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There's still some life left in old idols next fall, but competition dims hopes of adding viewers
By Rich Heldenfels
Beacon Journal popular culture writer
Published on Sunday, May 18, 2008
When you're considering the lineups the major broadcast networks have announced for fall 2008, think of them as attempts to make lemonade from a business that has everyone puckering sourly.
Yes, ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and The CW will offer new and returning programs in the fall.
They have culled their respective herds, dropping the likes of Back to You, Girlfriends, Cane, Men in Trees and Bionic Woman, and moving Rules of Engagement, Reaper, According to Jim and other shows to backup status.
They think you are still interested in American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, The Unit, Life, Grey's Anatomy and all three CSIs. They hope you will be drawn to newcomers like Worst Week, Life on Mars, the revamp of Knight Rider and Fringe.
But they know that getting you to watch anything will be difficult. That headache from the writers strike lingers. Audiences have been slow to return to many shows all these months after the strike ended.
While much has been written about a drop in the ratings for prime time's biggest hit, American Idol, it was not the only show to suffer. Big successes like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Grey's Anatomy and House have also seen their numbers fall compared to a year ago, and even a burst of new, post-strike episodes did not heal all the damage.
Indeed, the idea of programming 22 hours of prime time — as ABC, CBS and NBC still try to do — is pretty much impossible. Friday Night Lights survived only
after DirecTV agreed to pay part of the cost — in exchange for showing the episodes before NBC. Saturday night is often devoted to reruns, and Fridays are looking grimmer.
In fact, the CW has given up trying to fill its relatively meager 13 hours, even though it began this season with a blend of shows from two former networks, the WB and UPN, which were merged into the CW. It has sold its Sunday-night hours to another company, Media Rights Capital, for programming.
Moonlight fans have expressed hope that Media Rights Capital will pick up their show for that Sunday block. But save-our-show campaigns also got smacked this year, when the fervent campaign to save Jericho brought the show back for a short second season, but an actual drop in audience numbers.
Even high-level diplomacy seemed to have little effect. Back to You star Kelsey Grammer reportedly called the top man at CBS to see if that network would pick up his sitcom after Fox dropped it. But survival appears unlikely.
In addition to competition from cable and satellite services, the growing opportunities to watch programming online have made almost meaningless the idea of TV on a network schedule. You don't even need a recorder for many programs. Shows old and new can be seen on the networks' own Web sites as well as places like Hulu (http://www.hulu.com) and Fancast (http://www.fancast.com). And entertainment now includes the vast, user-generated realms of sites like YouTube (http://www.youtube.com).
Now, the networks have not yet declared their game over. Indeed, they are trying to embrace new media, putting their shows on the Web even if that means cannibalizing their over-the-air audience.
They have made some plans for the season ahead. But daring is at a premium. Fox, notorious for annual crazy quilts of schedule changes even before the ratings demand revisions, has announced a relatively stable lineup for fall and winter. CBS isn't trying anything as bold as Viva Laughlin, the drama-with-music that proved an immediate disaster with critics and most viewers. Already tested concepts, including Americanizations of British hits, are in the network comfort zone.
So what's coming? Here's a brief rundown by network. (You can find detailed lineups in my HeldenFiles Online blog through Ohio.com.) Changes will come before all this gets on the air, but it's an early blueprint of battle plans.
ABC
Returning in the fall: 20/20, America's Funniest Home Videos, Boston Legal (for its last season), Brothers & Sisters, Dancing With the Stars, Desperate Housewives, Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Pushing Daisies, Samantha Who?, Saturday Night College Football, Supernanny, Ugly Betty and Wife Swap.
Returning later in the season: According to Jim, The Bachelor, Lost and Primetime What Would You Do? ABC is also picking up Scrubs, which has been airing on NBC, for midseason.
New in the fall: Life on Mars, an Americanized version of a British drama about a modern-day police detective who suddenly finds himself working as a detective in 1973. Also, Opportunity Knocks, a reality show testing people's knowledge of their family members — with the quiz taking place on their front lawn.
New midseason: The Goode Family, an animated comedy from King of the Hill's Mike Judge, and a so-far-untitled beauty-contest show from Ashton Kutcher and Tyra Banks.
Notable cancellations: Men in Trees, Big Shots, Cashmere Mafia, October Road and Oprah's Big Give, which Oprah Winfrey herself decided was not worth continuing.
