TV Land Brings Back Married with Children...Again; TV Guide/TV Land Acquire Curb Your Enthusiasm; Lopez Tonight Launches Tonight

TV Land is bringing back Married...with Children once again! Al Bundy and the rest of the Bundy family just love TV Land and will return this Saturday (Nov. 14) with weekly Saturday marathons along with airing Mon-Thurs in the 9pm hour and Mondays from 10pm-12am starting next Monday (Nov. 16). The sitcom has always done well on TV Land, but there are some issues with sister network Spike TV. They were the ones who acquired the series but ever since TV Land has tested the show, it has done well on TV Land. But something prevents it from airing on both networks at the same time...so Spike TV will remove the series again after this week. Spike will air it this week in the mornings (10am-12pm), then effective Saturday, it goes back to TV Land. The TV Land weekday airings will replace Andy Griffith in the 9pm hour and Cosby Show in the Monday 10pm-12a block.
Other changes starting Monday, Nov. 16 are also to weekdays. Leave it to Beaver and The Beverly Hillbillies replace Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in the 9am hour. Home Edition will still weekend mornings at 8am. In the 10am hour we get another The Beverly Hillbillies and All in the Family, replacing an hour of Good Times, which is now off the regular line-up. Sanford & Son remains at 11am, but at 12pm we now have Hogan's Heroes returning to the schedule and airing in the 12pm hour replacing All in the Family and Leave it to Beaver, which move to earlier slots as I mentioned. At 1pm, Gunsmoke takes over the hour replacing Beverly Hillbillies, which also move to earlier slots as I mentioned. Bonanza will air at 2pm instead of Gunsmoke, so Bonanza airs 2pm-5pm. And in the 5pm hour now will be Andy Griffith Show instead of Bonanza. Andy will lead into All in the Family and Sanford & Son hours from 6-8pm, as they are not removing those hours. Andy remains n the 8pm hour leading into Married...with Children at 9.
So, there you have it...the updated TV Land November schedule! View the full updated TV Land November 2009 schedule, if you're confused.

We have even more TV Land news! But this one is shared with the TV Guide Network. TV Land and TV Guide Network announced that they will jointly acquire basic cable rights to Curb Your Enthusiasm, the award-winning HBO comedy series produced by and starring Seinfeld co-creator Larry David. One of the most ground-breaking shows on television, Curb Your Enthusiasm has never before been seen on basic cable television and for the first time ever, this irreverent comedy series will be delivered to millions of new viewers by TV Guide Network and TV Land. In addition, both networks will acquire certain broadband, wireless and video-on-demand rights, bringing Curb Your Enthusiasm to multiple screens for fans to enjoy.
Curb Your Enthusiasm will air on TV Guide Network for a multi-year run starting February 2010. TV Land will begin airing the series in TV Land PRIME immediately following TV Guide Network's term in February 2013 (it could be a year later if HBO renews Curb for an eighth season).
We previously announced that Curb Your Enthusiasm launches in broadcast syndication on Tribune stations in Fall 2010, so TV Guide Network will have a seven month head start. WGN America will also air the series starting in Fall 2010, when locals start it, as we previously announced.

And finally, the wait is over. The time is now. The party starts tonight at 11:00pm, only on TBS, as they launch Lopez Tonight starring George Lopez! George's guests tonight are Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria Parker, talk show host and new American Idol judge Ellen DeGeneres, NBA all-star Kobe Bryant and rock legend Carlos Santana. And you won't want to miss the audience game that everyone will be talking about tomorrow, "Bullet Wound... Not a Bullet Wound?" Other guests for premiere week include Jamie Foxx, Marc Anthony, Queen Latifah, Oscar De La Hoya, Lisa Lampanelli, Kelly Osbourne and Larry David. In the coming weeks you'll see Charlie Sheen, Andy Garcia, Bill Engvall, Ted Danson, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and many more!
Lopez Tonight airs Mon-Thurs from 11pm-12:05am ET (with an encore at 2am ET) starting tonight, as George is bringing the party back to late night! Orale!
Tonight's premiere at 11pm will be simulcast on TNT and truTV as well.

BET Jazz Renames to Centric; The CW and TBS Cancelations

We all know about the name change Viacom is doing for The N turning into TeenNick starting today, but did you know Viacom's BET Jazz is turning into Centric today? BET is rebranding its nearly 32 million subscriber "BET J" network under the Centric title, which will target African-American viewers with music and lifestyle programming. The network for the short-term will rely on acquired reality and music programming fare from its sister networks, including such shows as MTV's Run's House and VH1's The Salt-N-Pepa Show and I Want To Work for Diddy. Centric will also feature new shows originally slated to premiere this fall on BET J, including Leading Men, Lyrical Café and Urban Living. The network will also air classic episodes from the long-running Soul Train syndicated music/dance series, including singer Michael Jackson's first appearance on the show as a member of The Jackson Five. The network will pay homage to the "King of Pop," who died this past June, with a Jackson-themed primetime programming block tonight at 9pm (and encoring Friday at 11am). Also, the network will air the original Fame series to launch the network today from 9am-9pm with an encore on Sunday from 6am-6pm. Episode titles from the 1982 series airing in the block are "The Strike," "A Musical Bridge," "Passing Grade," "Tomorrow's Farewell," "The Crazies," "Teachers," "Class Act," "Feelings," "Star Quality," "Solo Song," "Ending on a High Note," and "Not in Kansas Anymore." I believe this is in honor of the new Fame movie that opened this past weekend. As of now, Centric is not airing this series as a regular.
While the network is officially on the air today, BET and MTV are not planning any major marketing campaigns for Centric until 2010. For the immediate future, Centric will run cross-promotional spots through such MTV Networks properties as VH1, MTV and BET. Hopefully we see some sitcoms on Centric, but it doesn't seem like we will see any...I guess sitcom will be just for BET itself.

The CW has canceled new Wednesday drama The Beautiful Life: TBL after just two airings. TBL was the fall's first cancelation, after draw just over 1 million viewers for its second episode not holding much of anything of the America's Next Top Model lead-in. Starting this Wednesday at 9pm, repeats of Melrose Place, which is not doing much better, will take over the slot. Melrose Place airs original episodes Tuesdays at 9pm.
And finally TBS has canceled multi-camera sitcom The Bill Engvall Show after three seasons. The series moved to Saturdays for its third season and didn't generate much numbers. TBS opted to go with a fourth season of single camera sitcom My Boys instead I guess.

TBS and ABC Family Renew Original Sitcoms; Remembering Larry Gelbart

The beer will continue flowing at Crowley's Tavern as TBS orders up a fourth season of its critically acclaimed original sitcom from Sony Pictures Television, My Boys. The series stars Jordana Spiro as PJ Franklin, a 20-something sports columnist in Chicago. TBS has lined up nine episodes for the new season, which is slated to launch in 2010.
Co-starring in My Boys as PJ's mostly male group of close friends are Kyle Howard as boyfriend Bobby, Reid Scott as best friend Brendon, Michael Bunin as Kenny and Jamie Kaler as Mike. Kellee Stewart co-stars as Stephanie, a former schoolmate and the only female influence in PJ's life.
The single camera sitcom premiered to critical praise on TBS in November 2006. When the series returned in summer 2007, it scored 22% growth among adults 18-34. Earlier this year, the show's third season garnered 11% growth among adults 18-34. The comedy is particularly strong among DVR users, delivering 72% growth among adults 18-34 and 52% growth among viewers when comparing Live to Live + 7 viewing for the third season.

Meanwhile, ABC Family has ordered another season of ten episodes of original comedy 10 Things I Hate About You. The ensemble single camera sitcom based on the 1999 feature of the same name has performed well for ABC Family since its July 7 debut. The comedy is created and executive produced by Carter Covington and stars Lindsey Shaw, Meaghan Martin, Larry Miller and Ethan Peck. The series just finished its first season episode order (10 episodes) last Tuesday.
However, the news was not as good for another original ABC Family series that premiered this summer, Ruby and the Rockits. ABC Family will not renew the multicamera sitcom that revolved around a pair of aging pop stars and their families, which starred Patrick Cassidy, David Cassidy and Alexa Vega and was executive produced by Shaun Cassidy. The series still has two episodes left to air in its only season episode order, with the series finale airing next Tuesday at 8:30PM.

Larry Gelbart, the award-winning writer whose sly, sardonic wit helped create such hits as Broadway's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, the film Tootsie, and of course television's M*A*S*H, died Friday. Gelbart died at his Beverly Hills home after a long battle with cancer. He is likely best remembered for the long-running TV show about Army doctors during the Korean War. Gelbart won an Emmy for M*A*S*H and was nominated for writing but quit during the show's fourth season, saying he was "totally worn out."
Gelbart's Broadway show, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, written with Burt Shevelove, was a runaway hit. It was based loosely on the Roman plays of Plautus with songs by Stephen Sondheim.
His films Oh, God! with George Burns as a philosophical deity, and Tootsie, with Dustin Hoffman as a cross-dressing actor, both brought him Academy Award nominations, and the HBO movie Barbarians at the Gate, about Wall Street chicanery, brought another Emmy.
Gelbart's other television work was creating the short-lived CBS sitcom Roll Out! in 1973. It starred Stu Gilliam and Hilly Hicks, and featuring Ed Begley, Jr. and Garrett Morris, the series was set in France during World War II and was loosely based on the 1952 film Red Ball Express. Instead of Army medics, Roll Out! highlighted the pratfalls of the supply drivers of the 5050th Quartermaster Trucking Company of the U.S. Third Army's Red Ball Express, whose staff was mainly African American.
Gelbart was also known for writing the first television pilot for Three's Company in 1976, which today is known as "The Larry Gelbart Pilot." The pilot never aired originally, but has been on DVD and aired on cable on TV Land. In 1980, Larry had another show that didn't last too long. The series was for NBC titled United States and starred Beau Bridges. It was a show about Richard and Libby Chapin and their two children Dylan and Nicky. The show differed from other sitcoms in that there might not be closure to problems after a frank discussion and the subjects discussed were not common to other sitcoms.
In 1983, Larry came back to M*A*S*H in the spin-off AfterMASH. It only lasted two seasons and had the Korean War ended with Colonel Potter, Sergeant Klinger, and Father Mulcahy finding themselves together once again, this time at a veteran's hospital.
In recent years Larry has been interviewed for TV Land Confidential, Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America, Inside TV Land: The Dick Van Dyke Show, M*A*S*H: 30th Anniversary Reunion, and most recently Biography: Three's Company. He was also at the TV Land Awards earlier this year.
Larry will certainly be missed and his great writing will live on forever in M*A*S*H and his other work. He was 81.

Happy Labor Day; TV Rebels: Desi Arnaz - More Than Just a Bongo Player

Happy Labor Day everyone! Most of you are probably outdoors spending this last "unofficial" last day of summer with your family & friends, but for those of you who are in needs of some TV marathons...you've come to the right place as usual!
We have mentioned many of these already, but it's a good reminder if you have forgotten! The Golden Girls will get the most play this holiday! Hallmark Channel will air a marathon from 8am-12am, while WE tv will air a marathon also from 1pm-7pm. BET is airing a marathon of The Game all-day today, while TBS goes to The Office this Labor Day from 4pm-8pm.
Other notable marathons are for dramas...Criminal Minds on A&E, NCIS on USA Network, and The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family. Both TNT and SOAPnet have short stunts of Law & Order and One Tree Hill from 11am-5pm, while The N has what else...Degrassi all-day. And on network TV, ABC has a three episode block of Castle from 8-11pm, as the season premiere is two weeks from tonight. TV Land has a movie marathon from 9am-6:30pm.
Reality wise we have Supernanny on style, 16 and Pregnant on MTV, Cops on G4, Catch 21 on GSN, and Dirty Jobs on Discovery. Hope you all find something!

It's time for the return of TV Rebels. We originally had special permission to publish the first 6 essays on TV shows and actors that will be featured in the upcoming book TV Rebels: 100 People and Programs That Shaped the Medium by authors Lou Orfanella and Oscar De Los Santos...and then last year we got rights to 6 additional essays (for a total of 12!), so including today's three essays are left. Upcoming TV Rebel columns will be about Rod Serling and TV Dinners. The book is in the works and will be released in 2010...so stay tuned for that and look for a review of the book right here before it comes out!

So without further adieu, we bring you the tenth essay of TV Rebels:

Desi Arnaz: More Than Just a Bongo Player
by Lou Orfanella

In 1950 when CBS was interested in bringing Lucille Ball's My Favorite Husband radio program to television Ball demanded that her real life husband Desi Arnaz play her husband. The network turned her down feeling that the viewing public would not accept Arnaz with his heavy accent as her husband. She held out, the network acquiesced and Mr. and Mrs. Desi Arnaz forever became Lucy and Ricky Ricardo in popular culture history.

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz had been married since 1940. By 1950 she was doing her radio show and periodic big screen projects in a mostly unnoticed film career. Arnaz was travelling the country with his band and their marriage was strained. By insisting they do what would become I Love Lucy together Ball hoped to solidify their domestic life. "Richard Denning, Lucy's radio hubby, comments: 'She said it would help her marriage. Also the show. And, of course, she was right'" (Andrews 22).

Ball was determined that Arnaz not be seen as playing second fiddle to her. The title, I Love Lucy, in fact was an effort to include Desi in the title and indeed since he is the "I" give him top billing. "The general impression seems to be that he was a lucky Cuban who was handsome, charming, played the bongo, and happened to be married to the funniest lady in the whole world. Well, this was all true, but there was a lot more to Desi than that. He may have only been that when he started, but he had an amazing ability for learning things and he was an astute businessman" (Davis 55).

It was Arnaz' business acumen that changed the traditional method of producing situation comedies. Traditionally shows were broadcast live and "preserved" on low quality kinescopes, which were essentially copies made by aiming a movie camera at a television monitor and which were used to broadcast programs outside of the eastern time zone where sponsors were less likely to view them and challenge the quality. When production was set to begin on I Love Lucy for its premier season, Lucy and Desi lived on the west coast and had no intention of moving to New York where the show could be done live for what was then the largest audience, and the sponsors as well. Desi's solution was to film the show like a motion picture resulting in high quality prints. It would be an expensive proposition requiring three or four cameras, special sound and lighting techniques, and potentially multiple sets which would increase the costs. The network only agreed after the Arnazs agreed to a pay cut to help defray the production costs. "The burden of planning this new method fell heavily on Desi's shoulders. No one had attempted a situation comedy on film, shot before a live studio audience: he was plowing virginal fields" (Andrews 32).

Arnaz was not only successful in changing the way sitcoms were filmed and preserved for the lucrative rerun syndication market, but was shrewd enough to acquire an ownership percentage in the series which he and Lucy parlayed into Desilu Production, at one time, the most successful in the business.

Works Cited
Andrews, Bart. "Lucy&Ricky&Fred&Ethel: The Story of I Love Lucy." New York: Dutton, 1976.
Davis, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll Jr. "Laughing with Lucy." Cincinnati Emmis, 2005.

