered over-the-air via DTV broadcast, cable, telco-TV and satellite. The network will feature native and up-converted HD programming, and will be carried on all 60 of ION Media Network's television stations around the country.
View the full list of initial roll-out markets for ION HD and the list of markets launching later in 2009.

MGM/Weigel's This TV Cleared for More Stations; NATPE 2009 Day 1 Update; ION Television Sees Ratings Growth

On the opening day of the National Association of Television Program Executives conference (NATPE), MGM Domestic Television (MGM) and Weigel Broadcasting announced key stations from Tribune Broadcasting Company have been added as new affiliates for "This TV," the new digital service featuring hit movies and TV series from the expansive and treasured MGM library. TV series include Mister Ed and The Patty Duke Show. The clearance level is now over 60% of the country. New stations include the digital feeds of the following: Tribune's KTLA-TV (Los Angeles), WPHL-TV (Philadelphia), WDCW-TV (Washington D.C.), WTIC-TV/WTXX (Hartford) and WGNO/WNOL (New Orleans) as well as Sunbeam's WHDH (Boston). The digital network has also added 15 additional stations from Raycom, including WUAB (Cleveland), WXIX (Cincinnati), WMC (Memphis), WAVE (Louisville), and WNTZ (Knoxville). In addition, Quincy Newspapers, Inc. affiliates: WKOW (Madison), KWWL (Cedar Rapids), WSJV (South Bend), and WAOW (Wausau).
If you're in those markets, check those affiliates' digital subchannels to see if This TV has already launched. They are expected to launch immediately, if they haven't already.

In other NATPE news, Disney-ABC's Legend of the Seeker will return for a second season next season and CBS Television Distribution's Star Trek: The Next Generation will return to syndication this fall airing mostly weekdays in the late nights. Star Trek: The Next Generation will air on top Tribune stations, and has already been bought by WGN America on cable, which they started airing last week. Litton Entertainment announced that Storm Stories will return for a second season in syndication. It mostly airs on the weekends in many markets and allows TV stations to incorporate local weather talent and news into the show. Litton's first-run series Street Court, starring Michael "Judge Mazz" Mazzariello, is a firm go for fall 2009, with 65% of the country cleared, including WPIX in New York and WCIU in Chicago.
View the full list of shows being offered for stations to buy. Now this doesn't mean they will air next fall, but this is what is being offered for 2009-10 in syndication. We will have a better idea what is confirmed and a firm go by the end of NATPE. For example, first-run talk show Marie is not yet a firm go, but Street Court, The Wendy Williams Show, and Dr. Mehmet Oz are firm gos. Judge Jeanine Pirro is entering first-run syndication for its second season coming off its run on The CW Daytime however it is not a firm go yet, while Tyra Banks Show will leave syndication and move to The CW Daytime.
Other series leaving syndication: Twentieth Television's The Morning Show With Mike and Juliet, Debmar-Mercury's Trivial Pursuit: America Plays, and Sony Pictures Television's Judge David Young and Judge Karen. They are all canceled and will not return. A few other shows are also almost dead, such as Twentieth's third-year series Cristina's Court. The Doctors has been confirmed it will return next season, and some of the other series expected to come back are Deal Or No Deal, Family Court With Judge Penny, and The Bonnie Hunt Show, though all of those have not done exceptional in the ratings.
We will keep you up to date of more clearances, especially the off-network reruns such as Everybody Hates Chris, The Office, My Name is Earl, Bones, Criminal Minds, Grey's Anatomy, and The E! True Hollywood Story. Check out the offer list above!

ION Television ended 2008 with significant growth in primetime viewership, including marked growth in the adults 25-54 and 18-49 demos. ION TV's primetime household viewership has grown 67%, jumping from a 0.3 to 0.5 household rating, since the introduction of the network's new, robust slate of critically acclaimed off-net series in September. This viewership growth has well positioned ION TV as one of the fastest growing entertainment networks, up 26% among adults 18-49, ranking second, and up 25% among adults 25-54, ranking third, of all major broadcast and cable networks, in a year over year growth comparison.
View the full press release.

SitcomsOnline Turns 10; ION Television February 2009 Highlights; Morning Show Reunited TV Stars, Including Small Wonder Reunion

As we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. today, there are a few TV marathons of note. Sanford & Son on TV Land, The Proud Family on BET, CSI: NY on Spike TV, and the King movie on TV One.
Today is also a VERY special day here at SitcomsOnline! We celebrate 10 years online! This blog has been around for 3 1/2 years or so, but SitcomsOnline was born 10 years ago today. SitcomsOnline launched on January 19, 1999. However, Happy Days Online started it all on May 12, 1997. Then came sites for Diff'rent Strokes, Gimme a Break!, Mork & Mindy, The Courtship of Eddie's Father in 1998 then mini sites for Hello, Larry and Please Don't Eat the Daisies before SitcomsOnline launched in January 1999. After SO launched, full sites for Webster, Hogan Family, Silver Spoons, Family Ties, and The Facts of Life were created, along with many mini sites. My Jack's Bistro website just celebrated its 10th anniversary in December as well. Can't believe it has been 10 years.
SitcomsOnline.com was created by Todd Fuller in 1999 to develop an online shrine to every sitcom ever to have been seen. SitcomsOnline.com has been featured in many media and news publications, such as TVGuide Magazine and Entertainment Weekly, and was featured in a syndicated TV-news story on Sitcoms in early 2004.
SitcomsOnline.com features sitcom news, news blog, links, theme songs in audio & video, message boards, show pages, sitcoms on DVD purchasing and the very popular DVD Review System. SitcomsOnline.com showcases all-time Classic hits such as Happy Days, Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life and I Love Lucy, and modern hits such as Friends, 30 Rock and The Big Bang Theory.
Share your memories of the website. We hope you like it here and continue to come for many years to come! Ya'll came back now ya here?

Moving on to other news, ION Television has announced its February 2009 line-up. There are no real changes to the line-up, just minor stuff. Only changes are that Wednesday movies have been added in early evening starting at 6:30pm and another one in primetime, so Boston Legal will only be Tuesday nights now. Thursday movie encores remain in early evening leading into the regular Thursday primetime movie. So two nights of primetime movies now (Wednesday and Thursday). Friday late afternoon movie encores are removed, and the regular schedule is inserted back, but with M*A*S*H on Fridays 6-7pm. The ION movie premieres are Sphere, Heat, Soldier, Analyze This, National Lampoon's European Vacation, Pale Rider, and Murder in the First. RHI movies on weekends include The Temptations, Fatal Error, Final Days of Planet Earth and Valentine's themed movies A Stranger's Heart, Love's Unending Legacy, Love is a Four Letter Word, Love's Abiding Joy, and Love's Unfolding Dream.
View the full ION Television February 2009 highlights.

Talk show The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet last week had a week-long feature called, "Whatever Happened To?" I know we didn't alert you before it aired, but you can still watch it online! Isn't it great, everything is available on demand these days? On Monday, whatever happened to Jimmie "J.J." Walker of Good Times? M&J catch up with the man who made "Dy-no-mite!" a household word! Catch the video! On Tuesday, whatever happened to Winnie from The Wonder Years? Brainy beauty Danica McKellar reveals her hugely popular second career, and proves how sexy being smart can be! See what Danica looks like now! On Wednesday, it was my personal favorite of the week! Whatever happened to that cute little girl from the weirdest show on television? Tiffany Brissette tells M&J what's she's been doing since playing Vicki on the '80s sitcom Small Wonder! If that's not all, Mike & Juliet reunite other stars from the show as a surprise...Dick Christie, Marla Pennington and Edie McClurg for a mini reunion! You must catch this! Finally, on Thursday, M&J catch up with Patty Duke from The Patty Duke Show! Find out how the Oscar winner finally found peace after a tumultuous life on and off the set. View the video.
Check out the videos! It's too bad they are so short interviews. The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet airs weekday mornings in syndication, check local listings for time and channel in your area. The show will run through the end of the summer before signing off.

35th Annual People's Choice Awards Winners; ION Announces Original Series; WWE Coming to WGN America on Thursdays in April

The 35th Annual People's Choice Awards aired last night on CBS. Here are the television portion winners:

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

FAVORITE TV COMEDY
Samantha Who? (ABC)
Two and a Half Men (CBS)
Ugly Betty (ABC)
WINNER: Two and a Half Men (CBS)

FAVORITE ANIMATED COMEDY
Family Guy (Fox)
The Simpsons (Fox)
South Park (Comedy Central)
WINNER: The Simpsons (Fox)

FAVORITE SCI-FI / FANTASY SHOW
Heroes (NBC)
Supernatural (The CW)
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Fox)
WINNER: Heroes (NBC)

FAVORITE COMPETITION / REALITY SHOW
American Idol (Fox)
Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC)
WINNER: Dancing with the Stars (ABC)

FAVORITE GAME SHOW
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (Fox)
Deal Or No Deal (NBC/Syndicated)
JEOPARDY! (Syndicated, CBS Television Distribution)
WINNER: Deal Or No Deal (NBC/Syndicated)

FAVORITE MALE TV STAR
Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy, ABC)
Hugh Laurie (House, Fox)
Charlie Sheen (Two and a Half Men, CBS)
WINNER: Hugh Laurie (House, Fox)

FAVORITE FEMALE TV STAR
Christina Applegate (Samantha Who?, ABC)
Sally Field (Brothers & Sisters, ABC)
Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: SVU, NBC)
WINNER: Christina Applegate (Samantha Who?, ABC)

FAVORITE TALK SHOW HOST
Ellen DeGeneres (Syndicated, Warner Bros.)
David Letterman (CBS)
Regis Philbin & Kelly Ripa (Syndicated, ABC Studios)
WINNER: Ellen DeGeneres (Syndicated, Warner Bros.)

FAVORITE SCENE-STEALING GUEST STAR (NEW CATEGORY)
Luke Perry on Law & Order: SVU, NBC
Britney Spears on How I Met Your Mother, CBS
Robin Williams on Law & Order: SVU, NBC
WINNER: Robin Williams on Law & Order: SVU, NBC

FAVORITE TV DRAMA DIVA (NEW CATEGORY)
Holly Hunter as Grace Hanadarko on Saving Grace, TNT
Mary-Louise Parker as Nancy Botwin on Weeds, Showtime
Kyra Sedgwick as Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson on The Closer, TNT
WINNER: Kyra Sedgwick as Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson on The Closer, TNT

FAVORITE NEW TV DRAMA
90210, The CW
Fringe, Fox
The Mentalist, CBS
WINNER: The Mentalist, CBS

FAVORITE NEW TV COMEDY
Gary Unmarried, CBS
Kath & Kim, NBC
Worst Week, CBS
WINNER: Gary Unmarried, CBS

View the full list of winners and also view video highlights from the event last night.


Meanwhile, ION Television will launch an original series this year. ION Television has acquired the exclusive U.S. rights to the critically acclaimed and award-winning original TV series, Durham County. The network has secured all U.S. television, digital media rights, internet streaming and video-on-demand rights for the program. ION Television will debut the procedural crime one-hour series to its audience in 2009.
Durham County stars Hugh Dillon, star of the CBS police action series Flashpoint. In Durham County, Dillon plays Detective Mike Sweeney, a homicide detective who moves his family to suburban Durham County to start over after his partner is killed and his wife Audrey (Hélène Joy) is diagnosed with breast cancer. However, he soon discovers that his neighbor and childhood nemesis Ray Prager (Justin Louis) may be a serial killer, setting off an intense showdown between the two complex men and their families.
With eerie crime storylines, Durham County, along with the CBS hit show Criminal Minds (which joins ION in Fall 2009), will offer Positively Thrilling primetime appointment viewing on ION Television. Durham County comes from ITV Global Entertainment.

WGN America will adde WWE wrestling to its Thursday primetime line-up starting in April. WGN America and World Wrestling Entertainment enter the ring with a new television partnership. WWE Superstars, a first run, original program will air exclusively on WGN America, Tribune Broadcasting's national Superstation.
The action-packed WWE Superstars, part of a new multi-year agreement with WGN America, will be produced by WWE and will feature 'Superstars and Divas' from the entire WWE roster.
The hour-long weekly program, scheduled to debut in April 2009, will provide WGN America viewers the chance to see Superstars and Divas from all three WWE franchises in one program. WWE Superstars is scheduled to air on Thursday nights at 8 and 11pm ET with an additional run on the weekend (Saturday afternoons).
WWE Superstars will replace the Thursday night Movie Underground on WGN America in the 8pm hour and the 11pm encore will replace two episodes of Scrubs on the night. Saturday afternoon time encore has not yet been announced. We will have more details on the schedule, as we get it.

ION Television January 2009 Sees Returns of Drew Carey and Quantum Leap; Nick at Nite Scores in 2008

ION Television will returns a few series this January 2009, while dropping one and reducing another. But first the series that will be dropped will get more plays the first few weeks of January. For the weeks of December 29 and January 5, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper will air in the weekdays at 4-5pm hour replacing M*A*S*H. M*A*S*H will remain in the 6-7pm hour on Saturdays and Sundays. Cooper will also still air in its Mon-Thurs 6-7pm hour the week of December 29 but for the week of January 5, those airings will be moved to 5-6pm, as The Steve Harvey Show moves to the Mon-Thurs 6-7pm hour. Then effective the following week, January 12, both hours of Hangin' with Mr. Cooper will be replaced by the sitcom The Drew Carey Show (weekdays 4-5pm) and sci-fi drama Quantum Leap (Mon-Wed 5pm), as both series return to the line-up, while. Mr. Cooper is leaving the line-up totally for now. Also, on Thursdays starting Jan. 8 from 5-8pm will now be encores of theatrical movies leading into Total Theatre Thursday at 8pm. This is in addition to the encores on Fridays from 5-7pm. So, the regular series airing from 5-8pm will only be Mon-Wed, but 4-5pm (Drew Carey) gets five days a week.
In primetime, NCIS and Boston Legal will still rule, but a few minor changes will occur. Effective week of Jan. 5, NCIS will now air for the full night on Mondays from 8-11pm, while Boston Legal will now air for the full nights on Tuesdays & Wednesdays from 8-11pm. This is a better way to remember when these shows are on, as previously NCIS was on Mondays 9-11pm and Tuesdays 9pm, while Boston Legal was on Mon-Wed 8pm, Tuesday at 10, Wednesdays 9-11pm...confusing, now it is much easier. Of course Thursdays will be the theatrical movie in primetime and Fri-Sun in primetime it is the RHI film.
As for those movies, the theatrical ones will be James Bond themed for the most part in the month as we see classic '80s Bond flicks For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983) and A View to Kill (1985) on Thursdays in primetime, with a Bond week of these three films airing in primetime from Jan. 27-29. On New Year's Day we get the theatrical movie Double Impact (1991) in primetime on Thursday. Thursday and Friday early evening airings (Thursdays 5-8pm, Fridays 5-7p) include those movies above encores, Matchstick Men, Major League: Back To The Minors, and Sphere.
As for RHI Entertainment, some first time airings will air such as To Dance with Olivia, National Lampoon's Attack Of The 5'2" Women, Final Days of Planet Earth, and Human Trafficking. ION will also premiere the world premiere event for the miniseries The Diplomat on Saturday, January 24.
View complete details on ION Television January 2009.