CBS
Returning in the fall: 48 Hours Mystery, 60 Minutes, The Amazing Race, The Big Bang Theory, Cold Case, Criminal Minds, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Ghost Whisperer, How I Met Your Mother, NCIS, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Numb3rs, Survivor, Two and a Half Men, The Unit and Without a Trace.
Returning later in the season: Rules of Engagement.
New in the fall: Comedies Worst Week, about a man whose attempts to please his girlfriend's parents lead to disaster, and Project Gary, with Jay Mohr and Paula Marshall as a divorced couple sharing custody of their two children and pursuing new relationships.
Also, The Mentalist, with The Guardian's Simon Baker as a Psych-like observational expert who has passed himself off as a medium; Eleventh Hour, about an expert making sure science is used for niceness instead of evil, and The Ex List, with Elizabeth Reaser as a woman who learns she has met her future husband and must find him within the next year.
New midseason: Harper's Island, a murder mystery.
Notable cancellations: Cane, Jericho, Moonlight, Shark.
Fox
Returning in the fall: America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back, American Dad, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, Bones, Cops, Don't Forget the Lyrics, Family Guy, House, King of the Hill, Kitchen Nightmares, The Moment of Truth, Prison Break, The Simpsons, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and 'Til Death.
Returning later in the season: American Idol. 24 is due back in January 2009, but Fox will also air a 24 movie in November to cover events preceding the next season.
New in the fall: Fringe, a sci-fi drama about the investigation of the deaths of everyone on an international airplane flight. From J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost). Also, comedy Do Not Disturb, set in a New York City hotel.
New at midseason: Dollhouse, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon, with Eliza Dushku as a woman who takes on new personalities — and erases her old ones — for an underground group.
Also, Secret Millionaire, a reality show where the wealthy have to live among the poor; The Cleveland Show, spinning Cleveland Brown out of Family Guy, and Sit Down, Shut Up, an animated comedy about the staff of a small-town high school.
Notable cancellations: Back to You, New Amsterdam, Canterbury's Law, Unhitched.
NBC
Returning in the fall: 30 Rock, The Biggest Loser: Families, Chuck, Dateline NBC, Deal or No Deal, ER (in its last season), Football Night in America, Heroes, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Life, Lipstick Jungle, My Name Is Earl, NBC Sunday Night Football and The Office.
Returning later in the season: Friday Night Lights (after episodes have aired in the fall on DirecTV), Law & Order, Medium and The Celebrity Apprentice.
New in the fall: My Own Worst Enemy, a modern-day Jekyll & Hyde tale starring Christian Slater; Kath & Kim, based on an Australian comedy, with Ohio's own Molly Shannon as a divorcee whose daughter (Selma Blair) has moved home; SNL Thursday Night Live, sketch comedy tied to the presidential campaign season.
Also, Knight Rider, the updating of the talking-car series, and Crusoe, as in Robinson.
New at midseason: A spin-off of The Office, details of which are being kept quiet; The Philanthropist, about a billionaire vigilante; Merlin, with Arthur and Merlin as young men, and Kings, a modernized David-and-Goliath tale.
NBC has also announced plans for new and returning shows in summer 2009 but that is getting too far ahead.
Notable cancellations: Scrubs (which is moving to ABC), Bionic Woman. Still up in the air is Law & Order: Criminal Intent, whose future depends on talks with USA Network, NBC's corporate sibling.
The CW
Returning in the fall: America's Next Top Model, Everybody Hates Chris, The Game, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, Smallville, Supernatural.
Returning later in the season: Reaper.
New in the fall: 90210, the sequel to Beverly Hills, 90210, with a family moving from Kansas to California — where the West Beverly High School guidance counselor is Kelly Taylor! Yes, Jennie Garth is back.
Also, Surviving the Filthy Rich, a drama about a journalist turned tutor for a Palm Beach family; Stylista, billed as ''if The Devil Wears Prada were a reality show.''
New programs will also form the Sunday lineup on CW stations. But The CW has turned the night's programming over to another company, Media Rights Capital, and a program lineup has not been announced.
No new midseason shows were announced.
Notable cancellations: Girlfriends and WWE Smackdown! Smackdown is moving to My-NetworkTV, a programmer established for stations left out of the WB/UPN merger.
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal and in a blog at http://www.ohio.com. He can be reached at 330-996-3582 and rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.
When you're considering the lineups the major broadcast networks have announced for fall 2008, think of them as attempts to make lemonade from a business that has everyone puckering sourly.
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