TBS Fall 2009 Schedule; Gospel Music Channel Acquires Sister Sister; Summer TCA Tour: Cable Days 1 and 2

Our fall schedule blog posts barrage continues today with another fall schedule! Today we take a look at TBS Fall 2009, as they will add four new sitcoms to its weekday line-up. Three of them have been airing once a week, so there is only one new sitcom really. The Office, My Name is Earl and House of Payne are now also going to air in the regular weekday line-up, while According to Jim joins the TBS schedule for the first time.
TBS will make its first batch of changes starting the week of Sept. 21. For this week only, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air will slide to the 8am hour replacing the second hour of Saved by the Bell. In the 9am hour now for this week it will be an episode each of Just Shoot Me and Home Improvement. The TBS Movie continues to air at 10am, but this week will be its last week! Yes, Dear moves to 12pm, sharing the hour with Everybody Loves Raymond. Home Improvement still airs in the 1pm hour for now, more on that in a bit. Then we get more Everybody Loves Raymond in the 2pm hour, so this show goes from 5pm-6:30pm to 12:30pm & 2-3pm now. Then House of Payne will join the line-up airing in the 3pm hour replacing Yes, Dear. The King of Queens remains at 4pm for now, more on that in a bit as well. Friends now gets a full hour and moves to 5-6pm. Seinfeld is now only a half-hour and at 6pm, leading into The Office at 6:30pm. My Name is Earl will air back-to-back in the 7pm hour. Primetime has blocks of Family Guy on Mondays, The Office on Tuesdays, House of Payne/Meet the Browns on Wednesdays, with movies on Thursdays and Fridays. The late night line-up will have Seinfeld in the 11pm hour on most days, with My Name is Earl on Tuesdays. Sex and the City remains at midnight with a movie following until blocks of Steve Harvey Show and Married...with Children airing after that until dawn. Lots of sitcoms, less movies, good!
Then starting the following week on Monday, Sept. 28, we get some more changes. Fresh Prince is back in the 9am hour, with Saved by the Bell getting its second hour back at 8am. The TBS 10am movie is now gone and we get all sitcoms now in the daytime, as Just Shoot Me and Home Improvement slide up to the 10am hour now and we get an extra sitcom hour as Home Improvement and Yes, Dear air in the 11am hour. Everything else is the same as the week of Sept. 21. But a few days later on Thursday, October 1, According to Jim joins the TBS sitcom line-up! According to Jim will air in the 4pm hour replacing King of Queens. That show will slide to 1-2pm, replacing two episodes of Home Improvement. Home Improvement will still air at 10:30am & 11am, so not to worry. Nothing is being replaced at all (well...except the movie) despite four new series coming to the regular schedule!
View the full TBS Fall 2009 schedule. Now it is still early, so we might have some changes, as always. I'm still not 100% sure what will happen on weekends after According to Jim comes, but it'll likely be the same as it was prior to it coming. As always, stay with us for more!

Gospel Music Channel will be adding even more shows now to their schedule! First they added Christy, Doc, and Dr. Quinn to weekdays, then they went with some comedies in Amen and Good News on Mondays in primetime, now we get another comedy and another drama! Gospel Music Channel has acquired '90s sitcom Sister, Sister and '90s drama Promised Land. Yes, this means Sister, Sister will be on THREE cable networks in BET, ABC Family and now Gospel Music Channel. WGN America also recently aired the Tia and Tamera Mowry comedy. The series premieres on Gospel Music Channel next Monday (Aug. 3) and will join the Monday comedy block with Amen and Good News. Sister, Sister will air back-to-back in the 8pm hour (encores at 12am), replacing two Amen episodes. Good News will remain at 9pm (encore at 1am) and Amen is cut to just 9:30pm (encore at 1:30am).
Sister, Sister will also air Saturdays in the 6pm hour as well starting Aug. 8! Amen has gained some more slots airing Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays back-to-back in the 7pm hour. So losing some slots on Mondays wasn't a bad thing! Good News will also air Saturdays at 7pm leading into Amen.
Gospel Music Channel has also acquired the drama Promised Land. It lasted three seasons on CBS from 1996-1999 and was a spin-off of Touched by an Angel. They will air the series Wednesdays at 8pm with an encore at 11pm starting Aug. 5.
I like how they are adding actual series now. We will as always keep an eye on then and if we have any more news, we will certainly let you know!

The Summer 2009 TCA Tour started yesterday and will through August 8. First up from July 28 to July 31 is the cable portion. Day one was pretty slow with TBS and TNT the main players on that day. Networks that went yesterday were Travel Channel Fox Reality Channel, Turner Networks (TBS, TNT, HLN, CNN) and AMC closed the night off with cocktails. We'll give you the rundown of the notables. Househusbands of Hollywood will premiere Aug. 15 on Fox Reality Channel. Househusbands of Hollywood follows the lives of five men and their high-powered, successful wives. The couples include Darryl Bell and Tempestt Bledsoe and Grant and Jillian Reynolds. And TBS gave details on their original new talk show Lopez Tonight, that will premiere in November. Comedian and actor George Lopez headlines a new talk show with an outdoor street-party atmosphere and a high-energy crowd. The show will feature celebrity guests, live music and comedy acts, and Lopez flair and personality.
Up today were MTV Networks (MTV, TV Land, Nick at Nite, Comedy Central), History, NatGeo, ESPN, Starz, and BBC America. TV Land promoted their new originals that premiere next Wednesday: Make My Day and How'd You Get Rich, which we have mentioned so many times already. Nick at Nite was promoting their new original animated comedy Glen Martin, DDS which will launch Aug. 17 at 8pm. We will have more on that very soon.

TV Guide Channel Acquires Ugly Betty Reruns; TBS Orders More House of Payne; Network Notes

In a significant move to bolster its programming and attract new viewers, TV Guide Network announced that it has entered into an agreement with Disney-ABC Domestic Television to acquire the exclusive basic cable off-network rights to ABC Studios Golden Globe Award winning television series Ugly Betty. It is TV Guide Networks first scripted series acquisition and part of a multi-tiered programming strategy to evolve the network as an entertainment destination.
The deal includes access to existing and future episodes of Ugly Betty which will begin airing as a weekly strip on TV Guide Network in fall 2010. As part of the agreement, TVGuide.com will have rights to stream up to five Ugly Betty episodes at a time online. In addition, the deal includes repurpose rights for the upcoming fourth season of Ugly Betty premiering in October 2009 on ABC. The repeat telecast of the new episodes will air on TV Guide Network within two weeks of their premiere on ABC.

TBS is expanding the network's groundbreaking partnership with Tyler Perry and Debmar-Mercury by ordering an additional 20 episodes of the powerhouse comedy Tyler Perry's House of Payne. The order will bring the number of episodes in the series to 172, a remarkable total for any sitcom. House of Payne, along with Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns, continue to rank as the top sitcoms on cable.
House of Payne and Meet the Browns rank as ad-supported cable's top two original sitcoms of all-time among adults 18-49, viewers and households. So far in 2009, the shows are television's top two series in delivery of African-American adults 18-34. Meet the Browns also ranks as television's #1 program among African-American viewers and adults 18-49. This year, new episodes of Meet the Browns have averaged 3.2 million viewers, while new episodes of House of Payne have averaged 3 million viewers.
House of Payne is owned by Perry, distributed by Debmar-Mercury and licensed by TBS - debuted in 2006 with a test run of 10 episodes. After early results showed promise, TBS ordered a then-unprecedented 100 episodes. TBS later ordered an additional 26 episodes, followed by a deal for 26 more and the 20-episode order being announced today. The series is set in Atlanta and features LaVan Davis as fireman Curtis "Pops" Payne, a man who believes his house should be his castle, he the king and his wife, Ella (Cassi Davis), the queen. Unfortunately, their castle has turned into Grand Central Terminal, thanks to the constant comings and goings of immediate and extended family members. Lance Gross, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Allen Payne, Demetria McKinney, Larramie "Doc" Shaw and China McCain co-star.

ABC has announced premiere dates for Eastwick and Brothers & Sisters for the 2009-10 season. Eastwick will premiere on Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 10pm ET/PT, while Brothers & Sisters will launch its fourth season on Sunday, Sept. 27 at 10pm ET/PT. These two were the last of the fall premiere dates yet to be announced by ABC. Private Practice launches its third season on Thursday, Oct. 1 at 10pm ET/PT.
Recap yourself with the full ABC fall 2009 premiere dates.
Meanwhile, Wipeout, ABC's outrageously popular reality series, has been picked up for a third season. Twenty-four thrill-seekers will compete in the world's largest extreme obstacle course designed to provide the most spills, face plants and wipeouts ever seen on television. Moving nights, from Tuesday last summer to Wednesday this year, against tougher competition from Fox's time-period veteran So You Think You Can Dance, ABC's Wipeout is No. 1 during the 8 o'clock hour in Total Viewers and across each of the key Men demographics (M18-34/M18-49/M25-54). In Adults 18-49, Wipeout is a strong and very close second to Fox's Dance. Since its debut, Wipeout stands as Wednesday's No. 1 TV program in each of the Men demos (M18-34/M18-49/M25-54). It's the No. 5 TV series of Summer 2009 with Adults 18-49 and No. 1 with Men 18-49. On average to date, Wipeout is drawing ABC's largest summer audience in the Wednesday 8 o'clock hour in 13 years and highest Adults 18-49 rating during the summer frame in 10 years since 1996 and 1999, respectively.
In other summer news, ABC will launch Crash Course on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 airing Wednesdays at 9pm through and including Wednesday, Sept. 16. As of now, only four episodes are scheduled to air. The series, hosted by Orlando Jones and Dan Cortese, is a comedic auto-obstacle course series. It will air after Wipeout and will replace I Survived a Japanese Game Show, which would conclude its run the previous week.

Are We There Yet?: The Sitcom Coming to TBS; Our Emmy Nominations Picks

TBS, using the unique model created by Debmar-Mercury with Tyler Perry's House of Payne and Meet the Browns, is teaming with Joe Roth and Ice Cube for Are We There Yet?, a sitcom starring Terry Crews (Everybody Hates Chris) and based on the hit Revolution Studios film of the same name starring Ice Cube.
TBS has ordered 10 episodes of the new sitcom, slated to premiere in June 2010, with the option for an additional 90 episodes. The series is produced by Cube Vision and distributed by Debmar-Mercury. Revolution's Joe Roth and Cube Vision's Ice Cube and Matt Alvarez serve as executive producers, along with award-winning show-runner Ali LeRoi, who has won an Emmy® for his work on The Chris Rock Show and an NAACP Image Award for Everybody Hates Chris. In addition to executive-producing, Ice Cube will have a recurring role on the sitcom version!
Debmar-Mercury's association with TBS began in 2006, when the company devised a groundbreaking distribution strategy for Tyler Perry's House of Payne. Debmar-Mercury offered a 10-episode experiment in select markets that produced strong ratings, leading TBS to order a full-fledged series with an unprecedented 100 episodes. In January 2009, TBS premiered 10 episodes of Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns to strong ratings, leading the network to order additional episodes for a total of 80. So far this year, the two series have ranked as the top television programs in delivery of African-American viewers. Debmar-Mercury has also ordered 10 episodes for a Comedy Central comedy, as we mentioned, with an option to order 90 more, just like Are We There Yet?
The movie Are We There Yet?, a breakout 2005 hit, told the story of Nick (Ice Cube), a smooth operator who is trying to land a date with Suzanne, a divorcee stuck working out of town over New Year's and miserable because she misses her kids. Nick gallantly offers to make her New Year's wish come true – and his own in the process – by driving her two children to be reunited with their mom. What Nick doesn’t know is that Suzanne's children, whom he's never met, hate every man their mom dates on sight. The movie grossed more than $82 million at the box office and was followed in 2007 by a sequel, Are We Done Yet?
In the sitcom Are We There Yet?, Terry Crews will star as Nick, the character Ice Cube played in the film.

Today we will give our preview of what we think the nominations for the Emmy's will look like. The real nominations will be announced tomorrow (Thursday) morning at 8:30am ET, so we will give you those then. But for now...here are our predictions for the main acting categories for the 61st Annual Emmy Awards airing Sept. 20 on CBS:

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES
Weeds (Showtime)
The Office (NBC)
Two and a Half Men (CBS)
30 Rock (NBC)
Entourage (HBO)
Better off Ted (ABC)
MY THOUGHTS: 30 Rock has won it the last two years and is probably the favorite. The first 5 on this list are probably locks for a nomination.

OUTSTANDING LEAD COMEDY ACTOR
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock (NBC)
Tony Shalhoub, Monk (USA Network)
David Duchovny, Califorinication (Showtime)
Steve Carell, The Office (NBC)
Zach Braff, Scrubs (ABC)
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
MY THOUGHTS: Baldwin won it last year and could repeat. I think Braff will get a nomination this year for his final full year with Scrubs with Charlie Sheen not getting one as a result. Expect Jim Parsons to be nominated for his work on Big Bang Theory.

OUTSTANDING LEAD COMEDY ACTRESS
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty (ABC)
Eva Longoria-Parker, Desperate Housewives (ABC)
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who? (ABC)
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds (Showtime)
Tina Fey, 30 Rock (NBC)
Toni Collette, United States of Tara (Showtime)
MY THOUGHTS: Fey won it last year and is the favorite again. Eva Longoria deserves a nomination for once. She is hysterical.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTOR
Kevin Dillion, Entourage (HBO)
John Cryer, Two and a Half Men (CBS)
Rainn Wilson, The Office (NBC)
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
Jeremy Piven, Entourage (HBO)
Michael Urie, Ugly Betty (ABC)
MY THOUGHTS: Jeremy Piven wins every year. Maybe host Neil Patrick Harris will win this year?

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTRESS
Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty (ABC)
Andrea Anders, Better off Ted (ABC)
Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock (NBC)
Jean Smart, Samantha Who? (ABC)
Jenna Fischer, The Office (NBC)
Holland Taylor, Two and a Half Men (CBS)
MY THOUGHTS: Jean Smart won last year, but it will be interesting if she will be nominated this year due to Samantha Who? not getting picked up for a third year. Who cares, right? She deserves it.

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
Lost (ABC)
House (Fox)
Damages (FX)
Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Mad Men (AMC)
Dexter (Showtime)
MY THOUGHTS: Mad Men won last year but seriously Lost needs to take it this year! Grey's deserves a nomination at least, for its outstanding second half of the season.

OUTSTANDING LEAD DRAMA ACTOR
Hugh Laurie, House (Fox)
James Spader, Boston Legal (ABC)
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad (AMC)
Gabriel Bryne, In Treatment (HBO)
Michael C. Hall, Dexter (Showtime)
Jon Hamm, Mad Men (AMC)
MY THOUGHTS: Cranston surprised and won it last year. Will Emmy recognize Boston Legal one last time and give it back to Spader? My bet is on Jon Hamm.