Nick at Nite is total day's number-one basic cable network in 2008 with Adult 18-49 delivery. Marking its most-watched year in four years with A18-49, Nick at Nite placed second overall only to sister-channel Nickelodeon for the year with total viewers. The network posted 11 consecutive months (January - November 2008) of double-digit growth this year with both A18-49 and total viewers.
Nick at Nite is ranked number one with Adults 18-49 for 2008 in total day, according to Nielsen Media Research (12/31/07-12/14/08)--averaging a 0.6 rating (655,000 viewers 18-49) A18-49 (up 20% in rating over last year), and marking its most-watched year in four years with A18-49.
BOTH men and women watch. Among Men 18-49, Nick at Nite is cable's fastest-growing cable entertainment network, averaging a 0.4 rating (245,000 viewers) M18-49 (up 33% in rating) -- its most-watched year ever. Nick at Nite was the number-one ranked network with Women 18-49 for the fifth straight year in total day, averaging a 0.7 rating (410,000 viewers) W18-49 (up 17%).
In prime time, Nick at Nite averaged a 0.7 rating and 1.7 million total viewers--up 40% over last year (Nick at Nite airs 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET/PT in primetime with Home Improvement and George Lopez hours).
Driven by family comedies and new original hits such as George Lopez, Family Matters, Home Improvement, and Gym Teacher: The Movie, Nick at Nite's programming highlights include:
* George Lopez (airs regularly at 10 p.m. [all times ET/PT]) averaged a 0.6 rating (716,000 viewers 18-49) with A18-49 (10 p.m.) for the year, up 50% over last year's like time period. The series also encores at 1 a.m. and does even better.
* Family Matters (airs regularly at 11 p.m.) averaged a 0.7 rating (753,000 viewers 18-49) with A18-49 in 2008, up 40%.
* Home Improvement (airs regularly at 9 p.m.) averaged a 0.4 rating (450,000 viewers 18-49) A18-49, up 33% over last year. The series also airs at 12 a.m. and does even better.
* Gym Teacher, a Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite original TV family movie (premiered Friday, Sept. 12, 8 p.m.) was the number-one telecast on broadcast and basic cable television for the night with kids 2-11, earning a 4.6 kids 2-11 rating and 1.6 million kids 2-11 viewers, up 59% over last year. Gym Teacher: The Movie drew 3.0 million total viewers (up 73%).
Stay tuned tomorrow for highlights and insight for Nick at Nite January 2009!

ION Adds New Movies to Christmas Slate; According to Jim Returns Tonight; CBS Midseason 2009 Schedule and More Network Notes

ION Television today announced that is has inked a deal with Aro Entertainment to acquire two originally produced holiday-themed films. Christmas Town, starring Nicole de Boer (The Dead Zone, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) and Patrick Muldoon (Melrose Place), will air Thursday, December 11 at 9:00 p.m. ET and The Christmas Clause, starring Lea Thompson (Caroline in the City), will premiere on ION Television the following week on Thursday, December 18 at 9:00 p.m. ET.
The "Positively Entertaining" network also has plans to debut the classic Pinocchio, a four-hour adaptation of the beloved masterpiece, on Sunday, December 14 at 7:00 p.m. ET. The original miniseries stars Golden Globe winner Bob Hoskins as Geppetto and Robbie Kay as Pinocchio.
View more on ION December 2008.

As we mentioned, don't forget tonight on ABC it is the eighth season premiere of sitcom According to Jim following the holiday classic Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. Yes, According to Jim is returning for one final season and the fun starts tonight at 9pm ET/PT on ABC with two all-new back-to-back episodes that are set during the holidays. The According to Jim holiday-themed fun continues next week at 9pm and on Dec. 16 at 9pm with guest star Steve Guttenberg! Then on Dec. 30 at 9:30pm, an all-new episode to coincide with the New Year's holiday. According to Jim will then have regular all-new episodes on Tuesdays starting Jan. 6 in its new time period of 8-9pm. So celebrate the holidays with Jim all this month and then join Jim starting in January for one final hurrah!

CBS today announced midseason schedule changes that include the return of the drama Flashpoint, the premiere of the mystery event Harper's Island, the debut of the new game show Game Show in My Head and the returns of reality hits Survivor and The Amazing Race.
Game Show in My Head launches first and it is a hidden camera game show from Ashton Kutcher, premiering Saturday, Jan. 3 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT). Ordinary people must perform extraordinary tasks on an unsuspecting public to win up to $50,000. Under the watchful eye of host Joe Rogan, each contestant performs five outrageous, embarrassing and hilarious tasks worth $5,000 each. In a no-holds-barred bonus round, each contestant has the chance to double their money up to $50,000. It will replace the first hour of CBS crime repeats. We're not sure yet how many episodes have been ordered.
Flashpoint, last summer's top original scripted series, returns Friday, Jan. 9 in the 9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT time period replacing various CBS drama repeats.
Harper's Island, a 13-episode mystery event, premieres Thursday, April 9 from 10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT and concludes Thursday, July 2 from 10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT. The series is about a group of family and friends who travel to a secluded island for a destination wedding. They've come to laugh... to love... and, though they don't know it... to die. As the wedding festivities begin, friendships are tested and secrets exposed as a murderer claims victims, one by one, transforming the wedding week of fun and celebration into a terrifying struggle for survival. In every episode, someone is killed and every person is a suspect, from the wedding party to the island locals. By the end of the 13 episodes, all questions will be answered, the killer will be revealed and only a few will survive. It will replace Eleventh Hour, which would have wrapped its season by then. More on that below.
Finally, CBS will return Survivor with its 18th season on Thursday, Feb. 12 and The Amazing Race on Sunday, Feb. 15 for its 14th season. Survivor will replace various encores while Race replaces Million Dollar Password. No word yet on returning sitcom Rules of Engagement will return for its all-new season. Worst Week was ordered for three additional episodes, so I'm guessing it will be replaced by Rules of Enagement after that. Just a hunch, we'll let you know when we know.
View the full CBS midseason 2009 press release.

CBS has picked up five more episodes of Jerry Bruckheimer's Thursday crime drama Eleventh Hour. The episode order is now up to 18 episodes for the season. The show has done nearly 12 million following CSI, not great retention but 12 million is good. Could CBS be doing better in the slot? Yes. If they thought not, then we would have seen a full 22 episodes for Eleventh Hour. We will see Harper's Island take over in the slot starting April 9, as mentioned above.
The CW will launch new midseason scary reality series 13: Fear is Real on Wednesday, January 7, airing Wednesdays at 8pm with encores on Fridays at 9pm. 13: Fear is Real will keep the slot warm for America's Next Top Model when it returns in March. 13: Fear is Real is a spine-tingling new eight-episode series combining the horror genre with a reality show format. Contestants are energetic, competitive and are full of personality, as they try to be part of television's first scary competition reality show and win a grand prize of $66,666. Talk about bad luck!

ION Television December 2008 Highlights; CBS Picks-Up More Episodes for 'Gary', 'Worst', While NBC Adds More 'Medium'

ION Television has announced its December 2008 schedule and highlights, and there will be no regular changes to the line-up...but there will be plenty of holiday movies and holiday episodes! ION's holiday airings start on Friday, December 12 in the RHI block with the 2007 TV-Movie, A Grandpa for Christmas. Other RHI holiday movies in the weekend RHI block include Silent Night, Hogfather, Night They Saved Christmas, and more. ION will also have a holiday TV-movie week the week of December 22-25 from 4-6pm these four nights with more holiday fun such as the ION premieres of 2008 films My Santa My Dad and The Elf Who Didn't Believe. Four holiday episodes of Hangin' with Mr. Cooper will air Dec. 17-18 in its regular 6-7pm time slot and four M*A*S*H holiday episodes will air the weekend of Dec. 20-21 from 6-7pm. And during the week of December 22, you can catch two classic Boston Legal Christmas episodes, including "The Nutcracker." The Thursday Total Theatre Warner Bros. movies are not in yet, so we don't know what is airing there yet. We will update you on that and if any more things change on our message board as soon as we know. So view our ION Television December 2008 highlights.

CBS Wednesday comedy Gary Unmarried, starring Jay Mohr, will have an additional seven episodes at least this year, bringing the total from 13 to 20 episodes. Two additional scripts were also ordered, so if it does well, we could see up to 22 episodes this season. Meanwhile, CBS has ordered three more episodes of struggling Monday sitcom Worst Week from 13 episodes to 16 episodes. The untraditional sitcom is a critical darling but has not capitalized out of the #1 sitcom, Two and a Half Men. 4 scripts were ordered previously, so one more script has yet to turn into an episode order. CBS still has Rules of Engagement coming in midseason, so if Worst Week doesn't pick-up, you'll see Rules there by February or March. Remember February sweeps doesn't start until March 5 this year because of the transition to digital TV in mid-February.
NBC has ordered 6 additional episodes of Medium, its veteran supernatural drama starring Patricia Arquette. The order brings the total from 13 episodes to 19 episodes for its fifth season. NBC recently canceled Monday drama My Worst Own Enemy and Friday drama Lipstick Jungle, so both will be out of here in January, which is when Medium will more than likely launch. Originally the show was set to launch Sundays at 9PM after Sunday Night Football concludes, but now that will likely change. As soon as NBC announces its revised midseason schedule, we will let you know. I bet it will return to its original Monday at 10pm slot followed the sinking Heroes.

ION Television November Highlights; Fox Cancels King of the Hill, Renews American Dad!

Happy Halloween! Don't forget to tune in to the best Halloween marathon of the day in WGN America's Munsters marathon from 4pm-12am ET. Nick at Nite also has a Halloween marathon tonight with Halloween episodes of Home Improvement, George Lopez and Family Matters from 10pm-1am tonight. Be scared of laughs!

ION Television has announced its November 2008 schedule finally and ER is now officially off the line-up. ER hasn't aired since October 6, with ION making changes each week that it would not air...and now it is official, it is gone. Mondays at 10pm replacing ER will be another episode of NCIS, which will still also air Mondays and Tuesdays at 9pm. Replacing ER Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 10pm will be more Boston Legal. Boston Legal will still also air Mon-Thurs 8pm and Wednesdays 9pm. It seems ER was a dud for ION in the ratings. In other changes, ION has added an additional airing for Warner Bros. movies, airing now also Fridays 5-7pm ET. in addition to Thursday in primetime. Warner movis for November are Casino, Antitrust, Young Guns II, and yet again Above the Law.
RHI Weekend movies include the premiere of Archangel tomorrow night from 8-11pm ET and the premiere of The Color of Magic on Sunday, November 23 from 7-11pm ET. RHI movie encores include recent movies such as Final Approach, Lone Rider, Prairie Fever, and two McBride movies.
On Sunday, November 9, in addition to its regular 6-7pm airing, M*A*S*H will also air 7-8pm leading into the encore of Archangel from 8-11pm. ION has not yet announced what they will do for the Thanksgiving week (November 24-30). If they are doing anything out of the ordinary, we will let you know.
For now view the ION Television November 2008 schedule and highlights.

Fox has canceled King of the Hill after thirteen production seasons. What do I mean by "production seasons?" Well, right now it is actually in its 13th season, but they are still airing episodes form the 12th season. These animated series produce episodes well in advance and all way far ahead in production. For example Fox still has a lot of episodes from the 12th cycle to air and could start some of the 13th cycle by the end of this season. The 13th cycle has 13 episodes, and so these will be the final 13 episodes. Most of these will air NEXT season (2009-2010), so while King of the Hill has been canceled, it still will have episodes airing next season, unless Fox decides not to air them for some reason (which I doubt). I guess it all depends on how the new mid-season animated comedies Sit Down, Shut Up and The Cleveland Show do.
Meanwhile, Fox has renewed American Dad! for a fifth production season. The series is currently airing episodes from late in its third production season (but it is in its fourth season). Episodes from the fourth production season start airing in early December, so they'll air most of the fourth production season this season. So American Dad! will be on the air until at least through the end of 2010. Good news for fans, as the series has not made head way in the ratings. Anything beyond the fifth production season all depends on how new mid-season animated comedies Sit Down, Shut Up and The Cleveland Show do.

Ron Howard Reprises His Opie and Richie Roles for Obama; Minor Changes for Hallmark, ION and CBS Monday

Opie Taylor and Richie Cunningham are both back! Ron Howard has reprised both of his classic TV roles for an ad supporting Barack Obama! It is a hilarious salute to those characters and shows, but also supports Obama and he urges Americans out there to vote and to change America. Ron is not the only one in the video either. Ron has reunited with Andy Griffith for his Opie/Andy segment and Henry Winkler for his Richie/Fonzie segment. These characters haven't been done in decades, so it is fun to see them reprise their roles! The Andy Griffith Show segment was even in black and white with Opie in his green/yellow striped t-shirt and fishing rod! The Happy Days segment had Henry Winkler's Fonzie in his trademark leather coat and Richie with his blue sweater outside of Arnold's. Ahyyyay!!! You even see Ron shave off his beard and trim his nose air for this video! He really does want Americans to vote and change this country. See the four-minute video for yourself! It's worth watching...whether you be a Democrat or Republican. Ron Howard has certainly found his "thrill on blueberry hill!"

