ION Television January 2010 Highlights; TBS 2009 Ratings Report

In January 2010 on ION Television there are no regular scheduled changes, but we do get some stunts and movie premieres! On New Year's Day spend the day in the mind of criminals on Criminal Minds from 4pm-12am, with eight episodes from the series' fourth season.
The lesson that "love hurts" is well learned by the characters who inhabit the eerie suburb of Durham County, when the second season of ION Television's critically acclaimed original primetime series launches with a two-hour premiere on Sunday, January 3 from 9:00–11:00 PM ET. A marathon of the series' first season will precede the season two launch, airing from 5:00–11:00 PM ET on Saturday, January 2. Durham County, which debuted this past fall, returns to the bleak and disturbing landscape of an alienated suburbia with a new star villain – Michelle Forbes, known for her intense portrayals on the hit HBO series True Blood and In Treatment this year. The show will be broadcast in its new regular timeslot at 10:00 PM ET on Sundays beginning Sunday, January 10.
Movie premieres for January 2010 has Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1994), Shanghai Noon (2000), Kickboxer (1989), A Trace of Danger (2009), Space Cowboys (2000), Running Scared (2006), The Transporter (2002), The Transporter 2 (2005), Bloodsport (1988), Phone Booth (2002), and Lethal Weapon 4 (1998). Movie encores for the month are Goodfellas (1990), Batman Returns (1992), Dealth Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987), and Tango & Cash (1989). ION airs moves Friday evenings and all day Saturdays & Sundays.
View the full schedule and highlights for ION Television January 2010. ION has been doing pretty well in th ratings with reruns of NCIS and Criminal Minds especially. In primetime, the network has averaged over 1 million viewers for the last four weeks and beat The CW last week.

TBS closes out 2009 with a banner year! In its first four weeks (Nov. 9-Dec. 3) on TBS, Lopez Tonight averaged 1.4 million viewers; 1 million households; 478,000 adults 18-34; and 869,000 adults 18-49. Lopez Tonight has delivered double-digit growth for TBS in the 11 p.m. hour, with viewers up 33%, households up 27%, adults 18-34 up 29% and adults 18-49 up 34% when compared to the same time period for the four weeks leading up to the premiere. A continuing hit with multicultural viewers, Lopez Tonight's audience is 32% Hispanic and 26% African-American. Lopez Tonight airs Mon-Thurs at 11pm.
Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns is ad-supported cable's #1 comedy of the year among viewers, households, adults 18-49 and adults 25-54. TBS's telecasts of Family Guy rank it second to Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns among adults 18-49. TBS claims four of the top five comedies for the year-to-date among adults 25-54 with Meet the Browns, Family Guy, The Office and Tyler Perry's House of Payne. Meet the Browns is the #2 series on all of television among African Americans, behind only American Idol, in African-Americans 18-49 for the year-to-date. Meet the Browns airs Wednesdays at 10pm.
And finally, TBS's exclusive coverage of the MLB League Division Series led the network to its most-viewed week in the 33-year history of the network and garnered double-digit year-to-year increases in ratings, total viewers and households. Over the course of 13 League Division Series games, TBS averaged a 3.1 national household rating, up 11% when compared to the 2008 League Division Series. TBS's coverage also scored an 11% increase in total viewers.

ION Television December 2009 Highlights; Meet the Browns Heads to Syndication

This December 2009 on ION Television it is time to celebrate the holidays with Christmas movies, including an original movie premiere! There will not be any changes once again to the regular schedule, so you'll know when to find your favorites still like Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer, NCIS and in daytime like Family Feud and Reba.
ION Television's first originally produced television film, the holiday themed A Golden Christmas, is set to make its world premiere on on Sunday, December 13 at 9:00 PM, ET. This two-hour film marks the first of a dozen originally produced made-for-television movies that ION Television is slated to roll out throughout 2010. The movie stars Andrea Roth, Jason London, Nicholas Brendon, Bruce Davison, Elisa Donovan and Alley Mills. The film is produced by MarVista Entertainment; directed by John Murlowski; and written by Jay Cipriani.
The movie is about one summer a long time ago, when a little girl and a little boy were brought together by a very special dog. They played all summer long, it was puppy love. Then the summer ended and they never saw each other again until…years later when her parents (Davison and Mills) retire and decide to sell their house. Jessica (Roth), recently widowed, decides she needs to start over and moves back home with her son. She hopes to buy the old house as a Christmas surprise, however, her plan goes awry when she discovers that her parents have already sold it. What she does not know is that the house has been sold to the very same person that she spent that magical summer with years ago.
Elsewhere on ION December 2009, other movie premieres for this month are theatrical premieres of March of the Penguins and Mission to Mars. Encore airings of films include Batman, Miami Vice, Who's Harry Crumb?, Heat, Eraser, Karate Kid II, and The Medallion. Holiday movies airing are 2008 films Christmas Town and The Christmas Clause, joining ION's original movie The Golden Christmas.
View the full schedule and details on ION Television December 2009.

Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns is heading to broadcast syndication already starting next September (2010) on stations covering 70% of U.S. TV households, including Fox-owned stations in New York, Dallas, Houston and Washington, D.C. In other top ten markets it will air on Weigel (Chicago), Tribune (Philadelphia) or Peachtree (Atlanta) owned stations. Distributor Debmar-Mercury already has Tyler Perry's House of Payne in syndication. Both series air new episodes on TBS on Wednesday nights. Meet the Browns is the top series on TBS this season in the adult 18-49 demo. It debuted on the cable network in May 2009 after a successful ten episode trial run in January. After tonight's episodes, 42 total episodes will have aired with much more to come. About 90 episodes total will be expected to be available by fall 2010.
Debmar-Mercury is poised to launch two more series that will premiere on cable and, if successful, move quickly into first-run syndication like Payne and Browns. The series are Are We There Yet, featuring Ice Cube, for TBS and an untitled project starring Jon Heder that will air on Comedy Central.

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!

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.

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.