OUTSTANDING LEAD DRAMA ACTRESS
Glenn Close, Damages (FX)
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer (TNT)
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU (NBC)
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace (TNT)
Evangeline Lilly, Lost (ABC)
MY THOUGHTS: Close won it last year. Not sure why Hargitay keeps getting nominated, but she probably will again. Evangeline Lilly needs to be nominated finally. Close or Field will take it.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING DRAMA ACTOR
Zeljko Ivanek, Damages (FX)
William Shatner, Boston Legal (ABC)
Kevin McKidd, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
John Slattery, Mad Men (AMC)
Josh Holloway, Lost (FX)
Michael Emerson, Lost (ABC)
MY THOUGHTS: Ivanek surprised last year with the win. I think we will have a different winner this year. Shatner one last time? Or finally Michael Emerson?

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING DRAMA ACTRESS
Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
Katherine Heigl, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Christina Hendricks, Mad Men (AMC)
Elizabeth Mitchell, Lost (ABC)
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Diane Wiest, In Treatment (HBO)
MY THOUGHTS: Wiest won it last year. Will Emmy give Heigl a nomination after bowing out last year? She as superb this year. But the Emmy goes to Elizabeth Mitchell!

Nominations are announced tomorrow morning. Come on back here and we will give you the official nominations and you can compare those to our picks!

The Nanny Joins Nick at Nite in May 2009; TBS Orders Original Animated Comedy

We have mentioned many times that The Nanny is coming to Nick at Nite in spring 2009. Yesterday we gave you an actual date. That was for the all-night marathon launch on Sunday, May 10 from 9pm-6am ET/PT...now we have the regular airing schedule, along with the rest of Nick at Nite May 2009! Effective Monday, May 11, 2009 The Nanny will join the Nick at Nite line-up airing Sun-Thurs at 11:00pm & 11:30pm ET/PT. That will force Nick at Nite to move Family Matters, which is one of their big guns, to 12:00am & 12:30am ET/PT on Sun-Thurs nights. You might say why are they doing this? Now Nick at Nite will sandwich The Nanny in between big time ratings hits George Lopez (10-11pm) and Family Matters (12-1am). Now if The Nanny does falter, they can always switch it to midnight and move Urkel and company back to 11pm. Family Matters is replacing Home Improvement at 12 midnight. That hour of Home Improvement will move to Mon-Thurs 3-4am ET/PT, replacing The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Fresh Prince will now only air Mon-Thurs from 2-3am, instead of the 2-5am block. The Nanny will also air 4-5am on Mon-Thurs nights, followed by Family Matters from 5-6am on Mon-Thurs nights, replacing Roseanne. Family Matters will also remain at 6am as well on weekdays. Now if you noticed the late night airings are Mon-Thurs (1am-6am) rather than Sun-Thurs like primetime (9pm-1am). On Sunday nights at 1am, we get back-to-back Home Improvement episodes replacing The Cosby Show, which is now gone from Nick at Nite. The Nanny airs 2-3am and Family Matters from 3-4am on Sunday nights, with Roseanne closing it out with a two-hour block from 4-6am.
So now that Sun-Thurs is all done, we have Friday & Saturday left. Again it is broken up into two different pieces (10pm-1am and 1am-6am). On both nights we get a change at 12 midnight with The Nanny airing back-to-back episodes, replacing Family Matters. Family Matters moves to 2-3am on Friday nights and 1-2am on Saturday nights, both replacing Home Improvement. Home Improvement moves to 4-5am on Friday nights replacing Roseanne and 2-3am on Saturday nights replacing Family Matters. The Nanny airs 3-4am on Saturday nights replacing Family Matters. Family Matters late night airing on Saturday nights are now 4-5am, replacing an hour of Roseanne, which will only be 5-6am on Saturday nights now. 5-6am on Friday nights will be The Nanny, replacing Family Matters encore.
In other May news, we get a George Lopez marathon on Tuesday, May 5 from 9pm-3am ET/PT called "Cinco de Lopez II." Celebrate Cinco de Mayo Lopez style!
This is the first major schedule change in a while. It is hard to follow, but here is a recap: The Nanny joins, Cosby Show is gone, Fresh Prince & Roseanne are heavily reduced, and Family Matters and Home Improvement get some time shifting, while George Lopez's slots remain unchanged.
Still confused? Don't worry, view the full Nick at Nite May 2009 schedule.

Adding a devilish touch to its line-up, TBS has greenlit the half-hour animated series Neighbors from Hell, which comes to the network from Fox TV Animation (same people who do Family Guy), DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. and Jeffrey Katzenberg (Shrek). Pam Brady (South Park), who wrote the pilot episode, and Mireille Soria (Madagascar) will serve as executive producers. TBS has ordered 10 episodes of the series, marking the network's first foray into original primetime animation. The series should work well with reruns of Family Guy on TBS.
Neighbors from Hell centers on the Hellmans, a typical, all-American suburban family, with Balthazor; his wife, Tina; their two children, Mandy and Josh; and their dog, Pazuzu. The only thing that distinguishes them from the rest of the folks in the neighborhood is that the Hellmans happen to be from Hell. They have been sent to Earth to pose as normal suburbanites with a mission to keep humans from finding their way to Hell. Their task is made all the more complicated by Balthazor's growing affection for humans and their odd but endearing qualities.
TBS has not given a set launch period for this show as of yet.

TV Land May 2009 Highlights, TV Land Awards Honorees; George Lopez Talk Show Coming to TBS in November

For May 2009 on TV Land we really don't get any schedule changes, but the schedule seems more consistent, especially from 10pm-6am now. Airing from 10pm-12am will be The Andy Griffith Show (Mon); The Cosby Show (Tues); The Cougar (Wed); The Jeffersons (Thurs) and TV Land PRIME Movie (Fri). Usually from 12-6am we will get back-to-back episodes of sitcoms 3rd Rock from the Sun, The Cosby Show, Sanford & Son, The Jeffersons, Good Times, and M*A*S*H. Nothing else really is different.
As for stunts, viewers get to spend some time with Mom and "The Cos" just in time for Mother's Day when TV Land PRIME gives moms everywhere the nite off on Thursday, May 7 from 9pm-1am! PRIME presents a special Cosby Show marathon salute to Mom with episodes that feature Cliff struggling to entertain the kids and keep the household in order as he indulges his wife Clair with some well deserved time away from Huxtable family mayhem.
The eight-episode original series The Cougar starring Stacey Anderson, a stunning 40-year-old successful realtor from Scottsdale, Arizona, continues Wednesdays at 10pm on TV Land PRIME.
On Memorial Day (Monday, May 25), it's been six weeks since single sophisticated cougar Stacey embarked on her prowl to find her perfect cub. Prior to the season finale and Stacey's final pick on Wednesday, June 3, come relive all of the romance, laughs, tears and heartbreaks with a marathon of the first six episodes of The Cougar. Tune in to see additional footage and dramatic deleted scenes as well as get an inside scoop on what everyone from Stacey to Vivica to the guys were really thinking.
TV Land PRIME movies for the month are Witches of Eastwick, Patriot Games, The Fugitive, and The Twilight Zone. Risky Business gets some weekend place and on Memorial Day.
View the full TV Land May 2009 schedule (with a generic schedule and also adjustments).
As for the honorees for this year's TV Land Awards, TV Land announced today that it will pay tribute to M*A*S*H, Married with Children, Home Improvement, Magnum P.I., Knots Landing and Two and a Half Men at the 7th Annual TV Land Awards. Hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, the two-hour show will tape on Sunday, April 19, at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City and will air on TV Land during a special presentation of TV Land PRIME on Sunday, April 26th at 8PM ET/PT.
All of this year's honorees are cultural icons representing a cross-section of classic and modern television that viewers love. The Legacy of Laughter Award will be presented to television actress and Seinfeld alum Julia Louis-Dreyfus. M*A*S*H will be honored with the Impact Award. The Innovator Award will be given to the unconventional Fox sitcom Married with Children, as we mentioned yesterday TV Land will showcase six classic episodes in honor of this on Thursday, April 23 from 9pm-12am. The classic CBS primetime soap opera Knots Landing celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and will be recognized for its place in television history. The Fan Favorite Award will be presented to Home Improvement, and the action drama Magnum P.I., which launched the career of Tom Selleck as a leading actor, will be bestowed with the Hero Award. Finally, the hit sitcom Two and a Half Men will be awarded the Future Classic Award.
View more details on this year's honorees!

The late-night landscape is about to shift when comedian and actor George Lopez headlines a new talk show for TBS. The program, from 2.2 Productions, paraMedia Inc. and Telepictures Productions, in association with Warner Horizon Television, will bring the excitement back to late night with an outdoor street-party atmosphere and a high-energy crowd. The fun will include visits from celebrity guests, live music and comedy acts and the benefit of George's own flair and personality. Lopez and Jim Paratore (Warner's The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Bonnie Hunt Show) serve as the executive producers for the not-yet-titled series, which will air on TBS Mondays-Thursdays at 11 p.m. (ET/PT), beginning in November 2009.
While high-energy, Lopez's new series will feature a casual environment that invites guests to engage fully with the crowd, giving audience members the chance to interact with the guests, ask questions and walk away feeling as though they've experienced something new. The new talk show represents Lopez's return to series television after co-creating, writing, producing and starring in Warner Bros. Television's groundbreaking hit sitcom George Lopez, which ran for six seasons on ABC. George Lopez remains a hit with viewers in syndication on both broadcast stations and cable's Nick at Nite, ranking as one of the top-rated shows on the network and among the top five comedies and top 20 weekly programs in syndication. George Lopez is one of only four off-net comedies to post weekly ratings gains among households from the 2007–08 to 2008–09 season.
Lopez continues to work steadily and his most recent film credits include the box-office hit Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Swing Vote, Henry Poole Is Here and Balls of Fury. He will next be seen starring opposite Jackie Chan in The Spy Next Door and Mr. Troop Mom, with Jane Lynch. In August, Lopez will film his second HBO Comedy Special, Tall, Dark and Chicano.

TBS Launches My Boys Season 3 on March 31; Obama Address to Congress Programming Update

My Boys, a smart original TBS comedy about a group of close friends connected to each other through the main woman in their lives, P.J. Franklin, returns with an all-new season of laughs. They are funny, irreverent, and completely relatable - people that you want to get to know! All-new episodes start March 31 for 9 straight weeks airing Tuesdays at 10:30pm ET, sandwiched between two The Office episodes. This comedy is about a group of friends who love each other like family, as they look to support each other through the ups and downs of dating, break-ups, career highs and lows, marriage proposals and nagging spouses.
In other TBS original sitcom news, House of Payne is having new episodes on Wednesdays from 10-11pm from Feb. 11 to March 4. More will air later in the year as well, as the order is for 26 episodes. Meanwhile Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns will return this summer after a successful 10-episode trial run. The series will have 80 additional episodes. The 10 Items or Less season finale is this coming Tuesday at 11pm ET, as it wraps-up its eight episode season. And finally, 10 more episodes of The Bill Engvall Show will launch this summer part of its third season. From the mind of America's favorite comedian, The Bill Engvall Show is a familiar, satisfying, contemporary family sitcom in the tradition of timeless sitcoms viewers know and love. Full of Bill Engvall's trademark family humor and unique take on parenting, marriage and kids, you will see your own family in this very funny family sitcom.

A few weeks ago we mentioned President Obama will preempt primetime programming on Tuesday, Feb. 24 at 9pm ET as he addresses to Congress. The address is now 90-minutes on the networks to include a Republican Response. So how will this affect primetime on network TV? For ABC, they will air the address from 9pm-10:30pm ET and an abbreviated half-hour version of Primetime: What Would You Do? will air at 10:30pm ET for the eastern time zone. The same goes for the central time zones, but of course they are one-hour behind. Out west, for the mountain time zone, the address to Congress will air live from 7-8:30pm MT, followed by an abbreviated half-hour version of Primetime: What Would You Do? at a special time of 8:30pm MT (it usually airs 9-10pm MT) and then they will conclude with Homeland Security USA at 9pm MT at a special time (usually airs 7pm MT). For the pacific time zone, the address to Congress will air 6-7:30pm PT, followed by local programming, then Homeland Security USA in regular 8pm PT hour, followed by a special repeat of Supernanny at 9pm PT (won't count in the ratings), and a full hour of Primetime: What Would You Do? at 10pm PT.
For CBS, they too will air the Obama address from 9-10:30pm ET, followed by a repeat of Two and a Half Men at 10:30pm ET. The same goes true for the central time zone, just off by an hour. For the mountain time zone though, the address to Congress will air live from 7-8:30pm MT, followed by the special Two and a Half Men encore at 8:30pm MT and an all-new NCIS at 9pm MT at a special time, as it usually airs at 7pm MT. Finally, for the pacific time zone, the address to Congress will air 6-7:30pm PT, followed by local programming, then NCIS at its normal 8pm PT slot, followed by special repeats of Two and a Half Men and Old Christine in the 9pm PT hour. Old Christine won't count in the ratings like Supernanny on ABC because it is not airing in the entire country. If Two and a Half Men gets preempted for the entire nation (that will only happen if the address to congress runs longer than 90-minutes), then a repeat of The Unit will air at 9pm PT for the pacific time zone only. 10pm PT will be returned to local stations to program for pacific time.
For NBC, they have just announced they too will air the address to Congress from 9-10:30pm ET, and in the eastern time zone, a repeat episode of The Office will follow. The same goes true for the central time zone, but they are one-hour behind. For the mountain time zone the address to congress will air live from 7pm-8:30pm MT, followed likely by The Office repeat and The Biggest Loser at 9pm MT at a special time, as it usually airs at 7pm MT. For the pacific time zone, the address to Congress will air 6-7:30pm PT, followed by local programming, The Biggest Loser will air from 8-9pm PT, followed likely by The Office encore at 9pm. NBC has not made that 9pm PT hour official yet, so I am not sure what will air at 9:30pm PT, but it would likely be a Office repeat. At 10pm PT we are not sure if NBC will air a repeat of Law & Order: SVU out west or just give it back to local programming like CBS is doing. For those wondering, The Biggest Loser is usually two-hours but like we mentioned a few weeks ago, it will air for an hour on this night and the second hour will air the following night.
For Fox, the address to Congress will air likely from 9-10pm ET in the eastern time zone, as they have not mentioned a half-hour Republican Response. A repeat of Bones will lead into that, as the regularly scheduled American Idol will be moved to Wednesday from 8-10pm, and the usual Wednesday results will be moved to Thursday 8-9pm. The same goes true for central time. For your mountain time zone readers, the address to Congress will air from 7-8pm MT, and in the eastern time zone. The Bones repeat will follow at 8pm MT. For pacific time zone readers, Fox will air the address to Congress from 6-7pm ET followed by local programming then likely two Bones repeats from 8-10pm PT, though that second hour is not confirmed yet.
I hope this made sense! We will have continued updates if anything changes, so come on back!