Effective this weekend (Oct. 25-26), Cheers will not air on weekends anymore on The Hallmark Channel. It was airing Saturday nights 1-3am, Sunday mornings 10am-12pm, and Sunday nights from 1-3am. Cheers will only air weekdays from 4-5pm starting next week (Oct. 27).
Next week on ION Television, we will still not see any ER. ER's Mon-Wed at 10pm airings have been replaced for next week (Oct. 27-31) as well, on Monday we will see an extra NCIS and Tuesday & Wednesday we will see more Boston Legal. Did you know ER has not been seen since its Monday, Oct. 6 airing? ION's November schedule is still not out yet, and I'm sure they are trying to find a permanent replacement for the lower rated ER. As soon as their November schedule is in, I'll let you know. Right now only Nov. 1 and 2 is available, and that's a weekend. Speaking of ION, looks like the Warner Bros. movies are doing well, because they are having another movie marathon tonight from 4pm-11pm.
CBS has made a minor change for this coming Monday only. Wednesday sitcom Gary Unmarried (Pilot Repeat) will air Monday, October 27, 2008 at 9:30pm ET/PT replacing a repeat of Worst Week. The rest of the CBS comedies are also repeats the entire night on Oct. 27.

ION Television Goes HD; Steve Harvey Gets Exposure on TBS; Fox Surprisingly Picks-Up Sarah Connor For Full Season

ION Media Networks, Inc., owner and operator of the nation's largest television station group, today announced plans to launch its suite of networks – ION Television, qubo, and ION Life – in high definition in 2009. ION Television, the Company's flagship general entertainment network, will be available in high definition (HD) as ION Television HD beginning the first quarter of 2009. The HD simulcast of the newly branded "Positively Entertaining" network will serve to fully enhance consumers' overall viewing experience.
Viewers can look forward to a mix of compelling television series, theatrical and made-for-television movies and specials on ION Television HD. The newly rebranded ION Television network features hit programs from CBS Television, NBC Universal, RHI Entertainment, Sony Pictures Television, Twentieth Television and Warner Bros., among others. The network's fall 2008 lineup is led by off-network hits including NCIS, Boston Legal, and ER. Critically acclaimed miniseries and original productions from RHI Entertainment will be made available in high quality HD, as will blockbuster theatrical movies such as Batman Returns, GoodFellas, Analyze This, and You've Got Mail.
ION Television in HD will be launched from its newly designed, state-of-the-art transmission platform via expanded satellite transponder capacity. That national distribution will then be delivered over-the-air via DTV broadcast, cable, telco-TV and satellite. The network will feature native and up-converted HD programming, and will be carried on all 60 of ION Media Network's television stations around the country.
Now you can watch Denny Crane and the gang in HD like it is supposed to be!

On Saturday night if you were expecting to watch Game 6 of the MLB ALCS between the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays on TBS at 8PM ET, you missed the beginning because of an outage. TBS had technical difficulties that prevented it from showing the first 20 minutes of the game and also the end of the pregame show before it. In place of the game, TBS showed an episode of sitcom The Steve Harvey Show. A crawl on the screen ran repeatedly, saying: "We are experiencing technical difficulties." The game started at 8:08 p.m., but the broadcast didn't begin until 8:28 p.m., when Carlos Pena, the seventh batter of the game, walked in the bottom of the first inning. TBS then showed a replay of a home run by B.J. Upton, the previous batter, that put the Rays ahead 1-0.
So what happened: TBS had experienced router failure in Atlanta (their headquarters), which caused transmission problems. Steve Harvey Show wasn't the only filler TBS used while trying to restore its feed, lost toward the end of the pregame broadcast. At that time, TBS ran an abbreviated episode of Dick Clark's Bloopers special (with Elise Neal of The Hughleys) from 1999. I saw that and it was very funny and featured lots of flubs from newscasts and TV stations (how appropriate for TBS today!), but turned it off when Harvey came on. I personally didn't get back into the game until the third inning, thanks to this flub.
But at least sitcoms got more exposure! We'll let you know the ratings, if we get them for Harvey.

Second season action series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has been picked-up for nine more episodes, giving it a full twenty-two episode order for the season. This was a surprise move by Fox, because the show has gone down in the ratings by a lot this season averaging just under 6 million viewers and in the low 2's in the 18-49 demo. The show does get a little boost in the seven-day DVR ratings, giving it just under 7 million viewers, but still a far cry what it did last year. The show launched out of huge Cowboys-Giants NFL playoff game that drew 40 million, for its series premiere last winter. The series did 18 million for its premiere. The show then obviously dropped after that to just above 8 million on average, but did much better than it is doing now.
The show could be used with American Idol or the return of 24 in January to help bring it back to life. But Fox would give a better slot to Fringe and the upcoming new series Dollhouse probably instead. No word on Prison Break, but this will likely be its last season.

More Slots for Boston Legal on ION This Week; ABC.com Goes Retro on Thursday; Upcoming Seven Questions Preview

ION Television will add more timeslots for Boston Legal this week. As of now, it is just for this week. Originally it was only stated for Mon-Thurs at 8:00PM and Wednesdays at 9:00PM. Now ION has also added for this week Tuesday at 10:00PM and Wednesday at 10:00PM, both replacing ER, which seems to be underperforming for the network. Last week Legal replaced ER on Wednesday at 10:00PM, so I wonder if ION will make the announcement soon that this will be until further notice, but as of now these changes are for this week only. ER is only on once this week, and that was last night at 10:00PM. Legal is airing 8 times this week, but three of them are encores. Legal and NCIS, which can only air twice a week, have done well for the network since being added last month. Criminal Minds and Ghost Whisperer are coming to ION in 2009, and I think they will do as well.
In other changes, it seems Flash Gordon on Fridays isn't doing well, as yet again a Warner Bros. movie will air Friday from 7-9pm this week. Above the Law (1988) will air leading into an RHI movie (Tornado) at 9pm. Flash Gordon has been preempted for the last few weeks (last week ION aired a Warner movie marathon from 4-10:30pm), but as of now, it is scheduled for next Friday.

I thought this was worth mentioning as we have a big following for retro stuff here at SitcomsOnline.com. Beginning Thursday, October 9, the home page of ABC.com will give a nod to 1973 with a retro main page for the premiere of the new drama, Life on Mars (launching that night at 10PM ET/PT). The home page will offer the same categories (schedule, shows, community, full episode player, etc.) but in the signature monochromatic green font, popular to DOS in the 70s. After clicking on their desired section, users will be transported back to the ABC.com of 2008.
Additionally on the Life on Mars section you will see the songs of 1973. Get down with streaming songs on the 1973 Radio Player. The selections will include album cover art, song title and album title.
Where were you in 1973? NYPD Detective Sam Tyler (Jason O'Mara) finds himself in the cultural hotbed of New York City in the tumultuous times of the Vietnam War, Watergate, women's lib and the civil and gay rights movements without a cell phone, computer, PDA or MP3 player -- suddenly hurtled back in time when he's ripped from 2008 after being hit by a car while chasing down a criminal. He's trying mightily to understand what has just happened to him and how he can get back "home." In her return to series television, Lisa Bonet (Cosby Show) has a supporting role. The all-star cast also includes Harvey Keitel as Lieutenant Gene Hunt, Michael Imperioli as Detective Ray Carling, Gretchen Mol as Annie Norris and Jonathan Murphy as Detective Chris Skelton.
I have watched the premiere and I must say they do a great job of recreating 1973. It looks so retro but has the 2008 look to it. Fans of the great cop shows of the past will want to tune in and fans of cop shows of today, especially funny ones, will want to tune in. It has gotten good reviews and is worth checking out this Thursday at 10/9 central on ABC.

We are working on quite a bit of upcoming Seven Questions interviews. Seven Questions is of course our on-going interview series where we talk to a network or a star and ask them, well...seven questions. We try to ask the most interesting questions that cater to you all...sitcoms, classic TV, and programming. We have interviewed networks like RTN, AmericanLife, ION Television and stars like Alf Clausen in the past, with more coming very soon. First up will be WGN America later this week! You'll want to read this if you are a fan of classic TV and WGN America has brought classic TV back, as we all know! Also in the works (if everything works out): TV Land, Nick at Nite, Too Close for Comfort star Lydia Cornell, and author Chris Mann (Retroality.TV)!

The N's Halloween Stunt Includes Classic Nick Series Are You Afraid of the Dark; More Minor ION Changes

The week of October 25-31 is Halloween Week on The N! To celebrate this haunted holiday, The N will air Halloween-themed programming, including an encore presentation of the Degrassi Halloween specials, Curse of Degrassi and Degrassi of the Dead on Friday, October 31. Also, tune into the classic Nickelodeon series Are You Afraid of the Dark? all-week long, along with special Halloween episodes of The N's hit sitcoms, including That '70s Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Moesha, Zoey 101, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. The N will also premiere the movie Roxy Hunter and the Horrific Halloween on Sunday, October 26 at 8am and Friday, October 31 at 12pm. As for Are You Afraid of the Dark?, it will air Saturday, October 25-Sunday, October 26 from 4-6pm and Monday, October 27-Friday, October 31 from 3:00-4:30pm. The show aired on Nickelodeon from 1991-1996, and was revived in 1999-2000, but actually was a Canadian production from CTV. The series revolved around a group of teenagers who referred to themselves as "The Midnight Society". Every week, at a secret location in the woods, one member would tell a scary story to the group. No idea yet if the series will join The N's line-up come November, but as of now, I don't think so. We'll let you know if it does join, though!
View episode info for the Are You Afraid of the Dark? week and more on The N's October 2008 programming.

ION Television has announced it has replaced the filler airings of The Drew Carey Show with more M*A*S*H. These filler airings are only a few times a month at 10:30PM when the ION Movie runs 2 1/2 hours instead of two hours or three hours, such as this Friday at 10:30PM. So, fans of Drew Carey Show will not see any episodes anymore, unless it is brought back to the regular line-up.

Still early in the day, if any news breaks, we will post...check back!

Hallmark Channel Adds More Cheers; ION Changes for This Week Only; More Cable Deals

We reported back over a month ago the timeslots for Cheers on The Hallmark Channel. Originally it was slated to air Sundays 10am-12pm starting Sunday, October 5. Now Hallmark will add more slots to that! Sunday nights from 1am-3am ET will also be added that night, replacing the Diagnosis Murder movie. It will also be added to Saturday nights as well the following week, starting October 11, from 1am-3am as well, replacing two hours of Walker Texas Ranger. So weekend nights from 1am-3am and Sunday mornings from 10am-12pm. More timeslots for Cheers is certainly good news. Now all it needs is to air on weekdays, so everybody does know its name and they're glad they came to Hallmark!

ION Television has made some changes for this Wednesday and Friday only. On Wednesday, October 1, they have scheduled an extra Boston Legal at 10PM, replacing ER on this night. This is the week Boston Legal expands on ION from just Mondays at 8 to Mon-Thurs at 8 and Wednesdays at 9. So, this Wednesday it will air for the full primetime from 8-11PM. So far the show has done decent and much better than ER. This Friday (October 3), ION will have a Warner Bros. movie marathon from 4PM-10:30PM preempting their regular schedule, including the RHI primetime movies on this night. Movies airing are Above the Law, Unbreakable, and City of Angels, with an episode of Warner Bros. sitcom Drew Carey Show at 10:30pm.
Warner Bros. Thursday movie titles for the month are now in and you'll see Unbreakable, Grumpier Old Men, Matchstick Men, City of Angels and Above the Law each Thursday night in October.
See our ION Television October 2008 blog story for the details we previously relayed.

Bravo has acquired the exclusive cable rights for the original thirteen-episode run of the critically-acclaimed but low rated drama series Swingtown, from CBS. The cable network premiere of the series is scheduled for later this fall. Bravo says it doesn't plan on making original episodes. CBS was said to have been shopping the show to cable for future seasons as they have no plans for additional seasons. So will Bravo be the choice? Swingtown traces two generations of friends and neighbors as they forge intimate connections and explore new freedoms during the culturally transformative decade of the 1970s. The series stars Jack Davenport, Grant Show, Josh Hopkins, Molly Parker, Lana Parrilla, Miriam Shor, Shanna Collins, Aaron Howles and Britt Robertson.
Meanwhile, Oxygen has acquired the exclusive cable rights to the groundbreaking reality competition series America's Next Top Model. The network will bring viewers all the Top Model fashion challenges, photo shoots and model mayhem as the full library of the hit series joins Oxygen in January, 2009. In an agreement with CBS Television Distribution, Oxygen will retain exclusive cable rights to all episodes including the 11th cycle currently airing on the CW, the show's 12th cycle now in production and repeat airings of any future cycles beyond. The Top Model genre of programming and the show's personalities have already proven successful on Oxygen, with The Tyra Banks Show encores airing daily on the network after its run in first-run syndication and former Top Model judge Janice Dickinson's series The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency now in its fourth season on Oxygen.

60th Primetime Emmy Awards Winners; ION Adds More Warner Bros. Movies; New TV Season Begins Tonight

Here are the winners for the main categories at last night's Emmys.

COMEDY SERIES
Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)
The Office (NBC)
Two and a Half Men (CBS)
30 Rock (NBC)
Entourage (HBO)
WINNER: 30 Rock

DRAMA SERIES
Lost (ABC)
House (Fox)
Damages (FX)
Boston Legal (ABC)
Mad Men (AMC)
Dexter (Showtime)
WINNER: Mad Men

LEAD ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock (NBC)
Tony Shalhoub, Monk (USA Network)
Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies (ABC)
Steve Carell, The Office (NBC)
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men (CBS)
WINNER: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock (NBC)

LEAD ACTRESS, COMEDY SERIES
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)
WINNER: Tina Fey, 30 Rock (NBC)

LEAD ACTOR, DRAMA SERIES
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)
WINNER: Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad (AMC)

LEAD ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES
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)
WINNER: Glenn Close, Damages (FX)

SUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES
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)
WINNER: Jeremy Piven, Entourage.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY SERIES
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)
WINNER: Jean Smart, Samantha Who? (ABC)

SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA SERIES
Zeljko Ivanek, Damages (FX)
William Shatner, Boston Legal (ABC)
John Slattery, Mad Men (AMC)
Ted Danson, Damages (FX)
Michael Emerson, Lost (ABC)
WINNER: Zeljko Ivanek, Damages (FX)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES
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)
WINNER: Diane Wiest, In Treatment (HBO)

See complete list of winners.

