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Cost-cutting evident as networks confront economic challenges
By Rich Heldenfels
Beacon Journal popular culture writer
Published on Sunday, May 24, 2009
The TV networks' belt tightening has just about pushed their navels into their spines.
Confronted by a bad economy and changes in the way people watch TV (especially a growing shift toward online viewing), the five commercial broadcast networks' announcements of their fall lineups are piled with evidence of cost-cutting and long-term fears.
The clearest example, of course, is NBC's giving five prime-time hours to Jay Leno for a weeknight talk show. But it doesn't end there.
When CBS canceled The Unit and Without a Trace, budget was a factor. Some returning shows are getting smaller episode orders — like a maximum of 13 for Fox's Lie to Me and for NBC's Friday Night Lights.
Casting involves trimming the number of actors, the frequency of appearance and one high-profile battle over salary. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit will be back on NBC, but as of last week, it had not worked out new contracts with stars Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni.
Often frustrated by the performance of scripted shows in the fall, Fox is turning three prime-time hours over to So You Think You Can Dance, a reality competition, before it brings back reality behemoth American Idol in January. The CW, having failed when it rented out its Sunday time slots to another programmer, has given up on Sundays entirely.
Nor are the networks always willing to bear the cost of shows. Friday Night Lights survived a year ago after DirecTV came on as a partner, with the understanding that
the satellite service gets to show new episodes first; the same deal applies to the coming season. NBC brought back Chuck after the Subway sandwich chain became a major sponsor; expect to see Subway signs and products in episodes next season.
Yet, for all this business maneuvering, the networks still have to put on shows that people want to watch and advertisers want to buy. And even as some networks move ever closer to schedules that look like cable networks, they believe they still have a more successful product.
So how are the networks going to woo you this fall? What follows is a recap of their announcements over the past week of plans for late 2009 and beyond. All the information is subject to change, so think of this as a sketch. But it does contain some broad strokes, including what's back in the fall.
ABC
Eight new shows, including a block of four comedies on Wednesday nights, will be in the fall lineup. Eleven current series, as well as college football, will return. There are changes on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights.
Returning in the fall are 20/20, America's Funniest Home Videos, Brothers & Sisters, Castle, Dancing With the Stars, Desperate Housewives, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Supernanny and Ugly Betty. Coming back later in the season are The Bachelor, Better Off Ted, Lost, Scrubs, True Beauty and Wife Swap.
New shows in the fall are Shark Tank (which will sneak in during the summer), a reality series about would-be entrepreneurs trying to get millionaires to invest in their ideas; drama The Forgotten, with a team of amateur crime solvers; and comedy Hank, with Kelsey Grammer as a businessman with money troubles.
Also, comedy The Middle, with Bay Village's Patricia Heaton as a wife and mother; comedy Modern Family, with a clan being followed by a documentary maker; Cougar Town, starring Courteney Cox as a divorced mother; drama Eastwick, adapted from the movie and book The Witches of Eastwick; and Flash Forward, where people have seen their near future and have to decide what to do with that knowledge.
New midseason shows include V, a reworking of the old program about alien visitors to Earth.
CBS
The network plans to have four new series in the fall. Eighteen shows will return to the most-watched network. There are planned changes for every night but Wednesday and Saturday.
Returning shows are Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, all three CSIs, NCIS, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Gary Unmarried, Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer, Numb3rs, 48 Hours Mystery, Survivor, Two and a Half Men, The Mentalist, 60 Minutes, The Amazing Race and Cold Case.
In addition, CBS picked up Medium after NBC dropped it. It will also continue crime-show reruns on Saturday nights, and bring back Rules of Engagement later in the season.
New shows are NCIS: Los Angeles, a spinoff with Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J; legal drama The Good Wife, with Julianna Margulies and Chris Noth; Three Rivers, a drama about medical transplants; and Accidentally on Purpose, a comedy with Jenna Elfman as a single woman who gets pregnant from a one-night stand with a younger guy.
Among planned new shows for later in the season is The Bridge, a drama about a police union leader.
The CW
The network plans to have three new shows in the fall, six returning shows and programming only on Monday through Friday, with changes each night except Monday.
Returning shows are Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill (although the cast is unclear), 90210, America's Next Top Model, Supernatural and Smallville.
New series are The Vampire Diaries, based on the series of books about a young woman and two hunky vampires; Melrose Place, a reworking of the old show of the same name, with some returning cast members; and The Beautiful Life, a drama set in the fashion and modeling businesses.
Midseason brings Parental Discretion Advised, a comedy-drama.
Fox
As usual, it is splitting its season, with a planned fall lineup and a different one for January.
Fall will have three new shows and 12 returning, and changes every night except Saturday.
Returning shows in the fall are House, Lie to Me, So You Think You Can Dance, Bones, Fringe, 'Til Death, Dollhouse, Cops, America's Most Wanted, The Simpsons, Family Guy and American Dad.
The new shows are Glee, the endearing musical comedy that has already gotten an early preview; Brothers, a comedy with football star Michael Strahan; and The Cleveland Show, a spinoff of The Family Guy.
January will have three other new shows, as well as the return of 24 and American Idol. Of the fall shows, Lie to Me and So You Think You Can Dance will be done for the season. Glee will take a break until spring.
New series in January will be Past Life, with detectives investigating how people's past lives are affecting them today; Human Target, an action drama with a security expert who protects clients by infiltrating their lives; and Sons of Tucson, a comedy about three young brothers who hire a con man to pretend to be their father.
Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares are expected back at some point.
NBC
The Peacock mob also announced a split schedule, one for the fall and one for March, after the end of the Winter Olympics.
The fall lineup has three new regular series as well as The Jay Leno Show at 10 p.m. each weeknight. Nine shows, another short run of SNL Weekend Update Thursday and NFL football (minus the retired John Madden in the booth, but with Cris Collinsworth) return. Every night except Sunday has changed.
Returning shows in the fall are Heroes, The Biggest Loser, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Office, 30 Rock (late in the fall, after the end of SNL Weekend Update Thursday), Parks and Recreation, Southland and Dateline NBC.
New shows, besides Leno's talkfest, are Trauma, about a medical trauma unit; Parenthood, a series based on Ron Howard's movie of the same name (which also inspired a 1990 TV series); and Community, a comedy about people at a community college.
March will have the return of Chuck and The Celebrity Apprentice, and the benching of Heroes, Trauma and Parenthood. New shows will include Day One, about life after a global catastrophe; 100 Questions, a comedy with a single woman recalling past romantic experiences while filling out a dating-service questionnaire; and Mercy, a medical drama from nurses' point of view.
Friday Night Lights will be on NBC in summer 2010.
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal, in the HeldenFiles Online blog at http://heldenfels.ohio.com and now on Twitter. He can be reached at 330-996-3582 and rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.
The TV networks' belt tightening has just about pushed their navels into their spines.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 12:48 PM, 05/24/2009
Good to see CHUCK being saved by Subway.
If it had been Quizno's, with their blatantly gay commercials, they'd have to change the name of the show to UP-CHUCK!
To quote the current Quizno's commercial which is showing across America:
The toaster oven (soft male voice): "Put it in me, Scott".
BARF! I've made my last visit to Quizno's. I hope you have, too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LQpRQh2KSQ
