CW Redux

More thoughts on The CW.

If I were programming this amalgam network known as The CW, I'd focus on the following:


1. Shift Everybody Hates Chris to Mondays

As UPN’s highest-ever rated sitcom, Chris is a lock to make it onto the schedule of the new CW. I’d keep the UPN Monday urban-comedy block intact, and use Chris as the anchor.




2. Keep Veronica Mars

Pairing Veronica with Gilmore Girls on Tuesdays seems like a natural to me.








3. Make Wednesday night CW's reality night

Is it me, or does the combination of UPN’s America’s Next Top Model and WB’s
Beauty and the Geek seem like perfect counter-programming on Wednesdays?




4. The WB’s Thursday becomes The CW’s Thursday

The combination of Smallville and Everwood is giving The WB its highest-ever Thursday-night numbers, so why mess with a good thing? The only possible reason to break-up this lineup would be to use Smallville’s resurgent strength to anchor the troubled Sunday lineup. If the proposed Smallville spin-off Aquaman works, then in theory Aquaman could slide into the Thursday Smallville slot, allowing The CW to use Smallville to anchor a rebuilt Sunday lineup. In the “also could work here” category: The WB’s upcoming Pepper Dennis. If this Rebecca Romijn show takes off, it could make for a fine 8:00 anchor on this night.


5. UPN’s Friday becomes The CW’s Friday

WWE Smackdown. Bad TV, but people love it. Enough said.




6. Supernatural Sundays

The WB’s surprise freshman hit Supernatural should slide into the Sunday at 9 slot, as perfect X-Files-ish counter-programming to ABC’s Desperate Housewives. Earlier in the evening, Reba would work as the 7:00 lead-off, with either Pepper Dennis, Smallville, or possibly even Aquaman at 8:00.


Admittedly, I could even make a case for a shift of Supernatural to the Thursday-at-9 slot, depending on how strong The CW's development season turns out to be. But we'll save that conversation for another day.



7. Say goodbye to…

7th Heaven (actually, this one has already announced that this will be its last season), One on One, South Beach, One Tree Hill, Related, Eve, Cuts, Love, Inc., What I Like About You, Twins, Living with Fran, Charmed, and Blue Collar TV.

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Fox 2?

With the announcement of The CW comes the loss of the UPN affiliation for several Fox-owned stations (including WWOR in New York). Rumors have been swirling since that announcement that Fox will attempt to use the schedule time vacated by UPN programming for repurposed programming from the Fox network, FX, Fox News Channel, and its other cable properties.

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Friends Again?

Another rumor making its way around town these days is that NBC is negotiating with the cast of Friends for a series of four one-hour Friends specials next season.

Such a return would be huge for the struggling peacock, which has dropped to fourth place in the network ratings race. And such a return would be huge for viewers as well, as a Friends revival would most certainly spell the end of Joey.

See? Some good CAN come of a TV reunion.

WB + UPN = CW

HUGE news from the television world today.

UPN and The WB announced this morning that they will merge their two broadcast networks into one new network, to be called The CW. Although such a merger was long-speculated in the mid-90s, when both of these nets were launched, such talk had long since vanished from the broadcast landscape. Therefore, today’s merger announcement ending the decade-long rivalry to be America’s fifth network was a surprise, to say the least.

UPN (owned by CBS) and Time Warner's The WB will cease to exist by late Summer or early Fall, and The CW (the “C” for CBS and the “W” Warner Brothers) will launch in their place, made up of the strongest product from each of the two networks. CBS and Time Warner/Warner Bros. will each own a 50% stake in the new network. Dawn Ostroff, the current president of UPN, will become The CW’s president of entertainment, and John Maatta, currently the CEO of the WB, will become COO of The CW.

So… what’s likely to survive, and what’s likely not to make the cut? On The WB side, shows such as Gilmore Girls, Supernatural, Smallville, Everwood, and Reba are shoo-ins to move to the new network. WB goners most-certainly will include Related, What I Like About You, and Twins. Beauty and the Geek, a minor hit, may or may not make the cut.

From the UPN side of the aisle, a few of the shows from UPN's Monday-night urban comedy block are likely to return, along with America’s Next Top Model, Everybody Hates Chris, and WWE Smackdown. Likely to depart would be South Beach, Love Inc., and Cuts. As for Veronica Mars… consider it "fate uncertain." It’s a critical favorite, but it’s been losing too much of its Top Model lead-in. If I had to guess, I'd say that Veronica makes the cut, but just barely. Personally, if I were programming The CW, I'd give serious consideration to pairing Veronica with Gilmore Girls.