COMMENTS: The night belonged to the mini-series John Adams, comedy 30 Rock and drama Mad Men. Too much cable stuff was winning. Surprise of the night was Bryan Cranston winning for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for AMC's Breaking Bad. Besides the 30 Rock wins (Comedy, Lead Actor, and Lead Actress) and the win for Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Jean Smart of ABC's Samantha Who?, the night was all cable...AMC, FX, HBO. I liked the tributes to the memorable TV shows and moments...as the Emmys turned 60. As for the hosts, they should have just done 1 or 2...Tom Bergeron was clearly the best. 30 Rock doesn't launch its third season until October 30, so no carry over likely, however the show's second season is coming to DVD on October 7. I think it is the new Arrested Development...critically acclaimed show that no one watches.
Combining the winners for the creative portion on Sept. 13, HBO had the most wins with 26, thanks to mini-seroes John Adams, which became the most-honored program ever. ABC led the broadcast networks with 12 wins. CBS, NBC and PBS tied for third overall with 10 overall wins. AMC had 8 wins overall.


ION Television, the "Positively Entertaining" general entertainment network reaching over 94 million homes, has inked a multi-year film acquisition deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. Extending from fall 2008 through summer 2010, this multi-year deal brings 27 critically acclaimed and Academy Award-winning films to the network's film slate.
The network already had a deal with Warner Bros., now 27 more movies come and the deal gets extended through summer 2010. ION Television kicks off the first of its new Warner Bros. films on Wednesday, September 24th at 8:00 p.m. ET with the comedy favorite Grumpier Old Men (starring Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret and Sophia Loren). ION will air the movies regularly on Thursdays from 9-11PM (sometimes 8-11PM) starting October 2. Through summer 2010, blockbusters featuring some of the biggest names in Hollywood will grace ION Television in a series of cinematic favorites spanning multiple genres.
Dramatic thrillers and crime sagas include classics like The Fugitive (starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones), GoodFellas (starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino) and Heat (starring Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer and Jon Voight), as well as more recent favorites such as Deep Blue Sea (starring Saffron Burrows, Thomas Jane, LL Cool J and Samuel L. Jackson) and Training Day (starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke).
Also in the mix are two movies from the famed Batman series, Batman Forever (starring Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman and Chris O’Donnell) and Batman Returns (starring Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfeiffer and Christopher Walken), plus Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon 1, 2 and 4.
Modern comedy classics include The Mask (starring Jim Carrey), Analyze This (starring Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal and Lisa Kudrow) and National Lampoon's European Vacation (starring Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo), among many others.
Rounding out the cinematic variety of ION Television's "Positively Entertaining" new movie lineup are dramas like City of Angels (starring Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan) and romantic comedies such as You've Got Mail (starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan). So that's 16 of the 27 new Warner Bros. movies, if you were counting. What about the rest? Above the Law, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Major League 2, Malice, Matchstick Men, Memphis Belle, Murder in the First, The Negotiator, The Specialist, Tango & Cash and Young Guns II! There you have it! Lots of good movies for Thursday nights.

The new season starts tonight! Expect Monday hits Dancing with the Stars, CSI: Miami, Two and a Half Men, and Heroes to be the night's highest rated shows. Other new notables tonight is the launch of the CBS sitcom Worst Week rounding out the CBS Monday sitcoms (8-10PM) and the Monday debut of ABC's Boston Legal.
My bets of the night: Dancing with the Stars (ABC 8-10:00PM) and The Big Bang Theory (CBS 8:00-8:30PM). Two fun-filled shows!

ION Television and WE tv October 2008 Schedules; Mel Brooks Interview on TVTimeMachine.com

This October on ION Television they will expand Boston Legal to air more than once a week! Currently the show is airing Mondays at 8:00PM but beginning Monday, September 29, the show will air Mon-Thurs at 8:00PM ET/PT and also Wednesdays at 9:00PM. However, a few Thursdays, it will be preempted for the Thursday movie. When it isn't, the Thursday movie will air 9-11PM. All of the additional Boston Legal airings will replace ER airings, except Thursdays. ER will still remain in its Mon-Wed at 10:00PM ET/PT timeslot. Boston Legal and especially NCIS are off to great starts for the network. Thursday night (Total Theatre Thursday) movie titles weren't available at press time, but when the movie starts at 8PM this month, Drew Carey Show will be on at 10:30PM!
As for RHI programming, Flash Gordon continues to air Fridays at 7:00PM. The 10th Kingdom wraps up its 10 episode run on October 10. Today ION announced the U.S. television premiere of Archangel, debuting Friday, October 24 at 8:00 p.m. ET. The three-hour mystery-thriller stars Daniel Craig, best known for his title role as the fictional secret agent James Bond in Casino Royale and in the soon-to-be-released 22nd Bond movie Quantum of Solace. Archangel also stars Gabriel Macht and Harry Ditson. The project, which was filmed on location in Russia and Latvia, also features an all-star Russian cast. Other RHI titles include Virtual Obsession and Legend Of Sleepy Hollow on Halloween night. Speaking of Halloween, during Halloween week, you'll see Halloween themed episodes of Boston Legal, NCIS, and Hangin' with Mr. Cooper!
Check out the complete ION Television October 2008 schedule and highlights.

Moving on to WE tv October, as we mentioned previously, WE tv has gotten the rights to air the last three seasons of Girlfriends. The show will start Monday, October 6 airing weekdays at 12 noon and 12:30pm, shifting Hope & Faith back to its old 10am & 10:30am timeslot, which means Kate & Allie will be removed from the schedule at this time. Dharma & Greg will remain in its 11am & 11:30am timeslot.
Girlfriends will also air Mondays on an eight episode block from 6pm-10pm and on Sundays from 3-6pm with a six episode block. On Halloween, catch Halloween episodes of Hope & Faith and Dharma & Greg in their regular timeslots.

Mel Brooks talks about his TV career in a one-hour interview on the Internet radio show TV Time Machine (http://www.tvtimemachine.com), hosted by TV historian Jim Benson.
On TV Time Machine, Mel Brooks gives his most comprehensive interview ever about his fifty-year contribution to television. Among other topics, Mr. Brooks talks about working with comedy legends Sid Caesar, Neil Simon and Woody Allen on the classic 1950's TV series, Your Show of Shows, and how he created the classic TV spy spoof Get Smart with Buck Henry, the basis for the 2008 film starring Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway.
Mel Brooks also discusses his personal life and experiences on TV Time Machine, including his service in World War II as a Combat Engineer (where his job consisted of de-activating German land mines). Brooks reminisces about growing up in Brooklyn, New York, and watching musicals on Broadway as a young boy, which ultimately inspired him to bring The Producers and Young Frankenstein to the stage, nearly seventy-years later.
TV Time Machine is a unique Internet radio show that explores classic TV and its influence over the past five decades. TV Time Machine is more than a nostalgia trip. It also spotlights TV's impact on our culture and society, and explores how present day television and its movers and shakers are still influenced by the stories, programs, and characters of television's past.
So, head on over to http://www.tvtimemachine.com for the Mel Brooks interview!

SitcomsOnline.com Exclusive: Interview with ION Television; ABC Moves Samantha Who Season Premiere; TBS Renews Engvall Sitcom

We have a very exciting interview for you today. We finally have the long awaited interview with ION Television, just in time for their new changes that happened this week! As always with our interviews, it is in Seven Questions form!

We had the pleasure to interview Eleo Hensleigh, CMO, ION Media Networks, Inc. Eleo was named Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) in February 2008 and develops, manages and implements all marketing and branding activities across the Company in support of the network and digital multiplatform portfolio. Ms. Hensleigh leads all consumer-facing and business-to-business branding and marketing activities company-wide. She is also in charge of leading the expansion of the Company's research organization, providing qualitative and quantitative audience, consumer, sales and media planning insights for all divisions. Previously, Ms. Hensleigh was with Disney-ABC, where, over her tenure, she oversaw the marketing and branding functions of both the Television and Cable Groups. She served as Chief Marketing Officer & Executive Vice President, Marketing & Brand Strategy, and was involved in the marketing, advertising, research, media planning, synergy, creative services and promotion divisions for ABC Television Networks.
ION Television is a general entertainment network which reaches over 94 million U.S. television households via its nationwide broadcast television, cable and satellite distribution systems. Launched in 2006, ION Television features popular TV series and movies from the award-winning libraries of RHI Entertainment, CBS Television, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures Television, Twentieth Television and Warner Bros. Parent company, ION Media Networks, Inc., owns and operates the nation's largest broadcast television station group.

We thank Eleo and ION Television for taking the time to answer some of the most interesting questions we have for them. So it is time for another installment of SitcomsOnline's Seven Questions Series! We need a jingle...

"Seven Questions with ION Television"

SitcomsOnline: First off, thanks so much for the opportunity and your time! ION has certainly made bold acquisitions to bolster its primetime line-up. The deals for Boston Legal, ER, NCIS, Criminal Minds, and Ghost Whisperer were very huge and will change the face of ION to more of a mainstream network. For the shows that are currently airing on broadcast television, will their current seasons be available to ION after the season ends on broadcast? For example, ER was bought for seasons 11-14, but season 15 starts on NBC this fall...will ION have access to season 15 after the 2008-09 season ends?
ION: Starting Monday, September 8th, ION Television has started offering viewers a new, "Positively Entertaining" slate of strategically acquired fall programming that appeals to a younger, broader audience. Regarding currently-airing seasons of off-network series, the arrangements are unique to each show.

SitcomsOnline: What will happen to the older shows ION has aired in the past like Mama's Family, Alice and Who's the Boss? Mama's Family has certainly been the face of ION for the last few years but now ION wants to separate itself from that. Why is that? Couldn't Mama just be moved out of primetime into say an afternoon slot like 4pm since it did so well for the network?
ION: While these classic programs reflected ION Television's traditional audience base, the new network brand is strongly focused on our current identity, which is bold, innovative and "Positively Entertaining" to our growing adult 25-54 audience.

SitcomsOnline: ION's expansion is great, but still plenty of hours are filled with paid programming. Many people want to know why is this and can we expect more paid programming hours to be removed little by little?
ION: ION is currently focusing on its primetime programming. Following the successful launch of ION Television's fall 2008 lineup, the network will move to address a full daytime strategy, with the goal of shifting away from paid programming. In April 2008, ION Television extended its weekday entertainment schedule by an additional hour of programming from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. Beginning September 8th, the network plans on expanding its programming lineup by yet another hour, starting at 4:00 p.m.

SitcomsOnline: There have been some shows that never really got a chance to air, like Perfect Strangers and Growing Pains, will they come back? Has ION thought about creating an early afternoon block (or even late nights) filled with older sitcoms from the 70s and 80s leading into their late afternoon/evening block starting at 4pm?
ION: We are considering a lot of possibilities right now. It would be premature to announce anything, but we are looking at a variety of ways to serve our growing audience with the kind of fresh, "Positively Entertaining" programming that fits our brand promise.

SitcomsOnline: ION wants to build on the age 25-54 demographic, correct? I think so far ION has done a good job with the recent pick-ups like ER and Boston Legal, but I don't understand how most of the RHI films will be of that demographic? Most of them, especially the westerns, seem to be for age 55+. Will the RHI films be more younger now, even the library ones?
ION: Many of the RHI library films are Emmy Award winning films that were made for a broad audience. The original films that are being created for ION Television speak to that audience, and hold great appeal for adults 25-54. For instance, the network recently aired Jekyll and Hyde, starring Dougray Scott - who was recently a regular on the contemporary hit show, Desperate Housewives.

SitcomsOnline: ION has also created an African American initiative, which right now has a block of Hangin' with Mr. Cooper and Steve Harvey Show from 5-7pm, with Wayans Bros. airing recently as well. What can we expect of this initiative in the future and what exactly is it?
ION: ION Television has a partnership in place with Star Media and OMG to develop diverse programming for an urban audience. The partnership is aimed at providing programming to this audience and re-investing in original programming over time.

SitcomsOnline: Finally, ION certainly has access to various programming libraries it seems, from Sony Pictures Television (shows like Charlie's Angels, Partridge Family), Warner Bros (shows like Perfect Strangers, Wonder Years) and Universal (shows like Amen, McHale's Navy). Would it be possible for ION to create a digital channel, like qubo and ION Life, for classic TV or regular programs? This way these programming libraries could be more used if they don't work or fit on ION Television.
ION: Utilizing its digital multicasting capability and national reach, ION Media Networks' digital TV brands, qubo, a television and multimedia network for children formed in partnership with several leading media and entertainment companies, and ION Life, the country's first multicast network dedicated to active lifestyles, personal growth and positive values, have flourished. Both "diginets," which present branded program offerings on ION Television, serve to educate and engage priming viewers with positive messaging and helpful information. We are constantly innovating and looking for ways to effectively leverage our programming to deepen our engagement with our audience and to grow our audience over time.

Our thanks to to ION Television and Eleo Hensleigh, and best wishes in making ION Television establish itself with their new contemporary hits! We do hope the older sitcoms/shows appear in the daytime or in some way (would fit with M*A*S*H), as ION has announced that they do have plans to remove paid programming in the daytime. Our apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time. For more information on ION Television, continue to stay with us for info and don't forget to view their newly designed website with a new URL http://www.iontelevision.com/. So, stay tuned right here on the blog for news updates for this network.


ABC has pushed back the second season premiere of sitcom Samantha Who? back a week to Monday, October 13 at 9:31PM ET/PT following Dancing with the Stars. It was previously scheduled to launch on October 6 in that time period. ABC likely did it because of the debate on Tuesday, October 7. On that night ABC has announced it will move the Dancing with the Stars: The Results from 9PM to 8PM, so they can air the Debate from 9-11PM ET. The season premiere of Samantha Who? will be dancing-themed and have guest stars Cybil Shepherd and Dancing with the Stars pro Mark Ballas! It should be fun...I have it in advance and will watch it soon and let you know how it went.
For other recent ABC schedule updates, head on over to our message board for a listing.

After another highly successful run this summer, TBS has ordered a third season of its top-rated original sitcom The Bill Engvall Show. TBS has ordered 10 episodes of the show, which will return to the network in summer 2009.
Set in a Denver suburb, The Bill Engvall Show focuses on family counselor Bill Pearson and his wife, Susan, who strive to raise three well-adjusted children in an ever-changing world. The show offers a humorous look at parenting in the 21st century, a task Susan finds especially challenging because Bill is often as much of a handful as the kids.
Throughout its two seasons on TBS, The Bill Engvall Show has been embraced by viewers. The show's July 2007 series debut was watched by more than 4.1 million viewers and landed among ad-supported cable's Top 3 sitcom telecasts of all-time among adults 25-54 and households, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. This past summer, the show averaged 2.3 million viewers and ranked as ad-supported cable's #1 program in its time period among adults 18-49.
In December, TBS will present two special episodes of The Bill Engvall Show, just in time for the holidays!