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.

TV Land Removes Four Sitcoms; TBS Schedules New Sitcom Meet the Browns for January and My Boys for March

We gave you details on TV Land's changes coming in January starting Dec. 29 and told you Paid Programming would be expanded and moved to 6-9am, so Designing Women, Mad About You, Murphy Brown and Just Shoot Me would move back to 4-6am instead of 3-5am. Now TV Land will remove these four sitcoms all together. Starting Monday, Dec. 29, we now get another hour of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in the 4am hour followed by more M*A*S*H in the 5am hour. Yes, Designing Women, Mad About You, Murphy Brown and Just Shoot Me will be off the regular line-up totally now, so watch them these next few weeks all you can. Just Shoot Me will still air in the weekend "TV Land.Comedy Month," on Jan. 17 from 2-6am. For regular airings, these four do not have return dates. If they shall returns, we will certainly let you know.
View the rest of TV Land's January 2009 schedule and highlights.

After bringing his unique style to TBS with the enormously popular sitcom Tyler Perry's House of Payne, Tyler Perry is preparing to add to his successful track record with a spin-off based on characters of his popular play and hit movie, Meet the Browns. The series stars David Mann as the fun-loving but sometimes crass Downtown Leroy Brown, who also appeared in several episodes of House of Payne on TBS. This series opens with Leroy Brown trying to fulfill his father's dying wish by opening a retirement home. Helping him out are his daughter, Cora (Tamela Mann); his nephew Will (Lamman Rucker), a doctor; Will's wife, Sasha (Denise Boutte), a nurse; Carmen Martinez (Jeanette Sousa), a beautiful young social worker; and Jesus Hernandez (Antonio Jaramillo), a maintenance engineer studying to be a lawyer. Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns comes to TBS from Debmar-Mercury. As he does for his other series, Perry is once again serving as executive producer and director, as well as occasionally writing.
Meet the Browns launches Wednesday, January 7 airing back-to-back episodes for five weeks, as 10 episodes have been ordered, through and including February 4. House of Payne will lead-into the series from 8-10pm and lead-out as well from 11pm-12am, giving it an ample lead-in.
TBS has also scheduled all 10 episodes of Meet the Browns the weekend of Feb. 21-22, as part of a Tyler Perry marathon, in case you miss any. The first two will encore on Saturday, Feb. 21 from 9-10pm, following two episodes of House of Payne from 8-9pm. Then TBS will air the movie Diary of a Mad Black Woman at 10pm followed by a House of Payne marathon from 12:30am-8:30am on Sunday. Then the remaining eight episodes of Meet the Browns will follow from 8:30am-12:30pm, followed by another airing of Diary of a Mad Black Woman, and finally more House of Payne from 3-8pm...so it is all Tyler Payne for 24-hours!
Meanwhile, My Boys will return in March for a third season! This critically acclaimed comedy stars Jordana Spiro as PJ Franklin, a 20-something sports writer looking for love while also trying to maintain her close connection with her friends, most of whom are guys. Co-starring with Spiro is the show's top-notch ensemble cast, including Jim Gaffigan, Kyle Howard, Reid Scott, Michael Bunin, Jamie Kaler and Kellee Stewart. My Boys premiered on TBS in November 2006, ranking as ad-supported cable's #1 original sitcom of the year. This year, the show averaged 1.5 million viewers, up 14% when compared to last summer. My Boys comes to TBS from creator Betsy Thomas.
Speaking of third seasons, just a reminder, TBS's popular late-night comedy 10 Items or Less, a loosely scripted look at life behind the scenes at a family-run grocery store, returns for a third season on Tuesday, Jan. 6 at 11pm. It is co-created by acclaimed comedy improv actor John Lehr. It delves into the offbeat lives of the employees at Greens & Grains. In addition to Lehr, the series stars Kirsten Gronfield, Chris Payne Gilbert, Greg Davis Jr., Christopher Liam Moore, Roberta Valderrama and Robert Clendenin, as well as new cast member Kim Coles. 10 Items or Less is written and executive-produced by Lehr and director Nancy Hower.

BET Changes and Upcoming Sitcom Marathons; TBS Holiday Stunts

With the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays coming up, BET will celebrate with sitcom marathons! But first they made some minor schedule changes. The weekday sitcom block has been shifted to 2-5pm effective this week, with Steve Harvey Show moving to 2-3pm, One on One from 3-4pm and Smart Guy from 4-5pm. Girlfriends will remain in the 3am hour, while the Saturday morning block is now 11am-4p, with two episodes of Smart Guy and four episodes each of The Parkers and Girlfriends. Steve Harvey and One on One are on Sundays from 11:30am-2pm.
As for holiday sitcom marathon, the first one will be the day after Thanksgiving, Friday, November 28 (Black Friday) from 9am-3:30pm. As of now, it has not been determined what will air. Hopefully something NOT airing regularly on BET? We'll let you know if that is indeed the case! Anyway, Thanksgiving weekend continues with more sitcom marathons on Saturday, November 29 from 9am-3am with the hit sitcom The Parkers. Thanksgiving sitcom marathon concludes with a marathon of The Steve Harvey Show from 11am-5pm on Sunday, November 30.
As for Christmas, more sitcom marathons will air! On Christmas Day itself, Thursday, December 25, we will get a marathon of Smart Guy from 9am-8pm. Then on the day after Christmas (Friday, December 26), which is Kwanza, celebrate the holiday with another marathon of One on One from 9am-8pm. Finally, on Saturday, December 27, it's all-day and all-night event of everyone's favorite girlfriends...Girlfriends from 9am-4am!

TBS will get into the holiday fever as well with a sitcom marathon! On Thanksgiving Day itself (Thursday, November 27), TBS will present a marathon of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from 9am-3pm. What better way for you to 'will' your way on this day? For Christmas of course, TBS will present the annual 24-hour marathon of the holiday movie classic A Christmas Story starting Christmas Eve at 8pm and running through Christmas Day at 8pm. Get into the holiday spirit with this classic Christmas comedy featuring your favorite oddball kid Ralphie. From disgruntled Santas to badgering bullies, nothing will stop Ralphie from getting his dream toy on Christmas morning.
New episodes of the hit sitcom Tyler Perry's House of Payne will air Wednesdays at 10pm in December starting Dec. 3. The new episodes will air in the weekly Wednesday six-episode block starting at 8pm. And finally, the season finale of sketch comedy Frank TV, starring comedian Frank Caliendo, will air December 23 at 11pm ET/PT. He does a great Bill Walton, doesn't he?

Stay tuned on Friday for our annual look at the holiday specials airing on the broadcast networks this holiday season! But come on back for more news the next two days as well!

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.

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

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

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

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

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!

ABC Orders 5 Additional Series for Mid-Season; TBS Orders House of Payne Spin-Off; Network Notes

ABC is adding five new series to its slate of programming for the 2008-09 season. The series include three new dramas, Castle, Cupid and The Unusuals, and two new comedies, Better Off Ted and Single With Parents. The President of ABC Entertainment Stephen McPherson says that these are the initial pick-ups, but there are a number of other pilots they feel will also get the go ahead in some form moving forward (either for mid-season like these five or for fall 2009). Still very much in the running are dramas Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas, The Prince of Motor City, and possibly Good Behavior and In The Deep (David Hemingson project), with comedies like Never Better, Bad Mother's Handbook, and Significant Others (aka Fourplay) also in the mix. I personally hope The Prince of Motor City gets picked-up in some form.
Anyway, these 5 additional series will be added for mid-season and will join previously announced mid-season entries, like the animated comedy The Goode Family, The Untitled Ashton Kutcher/Tyra Banks Reality Project and the ABC premiere of Scrubs, along with returning series According to Jim, The Bachelor, Lost and ABC News' Primetime: What Would You Do.
Castle is is a comedic crime procedural about a famous mystery novelist, Nick Castle, who has gotten bored with his success and stars Nathan Fillion as Castle, Stana Katic as Beckett, Molly Quinn as Alexis, Susan Sullivan as Martha, Monet Mazur as Gina and Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Capt. Montgomery.
Cupid is a romantic dramedy about Trevor, a larger than life character who may or may not be the Roman god of love Cupid, sent to earth to bring couples together and stars Bobby Cannavale as Trevor, Sarah Paulson as Claire, Rick Gomez as Felix and Camille Guaty as Lita.
The Unusuals is a unique comedic procedural set in a New York police precinct. As a cop it helps to have a twisted sense of humor, because every moment could be your last, and the series stars Amber Tamblyn as Det. Casey Schraeger, Jeremy Renner as Det. Joe Walsh, Terry Kinney as Sgt. Harvey Brown, Kai Lennox as Det. Ed Alvarez, Harold Perrineau as Det. Leo Banks, Adam Goldberg as Det. Eric Delahoy, Monique Gabriela Curnen as Det. Allison Beaumont and Joshua Close as Henry Cole.
Better Off Ted is a satirical office comedy featuring a successful but morally conscious man, Ted, who runs a research and development department at a morally questionable corporation, Veridian Technologies and stars Jay Harrington as Ted, Andrea Anders as Linda, Portia de Rossi as Veronica, Jonathan Slavin as Phil, and Malcolm Barrett as Lem.
Single with Parents is a comedy about Lou, a woman in her mid-30s who is determined to have her own life despite her crazy blended family getting in the way and stars an all-star cast of Alyssa Milano as Lou, Annie Potts as Elizabeth, Beau Bridges as Joe, Amanda Detmer as Sasha, Meagan Fay as Nancy and Eric Winter as Charlie.
Read the Press Release for more on these five pick-ups. For more on ABC's pilots in development read the full pilots in development and view photos of the casts of these potential series.

After bringing his unique style to TBS with the enormously popular sitcom Tyler Perry's House of Payne, Tyler Perry is preparing to add to his successful track record with a spin-off based on characters of his popular play and hit movie, Meet the Browns. TBS has ordered 10 episodes of the new sitcom, which comes to the network also from Debmar-Mercury and is slated to premiere in January 2009. As he does for House of Payne, Perry is once again serving as executive producer and director, as well as occasionally writing for the series.
Meet the Browns stars David Mann as Leroy Brown, a character who earlier this year was featured in Perry's hit film of the same name. He has also appeared in several episodes of House of Payne. Perry's new series begins after Brown inherits a dilapidated house from his deceased father.
House of Payne began in 2006 with a 10-episode experiment in select markets that produced strong ratings, leading TBS to order a full-fledged series with an unprecedented 100 episodes. House of Payne will be available for off-network syndication this fall as well airing on local stations such as WWOR in New York and WCIU in Chicago.
We will certainly have more in the future about Meet the Browns on TBS.

CBS is moving the season premiere of Survivor: Gabon - Earth's Last Eden to Thursday, Sept. 25 now with a two-hour premiere from 8:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT, marking the first-ever two-hour premiere for any edition of the long-running hit series.
The premiere of Survivor: Gabon - Earth's Last Eden was originally announced for Thursday, Sept. 18 from 8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT.
The premiere of Survivor: Gabon - Earth's Last Eden, which will also be the first edition broadcast in high definition, will be followed by a rebroadcast of last season's CSI cliffhanger finale at 10:00 PM ET/PT.
CBS made this move because they decided to launch CSI and new drama The Eleventh Hour on Oct. 9 due to a Presidential Debate on Oct. 2. So a void was needed on the first Thursday of the season, which is Sept. 25.
Meanwhile, as CBS moves Survivor back a week, The CW is moving new reality series Stylista up a week! It will now launch Wednesday, Oct. 22, at 9:00 PM (rather than Oct. 29, as previously announced). The CW is airing 90210 repeats in the slot, behind America's Next Top Model, in the weeks beforehand.
Finally, ABC is scheduling new and expanded Wipeout episodes. On Tuesday, September 9, an all-new Wipeout will air in the special 9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT slot. Wipeout will still also air and be all-new in its regular 8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT slot as well on that date...so two new episodes on that date! As a result, the Tuesday, September 2 episode at 8PM will be a repeat now against the premiere of The CW's 90210, but tonight (August 26) is still all-new as the hilarious series returns from the Olympic break...tune in! Also, the Wipeout season finale (previously scheduled for Sept. 9, 8-9pm) is now scheduled to air as a 90-minute episode on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 now from 8:00-9:30 PM ET/PT followed by an interesting 90-minute special Primetime: UFO's...Seeing is Believing from 9:30-11:00 PM ET/PT. On Sept. 9, the two new Wipeout episodes will go face-to-face with Fox's launch of the 95-minute Fringe and 25-minute Hole in the Wall and on Sept. 16 the 90-minute Wipeout will face the season premiere of Fox's House and the first half-hour of Fringe and the season premiere of NBC's The Biggest Loser. It'll be tough but Wipeout will likely face the task well. As a result, the season finale of High School Musical: Get in the Picture is now on Monday, September 15, 2008 in its normal 8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT time period and not two-hours on a special night (Sept. 16) like previously reported, so three more weeks to go for the ratings dud unless it gets pulled before then. ABC should move the next three episodes to Fridays. We will keep you up to date on our message board if it gets pulled or moved.

WGN America Edits Sunday Schedule; Network Notes

Nearly three weeks ago we gave you WGN America's Fall 2008 schedule, but now there has been a slight change, nothing drastic but they are changing the schedule a bit on Sundays.
Originally there were no schedule changes in September on Sundays, but now WGN America will change Sundays starting Sept. 14 and a little bit more on Oct. 5, which was the original date of changes happening on Sundays. On Sept. 14 Whacked Out Sports will air at 1pm ET for an hour leading into Cubs baseball games at 2pm ET. After the game ends, Funniest Pets & People will now air in the 5pm ET hour leading into The Cosby Show now in the 6pm ET hour. The Outta Sight Retro Night will continue to air from 7-10pm ET (with WKRP, Newhart, and Honeymooners hours) followed by the WGN News at 9 at 10pm ET. Then more classic TV will be added as Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie will join the Sunday line-up earlier than planned and in a better slot too, Sundays in the 11pm ET hour for Bewitched and 12am ET hour for I Dream of Jeannie sliding Scrubs to 1am ET. Remember this is just Sundays. The weekday line-up starting Sept. 8 will remain the same as we previously announced, such as Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie in the 9am ET hour weekdays.
There will be no changes to Saturdays in September as we previously said. Saturdays will still change starting Oct. 4 as we originally mentioned, with changes such as Bewitched airing at 12 noon ET, I Dream of Jeannie at 1pm ET, NewsRadio at 6pm ET and Coach at 7pm ET. So nothing changed there. However, Sundays starting Oct. 5 will be altered just a tad now because of the changes on Sept. 14. Originally this is where the Sunday overhaul was going to take place, but now the changes will just be Whacked Out Sports kicking it off at 11am ET followed by a double dose now of The Beverly Hillbillies at 12 noon ET. The rest of the Sunday line-up is generally the same as the one that will start Sept. 14.
We will have much more on WGN America in the near future as they have classic TV marathons planned for all upcoming holidays starting with Halloween, so stay tuned!
For now, view the entire WGN America Fall 2008 Schedule so you see the new Sunday schedule and the rest of the schedule as well if you missed it!