The CW will maintain The WB’s scheduling format: primetime programming Mondays through Fridays, 8:00pm – 10:00pm and Sundays 7:00pm -10:00pm. They’ll also hold onto the weekday afternoon block (3:00pm – 5:00pm) and the Sunday 5:00pm – 7:00pm block, along with the Saturday morning children’s block (7:00am – 12:00pm).

With two nets combining into one, of course many markets are now about to lose one network affiliate and gain one independent station. Independent stations have been few-and-far between since the inception of UPN and The WB, so it will be interesting to watch the resurgence of the good old-fashioned broadcast independent. Providence is an exception to the “new independent station” outlook, though, as this market has always lacked a primary WB affiliate (WLWC, the UPN O&O, has always telecast WB programming out of pattern). In Boston, watch for Tribune’s WLVI / WB56 to become the affiliate of the new CW Television Network, while WBSK / UPN38 returns to independent status.

So... does this announcement mean that we’ve seen the last of Blue Collar TV's Larry, The Cable Guy? We can only hope.

Stay tuned…

Developments, Part Two

A couple of red flags have emerged in the attempts to move Arrested Development to Showtime.

Red flag number one: Arrested creator Mitch Hurwitz has not yet made up his mind as to whether or not he'd want to continue running the series, should it continue for another season. So why is this a problem for the potential move to Showtime? Well, Showtime has made it clear that they are only interested in Arrested if Hurwitz is running the show. No Hurwitz = no Showtime deal.

Red flag number two: Twentieth Television and Imagine Entertainment are asking for a substantially higher license fee for Arrested than Fox had been paying to license the show. It's been well-known that Arrested was an expensive show to produce during its Fox days, so a "substantially higher" license fee could prove to be a serious impediment on the road to Showtime.

But have no doubt: Showtime is VERY interested in snagging the show. In fact, this week Showtime's entertainment president Robert Greenblatt commented on the record about his network's interest in the show, stating "if even only a fraction of the Fox audience came to Showtime, it'd be a hit show for us."

So... come on, Mitch: don't give up on us yet. We're thiiiiiiiis close...

Arrested's Latest Developments

There’s late-breaking news from the Arrested Development camp, and it’s all good.

The latest word from inside of ABC is that the alphabet has offered the producers of Arrested a 13-episode commitment. However, Showtime has offered to double ABC’s offer; the premium net would commit to 26 episodes over two seasons. Either way – we can’t lose!

This overwhelmingly-positive turn of events comes on the heels of some decidedly-discouraging words from Fox Entertainment chief Peter Ligouri. At this week’s TCA Winter Press Tour, Ligouri discussed the future of Arrested on Fox with this sobering quote:

"It is highly unlikely Arrested is coming back."

At this point, I’d have to say that of the two offers that are on the table, the ABC deal is unlikely to happen. Why, you may ask? Well, between Arrested’s most recent ratings (lower than low) and this 11th-hour multiple-season commitment from Showtime (a network not dependent on ratings), I’d surmise that we’re unlikely to see The Bluths gracing the airwaves of the alphabet. Showtime, here we come!

When you think about it, the move to Showtime is really the best move for the series. In fact, the show is likely to improve by moving to Showtime. Now, you may be thinking… “how do you improve on an already-great show?” The answer is two-fold: (a) no network interference – Showtime will give the producers free reign as to storylines, actors, etc… and (b) no censorship – Showtime is a premium channel, so there are no network (or FCC) censors patrolling the show for signs of less-than-polite language and/or questionable situations. So, a move to Showtime means that the Bluths will finally be free!

The show, however, will not. But hey, what's twelve bucks a month among friends?

This is Sick

Don’t get this year’s flu.

Really. I mean it. Don’t do it. TRUST ME on this one. If you’ve never taken my advice before, then THIS is the time to do so.

This flu is a mean flu. Mean like those mean monkeys that harass tourists for money. Yes, that kind of mean.

It hit me out of nowhere, without warning and with a blazing sense of urgency. I went from feeling 100%... to the first ache… to feeling like death… in under 30 minutes. The flood of symptoms had taken over. Chills. Serious chills. I could not get warm enough; four blankets were not enough to stop my body from shaking and shivering. And the body aches? Oh, the body aches! Reaching for my water became an exercise in futility. Getting out of bed? Nearly impossible. Between the body aches, the dizziness, and the extreme fatigue, I was a prison on my Simmons Beautyrest. Those of you who know me well know that I normally treasure the time spent on my beloved Simmons. Needless to say, this was NOT one of those treasured moments. As for food… forget it. Eating was strictly verboten. Any solids that went into me… well, let’s just say that they didn’t stay inside of me for long. It wasn’t until day six of this plague-like influenza that a solid food didn’t make a liquefied return-appearance within 30 minutes of its initial consumption.