ION Unveils New Look, Website, Line-Up Tonight; Today Reunites Classic Movie Casts; 2 More RTN Affiliates Added

Today, over 94 million households will have the opportunity to tune-in to a reinvented ION Television, repositioned as a compelling new entertainment destination and galvanized by an exciting new brand, ION Television: Positively Entertaining. The new contemporary look and tag line - Positively Entertaining – complement the robust critically acclaimed off-network series – Boston Legal, ER and NCIS – which launch as part of ION Television's strategically acquired fall programming lineup that appeals to a younger audience. The rebranding campaign coincides with the launch of ION Television's new advertisers, distribution partners, shifted viewership, and newly rebranded website, http://www.iontelevision.com/. The new daytime line-up also begins today starting at 4pm with M*A*S*H.
New Website Launch -- iontelevision.com: ION Television extends its breadth beyond television and is launching a newly revamped and rebranded website, www.iontelevision.com. The site will feature numerous new features from streaming video, interactive games, video mash-ups, cast/show information, show trivia, forums and blogs.
ION Television's strategy will focus heavily on expanding its programming offerings in coming television seasons, targeting a strong mix of quality major network TV series, as well as signature originals produced specifically for ION Television. Several key content additions have already been secured, such as the successful Ghost Whisperer and Criminal Minds franchises, which will infuse the lineup in fall 2009.
For more read the Press Release.

Back in February, NBC reunited classic TV casts in their week-long "Together Again" series on the Today show. This week, Today will reunite the casts of three of America's favorite movies. Beginning Monday, September 8, the famed actors of the hit movies The Big Chill, Airplane! and Footloose will talk about their experiences making the films and what it's like to reunite after more than 20 years.
On Monday, Glenn Close, JoBeth Williams, Mary Kay Place, Jeff Goldblum and William Hurt will talk about their Oscar-nominated movie The Big Chill and the impact it had on their generation. On Wednesday, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Robert Hays, Peter Graves, Leslie Nielsen and Jill Whelan will reunite to chat about their often-quoted, hilarious movie, Airplane! On Friday, Kevin Bacon, John Lithgow and Lori Singer will kick off their Sunday shoes and talk about their dance-filled hit, Footloose. Kenny Loggins will make a special appearance and perform the movie's title song.

More Retro Television Network (RTN) affiliates are coming! Cocola Broadcasting plans to add RTN programming on its Monterey-Salinas, CA and Boise, ID stations. The network will launch next year on KYMB in Monterey-Salinas and KKJB in Boise.

TV Land October 2008 Sees Many Changes; Show Coming on ION This September Is...NCIS

Late last week we mentioned that TV Land will change their line-up a bit in October, and now we know the full details! We mentioned a lot already 3rd Rock from the Sun will join the TV Land line-up and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is now eligible for daily play on TV Land rather than just once a week, and now we know when they will air!
First, 3rd Rock from the Sun will replace Cheers weekdays at 8:30am starting Wednesday, October 1. 3rd Rock will then get more slots the week after, starting October 6 airing weekdays (except Wednesdays/Fridays) at 10:00pm & 10:30pm after Scrubs. The show will also air Saturday nights at 1:00am & 1:30am. TV Land will officially welcome the band of alien explorers posing as a typical "family" of four to observe human nature and relationships on the planet earth the weekend of Oct. 11-12 with a 6-hour marathon on Saturday night, October 11 from 11:59pm-6am and a 4-hour marathon on Sunday, October 12 from 12p-4pm, starting with the pilot episode on Sunday.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition will get a seven-day primetime marathon as it now will air daily on TV Land! It's a makeover takeover on TV Land. From Monday, September 29 to Sunday, October 5 from 9pm through 1am each night, don't miss a week-long primetime marathon of the popular series. From the "After The Storm" specials (Hurricane Katrina) to the 2-hour episodes and all the laughter and tears in between, TV Land brings you all the best that Ty and his gang of hardworking homebuilders have to offer. Don't forget the Kleenex. The series will then air weekdays at 7pm & 11pm, Mondays at 11am, and on weekends the special two-hour episodes will air Saturdays 8-10am & 8-10pm and Sundays 8-10am & 6-8pm.
Other schedule changes starting Oct. 6 are Andy Griffith Show shifting from 6-8pm to 5-7p, as it makes room for Home Edition at 7pm. So the 5-6pm Hillbillies hour is gone. As we mentioned 3rd Rock replaces M*A*S*H at 10pm, Home Edition also replaces M*A*S*H at 11pm, while M*A*S*H moves to 1-2am replacing Sanford & Son. The weeknight late night block will get a huge makeover. 2-3am hour will now be an episode each of Hogan's Heroes and Beverly Hillbillies replacing The Jeffersons. The I Love Lucy/Leave it to Beaver hour now moves from 5am to 3am replacing two episodes of Beverly Hillbillies. Then from 4-6am, the shows that were dropped return after a short break. That's Designing Women, Mad About You, Murphy Brown and Just Shoot Me from 4-6am weeknights. So, Three's Company and The Brady Bunch will be off the line-up after two months of airing. During weekends, the changes as we mentioned were two-hour Home Edition episodes 8-10am on both days, replacing Green Acres on Saturdays, which is now also off the line-up. Andy Griffith Show will shift from 9-10am Saturdays to 10-11am. Saturdays from 6-8pm will be a block of Cosby Show, followed by a two-hour Home Edition from 8-10pm, encores of Myths & Legends at 10, Scrubs Saturdays shifts to the 11pm hour, followed by Cosby Show at midnight and 3rd Rock in the 1am hour. On Sundays, the Home Edition 8-10am, Scrubs Sundays from 5-6pm, and another Home Edition from 6-8pm. No other changes on Sundays. See the full schedule link below if you get confused.
To the highlights, Myths & Legends will return for a second season starting Wednesday, October 8 with two all-new episodes! Then the next 6 Wednesdays one half-hour episode will air each Wednesday at 10pm. TV Land Myths & Legends promises to go behind the scenes to investigate the mysteries that have grown up around some of Hollywood's most memorable stars, TV shows, films and music. In a town called the Dream Factory, where reality collides with wild imagination, there's a blurred line between truth and fiction. Did heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne bite the head off of a live bat? Was Jayne Mansfield decapitated in her fatal automobile accident? Was a comic book based on the rock band KISS printed with the blood of the band members? Is J.Lo's butt really insured for $1 billion dollars? TV Land will explore these infamous mysteries and more on TV Land Myths & Legends Season 2 as they set the record straight about some of the most confused and confounding moments in entertainment history.
TV Land's Movie Land Friday block for October will feature classic comedies such as Police Academy, Lethal Weapon and Easy Money!
View the full TV Land October 2008 schedule and highlights.

We told you yesterday ION's September 2008 highlights and we said a drama not yet announced will air Mondays and Tuesdays at 9PM starting Sept. 8, and now ION has announced it! And that drama is ... NCIS!
ION Television, a contemporary general entertainment network, today announced that it will add Emmy-nominated NCIS to its primetime lineup on Monday, September 8th at 9 p.m. ET. ION Media Networks, Inc., ION Television's parent company, has entered into a content agreement with CBS Television Distribution for the broadcast syndication rights to the first four seasons of the naval investigators procedural series. The top-rated, hour-long program will air on Mondays and Tuesdays in the 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET timeslot.
NCIS marks the 3rd show acquired from CBS Television Distribution, with the other two coming in Fall 2009 -- Criminal Minds and Ghost Whisperer.
NCIS, the hit spin-off of CBS's military legal drama, JAG, comes from acclaimed producer Donald P. Bellisario. Revolving around a fictional group of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service Major Case Response Team (MCRT) of the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps., NCIS is more than your average action drama. With liberal doses of humor, it focuses on the sometimes complex and always amusing dynamics of a squad forced to work together in high-stress situations. From murder and espionage to terrorism and kidnappings, these special agents travel the globe to investigate high-profile crimes involving persons and property associated with the Navy or Marine Corps. The popular show premiered on September 23, 2003, on CBS and enters its sixth season on the network this fall.

ION Television September 2008 Schedule; Your Memorable TV Moments At This Year's Emmys

ION Television announced their Fall 2008 schedule back at their May upfront presentation, but it seems that schedule was just tentative. Boston Legal and M*A*S*H will join the ION September 2008 line-up on Monday, September 8. Boston Legal will air Mondays at 8PM, for now. The reason I say "for now" is because their Fall 2008 schedule actually starts Monday, September 29 and we don't have details on that yet since that is considered October. I do think Boston Legal will air Mon-Wed at 8pm probably by then, but for now it will start off airing Mondays at 8PM starting Sept. 8. The legal drama is entering its last season on ABC, moving to a new night Mondays at 10pm starting Sept. 22.
As for M*A*S*H, ION Television will launch it also on Sept. 8 airing it weekdays back-to-back at 4:00PM & 4:30PM and on weekends back-to-back at 6:00PM & 6:30PM ET/PT! ER will still air Mon-Wed at 10PM, but it will also air Tuesdays at 8PM and Wednesdays at 8 & 9PM...again, until at least Sept. 29. So, yes ER will air from 8-11pm on Wednesdays. Quantum Leap and The Dead Zone will be off the primetime line-up in this September schedule, but who knows they could return in that Fall October schedule, but I doubt it. Baywatch is off the Saturday line-up and 48 Hours will air on Thursdays at 10PM only now after the Thursday movie, if the movie ends at 10pm. The Drew Carey Show was originally slated to return this Fall, but it now won't. It will air however sometimes after the Thursday movie at 10:30pm, if the movie runs longer than 2 hours.
Now, ION Television will launch another drama on Sept. 8 airing it Mondays and Tuesdays at 9PM, but they have not announced it yet so I cannot tell you yet. As soon as they announce it, I will post it. But it is a drama similar in style to their other recent acquisitions (Boston Legal, Criminal Minds) but more mainstream than Quantum Leap and The Dead Zone.
The other slots will remain the same, with Steve Harvey Show airing weekdays 5-6PM, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper airing weekdays 6-7PM, and Family Feud airing Mon-Thurs from 7-8PM. RHI Entertainment is still Fri-Sun from 7-11PM. The Friday qubo block from 2-5pm will now be spread out to an hour each day from 3-4pm on Wed-Fri.
We will let you know about that new 9PM drama as soon as they announce it and if we get any details on their Fall line-up (that starts Sept. 29). I don't expect many changes then, but probably Boston Legal will air Mon-Wed (or Mon-Thurs) at 8, that new drama Mon-Wed (or Mon-Thurs) at 9, and ER Mon-Wed (or Mon-Thurs) at 10. I think the Thursday movie will be on its way out by then, but not sure. Again, I'll let you all know when it is announced!
For now, view the ION September 2008 Schedule.

The most memorable moments in television history will be revealed during the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 21, and it's up to voters to decide which bits should take top honors.
40 "moments" -- 20 dramatic and 20 comedic -- are in the running. Comedy contenders include M*A*S*H, Mork & Mindy, I Love Lucy, All in the Family, Murphy Brown, The Honeymooners, Newhart, Ellen, Mary Tyler Moore Show, Friends, Seinfeld, Sex and the City and The Cosby Show, while Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lost, Dallas, Dynasty, Grey's Anatomy, Miami Vice, Moonlighting and The Sopranos are among the drama candidates.
The television academy and Emmy show producers came up with the competition and the contenders in honor of the 60th annual presentation of the Emmy Awards. Fans can watch clips and vote for their favorite moments online until Sept. 15.
The top five vote-getters in each category will be presented during the Emmy show on Sunday, Sept. 21 on ABC, and the two winning moments will be revealed just before the year's outstanding drama and comedy series are named.
So head on to ABC's Most Memorable TV Moments section and vote for your favorites moments!

More TV Classics Come to CBS.com; ION Switches Slots for Cooper and Harvey Starting in August

CBS Interactive announced it has released three more of its classic television programs and related clips, all available now across the CBS Audience Network, such as at CBS.com/Classics. The new shows that are available for viewing include Dynasty Seasons 1 and 2, Beauty and the Beast Season 1, and Have Gun, Will Travel Season 1. These newly added shows will join the other Television Classics that were made available online earlier this year, as we announced.
These new shows are in addition to the other Television Classics previously added to the CBS Audience Network and CBS.com including: The Love Boat, Beverly Hills 90210, Twin Peaks, Family Ties, Perry Mason, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, MacGyver, Hawaii Five-0, and Melrose Place.

ION Television has announced a slight schedule change for August. We gave you their August highlights already and yesterday we confirmed the Friday slots for two new short series, but now they have announced a change to the regular line-up. Weekdays 5pm and 6pm will be switched now. So that means Hangin' with Mr. Cooper goes from the 5pm hour to the 6pm hour, while The Steve Harvey Show goes from the 6pm hour down to the 5pm hour. This will start Monday, August 4. Everything else will remain intact.
Now their September schedule they announced at their upfront might change a bit we think, but we will let you know when September is officially announced in a few weeks with the additions of Boston Legal and M*A*S*H, so stay tuned!

TidalTV.com Adds Classic Sony TV Series Episodes; ION Confirms RHI Series on Fridays

TidalTV, Inc. (www.tidaltv.com), a new online service which offers free access to programming from television and the web, announced today the addition of Sony Pictures Television's popular television series to the TidalTV channel lineup.
Over 500 full-length episodes from the series that defined American television, including Married... with Children, Party of Five, Bewitched, The Facts of Life and more, are now playing on TidalTV. See George Clooney on The Facts of Life, Alyssa Milano on Who's the Boss?, Christina Applegate on Married... with Children all over again!
TidalTV also features "The Minisode Network," which offers the Sony shows you love -- only shorter! These pint-sized programming portions are the perfect snack during your lunch hour at the office or while relaxing at home.
Coming up in July, viewers can catch TidalTV's famous guest stars programming block with appearances from Mr. T, Ben Stiller, Jason Bateman, Milla Jovovich and more on shows including Who's the Boss?, Diff'rent Strokes and Silver Spoons. In addition, TidalTV will air its "Battle of the Blondes" programming special featuring action-packed episodes of Charlie's Angels, V.I.P. and T.J. Hooker.
Currently you can see full episodes of Battledome, Dilbert, Jack Chan Adventures, One Day at a Time, Party of Five, T.J. Hooker, The Facts of Life, plus the Minisode Network featuring more Sony classics!
That's www.tidaltv.com, please check it out and visit it everyday for your favorite classic Sony TV shows!