Two-time Golden Globe winner Valerie Bertinelli (One Day at a Time) is returning to the world of sitcoms. She has just signed to star in a new comedy pilot for TBS from writer/executive producer Dave Caplan, whose credits include TBS's highly popular sitcom The Bill Engvall Show, as well as past ABC sitcoms George Lopez and The Drew Carey Show. The as-yet-untitled sitcom centers on a single mother trying to run a business while raising two children. The premise of the show is inspired by events in Caplan's own life. Caplan wrote the pilot script and will serve as executive producer along with Original Film's Neal Moritz and Vivian Cannon. Bertinelli will also serve as producer. The project comes to TBS from Sony Pictures Television.
The Caplan project follows the life of a woman (Bertinelli) who manages to get through the day with surprisingly good humor despite very difficult circumstances: Her husband walks out, leaving her with two kids and a struggling lumberyard. It will take every ounce of energy she has to keep both her household and her business afloat, while facing obstacles at every turn. Stay tuned for more news on this!
Fox has announced the series premiere of new J.J. Abrams drama Fringe will premiere from 8pm-9:35pm now instead of 8-10pm on Tuesday, September 9. The 8pm-9:35pm premiere will still have very limited commercials. Airing for the last 25 minutes from 9:35-10pm will now be a special sneak peek of the new Fox reality series Hole in the Wall. Hole in the Wall is still scheduled to air in its regular Thursday night slot at 8-9pm starting on Sept. 11. Fox will encore the premiere of Fringe on Sunday, September 14 as well from 8pm-9:35pm, but the time slot after that is still to be determined, but it is likely Fox will show a Fall Preview Special there.
ABC is moving forward with its plans for a male-based Supernanny spinoff called Supermanny. The network will air a pilot episode of Supermanny in the fall. The spinoff's format will remain similar to the original, with a child-development expert lending a family in crisis some tough-love guidance. But instead of professional nanny Jo Frost leading the living-room intervention, gruff Chicago child therapist Mike Ruggles will step in.
Supernanny moves to Fridays at 9pm ET this fall on ABC and it is likely the Supermanny pilot will air in that slot sometime this season as a backdoor pilot.

TBS Fall 2008 Line-Up; RTN's New Slogan

A little over a month ago we told you Married...with Children is coming to TBS this September airing weekdays from 6-7am and sometimes between 4-6am as well. TBS only has rights to air the show between 2-7am, so they cannot give it a better slot, unfortunately. However, we also stated Spike TV has gotten the rights from 7am-2am starting September as well. We gave you two updates on that, one for the original story and the other with the schedules times. We will have more on Spike TV's part tomorrow in our Spike TV Fall schedule. But sticking with TBS, they are not really making any changes this fall. For Labor Day weekend they will have two marathons...on Sunday, August 31 from 8am-1pm they will showcase the hit sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for a marathon leading into their Sunday MLB Baseball Game of the Week. Then on Labor Day itself, (Monday, Sept. 1), TBS will showcase the number one sitcom of all-time for basic cable Tyler Perry's House of Payne with a marathon from 10am-8pm, leading into the Family Guy Monday block. They will air the premiere episode of TNT's original drama Raising the Bar on Tuesday, Sept. 2 at 11pm following two episodes of The Office. We will have more on TNT's fall line-up in the coming days. Then Tuesdays at 11pm, Frank TV is back with a second season as the late night comedy is back starting Sept. 9! Teen drama Dawson's Creek had been airing on some early morning slots on some days, and its last airing will be late Monday, Sept. 8 at 4:30am ET, as it is no longer scheduled in any other slot through the end of October, so I am not 100% sure, but it seems it might have expired.
Effective Monday, Sept. 15 Married...with Children joins the TBS morning line-up airing weekdays at 6:00am & 6:30am ET. The MLB Playoffs start on TBS on Wednesday, Oct. 1 airing in the afternoon and primetime, so the morning/early afternoon lineup will be a bit altered each day...so when the playoffs are on, you'll have to check your listings to see when the TBS sitcoms are airing. But starting Monday, Sept. 29, TBS will swap Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond's slot. So, Seinfeld will move from 5-6pm to 7-8pm, while Raymond goes from 6:30-8pm to 5-6:30pm, which means Friends is now 6:30pm starting Sept. 29. Also, the primetime blocks are altered a tad as well. Starting Monday, Oct. 20 everything will be back to normal as the MLB Playoffs are over and Fox will do the MLB World Series.
Check out the full TBS Fall 2008 line-up in a list form, and you can also discuss what you think.

Today RTN (Retro Television Network) announced its new slogan "Classic Television Hits All Day, Live Talk all Night." According to RTN spokesman Neal Ardman, RTN will begin to phase out paid programming over the next few months. The goal, said Ardman, is to provide the viewer with compelling programming 24 hours a day. RTN will begin inserting live news, general entertainment, and sports talk shows in the late night and overnight hours beginning in September. Not to worry, Classic TV will still air in the mornings, afternoons, evening and primetime!
Robin Leach has been tapped to produce and host one such, as yet unnamed, show to be produced LIVE in Las Vegas. Another show, Unreliable Sources, a news/talk show with viewer calls, already airs in over 30 markets and is produced at the RTN studios.
RTN is currently sold in 72 markets and last week went on the air in Washington, D.C. on WJLA-DT. RTN is the only network that is customized for each market.

Married with Children Comes to TBS This Fall, In Addition to Spike TV; Spike TV Fall 2008 Update

A few months ago it was announced that hit '90s sitcom Married with Children is coming to Spike TV this September. It was said to have been an exclusive deal, but it doesn't look like it will be. We have gotten word that cable network TBS has gotten the rights to the sitcom for this September as well! It will obviously be a shared deal for the five-year contract term between Spike and TBS. Spike TV will get majority of the hours, as they can air the show anytime between 7am-2am, while TBS can only air it between 2am-7am. TBS will start airing the show around September 15 (we will confirm this date in the coming weeks or so). The show will air regularly weekday mornings 6-7am, and sometimes anytime between 4-6am as well, depending on the late movies. The Steve Harvey Show will lead into Married each time usually, so Harvey won't have a set timeslot anymore, as it can air anywhere between 3:30am-5:30am.
We will have more on TBS fall in the coming weeks or in a month or so, so stay tuned. There could be some minor time changes here and there, however Married with Children is the only new show they are adding, I believe. Fall 2009 will be a different story when According to Jim comes and My Name is Earl and The Office can also be stripped rather than just once a week.

Moving on to Spike TV, as we mentioned, they have acquired Married with Children for September and Unsolved Mysteries for October. CSI: NY will also be available for five days a week play this fall, rather than just once a week. CSI: NY will have a week-long marathon Monday, September 22 to Friday, September 26 from 9am-9pm, before joining the weeknight evening line-up the following week.
Married with Children will launch on Spike TV with a weekend block on Saturday, September 27 and Sunday, September 28 from 9am-11am. Then it will get a week-long marathon from Monday, September 29 to Friday, October 3 from 9am-3pm. Then Married with Children will regularly air after that week weekdays from 11am-1pm, a two-hour block. There will be times Married will also air in the late night around 1-2am. Go Bundy, indeed!
Unsolved Mysteries will launch on Monday, October 13 airing weeknights at 5pm and 6pm! The weeks leading up to the launch they will have stunts to promote the show coming to Spike TV. More details on that at a later date.
Once Unsolved settles into its timeslot, Spike TV will look like this weekdays in the fall:
9am Star Trek: Voyager, 10am Whacked Out Sports, 10:30am Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, 11am-1pm Married with Children, 1-3pm Disorderly Conduct: Video on Patrol, 3-5pm Spike's Most Amazing Videos, 5-7pm Unsolved Mysteries, with CSI and CSI: NY rounding out the evening from 7-9pm. CSI: NY will also air at midnight, followed by CSI. Star Trek: Deep Space 9 & Seven Days will remain at 2 & 3am. We will have more details on Spike Fall when available. But for now, great news for Married with Children fans as two networks will air the show, and Unsolved Mysteries gets a nice two-hour block in the evenings on Spike TV!

Fox Changes Fall Premiere Dates; CBS Encoring Engvall's Sitcom; John Ritter Portrait Added to Hollywood High Mural

Fox was slated to start the fall season the week of August 25, but now Fox has changed their minds and will start the fall season on September 1, still a full three weeks ahead of the actual start of the 2008-09 season.
Fox premiere week will kick off the 2008-09 season with special two-hour premieres of Prison Break Monday, Sept. 1 from 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT; Bones Wednesday, Sept. 3 from 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT; The Moment of Truth Thursday, Sept. 4 from 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT; and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Friday, Sept. 5 from 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT. Premiere week will also see the season premieres of Cops and America's Most Wanted on Saturday, September 6.
As for new series, Fringe, the highly anticipated new thriller from J.J. Abrams will debut with a two-hour premiere Tuesday, Sept. 9 from 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT. New sitcom, Do Not Disturb, the new workplace comedy starring Jerry O'Connell and Niecy Nash, will premiere Wednesday, Sept. 10 at 9:30 PM ET/PT.
Other fall premieres include: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Monday, September 8 at 8:00PM, as Prison Break will slide over to 9:00PM. Returning sitcom 'Til Death will have its season premiere Wednesday, September 10 at 9:00PM in between Bones and Do Not Disturb. Kitchen Nightmares will have its season premiere on Thursday, September 11 at 9:00PM, as The Moment of Truth will air at 8:00PM. Don't Forget the Lyrics! will have its season premiere the next day, Friday, September 12 at 9:00PM following Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Fox Saturday late night will have its season premieres on Saturday, September 13 with MADtv at 11:00pm and Talk Show with Spike Feresten at midnight. House will have its season premiere on Tuesday, September 16 in its new slot of 8:00pm, leading into Fringe. And finally, the Fox Animation Domination comedies will have their season premieres in the actual traditional premiere week (Sept. 22-28) on Sunday, September 28 with The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Family Guy and American Dad! from 8-10PM.

TBS's original sitcom, The Bill Engvall Show starring Bill Engvall launches its ten-episode second season on Thursday, June 12 at 9:00PM, but before that happens CBS has struck a deal with TBS to air an episode from season one on CBS this coming Monday (June 9). The season one encore (episode three How Bill Met Susan) will air on CBS at 8:00PM in place of the normally scheduled The Big Bang Theory.
Why is CBS doing this? They are not sister stations with TBS, so one wonders what the reason is? Variety reports that this is strictly a marketing swap. In exchange for CBS giving its show wider exposure, TBS will cede promo time to CBS to promote its fall 2008 schedule. So it is a win-win situation for both networks, as TBS gets more exposure for The Bill Engvall Show and CBS gets to showcase its fall promos on TBS. TBS got 4.1 million last season for the series premiere of The Bill Engvall Show. Can CBS's encore do better and can the season premiere on TBS do better as well (opposite the NBA Finals on ABC)? Only time will tell...

Finally, we leave you today with some good news. A 50-foot portrait of the legendary John Ritter (Three's Company, 8 Simple Rules) was dedicated as part of the existing Hollywood High School "Portrait of Hollywood" mural at 9 a.m. today in front of the mural at 1521 N. Highland Avenue, at the corner of Highland and Hawthorne. If you all recall or didn't know, when John was a guest on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live back in April 2003, Jimmy told John that he will not rest until John's photo was added to the Hollywood High mural. John of course went to Hollywood High for high school from 1962-1966 (then he later went to USC for college from 1966-1971). And now John has finally gotten his photo added to the mural at Hollywood High!
Attending the event was: Amy Yasbeck Ritter, Jimmy Kimmel, mural artist Eloy Torrez, Los Angeles City Council president Eric Garcetti, and Councilmember Tom La Bonge.
Also attended was representatives from the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles, Legacy Partners and Gatehouse Capital, which combined forces to fund the $74,000 mural.
The event also marks the creation of a $500,000 endowment fund for Hollywood High School's Performing Arts program, provided by a collaboration of Gatehouse Capital.
Great news! And we can't wait to see a picture of this! To discuss this news, and to see a photo of John's "pretend mural" on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2003, click HERE!

Nick at Nite March 2008 - George Lopez Week; TBS and TNT Upfront 2008- New Sitcoms, Dramas...and Match Game!

Nick at Nite in March 2008 won't have any schedule changes, but they will have one stunt. The stunt will be a big one, too. It will be a "Nothing But George Week" for the week of March 17. It's wall-to-wall George Lopez all-week and all-night long on Nick at Nite the week of March 17! Monday, March 17 through Sunday, March 23 ... Sun-Thur 9pm-6am and Fri-Sat 10pm-6am of that week.
We will try to detail this more when more information comes, but this sounds like a, watch out, whoooooppppaaa week, as George would say! Discuss this month here.

TBS and TNT had its annual upfront yesterday and many original series are in the works for both cable networks.
TBS, television's top-rated comedy network, is ramping up its production of original programming with a slate of primetime comedy series in development, two late-night pilots ordered and three late-night projects in the works. The network, which currently ranks as ad-supported cable's #1 network in primetime delivery of young adults, has enjoyed tremendous success with such original programming as My Boys, The Bill Engvall Show and Frank TV. All three of those series are set to return.
Primetime projects in development include a sitcom adaptation of Jane Ganahl's bestselling memoir Naked on the Page: The Misadventures of My Unmarried Midlife, along with half-hour comedies from Dave Caplan (The Drew Carey Show) and Brian Hargrove (Titus). For late night, TBS has ordered pilot presentations of the animated series Stay Tooned (working title) and a new edition of the classic game show Match Game. TBS is also working on late-night comedies with Robert Townsend, The Jim Henson Company and Mark Wolper.
TNT is planning a significant boost in original programming, with 14 series in development and a plan to change most of the network's weekday, primetime schedule to originals by 2010. TNT's aggressive plan includes a mixture of scripted dramas, unscripted programs and the network's award-winning telecasts of the NBA. Under the new strategy, TNT will continue to showcase popular movies on Friday nights and weekends.
TNT has several new series in development. They join two recently greenlit projects Raising the Bar (working title), from executive producer Steven Bochco (NYPD Blue), and Leverage, from executive producer Dean Devlin (Independence Day). Both projects are expected to premiere in TNT's lineup later this year. TNT is also considering Truth in Advertising, from Greer Shephard and Michael M. Robin, executive producers of The Closer.
Scripted series in development include The Genie Chronicles, a fantasy-adventure from DreamWorks Television, producers of TNT's Into the West; Generations, a family drama from executive producer Robert Redford and writer/executive producer John Sacret Young (The West Wing, China Beach); Technophobia, from executive producer Mark Frost (Twin Peaks); an untitled project from the Hoosiers team of Angelo Pizzo and David Anspaugh; and an untitled drama based on characters created by crime novelist Tess Gerritsen.
For the first time, TNT is also branching into unscripted series, with several projects in development from such talents as Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Mark Burnett, Mark Wolper, former NBA star Kenny Smith and Gay Rosenthal.
TNT's current original programming successes include ad-supported cable's #1 series of all time, The Closer, starring Golden Globe winner Kyra Sedgwick. That series will return for its fourth season this summer. The network's highly successful Saving Grace, featuring Oscar winner Holly Hunter, also will return for a second season this summer. The show premiered in 2007, claiming ad-supported cable's largest audience of the year for a new series launch.
For full details on each new project with synopsis, click HERE!