When all was said, but not yet quite done, this thing had me out of commission for a full week. Yes, one week. And it ain’t over yet (yes, I said “ain’t” – sorry, but that’s what this flu does to you): I’m still weak and a little achy, my head still spins, and my stomach still isn’t “right.” But – at least I finally made it out of the house. Hey, it’s a start.

Now... someone please help me with this one: was it flu-induced delirium, or last night did I actually see one of the Flavor of Love contestants slide her hand into the mouth of elderly woman in order to help the woman put in her dentures? I mean... come on... it had to be the delirium, right? Right??

See? I told you that it was a mean flu.

The Good News... and The Bad News

The Good News

Fox has just announced that they will, after all, air the final four episodes of Arrested Development. The network will telecast these final four half-hours back-to-back from 8:00pm - 10:00pm on Friday, February 10. In case you hadn't noticed, February 10 falls right in the middle of the February sweep period. Networks usually air their best and brightest during sweeps periods, don't they? So this must be a good sign, right? Well, before you answer that...

The Bad News

February 10 is also the date of the opening ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics on NBC. Translation: everybody will be watching NBC on February 10... and the other networks know this, so they run what they consider to be "low priority" programming opposite the Olympics. Therefore, this is one of the rare cases in which a program being slottted within a sweep is not a compliment.

Hey, at least we get to see the final four episodes without having to wait for the season-3 DVD release.

Thanks for the three years of Arrested, Fox. And here's hoping that Arrested's replacement, Skating with Celebrities, falls flat on its face. Yes, the pun was intended; sorry about that.

Hey, Showtime and ABC... we're still waiting to hear from you. Don't let us down.

Divine Intervention

What a difference a year makes. We're only a few days into the 2006, and already NBC is showing signs of coming back to life (at least creatively, that is).

As their first order of business in the new year, they took TV Boy's advice and re-established their Thursday night comedy block with My Name is Earl as its anchor. Earl is as unlike a typical NBC comedy as we've seen in a long time, and it's just the tonic that the network needs to re-establish its foothold on its most-important night. Ratings from week one are in, and the news so far is promising. Remember what I told you, NBC: patience is a virtue.

Then, with Earl firmly ensconced on Thursdays, they turned around and debuted this quirky little show called The Book of Daniel. For those of you who missed its debut last week, Daniel is the story of an imperfect Episcopalian priest named Daniel Webster (hence the title of this show) and his dysfunctional family: a wife who is very fond of martinis, a daughter who sells marijuana, a gay son who is only partially out of the closet, another son who believes himself to be God's gift to women, and... well, that's just for starters. Oh, and did I mention - one of the supporting characters is a young, long-haired dude by the name of Jesus Christ. Yes, that Jesus. Mr. Christ appears only to Daniel, usually riding shotgun while Daniel is out on the road. As you might imagine based on its description, conservative Christian groups are up in arms over this show, based solely on its description. I wonder if we'll ever see a day in which conservative Christian groups protest a television series or movie AFTER having seen it, rather than prejudging it? Yeah, right - and Best Buy is going to give me a FREE flat-panel plasma TV this afternoon.

Part Desperate Housewives, part Nothing Sacred, Daniel is an imperfect show that has a great deal of potential. Its first episode tried waaaay too hard to cram in waaaay too much information into the show, but hey, pilots are almost always over-stuffed with exposition; it's the nature of the beast. The show boasts a great cast, including Aidan Quinn as Daniel and Ellen Burstyn as Daniel's Bishop.

As is Earl, Daniel is another un-NBC-like show. And also as with Earl, Daniel is a very welcome and refreshing change from the formulaic fare to which NBC has subjected us, the viewers, over the past few years. It's been this formulaic fare that's landed the peacock in the Nielsen cellar, and if NBC hopes to break out of the television-ratings basement, then it needs to embrace and champion these non-formulaic types of new shows.

One week into the new year, and the verdict is: so far, so good, NBC. Keep up the good work.



An Early Goodbye?

Fox has pulled this Monday’s Arrested Development, and in its place scheduled a repeat of House.

This news is particularly disappointing in light of the fact that this Monday’s episode (one of the final few, by the way) was to have featured the highly-anticipated guest appearance by Justine Bateman (who, of course, is the sister of Arrested star Jason Bateman).

Is this the final curtain for Arrested on Fox? Sadly, it's looking that way. Showtime and ABC - we await your call.