About two weeks ago we gave you ION Television's August 2008 highlights & line-up and we mentioned Flash Gordon and The 10th Kingdom coming to Fridays. Now ION has confirmed that. Two of RHI Entertainment's most popular productions will be seen on the ION Television Network's RHI Movie Weekend beginning Friday, August 1 (7/6c). Flash Gordon, a 22-hour adventure series, and The 10th Kingdom, a 10-hour fantasy saga, will be featured weekly in a two-hour Friday evening programming block. The special broadcasts begin August 1 with Episodes 1 and 2 of Flash Gordon. Starting August 8, ION Television will pair one hour of Flash Gordon with one hour of The 10th Kingdom each week from 7-9pm ET/PT.
Flash Gordon scored with viewers when it originally aired on Sci Fi Channel in the summer of 2007, delivering the network's best series premiere telecast for 2007. Flash Gordon is produced by Reunion Pictures. The producers are Matthew O’Connor and Tom Rowe.
John Larroquette, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Ann Margret, Rutger Hauer, Camryn Manheim, Ed O'Neil, and Dianne Wiest are among the Emmy, Oscar and Golden Globe-winning talent headlining an all-star cast in The 10th Kingdom, a 10-hour miniseries that premiered on NBC in February 2000. The upcoming broadcast on ION Television marks the first time the series has ever been seen in one-hour segments in the U.S.

ION August 2008; Slight Nick at Nite Change; Summer 2008 TCA Press Tour: Cable Day 4

We have an action packed Friday today. So much stuff we couldn't fit everything we planned. So some of it will spill into next week.
ION Television has announced its August 2008 higlights. There really are no changes to the regular line-up, but the RHI block is getting a bit of a twist. RHI programming airs Fri-Sun from 7-11pm, but now Fridays they will show Flash Gordon: The Series. That was a 2007 Sci-Fi Channel series produced by RHI and now ION will air the reruns to all 22 episodes airing in the 7pm hour on Fridays. ION will pair Flash Gordon: The Series with the 2000 mini-series The 10th Kingdom broken down into hour episodes airing in the 8pm hour on Fridays. I believe originally it was like 9 parts.
As far as the regular schedule Mon-Thurs, there are no changes and the line-up will remain Hangin 'with Mr. Cooper, Steve Harvey Show, Family Feud, Quantum Leap, The Dead Zone and ER from 5-11pm. The Drew Carey Show will get two filler airings on Thursdays at 10:30pm on Aug. 21 and Aug. 28 following the Total Theatre Movie. The sitcom is still slated to return regularly this September. August Total Theatre Thursday movies are Clear and Present Danger, Elvis: That's The Way It Is, Superman II, and Point of No Return.
And the RHI movies and mini-series for August include Rear Window, Noah's Ark, and more.
Check our our ION August 2008 highlights for complete details!

Yet more changes are happening on Nick at Nite. Starting Monday (July 14), Mon-Thurs 11:30pm will now be Family Matters, replacing Fresh Prince. So Family Matters will air for a full hour at 11pm now! It will also still air at 8:30pm Mon-Thurs. However, the 4-5am Mon-Thurs encores of Family Matters will be replaced by a third late night hour of Fresh Prince. So Fresh Prince will air from 2-5am Mon-Thurs. Also, Fridays at 12:30am Family Matters will now air for the full hour at 12am, replacing a half-hour Fresh Prince. It is great that the Winslows and the Urkeman have done so well already on Nick at Nite!
Check out the full schedule starting July 14.

Well it is the final day of the cable portion of the summer 2008 TCA press tour. The broadcast networks will start going next week and we will have updates from that, too, of course. Here is the schedule for the broadcast portion:
July 12-13: PBS; July 14: Fox; July 15: Fox/TCA; July 16-17: ABC; July 18: CBS; July 19: CBS/CW/Showtime/TCA Awards; July 20: NBC/TCA (possible set visits); July 21: NBC; July 22: TCA Set Visits
I don't think we will cover PBS, unless it is something very noteworthy. Remember cable stations that are owned by a broadcast channel (ABC: ABC Family, NBC: Sci-Fi, etc) will be also presenting during the broadcast portion of the press tour, so we will cover that as well.
Anyway, here is what happened today on the last day of the cable portion:

Turner Broadcasting kicked off the day. CNN was up first and they discussed their coverage plans for the 2008 election. The Best Political Team on Television discusses the 2008 presidential election and CNN's unrivaled coverage, with a behind-the-scenes preview of the summer conventions and the fall election. CNN also has a special coming July 23-24 titled CNN Presents Black in America. Forty years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., CNN's Black in America series continues with two groundbreaking documentaries, Black Men and Black Women & Family, as well as a topical special co-produced with Essence magazine.
Cartoon Network was touting its original animated series Star Wars: Clone Wars. From creator George Lucas, Star Wars: The Clone Wars combines the scope of the legendary Star Wars saga with state-of-the-art computer-generated animation.
TNT has two new dramas coming. The first one premieres September 1 at 10pm, Raising the Bar. This series follows the lives and cases of young attorneys who have been friends since law school but are now on opposing sides as defense and prosecution. Raising The Bar comes to TNT from ABC Studios and Steven Bochco. Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Jane Kaczmarek, and Gloria Reuben star. Then in December, they will launch Leverage. This series follows a team of thieves, hackers and grifters who act as modern-day Robin Hoods, taking revenge against those who use power and wealth to victimize others. Leverage comes to TNT from Electric Entertainment. Among off-network programming, Cold Case will be available to air five-days-a-week this October.
TBS will launch a second season of late night comedy Frank TV this October. This sketch comedy features Frank Caliendo, famous for his pitch-perfect takes on such personalitiesas John Madden, Dr. Phil, President Bush and Former President Clinton. When it debuted in November 2007, Frank TV delivered ad-supported cable's biggest young adult audience ever for a late-night series launch. Among off-network programming, Married...with Children joins the early morning line-up this September.

Then Fox Reality Channel stepped up and announced its August 2 premiere of Long Way Down, a ten-episode series. It features two close friends, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, on the ultimate motorcycle trip through distant lands, unique cultures and some of the most impressive natural wonders in the world, while raising over $1 million for charities including UNICEF, Riders for Health, and CHAS (Children's Hospice Association Scotland).

Starz was giving press about its new buzz filled drama Crash coming in October. Dennis Hopper stars. Set in Los Angeles, Crash explores the complexities of social tolerance in contemporary America by digging into the meaning of what it takes to reach the American dream. Characters will intertwine and crash into each other, coming face to face with the daily hurdles and obstacles that threaten to get in the way of achieving that dream. Based on the movie by the same name.

Then it was Lifetime's turn. They have announced a lot of original programming. How to Look Good Naked returns July 22 with its second season with Carson Kressley. As we mentioned before, Lifetime will have its own original sitcom to be paired with Reba reruns this Fall called Rita Rocks. Overworked wife and mother Rita is in the middle of a full-blown identity crisis. Trying to maintain romance with her husband Jay, juggling the demands of her nine-year-old daughter Shannon and disciplining her defiant, teenage daughter Hallie, Rita is at her wit's end. In search of "youthful" Rita, she dusts off her old guitar and forms a garage band with her nosy postal carrier Patty and unemployed neighbor Owen. Stars include Nicole Sullivan, Richard Ruccolo and Tisha Campbell—Martin. They will also have original movies, of course. The movie Coco Chanel premieres September 13. Coco Chanel follows the rags—to-riches story of influential and iconic French designer Coco Chanel from her humble beginnings in an orphanage outside Paris, through her meteoric rise to fame and success, revealing a fiery and ambitious woman and the significant relationships, both familial and romantic, that shaped and inspired her success. Stars Shirley MacLaine. Then they have Living Proof, Lifetime Television's Marquee Original Movie starring Harry Connick, Jr., Amanda Bynes, Angie Harmon, Swoosie Kurtz, Bernadette Peters, Jennifer Coolidge, Regina King, Tammy Blanchard, John Benjamin Hickey, Paula Cale and Trudie Styler. Living Proof will premiere in October 2008 on Lifetime Television, as part of the Network's Stop Breast Cancer for Life campaign during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It is the moving true story of Dr. Dennis Slamon, the UCLA doctor who developed the revolutionary breast cancer drug, Herceptin, and his relentless battle to keep the drug trials afloat and save the lives of thousands of women. But before those two moves this Fall, they have a few movies coming in August as well! Ashley Benson and Jenna Dewan star in Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal, Valerie Bertinelli and Joanna Levesque star in True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet and Judy Reyes, A Martinez and Hector Bustamante star in Little Girl Lost: The Delimar Vera Story.

Summer 2008 TCA Cable Tour - July 8-11; NBC Universal Buys The Weather Channel; ION Reminds Us of Cooper

The cable portion of the summer 2008 TCA press tour starts tomorrow and runs until Friday. We will have a detailed look on every cable network that goes...of course if it is only interesting we will report it. But cable networks owned by media companies that also run broadcast networks, such as Walt Disney Co., NBC Universal, CBS Corp. and News Corp, will present their programming during the broadcast portion of the tour.
Up on Tuesday is: TV One, The Hallmark Channel, HDnet, BBC America, and Comcast's E!, style, & G4. Wednesday we have AMC, WE tv, MTV Networks (such as CMT, MTV, TV Land, VH1), National Geographic Channel, and A&E Networks (such as History and A&E). Thursday up at the panel are Discovery Networks (such as Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC), ESPN, Sundance Channel, HBO, and GSN. Finally on Friday up are Turner Broadcasting (CNN, Cartoon Network, TNT, TBS), Fox Reality Channel, Starz, Lifetime, and IFC.

NBC Universal, Bain Capital and The Blackstone Group announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire The Weather Channel properties from Landmark Communications. The Weather Channel will be operated as a separate entity, based in Atlanta, with management services to be provided by NBC Universal.
The transaction includes The Weather Channel Networks, the third-most-distributed cable network, seen in more than 97% of cable television homes in the U.S.; The Weather Channel Interactive, which includes weather.com, the nation's leading weather website, with nearly 40 million unique visitors per month, and a leading mobile business; and Weather Services International, a global leader in weather forecasting, with more than 5,500 clients worldwide. The transaction is expected to be completed by year-end, and is subject to receipt of customary regulatory approvals. NBC Universal, Bain Capital and The Blackstone Group announced on June 13, 2008, that they had entered into exclusive negotiations to purchase The Weather Channel properties.
NBC Universal will probably have much more details when they are up at the 2008 summer TCA press tour in a few weeks.
Of course there is still no new deal for the SAG (the actors). So there could be a chance the broadcast portion of ther TCA tour could be scratched. The last statement SAG released was on July 2:
The Screen Actors Guild national negotiating committee met with AMPTP negotiators today to present a series of substantive questions on the employers' proposed package. Guild negotiators and staff will further analyze and review the AMPTP's responses over the next several days in order to prepare a response to management's proposal.
Let's hope they can settle this because I sure don't want to cover another strike. The recent WGA strike is still fresh in my mind.

Finally, ION issued a reminder press release today on something we have known for a long time. ION Television announced today that, through a deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, it will launch the sitcom Hangin' with Mr. Cooper on its weeknight schedule beginning with two back-to-back episodes, airing July 7th (tonight) from 5 p.m.–6 p.m. (ET/PT). The popular series, in a branded "Laugh Attack" hour, will then continue in this timeslot Mondays through Fridays.
More info.

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.

ION Adds Mr. Cooper in July Now; Three Stooges Minisodes Added

A few weeks ago we gave you details on ION Television's July 2008 schedule and no changes were being made to the line-up...now ION has made a change. Effective Monday, July 7 at 5:00pm & 5:30pm ET/PT, ION will add Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, replacing The Wayans Bros. ION was going to start Mr. Cooper in the fall in that slot but decided to launch it two months earlier than planned.
Last time I mentioned The Drew Carey Show would air after a Thursday movie on July 3 at 10:30pm, now that has been moved to July 17 at 10:30pm. The Drew Carey Show is slated to return to the ION regular line-up this fall airing at 6pm, leading into M*A*S*H at 6:30pm.
Everything else we mentioned last time is the same...so no other changes to July.
Discuss ION July on our message boards. We still hope to have our interview with them soon...I promise it will come, but ION seems to be very busy.

Sony TV's newly revamped multi-platform network brings you the shows you love, only shorter! The Minisode Network offers 5-minute adaptations of favorite television shows that retain the full story arc of the episode. On June 17, today, the network will be launching minisodes of The Three Stooges.
Go to MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/minisodenetwork), Crackle (http://crackle.com/c/minisodenetwork), YouTube, AOL, Hulu, Joost, Verizon V CAST, and Sprint TV to check out minisodes of The Three Stooges and your other favorite shows including Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, Married...with Children, Silver Spoons, Charlie's Angels, What's Happening!! and so many more! Now you can laugh at all the funniest moments in 5 minutes and still get the story of Larry, Moe, and Curly!

ION Television July 2008 Highlights; BET Schedules A Different World Marathon for This Saturday

This July, ION Television won't be making any changes to the regular schedule. So the schedule that starts June 16, with the additions of ER and The Dead Zone to primetime, will still be in effect in July.
Highlights for the month include the Total Theatre Thursday for July which will include movies just as Superman: The Movie and The Neverending Story. Drew Carey Show fans take note, a filler airing will air 10:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 3 following a Thursday movie. The episode title is "The Salon."
RHI movies for the month include four-hour movies such as Youngest Godfather, Bonanno: A Godfather's Story and the 1999 Journey to the Center of the Earth. Two-hour movies include Ransom Of Red Chief, Johnny's Girl and the premiere of Deadly Shooter. ION will also air the six-hour mini-series The 10th Kingdom on three Fridays.
For complete ION July 2008 highlights, click HERE!
As for our ION interview, I have gotten a lot of questions about when it will be published. I have been sent in the questions already, but I'm waiting for ION to give some responses. As soon as they do, I will post it right here on the blog. So thanks all for your patience!