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

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

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

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

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

Day 36: WGA's Strike; Minor TBS Schedule Change; ION Not Airing Kung Fu

It is now day 36 and there seems to be no end in sight for this strike. Late on Friday, we received this statement from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers: "We're disappointed to report that talks between the AMPTP and WGA have broken down yet again. Quite frankly, we're puzzled and disheartened by an ongoing WGA negotiating strategy that seems designed to delay or derail talks rather than facilitate an end to this strike. Union negotiators in our industry have successfully concluded 306 major agreements with the AMPTP since its inception in 1982. The WGA organizers sitting across the table from us have never concluded even one industry accord. Their Quixotic pursuit of radical demands led them to begin this strike, and now has caused this breakdown in negotiations. We hope that the WGA will come back to this table with a rational plan that can lead us to a fair and equitable resolution to a strike that is causing so much distress for so many people in our industry and community."
And the WGA told us this on Friday: "Today, after three days of discussions, the AMPTP came back to us with a proposal that included a total rejection of our proposal on Internet streaming of December 3. They are holding to their offer of a $250 fixed residual for unlimited one year streaming after a six-week window of free use. They still insist on the DVD rate for Internet downloads. They refuse to cover original material made for new media. We remain ready and willing to negotiate, no matter how intransigent our bargaining partners are, because the stakes are simply too high. We were prepared to counter their proposal tonight, and when any of them are ready to return to the table, we're here, ready to make a fair deal."
I don't care who to believe. I just want this over NOW! ABC will be releasing their January strike schedule this week. We will let you know when that happens! So come on back!

TBS has made some minor schedule changes effective Monday, December 24. Many viewers have complained about the constant airings of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air on many channels (Nick at Nite, The N, and TBS), well now you might be just a little bit relieved. TBS is moving the show out of 3-4pm weekdays into 9-10am weekdays. I guess that is a start. TBS is wishing us a Merry Christmas by doing this...their present to us. With this change, the morning movie will go from 9-11am to 10am-12pm, thus the Home Improvement block will be shifted from 11am-1pm to 12pm-2pm which will move Yes, Dear from 1-2pm to 3-4pm. Say that ten times fast. Click HERE to view the changes and to discuss them. These changes are only for the cable TBS...not Peachtree TV in Atlanta and Canada.

In other scheduling news, ION Television was slated to bring back Kung Fu to Saturday nights at 6pm starting Dec. 15, but that will not happen anymore. NFL Game of the Week highlights will continue to air the rest of the month until the NFL season is over. So maybe Kung Fu will return in January? We will let you know. We should have January this week, if all goes well. So you'll want to come on back for that! The only thing announced is The Drew Carey Show weeknights 9-10pm.

It is still early in the day...if we have more news, we will return for sure.

ION Adds Perfect Strangers Halloween Stunt; Seinfeld Viewers Choice; Network Notes

Yesterday many Perfect Strangers fans did the "dance of joy" when finding out that the series is finally coming to DVD in February, now we have some more news on the show. ION Television, which is airing the show Mon-Thurs at 8:30 p.m., has added a two-night Halloween stunt! The stunt will air Monday, October 29 and Tuesday, October 30 with back-to-back episodes each night starting at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT. Join Larry and Balki as they battle The Grim Reaper, the touch of death, a ghost, and some Halloween late night horror movies! For the episode details, click HERE.
We will have ION Television's November schedule highlights shortly. As of now, they have only announced through November 11 and there are no changes. Could we see some changes week of November 12? Will we see a Thanksgiving stunt? We shall find out soon! Come on back!

Sony Pictures Television (SPT) -- with help from the 197 affiliates in 99% of the country carrying the highly-rated Seinfeld sitcom in syndication -- will ask fans to vote for their favorite "Seinfeld Viewers Choice" episodes and have their selections subsequently air in national syndication during the November sweep.
Beginning Monday, October 15, through Monday, November 5, 2007, "Seinfeld Viewers Choice" clips from 35 of the most popular episodes will be showcased as streaming content on Yahoo! TV (or go to Yahoo! and search for "Seinfeld Top 10") where viewers will be asked to select their 10 favorite episodes. Votes will be tabulated on Monday, November 5, and the resulting 10 favorite episodes will air as part of two "Viewers Choice" theme weeks beginning November 12 and November 19.
Also, a random prize drawing from all of the online entrants will include a grand prize consisting of a $4,500 shopping spree from Overstock.com and a Seinfeld fan package that includes the soon-to-be-released Seinfeld: The Complete Ninth Season DVDs (on shelves 11/6/07), a Seinfeld hat, T-Shirt and mug. Throughout the entry period, voters will be eligible to enter daily for a chance to win the grand prize, or one of ten first prizes.
In its current season in syndication, Seinfeld consistently ranks as the #1 off-network comedy across all key men and adult demographics and still stands as one of the highest rated of any off-net sitcom on television with airings on both broadcast stations and TBS. Seinfeld has been renewed for a third cycle by its stations and second cycle in cable, keeping the show on the air through 2011.

Some network notes time. Fox serves up another order of Kitchen Nightmares and picks up the show for a second season. The show is airing Wednesdays at 9 on Fox.
The CW has canceled Online Nation. The show has been doing anemic ratings in its Sundays at 7:30 p.m. slot. Replacing the series will be encores of The CW's new sitcom Aliens in America. I wonder if that will do any better? The CW is keeping the equally bad CW Now for now at least. That series airs at 7 p.m. on Sundays.

Tonight in sitcom land it is NBC's Comedy Done Right block starting with an all-new My Name is Earl, followed by an all-new 30 Rock and another new one-hour The Office. The smart laughs start at 8/7 central on NBC.

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

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

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

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

TitanTV Acquires Jury Duty, New Series that Features Classic TV Jurors; WTBS Peachtree TV News; Alyssa Milano Goes Baseball!

TitanTV Network, the first of its kind digital media platform designed to connect local media affiliates and their advertisers to the digital world, has acquired the exclusive broadband rights to Radar Entertainment's new daily syndicated strip series, Jury Duty. The series, featuring famed defense attorney Bruce Cutler and premiering on stations around the country on September 17, will be given free to its affiliate stations' Web sites delivered through the TitanCast player, which provides territorial exclusivity through its patented technology. The broadband version of the series will also be available on TitanTV.com.
Jury Duty, which is presided over by high-profile attorney Bruce Cutler, features a jury of rotating celebrities and classic TV stars including Phyllis Diller, Ed Begley Jr., Bruce Vilanch, Paula Poundstone, Kevin Sorbo, Scott Hamilton, Dick Van Patten and Tiffany, among others. The series is cleared in over 85% of the U.S., including New York City (WPIX, weeknights at 4:30am).

As we mentioned previously, WTBS, TBS's local broadcast platform in Atlanta, is about to undergo an extensive re-branding initiative and line-up change that will result in an entirely new local, independent station, completely separate from the national cable network. The newly re-branded Peachtree TV will launch on Monday, Oct. 1.
Driven by an Atlanta-centric, hyper-local sensibility, Peachtree TV will feature nightly blockbuster prime-time movies and a daytime line-up packed with popular sitcoms targeted to Atlanta's local audience. In addition, Peachtree TV will bring local viewers 45 regular-season Atlanta Braves baseball games in 2008.
While Peachtree TV takes over the local broadcaster position currently held by WTBS, TBS's national cable feed will become available to Atlanta's local cable and satellite customers, offering the network's signature comedy programming. On Oct. 1, TBS will move to Comcast channel 39 and Direct TV channel 247. TBS will remain on Dish Network channel 139.
The channel's daytime line-up will feature a stable of sitcom hits, including the Atlanta syndication premieres of Family Guy and Still Standing, as well as such series as The King of Queens, The Cosby Show, Seinfeld, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Friends and Frasier.
In Fall 2008, Peachtree TV's line-up will feature two shows that are currently attracting large audiences in the Atlanta market. The long-running and extremely popular talk show Montel, hosted by Montel Williams, will join the daytime line-up as a Peachtree TV exclusive in Atlanta. Also next year, Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, which premiered this past summer on TBS and set an ad-supported cable record for the #1 sitcom telecast of all time, will premiere in local syndication in Atlanta on Peachtree TV. In 2009, The Office and My Name is Earl will join the line-up as Atlanta syndication premieres.

Moving on to the national TBS, Alyssa Milano is coming to TBS...sort of. She will be covering baseball online for TBS Hot Corner on MLB.com
TBS Hot Corner is a new broadband channel from Turner Broadcasting's TBS, which will be broadcasting the major league division series and the National League Championship Series for the first time this season.
She will have a recurring role on the NBC sitcom My Name is Earl this fall and already has a popular blog on MLB.com and this year launched a baseball-themed clothing line.
Beginning Sept. 17, Milano will contribute regular reports and features from major league stadia as teams race to make the playoffs. The reports will range from interviews with players, coaches and fans, to features on calorie counting at the park and the best in baseball attire.
Baseball just got a bit hotter!

Bush Speech Thursday at 9 to Delay Programming; TBS Reportedly Renews My Boys for Season 3

The major networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC) plan to air President Bush's Address on Iraq including the democratic response Thursday at 9PM ET/PT. This will last about 25 minutes or so in total.
ABC will just delay the encores of Grey's Anatomy and MEN IN TREEES by 25 minutes or so and air them immediately following the speech in the Eastern and Central time zones. Mountain and Pacific will air the entire primetime from 8-11pm, following the speech.
CBS has not announced what they will do yet, but it will likely be similar to ABC and air CSI and Without a Trace on a delay in Eastern and Central time zones.
FOX will not air an all-new episode of Don't Forget the Lyrics at 9:00pm now. Instead, a repeat of the show's premiere will air. The Eastern and Central time zones will join that in progress when Bush's speech ends. The Mountain and Pacific time zones, the speech will lead into a new Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (which will air at 8pm ET) and the repeat of Lyrics.
NBC plans to move the 9:00pm repeat of The Office to 9:30, following the speech, instead of Scrubs, in the Eastern and Central time zones while Mountain and Pacific viewers will see both shows.

TBS has reportedly renewed original sitcom My Boys for a third season. No official announcement has been made yet, but we will certainly let you know when they do. The reports are saying that 8 episodes have been ordered thus far. The second season finale aired on Monday night on TBS.

We will have ION's October schedule probably tomorrow or Friday. So just a heads up. Check back with us!

AmericanLife Launches OnDemand Service; TBS Renews Bill Engvall Sitcom for Season 2; TV Land Family Day Pledge Launches

AmericanLife TV Network is joining the video OnDemand universe, offering up 20 hours of programming per month to any of TVN Entertainment's more than 100 cable affiliates free of charge. The service launched yesterday. The network will have four different channels for OnDemand:
Classic TV will feature such shows as Combat!, The Color Honeymooners and Mission: Impossible (in January).
Caring and Sharing TV features American Family, The Dr. Bob Show and specials such as A Journey to Darfur with George Clooney.
Cooking and Living TV features programming including This Food, That Wine, Embassy Chefs and Fixing Dinner.
Lifestyle TV features Alive and Well, Flea Market Mania and Save Our House, Save Our Family.
A quarter of the programming will be refreshed each week.

TBS has ordered a second season of 10 episodes of its hit sitcom The Bill Engvall Show. In addition, Engvall will host Blue Collar Comedy: The Next Generation, a special to be shot at HBO and AEG Live's The Comedy Festival (TCF) at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for premiere on TBS Saturday, Nov. 17.
The sitcom launched in July with one of ad-supported cable's Top 3 sitcom telecasts of all time and currently ranks right behind Tyler Perry's House of Payne on TBS as ad-supported cable's #2 sitcom among adults 18-49 for the year-to-date, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. The show casts Engvall as Bill Pearson, a family counselor whose own family is unpredictable, somewhat absurd and a little mixed up themselves. Nancy Travis (Becker) plays his wife, Susan, who is trying to make sure their three children turn out all right. Filling out the rest of the family, Jennifer Lawrence plays Bill and Susan's teenage daughter, Lauren, while their sons are played by Graham Patrick Martin as Trent, a sports and video game enthusiast, and Skyler Gisondo as Bryan, a musically talented neat freak with a pet snake. Tim Meadows co-stars as Bill's best friend. The show, which is produced by TBS, was created by Engvall and Michael Leeson, who served as executive producers with J.P. Williams and director James Widdoes.

TV Land's Family Table: Share More Than Meals has teamed up with The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University to once again celebrate Family Day -- A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children(TM) on Monday, September 24, 2007. Beginning today, people committed to eating together on Family Day can go to FamilyTable.info to register participation for their family, friends and loved ones.
The Family Table have set a goal of registering millions of Americans to pledge to have dinner as a family on September 24th and, hopefully, use Family Day as a catalyst to make family dinners a regular part of their lives.
TV Land will go dark for an hour from 6-7pm on this day to urge families to go eat together. In addition, a special marathon of TV families eating together will air the night before.

TBS September 2007 Schedule, The Office on Tuesdays, 'Sex' All Week-Long; My Boys Scores on TBS

TBS has released its September 2007 schedule and it will feature some changes. The week of September 3 has some minor changes, which are just filler until the new line-up that starts on September 10. Let's start with the filler stuff. Sept. 4, 5, 6 and 7 NewsRadio returns for 4 days in the noon slot followed by The Cosby Show at 12:30pm. The other filler stuff is very minor, and you can take a look at that in our link at the end of this story.
Let's move on to the September 10 line-up. The Steve Harvey Show is moving from its afternoon slots to 6 & 6:30am, replacing The Cosby Show which will now move to the dreaded approx. 5:30am slot, where it will not air everyday. Saved by the Bell continues to air its two-hour block from 7-9am. The morning movie will move from 10am-12pm to 9am-11am now. Dawson's Creek which was at 9am will move to the dreaded approx. 4:30am slot, which like Cosby Show, will not be everyday. Home Improvement will get a two-hour block from 11am-1pm. Yes, Dear moves from late afternoon to early afternoon at 1-2pm. Just Shoot Me, which premieres August 6, will move from 1-2pm to 2-3pm. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air moves to an hour later at 3-4pm. The King of Queens will take over the 4-5pm slot followed by an hour of Seinfeld at 5-6pm. Friends will air at 6pm followed by a triple shot of Everybody Loves Raymond from 6:30pm-8pm.
Primetime will also be changing. Friends will kick-off Mondays and Thursdays with back-to-back episodes from 8-9pm. On Mondays it will lead into Family Guy from 9-11pm and on Thursdays a movie from 9-11pm. Tuesdays will see a Family Guy block from 8-10pm and then starting September 18 The Office will air Tuesdays 10-11pm. Wednesdays will see a House of Payne marathon from 8-10pm followed by back-to-back Family Guy episodes 10-11pm. Finally, Fridays will have Everybody Loves Raymond kick-off the night leading into Dinner and a Movie.
Effective week of September 17, you can now catch Sex and the City five nights a week on TBS at 11 & 11:30PM! Seinfeld will get the late Tuesday slot of 11:59PM and 12:30AM, while movies will air the rest of the week. Other notes: Parent'hood is missing from the schedule because its contract has expired. Drew Carey Show has also expired, as we noted in the August changes.
No word yet if this is indeed the Fall schedule or not, as usually TBS launches its fall schedule in October. We shall find out and when we do, we will let you know. So for now click HERE to view a list of these changes!

