After looking at the tentative schedule, if you were looking for a night to do errands or otherwise not be in front of your TV, this might be the night.
ABC - Wraps the results show for Dancing With the Stars around two new shows. The early one, Shark Tank, is an Americanized version of BBC America's Dragon's Den, as entrepraneurs present their ideas to a panel of five self-made millionaires in the hopes that they'll provide seed capital. Sounds find in concept, and hopefully the producers here will remember how NBC failed to turn Last Restaurant Standing into a success with Chopping Block.
On the other end is The Forgotten, which sees a group of amateur sleuths work to put names to unidentified murder victims, with the hope that an ID will help lead to an arrest. Reiko Ayelsworth, best known for playing Michelle Dessler on 24, is part of the cast. This may be enough of a twist on the police procedural to work, and having Jerry Bruckheimer involved should help, too.
In the spring, the first two hours will change to a show to be named later (I'm hoping it's the V remake, which sounds atrocious on principle) and a sitcom block of Scrubs and Better Off Ted. Both are somewhat surprising additions to the schedule. Scrubs got a proper send-off, and will now apparently toil on without Zach Braff. The surprise for me with Better Off Ted returning is that ABC managed to keep the right midseason sitcom, as they could have brought back In the Motherhood.
To my eyes, ABC has the best line-up for the night, which is depressing as I really don't feel compelled to watch any of these shows.
CBS - Looks to replicate the success of spinning off CSI into different locations by giving us NCIS: Los Angeles in the 9 pm slot, airing after the original NCIS. I don't know if that's such a great thing, though I suppose it's a way to build an audience with current NCIS viewers who may potentially follow the show to another night later in the season. The new show stars Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J, though once I hear the name "Chris O'Donnell" I start to look for the remote. I'd be surprised if this brings in enough viewers to make the cancellation of The Unit look like a smart move, though I may be underestimating the loyalty of the average NCIS viewer.
The 10 pm spot is filled by The Good Wife, the latest show to cast Juliana Marguiles as a lawyer. In this show, though, her character returns to practice more than decade after leaving to be a full-time mom, forced to pick things up again after a public sex and corruption scandal lands her husband in jail. The cast looks solid, as it includes Chris Noth, Josh Charles and Christine Baranski. If it's done well, this would be the best pick for the 10 pm slot for the night.
Fox - Will bank on reality for the night, with So You Think You Can Dance? in the fall and American Idol in the spring. I can't imagine they'll go a full two hours for Dance each week, especially with an hour-long results show the next night. Then again, Fox does like to milk hours with reality performance programming, so I'm sure they'll find a way to fill the time.
In the spring, AI will share the night with Past Life, about a pair of "detectives" who determine if your current problems are being caused by who you were in a past life. Um, no.
NBC - Dedicates pretty much their entire non-Leno programming in the evening to The Biggest Loser. In the spring, they'll cut the show to 90 minutes and add 100 Questions, the sitcom about the woman who has a wacky romantic anecdone for each of the 100 questions on a dating service survey. I guess it fits with the expected Loser demographic, but I can't help but have visions of quick-cancelled shows like The Ex-List and Emily's Reasons Why Not floating in my head. They'd have been better off snagging Samantha Who? off of ABC's discard pile.
The night ends with Leno at 10. Get used to that.
The CW - Brings back 90210 and adds to it a new version of Melrose Place. Laura Leighton and Thomas Calabro return from the original, and Ashlee Simpson appears as one of the young, new tenants. If only the network did three hours of programming a night, we'd be guaranteed a revival of Models, Inc. next season. Oh, to dream...
No comments:
Post a Comment