BET has scheduled a Different World marathon for this Saturday (June 7) from 11pm-3am ET/PT. The marathon will follow a block of Girlfriends from 9-11pm. A Different World airs regularly on BET weeknights 12-1am and 3-4am and Sunday evenings at various times (usually between 6-10pm). Last night after Obama's speech and special, the show aired from 11pm-1am instead of its normal times.
The marathon this Saturday will just be a continuation of the regular airings in order.

ION Officially Announces ER Marathon; The CW Announces MRC Sunday Line-Up

We told you a few weeks ago that ER will launch on ION Television with a week-long marathon, the week of June 9, and now ION has confirmed it officially.
ION Television announced today that it will launch the highly-acclaimed, hit series, ER, on its primetime schedule Monday, June 9 with a four-day marathon of back-to-back episodes featuring guest stars who have either won or been nominated for Emmy Awards.
The network will showcase television's longest-running medical drama, which has earned more Primetime Emmy Award nominations than any other program in history, with three episodes from 8pm–11pm on June 9, 10 and 11, and two episodes from 8pm to 10pm on June 12.
ER will then air in its regular timeslot Monday through Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT, beginning Monday, June 16. Also joining ION Television's primetime schedule with a special sneak preview on Thursday, June 12 at 10pm will be The Dead Zone immediately following the conclusion of the ER marathon. It will air directly before ER in regular airing, Monday through Wednesday at 9pm ET/PT beginning Monday, June 16.

Media Rights Capital and The CW announced their Sunday night primetime programming block for the upcoming fall 2008-09 broadcast television season. The strategic alliance between the two companies will launch with a one-hour narrative reality show, one half-hour family comedy and two one-hour long dramas. The Sunday night block will begin at 6:30 p.m., taking advantage of the traditional family viewing night and expanding the reach of the evolving network.
The block begins in September and will be as follows every Sunday on The CW:
6:30PM In Harm's Way – A reality show that looks at lives of people doing dangerous jobs. Executive Producer is Craig Piligian (Dirty Jobs, American Chopper, Survivor).
7:30PM Surviving Suburbia – Half-hour comedy about a family and their new neighbors. Kevin Abbott is Executive Producer (Roseanne, Grace Under Fire, Reba, My Name is Earl).
8:00PM Valentine, Inc. – One-hour drama/comedy about an agency that finds lost loves, true loves and mends broken hearts. Kevin Murphy is Executive Producer (Reaper, Desperate Housewives).
9:00PM Easy Money – One-hour drama about a family that runs a high-interest loan business. Executive Producers are Andy Schneider and Diane Frolov (Northern Exposure, The Chris Isaak Show, The Sopranos).

MRC and the CW will announce Sunday programming for the 5-6:30 p.m. time slot in the near future. MRC has other shows in production as well, such as the sitcom Book of Murphy.

CBS.com Adds More TV Classics, Includes Family Ties; ION Television and ION Life Acquire Two Series

We told you a few months back that CBS.com has added classic TV shows for free, programs such as Twilight Zone, Star Trek, Melrose Place, Hawaii Five-0 and MacGyver are under the "TV Classics" section of cbs.com's Video section. But now more episodes of those are added and more new shows! Among the new series added at CBS.com's TV Classics section are Twin Peaks, Beverly Hills 90210, The Love Boat, Family Ties, and Perry Mason.
All of these shows are from Paramount Television, a division of CBS. So that is how shows like Family Ties (NBC), Beverly Hills 90210 (Fox), and The Love Boat (ABC) are on the CBS.com website.

ION announced that ION Life, its digital network dedicated to active living and personal growth, has reached agreements to add two compelling series to its program lineup. In the network's first commissioned production from NFL Films, ION Life will present the new series, Stories of the NFL, that takes a behind-the-scenes look at the inspirational stories and lives of NFL players on and off the field. The series will air daily on ION Life at 8 p.m., starting Monday, June 2. No, it will NOT air on the regular ION Television.
ION Media Networks has also secured the rights to The 50 Greatest Moments at Madison Square Garden (MSG), an Emmy Award-winning documentary series from MSG Network presenting some of our most celebrated moments in the world's most famous arena. Episodes will air on ION Life, and ALSO simultaneously as part of ION Life's channel showcase presentation on the ION Television Network, on Sundays at 6 p.m., beginning June 15 for 10 straight weeks.
We still have an interview coming with ION Television, so we hope to bring that to you this week. Our questions were submitted, now we are just awaiting the responses. It will be part of our on-going "Seven Questions" series. You won't want to miss this!

CBS Upfront 2008-09: Fall 2008 Schedule; ION Television June 2008 Line-Up

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

CBS 2008-09

Fall 2008

Sundays
7:00PM 60 Minutes
8:00PM The Amazing Race
9:00PM Cold Case
10:00PM The Unit

Mondays
8:00PM The Big Bang Theory
8:30PM How I Met Your Mother
9:00PM Two and a Half Men
9:30PM Worst Week (NEW!)
10:00PM CSI: Miami

Tuesdays
8:00PM Navy NCIS
9:00PM The Mentalist (NEW!)
10:00PM Without a Trace

Wednesdays
8:00PM Old Christine
8:30PM Project Gary (NEW!)
9:00PM Criminal Minds
10:00PM CSI: NY

Thursdays
8:00PM Survivor
9:00PM CSI
10:00PM Eleventh Hour (NEW!)

Fridays
8:00PM Ghost Whisperer
9:00PM The Ex List (NEW!)
10:00PM NUMB3RS

Saturdays
8:00PM-10:00PM Crime Repeats
10:00PM 48 Hours Mystery


Mid-Season:

Coming off the bench in mid-season is returning sitcom Rules of Engagement and new drama Harper's Island.

Discuss CBS's 2008-09 line-up here.



Less than two weeks ago we gave you details on ION Television's upfront presentation. ION announced their fall schedule then, but they mentioned ER and The Dead Zone would launch before the fall season starts. Both are launching in June! ER joins the line-up with a four-night, eleven-episode marathon the week of June 9 in primetime! The eleventh episode in the marathon will lead into the ION premiere of The Dead Zone on June 12 at 10pm. ER marathon is 8-11pm June 9-12, except 10pm on June 12 is The Dead Zone premiere.
Then starting June 16, both The Dead Zone and ER will join the primetime line-up and air back-to-back from 9-11pm from Mon-Wed. Quantum Leap will slide over from 9pm to 8pm, replacing Mama's Family which is leaving the line-up. There are no other changes in the line-up, which means The Drew Carey Show is also gone. Now Drew is listed in the tentative Fall schedule for weekdays at 6pm that we gave you two weeks ago. So it will return likely, unless that Fall schedule changes a bit. Boston Legal, M*A*S*H and Hangin' with Mr. Cooper come to the schedule in the Fall as well. Again, check out the Fall schedule if you haven't seen it yet.
Back to ION June, besides the ER marathon and the primetime changes, ION still has Thursday movies and RHI Fri-Sun movies. Classic Warner Bros. movies will air on Thursdays such as The Point of No Return, Dirty Harry and Chisum. RHI movies include the 2006 The Ten Commandments, the 2007 Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde, Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, and the world premiere of ION's The Summit!
For complete details on ION Television June 2008, 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.

ER Comes to ION Television in June 2008; BET Schedule Changes, Includes Diff'rent Strokes and Different World Memorial Day Marathon

Today is ION Television's upfront! ION Television today announced a licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution to air seasons 11-14 of the long-running hit series ER on ION Television. The medical drama, which has earned more Primetime Emmy Award nominations than any other program in history, will debut in primetime on the network beginning this June. The show will enter its 15th and final season on NBC next season. We will have more on ER and ION June 2008 in the next week or so, so stay tuned! We also still have the interview with them planned, and hopefully we will know when next week.

BET has made some more schedule changes. And again it is better than before. First off, fans of Diff'rent Strokes and Malcolm & Eddie take note that the episodes will not encore later in the day anymore...but now we will get two new hours each! This started yesterday, so you need to watch or tape both hours immediately. So, Diff'rent Strokes airing 9-10am will not encore 3-4pm later in the day, but that 3-4pm will be new episodes! The same for Malcolm & Eddie...10-11am and 4-5pm are both new episodes. So we get four episodes a day rather than two! So, watch or tape/DVR both hours now. That is good news, I think.
Then, starting this Saturday (May 3), BET has added a sitcom block on Saturdays from 9am-1pm! From 9-10am it will be The Parkers, the Nickelodeon sitcoms Just Jordan and Romeo! will move up an hour to 10-11am and 11am-12pm, and finally closing out the block is two episodes of Diff'rent Strokes from 12-1pm...and yes, they will be new episodes, so you'll need to watch or tape/DVR these as well! Also on Saturday, May 3, we told you A Different World will get a mini marathon block from 8:30-10pm last week, but now it has been extended to 8-10pm...so an extra episode. The show will get weekly Sunday evening airings, but the times vary as I stated last week.
BET has also added Girlfriends for this Saturday only from 10-11pm and 2-3am, while A Different World will encore this Saturday from 3-4am for one time only, preempting Sanford.
Starting next Saturday night (May 10), In Living Color will return and air Saturday nights from 3-4am, replacing Sanford. Sanford fans don't worry because the show will return again to Sundays 12-1pm replacing The Parkers starting May 18, as The Parkers is now Saturdays 9-10am. Remember there is a Thea Mother's Day marathon on May 11 from 12pm-5pm. The marathon episodes of that will be episodes where they left off in the regular run, so we will get (in production order): #11 "Birthday Girl," #12 "Mama I'm Full," #13 "Good Stock," #14 "A Christmas Story," #15 "Danesha's Project," #16 "Who's Zooming Who?," #17 "Of Fish and Men," #18 "T.C.B.," #19 "Call Me Thea," and #20 "The Pie Queen and the Loan Duck," all from 12pm-5pm. So it seems they have aired about every episode of Thea after this...I think just 1 or 2 haven't been aired, so hopefully we get those soon.
Finally, this Memorial Day (Monday, May 26), BET will present a 'different' (or is it spelled Diff'rent?) kind of marathon for viewers! It is the Diff'rent Strokes and A Different World marathon! Diff'rent Strokes will air from 9am-7pm and A Different World from 7pm-3am. We will have episode info for both marathons in a few weeks, so stay tuned for that!

Nick at Nite May 2008 Highlights; Classic Cannell Dramas Come to iTunes; Ghost Whisperer Officially Announced for ION in 2009

This May Nick at Nite will give viewers a few special marathons and the premiere of the classic '80s movie E.T. The Extra Terrestrial! Nick at Nite is celebrating Cinco De Mayo with a 7 hour George Lopez marathon from 9pm-4am on Monday, May 5, 2008. They are calling it Cinco De Lopez!
This Mother's Day, Constance Marie from George Lopez will host Nick at Nite's "Hot Mother's Nite" honoring the hot sexy moms of television. Throughout the night, Constance will be treated to some poolside pampering and primping for all her hard work being a Mom on Nick at Nite. The block will be from 9pm-1am and feature episodes of Jill from Home Improvement, Angie & Benny from George Lopez and Vivian & Will's mom on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air!
Then on Friday, May 16 from 8pm-10:30pm, an extra-terrestrial is accidentally left behind on Earth and is befriended by a young boy and his brother and sister on the Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite premiere of the classic '80s movie E.T. The Extra Terrestrial! As Elliot attempts to help his extra-terrestrial companion contact his home planet so that he might be rescued, the children must elude scientists and government agents determined to apprehend the alien for their own purposes...which results in an adventure greater than any of them could have imagined. Premieres on Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite! The movie premieres on sister station TV Land this Friday (May 2).
Finally, this Memorial Day and the days after, Nick at Nite serves up a seven day marathon chock full of tools and fools of Home Improvement! 10pm-6am each night from Monday, May 26 to Sunday, June 1!
Still no word on Family Matters, but a good guess would be June or July. We'll let you know when we do. Anyway, to discuss Nick at Nite May 2008 and to view the full highlights with episode info for the stunts, click HERE!

Stephen J. Cannell Productions, Inc. and New Video announced that top series from the vast Stephen J. Cannell Productions, Inc. library of groundbreaking television drama programs are now available for purchase and download on the iTunes Store.
Effective yesterday, iTunes customers are now able to purchase compelling character-driven series such as 21 Jump Street, Hunter, Silk Stalkings, The Greatest American Hero and Wiseguy, with other titles to be added in the coming weeks.
Individual episodes are available for purchase at $1.99, and full season passes of each series are available at a discount. New Video and Stephen J. Cannell Productions, Inc. look forward to expanding their partnership to make more quality Cannell programming available in digital format on iTunes.
Two more popular series, The Commish and Renegade will also be available on iTunes in the coming months.
To view the full press release and to discuss this news, click HERE!

We gave you the news the other day that ION Television has gotten broadcast rerun rights to Criminal Minds for Fall 2009 and also mentioned that Ghost Whisperer was also coming. Today ION made it official!
ION Television officially today announced it has entered into a content agreement with CBS Television Distribution for the broadcast syndication rights to the hit television series, Ghost Whisperer. ION Television will debut this popular show in primetime, beginning in 2009. The deal continues the network's positioning momentum as a general entertainment destination.
The full press release is available HERE.
We will have more on ION's future on Thursday when they have their annual upfront presentation. I am told more programming will be announced and we hope to have an interview with them shortly after upfront.
Come back tomorrow for full details on Criminal Minds coming to A&E for cable reruns next month. We also hinted on that the other day with the ION news, but now we have the official information!

A Different World Joins BET Line-Up On April 28; ION and A&E Acquire Criminal Minds for Fall 2009

BET will add another sitcom to its line-up this Monday (April 28)! The sitcom is the late '80s/early '90s sitcom A Different World. The popular spin-off of the Cosby Show will air weeknights at 11:00pm & 11:30pm with an encore later that night at 3:00am & 3:30am ET/PT. The 11pm-12am airings will replace an hour of Malcolm & Eddie, but not to fear that show will still air weekdays 10-11am and 4-5pm. The 3-4am encore will replace In Living Color, which will now be off the schedule. A Different World spun-off Denise Huxtable into Hillman College, but that only lasted one season and the show changed by season two and became more popular even.
A Different World comes from the same deal that Nick at Nite/The N had, so it is all Viacom related, as BET is also part of Viacom. The show will get a mini-marathon as well on Saturday, May 3 from 8:30pm-11pm. In addition to the weeknight airings, the show will also get a weekly three episode evening block on Sundays. The times vary, but the first Sunday (May 4) it will be 8p-9:30p. Future Sunday times are tentative, but here are the times as of now for May: 7p-8:30pm on May 11, 6:30p-8pm on May 18 and 8:30p-10:00pm on May 25.
There is one slight other change to the schedule as well. BET will remove the Sundays 12-1pm Sanford airings starting Sunday, May 4. Instead two episodes of The Parkers will air Sundays 12-1pm. Not to fear, Sanford will still air late Saturday nights (early Sunday mornings), usually 3-4am.