Sticking with TBS, the season premiere of original sitcom My Boys scored well for TBS last night. Continuing to ride a wave of comedy success, TBS has triumphed once again on the original comedy series front. Last night's return of the critically acclaimed sitcom My Boys scored extremely well with young adults, garnering a median age of 29. The show also outdelivered the series' November 2006 series premiere among adults 18-34 and scored an extraordinary 43% growth in that demographic when compared to the show's 2006 13-episode average. Last night's episodes averaged more than 1.6 million viewers, nearly half of them among the key adults 18-34 demographic. My Boys airs Mondays at 10 p.m. (ET/PT), exclusively on TBS.
Other ratings highlights for the return of My Boys on TBS:
- Combined, last night’s back-to-back episodes averaged 801,000 adults 18-34, a 43% jump over last year's 559,000 premiere average for the first 13 episodes in that demographic. Last night's episodes also averaged 1,176,000 adults 18-49, up 12% vs. premiere telecasts of the show in 2006 (1,052,000).
- Demonstrating the successful strategy of stacking episodes to provide stronger flow, the 10:30 p.m. episode of My Boys last night showed growth over its lead-in 10 p.m. episode, with adults 18-34 up 4% and adults 18-49 up 6%.
- With My Boys joining the list, TBS now claims ad-supported cable's Top 8 sitcoms for the year to date among adults 18-49, with Tyler Perry's House of Payne ranking #1, The Bill Engvall Show ranking #2 and My Boys ranking #6. Rounding out the list are Friends (#3), Seinfeld (#4), Everybody Loves Raymond (#5), King of Queens (#7) and Sex and the City (#8).

TBS Original Sitcom My Boys Returns Tomorrow, Airing Mondays at 10PM

Viewers who may have missed out on TBS's critically acclaimed series My Boys when it premiered late last year have the chance to catch up before new episodes arrive Monday, July 30, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT). TBS's online broadband destination, tbs.com, is offering a four-minute, rapid-fire recap of everything that's happened up to now. In addition, viewers who have a little more time on their hands can catch up with the show by watching complete previous episodes on tbs.com or by watching a marathon of all 13 episodes today (Sunday, July 29), beginning at 10 a.m. (ET/PT).
Last year, My Boys saw PJ and her boys through some humorous, yet realistic, times including on-the-job romance, a dating slump, the value of honesty in friendship and uncovering secrets kept from close friends. This summer promises more poker nights at PJs, beers at Crowley's Bar and amusing situations from the whole gang. Andy (Jim Gaffigan) will struggle with his move to the suburbs and another big bombshell from Meredith. Mike (Jamie Kaler), having exhausted every means to kill time while unemployed, strikes ups an interesting business alliance. Kenny (Michael Bunin) continues to search for love in all the wrong places. Bobby (Kyle Howard), who has comfortably settled in as one of the gang, reveals a shocking secret of his own. Brendan (Reid Scott) goes through a disturbing personality change that requires the entire group to get him back on track. Stephanie (Kellee Stewart) runs into some financial trouble this year but has better luck with dating.
Casting a big shadow over this summer is that PJ and Stephanie have purchased two two-for-one tickets to Italy. The entire summer sends them on a quest to find boyfriends to bring along as their dates. Or in PJ's case, on a journey to determine whether or not she even wants to bring a boyfriend at all.
My Boys premiered on TBS in November 2006, quickly scoring strong ratings and critical acclaim. It ended the year as ad-supported cable's #1 original sitcom among key adult demos, households and viewers. The show is being executive-produced by creator Betsy Thomas, Jamie Tarses, Gavin Polone and Eric Gilliland. It comes to TBS from Pariah and 2 Out Rally Productions, Inc., in association with Sony Pictures Television.

TCA 2007 Summer Tour: CBS Day 1; TBS Adds 'Just Shoot Me', Ratings News for New Sitcom; Our Emmy Picks

It is now CBS's turn at the TCA Summer Press Tour. The session panels for today were: Executive Session, Cane, Shark, How I Met Your Mother, Kid Nation, Moonlight, Big Bang Theory. They also have released their fall premiere dates. CBS today announced plans for the premieres of its new and returning series which includes the early debut of its freshman reality series Kid Nation, as well as Survivor: China and most of its Sunday lineup during the week of Sept. 17. The network will launch the remainder of its schedule beginning Monday, Sept. 24, the official start of the 2007-2008 season.
Viva Laughlin, the new mystery drama with music, will have a special preview on Thursday, Oct. 18 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) following CSI before moving to its regular Sunday (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) time period on Oct. 21 to take advantage of a two-week window in the schedule without football overruns.

CBS Fall Premiere Dates:

Wednesday, Sept. 19
8 p.m. Kid Nation

Thursday, Sept. 20
8 p.m. Survivor: China

Sunday, Sept. 23
7 p.m. 60 Minutes
9 p.m. Cold Case
10 p.m. Shark

Monday, Sept. 24
8 p.m. How I Met Your Mother
8:30 p.m. The Big Bang Theory
9 p.m. Two and a Half Men
9:30 p.m. Rules of Engagement
10 p.m. CSI: Miami

Tuesday, Sept. 25
8 p.m. NCIS
9 p.m. The Unit
10 p.m. Cane

Wednesday, Sept. 26
9 p.m. Criminal Minds
10 p.m. CSI: NY

Thursday, Sept. 27
9 p.m. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
10 p.m. Without a Trace

Friday, Sept. 28
8 p.m. Ghost Whisperer
9 p.m. Moonlight
10 p.m. NUMB3RS

Saturday, Sept. 29
8 p.m. Crimetime Saturday
9 p.m. Crimetime Saturday
10 p.m. 48 Hours Mystery

Thursday, Oct. 18
10 p.m. Viva Laughlin (special preview)

Sunday, Oct. 21
8 p.m. Viva Laughlin (time period premiere)

TBS will add the hit '90s sitcom Just Shoot Me to its afternoon line-up starting August 6. It will air weekdays at 1:00 & 1:30pm, shifting the Steve Harvey Show hour to 12 & 12:30pm. Thus, NewsRadio will be leaving the line-up. In addition, it looks like TBS will not renew the contract for The Drew Carey Show, because starting August 27, an extra Cosby Show episode will air at 6:30am weekday mornings. Anyway, I'm not sure how long TBS will run Just Shoot Me. It is coming to TV Land in January and then it will also come back to local channels next June. TBS could share it with TV Land, so who knows, Discuss these pre-fall schedule changes, by clicking HERE.
Sticking with TBS, last night's premiere of the new sitcom The Bill Engvall Show scored big. The series' debut telecast last night delivered 3.9 million viewers and 2.8 million households, securing a place among ad-supported cable's Top 3 sitcom telecasts (original or acquired) of all-time among households and Top 5 original sitcom telecasts of all-time among key adult demos and viewers. The premiere garnered a 3.0 coverage household rating/2.5 national rating. It ranked as ad-supported cable's top program for the entire day in delivery of adults 18-49, adults 25-54, viewers and households.
Set in a Denver suburb, The Bill Engvall Show casts the Blue Collar Comedy headliner as Bill Pearson, a family counselor whose own family is unpredictable, somewhat absurd and a little mixed up themselves. Nancy Travis plays his wife, Susan, who is trying to make sure their three children turn out all right. Filling out the rest of the family, Jennifer Lawrence plays Bill and Susan’s teenage daughter, Lauren, while their sons are played by Graham Patrick Martin as Trent, a sports and video game enthusiast, and Skyler Gisondo as Bryan, a musically talented neat freak with a pet snake. Tim Meadows and Steve Hytner co-star as Bill's best friends.

Today we will give our preview of what we think the nominations for the Emmy's will look like. The real nominations are tomorrow (Thursday) morning, so we will give you those then. But for now...here are our predictions for the main acting categories for the 59th Annual Emmy Awards:

BEST COMEDY SERIES
Desperate Housewives (ABC)
The Office (NBC)
Ugly Betty (ABC)
30 Rock (NBC)
Entourage (HBO)
MY THOUGHTS: Two and a Half Men, Weeds or Scrubs could sneak in. The winner will be Ugly Betty or The Office, I think.

BEST COMEDY ACTOR
Tony Shalhoub, Monk (USA Network)
Steve Carell, The Office (NBC)
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock (NBC)
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men (CBS)
Zach Braff, Scrubs (NBC)
MY THOUGHTS: Braff could be left off again and maybe Jason Lee will be in. Eric Mabius is a long shot.

BEST COMEDY ACTRESS
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty (ABC)
Teri Hatcher, Desperate Housewives (ABC)
Mary Louise Parker, Weeds (Showtime)
Felicity Huffman, Desperate Housewives (ABC)
Tina Fey, 30 Rock (NBC)
MY THOUGHTS: Marcia Cross could be in here. Look for this category to be almost totally different than last year. Ferrera will be the favorite.

BEST SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTOR
Kevin Dillion, Entourage (HBO)
John Cryer, Two and a Half Men (CBS)
Rainn Wilson, The Office (NBC)
Michael Urie, Ugly Betty (ABC)
Jeremy Piven, Entourage (HBO)
MY THOUGHTS: Tough category. HBO and NBC stars will rule this list. Urie will be the huge underdog.

BEST SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTRESS
Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty (ABC)
Elizabeth Perkins, Weeds (Showtime)
Jamie Pressly, My Name is Earl (NBC)
Nicollette Sheridan, Desperate Housewives (ABC)
Jenna Fischer, The Office (NBC)
MY THOUGHTS: Nicollette better get nominated this year! She was great again. Other ladies who can get nods are Becki Newton, Conchata Ferrell and the great Kathryn Joosten.

BEST DRAMA SERIES
Lost (ABC)
Friday Night Lights (NBC)
Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
The Sopranos (HBO)
Heroes (NBC)
MY THOUGHTS: Tough category. House could get snubbed this year. Brothers & Sisters could be in here over FNL. 24 had a bad year.

BEST DRAMA ACTOR
Hugh Laurie, House (FOX)
James Spader, Boston Legal (ABC)
James Gandolfini, The Sopranos (HBO)
Denis Leary, Rescue Me (FOX)
Michael C. Hall, Dexter (Showtime)
MY THOUGHTS: Kyle Chandler and Kiefer Sutherland would not be surprises if they get nominated. Patrick Dempsey and Matthew Fox are long shots.

BEST DRAMA ACTRESS
Edie Falco, The Sopranos (HBO)
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer (TNT)
Minnie Driver, The Riches (FX)
Ellen Pompeo, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
MY THOUGHTS: I think Pompeo will make it this year. Connie Britton, Calista Flockhart or Patricia Arquette could also sneak in.

BEST SUPPORTING DRAMA ACTOR
Terry O'Quinn, Lost (ABC)
William Shatner, Boston Legal (ABC)
Masi Oka, Heroes (NBC)
Michael Imperioli, The Sopranos (HBO)
Michael Emerson, Lost (ABC)
MY THOUGHTS: Please give the nomination and win to O'Quinn. He deserves it.

BEST SUPPORTING DRAMA ACTRESS
Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Patricia Wettig, Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
Katherine Heigl, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Lorraine Bracco, The Sopranos (HBO)
MY THOUGHTS: ABC will rule this category. Chandra Wilson and Elizabeth Mitchell could also be here.

Nominations are announced tomorrow morning. Come on back here and we will give you the official nominations and you can compare those to our picks!

New Sitcom, The Bill Engvall Show, Premieres on TBS on Tuesday, July 17

The Bill Engvall Show premieres Tuesday, July 17, at 9/8c on TBS!

The Bill Engvall Show is written and created by Engvall and Michael Leeson (The War of the Roses), who also serve as executive producers with J.P. Williams (Blue Collar TV). The series is produced by TBS with Leeson’s Welladay, Inc. and Williams’ Parallel Entertainment. The pilot was directed by James Widdoes (Two and a Half Men).

Set in a Denver suburb, The Bill Engvall Show stars Engvall as Bill Pearson, a family counselor whose own family could maybe use a little dose of counseling. He works with dysfunctional families all day and comes home to what he sees as perfection, but in reality they are somewhat absurd, unpredictable and just as mixed up as any other family.

Nancy Travis plays his witty and loving wife, Susan, who tries to keep the family in line. Bill and Susan keep busy raising their teenage daughter, Lauren, and sons Trent, a sports and video game enthusiast, and Bryan, a musically talented neat freak with a pet snake. The kids love their parents but also know how to manipulate them. Also adding to the family dynamic is Bill’s mother, an outrageous senior with the energy of a teenager. Comedic actors Tim Meadows and Steve Hytner round out the cast as Will’s closest friends.

Cast:

Bill Engvall as Bill Pearson, Nancy Travis as Susan Pearson, Tim Meadows as Paul DuFrayne, Steve Hytner as Bob Spoonerman, Jennifer Lawrence as Lauren Pearson, Graham Patrick Martin as Trent Pearson, Skyler Gisondo as Bryan Pearson

Related Links:

TBS Official Site

Bill Engvall's Official Website

TV.com

Internet Movie Database

Wikipedia

Sitcoms Online Message Board

Sitcoms Online Photo Gallery

DMGI Acquires Bill Cosby Show; Atlanta TBS, WTBS to Rename to WPCH

Digital Music Group, Inc. (DMGI), a content owner and global leader in the digital distribution of independently owned music and video catalogs, announced today a number of new long-term digital distribution agreements for classic television content totaling over 300 episodes including The Bill Cosby Show, Route 66, The Super Dave Show, and Dangerous Assignment.
The Bill Cosby Show: Aired for two seasons on NBC between 1969 and 1971, The Bill Cosby Show is a lighthearted comedy starring Bill Cosby playing the role of Chet Kincaid, physical education teacher at a Los Angeles high school.
Route 66: This classic television series starred George Maharis and Martin Milner as two young men driving around the US working at odd jobs, helping people, and searching for adventure.
The Super Dave Show: Regarded by some as one of the funniest television shows ever, The Super Dave Show starred Bob Einstein as "accomplished" stuntman Super Dave Osborne.
Dangerous Assignment: Starring Brian Donlevy as Steve Mitchell, undercover agent for the U.S. government, this 1950's spy thriller includes over 50 episodes.
As we announced previously, DMGI has The DMGI Classics channel which features classic TV series from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, including: I Spy (82 episodes), Daniel Boone (165 episodes), My Favorite Martian (107 episodes), Invisible Man (26 episodes), The Cisco Kid (156 episodes), Peter Gunn (114 episodes), The Adventures of Robin Hood (113 episodes), and Hopalong Cassidy (52 episodes and 60 feature length films).
For more details, vist the DMGI webpage.

WTBS will become WPCH (short for Peachtree TV) on Oct. 1, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle. The network will feature nightly blockbuster prime-time movies and a daytime line-up packed with sitcoms targeted to the Atlanta audience, such as Family Guy, The King of Queens, The Jeffersons, Diff'rent Strokes, Cheers, The Cosby Show, Seinfeld, The Steve Harvey Show, Friends and Frasier. Peachtree TV will also bring local viewers 45 Atlanta Braves baseball games called by fan favorites Skip Caray, Chip Caray and Joe Simpson.
While Peachtree TV takes over the local broadcaster position currently held by WTBS, TBS' national cable feed will become available to Atlanta's local cable and satellite operators, offering the network's signature comedy programming.
So for people not in the Atlanta area, we all still will get the TBS Superstation, and not Peachtree TV, as that is JUST for Atlanta. Peachtree TV won't develop its own newscast.

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

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

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

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

The Office Will Be Repurposed on TBS This Fall, Daily Airings Coming in Fall 2009 on TBS and Locals; Fox Renews American Dad Through 2009

TBS has acquired reruns of the current critically acclaimed NBC sitcom The Office! Starting this fall, (fall 2007) the show will be repurposed on TBS, which means it will air once a week on TBS. Night and time of the repurposing has not been announced thus yet. That is not all...fall 2009 is the big year for the sitcom as it will air 5-days-a-week on TBS! And that is not all for fall 2009, we also get non-exclusive broadband streaming, on-demand and wireless rights to run concurrent with the off-network 5-days-a-week telecast rights.
Big news indeed for the sitcom. Maybe it can generate more viewers this way. The show is a hit among adults 18-49, but it lacks in total viewers of the hit sitcoms of the past.
To discuss this news and to read the full TBS press release, click HERE!

Oh and did you think that was all for fall 2009 for this sitcom? It will also join local channels that year for daily repeats as well! Fox-Owned Channels have bought reruns of the sitcom. The Fox Television Stations group, one of the nation's largest owned-and-operated network broadcast groups, comprises 35 stations in 26 markets, covering nearly 45% of U.S. television homes. This includes six duopolies in the top 10 markets: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Washington, D.C. and Houston; as well as duopolies in Minneapolis, Phoenix and Orlando.
Click on the same link as above for more details (see post #2)!

We all know that American Dad will return next season on Fox Sundays, but now Fox has issued even better news for fans of the animated comedy! They have renewed it through the end of 2009 at least! So, two more seasons at the very least.
Fox issued the following statement on this news:
Fox has picked up the subversive animated series American Dad, featuring security-obsessed CIA agent and devoted family man Stan Smith, through the 2008-09 season. American Dad (Sundays, 9:30PM ET/PT) ranks No. 1 in its time period among Adults 18-34, Teens and all male demos.

House of Payne Scores Big for TBS; CBS News; More TubeTime and Fresh Prince News

The unprecedented deal that brought Tyler Perry's House of Payne to TBS has now resulted in a record-breaking victory, as the series claims ad-supported cable's #1 sitcom telecast of all-time in delivery of adults 18-34, adults 18-49, adults 25-54, viewers and households, according to preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research. The show, which grew a strong 12% from the first episode to the second, also provided TBS with the network's top series telecast of all-time among all key adult demos, households and viewers, as well as ad-supported cable's top scripted telecast for the year to date among adults 18-49 and adults 25-54.
The sitcom centers on the lives of three generations of an African-American family living under one roof, runs each Wednesday with back-to-back episodes at 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. (ET/PT) on TBS.
The 9:30 p.m. telecast this past Wednesday now ranks as ad-supported cable's top sitcom telecast of all-time among adults 18-34 (1,416,000); adults 18-49 (3,056,000); adults 25-54 (2,985,000); viewers (5,820,000); households (3,551,000). It also scored a strong 3.8 household coverage rating/3.2 national rating.
The 9 p.m. episode ranks second to the 9:30 p.m. episode on the list of ad-supported cable's top sitcom telecasts of all time among adults 18-49 (2,723,000); adults 25-54 (2,728,000); viewers (5,206,000); households (3,320,000). It also scored a very strong 1,174,000 delivery among adults 18-34, as well as a 3.5 household coverage rating/3.0 national rating.
Wow! 5.21 million and 5.82 million for even a network sitcom these days is decent!

CBS has picked-up an additional sitcom for mid-season! Last week The CW picked up an additional sitcom, now CBS will pick up the sitcom The Captain for mid-season. CBS has ordered six episodes of this single camera sitcom. The series stars Fran Kranz, Chris Klein and Jeffrey Tambor. The series centers on a young writer whose life changes when he moves into a legendary Hollywood apartment building.
Thanks to the fans, rookie drama series Jericho will return next season! After upfront last month, the network canceled the series, but thanks to fans, the show will return. CBS has ordered seven episodes of Jericho for mid-season next year.

We have some more Comcast TubeTime news. In addition to yesterday's story, two more series are also added to the OnDemand service. '90s sitcom Ned & Stacey and the classic drama Fantasy Island. It appears Diff'rent Strokes and What's Happening!! will leave since no new episodes are appearing, but Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie has new episodes. Soap will return will new episodes on June 18.

In Nick at Nite news, we will see yet more Fresh Prince this weekend, as the network will pre-empt their Fri-Sun programming this week and air Fresh Prince from 10:30pm-5am on Friday & Saturday and 9:30pm-5am on Sunday. Excited???

Diff'rent Strokes Reruns Come to Atlanta TBS; Fresh Week on The N; Preview of Our Exclusive Interview with AmericanLife TV!

Effective yesterday (Monday, June 4), WTBS-17 in Atlanta added the hit '80s sitcom Diff'rent Strokes to its line-up from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Yes, three episodes in a row! It is unfortunate that only people in the Atlanta metro area can see this because the national feed of TBS airs Fresh Prince and Home Improvement in those slots.
WTBS-17 was airing Home Improvement up until the end of last week, but the local channel deal expired. So, even if you're not from Atlanta, check your local listings on when Home Improvement was airing, because now it is gone from all locals and will be exclusive to cable (airing on TBS and WGN, and Nick at Nite come this fall).
And why isn't Fresh Prince on WTBS-17 in Atlanta? Again that show is exclusive to cable now, too. It airs on Nick at Nite, The N and TBS.
Well, anyway, I just hope we get Diff'rent Strokes back nationwide. Let's hope the national TBS feed airs the show. Even if it is 4am or 5am, that would do! Lucky people in Atlanta...'the world don't move to the beat of just one drum' for them!

And if you have not gotten sick of Will Smith's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, then think again, because The N will have a nightly marathon all next week from 12-3am, which is of course all in addition to its regular slots on the network.
The N seems to be having a rotating 12-3am block each week. Last week it was Growing Pains. This week it is Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and now next week it will be Fresh Prince.

Calling all classic TV and AmericanLife TV Network fans! You will want to come to the blog tomorrow as we will have an exclusive interview with the network on their programming plans! See what they have to say, as we have asked some very good questions. All classic TV fans might want to read this! Come back tomorrow to see this wonderful piece!

AmericanLife TV June Highlights; TBS and TNT Go Broadband

AmericanLife TV Network, the only independent network devoted to the Baby Boomer generation, rolls out new seasons of Til Debt Do Us Part and Profiles In Caring in June, two of the network’s socially-conscious programs. As we mentioned last week, classic television dramas St. Elsewhere, Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law debut on the Network Sunday, June 3. Rounding out the June primetime schedule, classic television programming airs in primetime, featuring many beloved names in entertainment.
Sunday, June 3 marks the addition of St. Elsewhere (8-9 p.m. ET /PT), Hill Street Blues (9-10 p.m. ET /PT) and L.A. Law (10-11 p.m. ET /PT) to AmericanLife TV's primetime programming schedule. All three of these well-loved series will celebrate their new home on television with the broadcast of their very first episodes produced. Other highlights for these classics this month include:

Sunday, June 10
* St. Elsewhere: Tim Robbins guests in “Bypass.”
* Hill Street Blues: David Caruso debuts his recurring role on the series as Shamrock in “Presidential Fever.”

Sunday, June 24
* St. Elsewhere: TV legend Doris Roberts guests in “Cora and Arnie.”

Among the other classic programming highlights in June include:

Wednesday, June 6
* The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: Angela Lansbury guest stars as Effie Van Donck in “The Deadly Toys Affair” (9-10 p.m. ET /PT).

Friday, June 8
* The FBI: Harrison Ford guest stars as Glen Reeverson in “Caesar’s Wife” (8-9 p.m. ET /PT).

Monday, June 11
* Harry O: The late Roddy McDowall plays Arnold Applequist in “The Mysterious Case of Lester and Dr. Fong” (8-9 p.m. ET /PT).

Saturday, June 16
* Chico and the Man: The late Shelley Winters guests as Shirley Shrift in “Ed Steps Out” (10-10:30 p.m. ET /PT).

Tuesday, June 19
* Combat!: Bill Bixby guest stars as Kline in “The Losers” (8-9 p.m. ET /PT).

Saturday, June 23
* Chico and the Man: Legendary and beloved late performer Sammy Davis Jr. is featured as himself in “Sammy Steps In” (10-10:30 p.m. ET /PT).

Monday, June 25
* Harry O: Two famous faces in “Such Dust As Dreams Are Made On:” Cheryl Ladd and Martin Sheen (8-9 p.m. ET /PT).

It looks to be a great June for the network and July looks even better! We have an interview slated with AmericanLife coming soon, so be on the look out as we will learn a lot of new stuff! You won't want to miss this!

TBS and TNT are about to roll out its original summer shows, and if you miss them on TV...you can watch them all online the next day. They plan to stream all seven of their combined original summer series on their respective websites (tbs.com and tnt.tv). For the most part, they will be available the morning after they premiere on TV at around 3am or so and last a month. The shows are: TNT's dramas The Closer, Heartland and Saving Grace, its limited series The Company, and TBS' sitcoms House of Payne, The Bill Engvall Show, My Boys and The Frank Show.
House of Payne premieres next Wednesday (June 6) on TBS at 9pm! We will certainly have more details on that very soon! Check back with us.

'Fresh Prince' Comes to TBS in May, 'Sister, Sister' to WGN in the Fall; TV Land Awards Preview, Includes Spoof 'Ugly Betty...White'

If you think airing on Viacom stations Nick at Nite and The N were not enough, now starting May 1 you can catch The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air on TBS in the daytime. TBS will bring back the show and share the show with Nick at Nite/The N. TBS will air it weekdays at 2 & 2:30 p.m. ET starting May 1.
This means nearly all of Nick at Nite's shows are shared with other cable networks (Full House - ABC Family, Cosby Show - TBS/WGN, Roseanne - Oxygen). Even the shows that are not airing much like A Different World and Mad About You are shared (both with Oxygen). Murphy Brown and Designing Women are the only Nick at Nite shows that are not shared with another cable network (well, Growing Pains was on ION, but ION is really a broadcast channel, so it technically isn't shared).

Beginning this fall, Sister, Sister will join Superstation WGN. All six seasons of the half-hour comedy have been acquired for a three-year run.
It will air back-to-back episodes this fall on weekdays beginning at 5pm ET. Sister, Sister will be paired with The Cosby Show, leading into a comedy block of Funniest Pets & People, and America's Funniest Videos. No word yet on what will become of Moesha, but it will most likely air before Cosby Show.
Additionally, an episode of Sister, Sister is scheduled to air on Saturdays along with Even Stevens and Lizzie McGuire, which also appeal to young viewers.

The 5th TV Land Awards will premiere on April 22, but the awards show taped this past Saturday. It looks like it will be a fun-fest. Kelly Ripa was the host and I hear she did great. She might be the best host since the first awards host, which was the late John Ritter. It was an unforgettable evening as celebrities from television, music and film bestowed special tribute awards tonight to some of television's most iconic series and stars at the fifth annual TV Land Awards. The honorees included Lucille Ball (Legacy of Laughter Award), The Brady Bunch (Pop Culture Award), Roots (Anniversary Award), Hee Haw (Entertainer Award), Taxi (Medallion Award) and Heroes (Future Classic Award).
Some highlights:
Legendary actress and comedienne Carol Burnett and Emmy Award-winning actress Kirstie Alley presented Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. with the Legacy of Laughter Award in honor of their mother, Lucille Ball. Actresses Valerie Bertinelli and Mackenzie Phillips of One Day at a Time presented the cast of The Brady Bunch with the Pop Culture Award. Grammy Award-winning country superstar Willie Nelson performed hits "On The Road Again" and "City of New Orleans" in a tribute to Hee Haw. Academy Award-winning actors Forest Whitaker and Morgan Freeman presented the cast of Roots with the Anniversary Award celebrating the epic 30th Anniversary. The cast of Taxi -- Danny DeVito, Jeff Conaway, Tony Danza, Judd Hirsch, Carol Kane, Randall Carver and creator James L. Brooks -- were presented with The Medallion Award by actress Sharon Stone. Actor Luke Wilson presented Heroes creator and executive producer Tim Kring with this year's Future Classic Award along with executive producers Dennis Hammer and Allan Arkush and cast members Masi Oka, Leonard Roberts, Noah Gray-Cabey, Zachary Quinto, Santiago Cabrera and Jack Coleman.
Other memorable moments included:
A hilarious videotaped intro where host Kelly Ripa reenacted the show opens to several memorable sitcoms including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, That Girl, and Laverne & Shirley. The package ended with Kelly flying above the live audience and making her entrance as "Sister Bertrille" from The Flying Nun.
TV's most beloved TV stars spoofed one of television's most popular shows, Ugly Betty, in a parody entitled Ugly Betty - White. The parody starred Betty White with cameos by Erik Estrada, Joan Collins, George Hamilton, Charo and Peter Scolari.
And a performance at the end of the show by The Brady Bunch's "The Silver Platters," as Maureen McCormick and Barry Williams were joined by host Kelly Ripa -- singing the unforgettable songs "Keep On" and "It's A Sunshine Day."
For more highlights, click HERE. And don't forget to watch the awards on TV Land on Sunday, April 22 at 9 p.m. ET/PT