ION Television today announced it has entered into a content agreement with CBS Television Distribution for the broadcast syndication rights to the hit television drama series, Criminal Minds starring Mandy Patinkin and Joe Mantegna. ION Television will debut this popular show in prime time beginning in Fall 2009. The deal continues the network's positioning momentum as a general entertainment destination.
Criminal Minds joins recent additions, including Boston Legal & M*A*S*H coming to ION off-network this Fall, as well as The Steve Harvey Show, Family Feud and Quantum Leap, currently airing in ION Television's expanded entertainment schedule.
ION will have their annual upfront presentation a week from today (Thursday, May 1). We will bring you the latest from that next week...and we hope to get an interview with them regarding their future. Also, B&C is reporting in addition to Criminal Minds, ION will also acquire off-network reruns of Ghost Whisperer starring Jennifer Love Hewitt from CBS Television Distribution also starting in Fall 2009. We will bring you the official announcement on that when available! It'll probably be at upfront.
In addition to coming to ION in Fall 2009, Criminal Minds will also get a cable home! A&E Television has bought the cable rights to the series beginning in Fall 2009, where it will air five-days a week. However, before that, A&E has rights to air the series once a week starting with season one and through season three. The once a week play starts next month (May) on A&E. We will bring you the exact times and dates as soon as A&E announces that. A&E will have their upfront presentation next week as well, so we should know very soon.

ION Television May 2008 Highlights; CBS Summer 2008 Schedule

ION Television has announced its May 2008 schedule and highlights. As of now, there will be no changes to the regular schedule, which means the schedule that started Monday, April 7, will remain in effect unless there is a last minute change. So, Wayans Bros., Steve Harvey, Family Feud, Mama's Family, Quantum Leap and Drew Carey will remain from 5-11pm. Total Theatre Thursday movies for the month of May are: The Cowboys, Superman, Superman II, Risky Business and Bladerunner. RHI on ION movies for Fri-Sun in May include The Odyssey, Neil Simon's London Suite, Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys, and the three-part Larry McMurtry's Streets of Laredo.
Click HERE for the full ION May 2008 highlights and to discuss this month.
ION will have its upfront in about two weeks, on May 1...so hopefully more items will be announced then and we still plan to interview them shortly after that upfront.

CBS today unveiled its 2008 summer schedule comprising nearly 90 hours of original programming, including three new reality series (Greatest American Dog, Million Dollar Password (hosted by Regis Philbin) and Jingles (from Mark Burnett)), two new dramas (Swingtown and Flashpoint), summer stalwart Big Brother, two live mixed martial arts events (CBS Elite XC Saturday Night Fights), The American Theatre Wing's 62nd Annual Tony Awards and AFI's 10 Top 10 special.
The summer lineup will also see rebroadcasts of Without a Trace, NUMB3RS and Cold Case moving to new time periods.

Here is the summer line-up:

Thursday, Effective May 29
8:00-9:00 PM TBA
9:00-10:00 PM CSI (repeats)

Saturday, May 31
9:00-11:00 PM, live ET/delayed PT CBS Elite XC Saturday Night Fights

Sunday, Effective June 1
7:00-8:00 PM 60 Minutes
8:00-9:00 PM Million Dollar Password (Series Premiere...6 episodes ordered)
9:00-10:00 PM Cold Case (repeats)
10:00-11:00 PM TBA

Tuesday, Effective June 3
8:00-9:00 PM NCIS (repeats)
9:00-10:00 PM Shark (repeats)
10:00-11:00 PM Without a Trace (New Time Period, repeats)

Thursday, Effective June 5
8:00-9:00 PM TBA
9:00-10:00 PM CSI (repeats)
10:00-11:00 PM Swingtown (Series Premiere...13 episodes ordered)

Sunday, June 15
8:00-11:00 PM, live ET/delayed PT The American Theatre Wing's 62nd Annual Tony Awards

Tuesday, June 17
8:00-11:00 PM AFI's 10 Top 10

Thursday, Effective July 10
8:00-9:00 PM Greatest American Dog (Series Premiere...TBD episodes ordered)
9:00-10:00 PM CSI (repeats)
10:00-11:00 PM Swingtown

Friday, Effective July 11
8:00-9:00 PM Ghost Whisperer (repeats)
9:00-10:00 PM NUMB3RS (New Time Period, repeats)
10:00-11:00 PM Flashpoint (Series Premiere...13 episodes ordered)

Sunday, Effective July 13
7:00-8:00 PM 60 Minutes
8:00-9:00 PM Big Brother (Premiere)
9:00-10:00 PM Cold Case (repeats)
10:00-11:00 PM TBA

Tuesday, Effective July 15
8:00-9:00 PM NCIS (repeats)
9:00-10:00 PM Big Brother (Premiere)
10:00-11:00 PM Without a Trace (repeats)

Wednesday, Effective July 16
8:00-9:00 PM Big Brother (Premiere)
9:00-10:00 PM Criminal Minds (repeats)
10:00-11:00 PM CSI: NY (repeats)

Saturday, July 26
9:00-11:00 PM, live ET/delayed PT CBS Elite XC Saturday Night Fights

Sunday, Effective July 27
7:00-8:00 PM 60 Minutes
8:00-9:00 PM Big Brother
9:00-10:00 PM Jingles (Series Premiere...8 episodes ordered)
10:00-11:00 PM Cold Case (New Time Period, repeats)

For complete details on the new summer series, click HERE.

Today's blog brought to you by the new hit sitcom Samantha Who? Watch it tonight at 9:30pm ET/PT on ABC!

Family Matters Nick at Nite Launch Delayed; ION Officially Announces April Expansion

You saw the commercials stating that 90s sitcom Family Matters was coming to Nick at Nite in April a few weeks ago, but now that is not happening. We reported this a few weeks back, but Nick at Nite has decided to delay the launch for a better launching pad. The current schedule that is airing currently will continue to air until further notice. They have not announced yet when Family Matters will join the line-up, but we first reported March, then we reported June and then it was reported for April...so it keeps changing. We will not say any other dates until it is official now...but if I were to guess when it is coming, June would be a good guess, since the summer would be an ideal time to launch Family Matters. I don't think any promos have been seen lately?
So, I just wanted to let you all know since I have seen a ton of Google searches for Family Matters coming to Nick at Nite being redirected to our blog, so I owe it you all to let you know it has been delayed, BUT it IS coming, I can tell you that. We will report when Urkel and the gang are coming when it is official now, so we don't cause more confusion.

ION Television has officially announced their April programming expansion. We gave you all the details a week or two ago, but we haven't mentioned this on the blog, but the Thursday night slot from 8-10pm which was to be determined, will be a weekly block called "Total Theatre Thursday." Here is ION's announcement:
ION Media Networks, Inc. today announced an expanded entertainment schedule on ION Television beginning April 7th. Three new series – The Steve Harvey Show, Family Feud and Quantum Leap – along with a selection of blockbuster films will join the lineup, extending the schedule by an additional hour of entertainment programming from 5 to 6 p.m.
On Thursday nights, powered by deals with studios such as Warner Bros, ION Television will launch "Total Theatre Thursday" over the summer, an array of hit motion pictures like Blade Runner, Dirty Harry, Risky Business and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. These blockbuster Hollywood movies feature some of the biggest stars of the industry, including Clint Eastwood, Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford and Jack Nicholson.
With the addition of these three new series and big screen favorites, beginning April 7th, ION Television’s lineup will be: The Wayans Brothers from 5 to 6 p.m. Mon-Fri, The Steve Harvey Show from 6 to 7 p.m. Mon-Fri, Family Feud from 7 to 8 p.m. Mon-Thurs, Mama's Family from 8 to 9 p.m. Mon-Wed, Quantum Leap from 9 to 10 p.m. Mon-Wed, The Drew Carey Show from 10 to 11 p.m. Mon-Wed and "Total Theatre Thursday" from 8 to 11 p.m. Thursdays. Baywatch will now be seen at 6 to 7 p.m. on Saturdays.
View the entire press release.

ION's upfront is slated for May 1. We will try to do an interview with them (part of our ongoing 7 Questions feature) shortly after that. So keep your fringers crossed!

ION Also Adds Steve Harvey Show in April; TV Land's High School Reunion Does Big in Ratings

Just a few days ago we gave you most of ION Television's April 2008 schedule, with the additions of Family Feud (Mon-Thurs 7-8pm) and Quantum Leap (Mon-Wed 9pm). However, weekdays 6-7pm was still "to be determined," along with Thursdays from 8-10pm. We now have one of those "to be determined" slots announced! The '90s sitcom The Steve Harvey Show will join the ION Television line-up on Monday, April 7 and will air weekdays at 6:00pm & 6:30pm ET/PT. The sitcom starred Steve Harvey and Cedric the Entertainer. The show will air following The Wayans Bros. from 5-6pm, part of ION's African American Initiative programming block. The Steve Harvey Show comes from their Sony Pictures Television library deal.
We still do not know what will air Thursdays 8-10pm starting in April, but as soon as we know, we will indeed let you know. Hopefully by tomorrow? My guesses are a crime drama themed block or a sitcom themed block or maybe regular movies from their Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. deals that they used to air?
Anyway, recap yourself with our ION April 2008 schedule highlights, and also discuss these major changes, by clicking HERE!

TV Land's original reality series, High School Reunion, averaged 797,000 total viewers for last night's 10 p.m. telecast, making it the most-watched episode of the series to date. The telecast also gave TV Land double digit gains across the network's target demo, Adults 25-54, and among the network's core audience, Adults 40-54. The show reunites classmates from all walks and stages of life who have some issues to address and resolve since their high school days. The series gives viewers a front row seat to the emotional and compelling rollercoaster ride throughout its run.
Last night's shocking and dramatic episode, in which Mike and Steve finally confront each other about Steve's affair with Mike's ex-wife Lana, posted a 0.5 rating (513,000 viewers) among A25-54, up 29% in rating from last week's episode and up 28% in viewers 25-54. Among the network's core A40-54 audience, the episode earned a 0.6 rating (330,000 viewers) a rise of 20% in rating and 20% in viewers 40-54 over last week. It also scored double digit gains in total viewers (797,000) with a 12% increase over last week.
Season one of High School Reunion has been averaging 753,000 total viewers with a median age of 47. Among A25-54, it has been posting a 0.4 rating (448,000 viewers) and among A40-54 a 0.5 ratign (286,000 viewers).

Fox Cancels Jezebel James; ION Picks-Up Family Feud, Quantum Leap, and More in April 2008

Fox has pulled new sitcom The Return of Jezebel James after just two weeks and three episodes airing. The sitcom was just averaging a bit over 3 million on Friday nights. Fox will replace the 8pm hour on Fridays with repeats of Bones, which will lead into new episodes of Canterbury's Law starting this Friday. If Jezebel James was still airing this Friday, Fox would probably have had historic lows on that night as James leading into Canterbury would have been a disaster. Unhitched could be next on the cancelation block as that sitcom also did terrible this week in two airings on Sunday with just 3 million someodd viewers.
Meanwhile, Fox has picked up a fourth season of Prison Break, the action-packed series starring Dominic Purcell and Wentworth Miller as on-the-lam brothers Lincoln Burrows and Michael Scofield.
After spending the first season filming on location in Chicago, followed by two seasons on location in Dallas, production on the upcoming fourth season of Prison Break will move to Los Angeles.

ION Television has picked up rights to Family Feud starting April 7. It will be the current version hosted by John O'Hurley. On your marks... let's start The Family Feud! The long- running, popular family-oriented game show is back with a new host and a new look. Hosted by television personality John O'Hurley, Family Feud is a fast-paced game show that pits two families against one another in a contest to name the most popular responses to survey-type questions posed to a 100 people. O'Hurley's quick wit and sophisticated style resonates with viewers who remember the Richard Dawson era. Although the set is now in a theatre in the round setting, it is somewhat of a throwback to the Dawson era when the families posed inside a living room setting.
ION will air Family Feud Mon-Thurs at 7:00pm & 7:30pm, replacing Alice, which will leave the line-up. ION has also picked up the drama Quantum Leap. After theorizing that man or woman could time travel within his or her lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into his Quantum Leap accelerator and was launched into an unknown abyss. It was upon awaking he realized he was trapped in the past, seeing a mirror image that wasn’t his and feeling driven by an unknown force to change the course of history for the better. Guided on this journey by Admiral Al Calavicci, an onlooker from his own time who only appears in the form of a hologram, Dr. Beckett leaps from one life to another, hoping that ultimately his next one will be the leap that takes him home.
Quantum Leap will also start on April 7 and air Mon-Wed at 9:00pm, leading into The Drew Carey Show's new timeslot 10 & 10:30pm Mon-Wed. ION will expand a bit, too! Instead of starting 6:00pm, they will start 5:00pm now...at least Mon-Fri (Saturday and Sundays it will still start at 6:00pm). The Wayans Bros. will move to 5:00pm & 5:30pm Mon-Fri. 6:00pm hour is still to be determined, which was Wayans' old slot. The aforementioned Family Feud follows at 7 Mon-Thurs, followed by Mama's Family for an hour at 8, but only Mon-Wed now. ION has something planned on Thursday nights from 8-10pm, which is still to be determined. Following that on Thursday nights at 10:00pm will be 48 Hours (it will still air Sundays at 6:00pm, too). The qubo kids block on Fridays will move up an hour now from 2:30-6pm to 1:30-5pm now. Baywatch will remain Saturdays at 6:00pm, which it moves to starting this coming Saturday. RHI programming will still air Fri-Sun from 7-11pm, and among the titles we will see in April are all four parts of Return to Lonesome Dove, new movie Praire Fever and Lone Rider, and classics such as Gullilver's Travels.
We will have more on those "to be determined" slots when we find out. Will it be a sitcom or a game show maybe to lead-into Family Feud? Or what is going to on Thursday nights from 8-10pm? We don't know yet, but as soon as we do, we will let you know!
For the entire April schedule in a list form and more highlights, click HERE! Please discuss as well!