brilliant

final LOST Sunday May 23rd - last sun of sweeps. Love it.

Darlton just annoucned on Kimmel

Agreed with all your points tvcrazed. Castle Sunday airing is just for even more exposure. It is a Monday player for the long term.

And excellent move to air the finale of LOST on Sunday, May 23. I was happy when Carlton and Damon announced that on JKL (this would allow them to air the Sunday finales on May 16)! As for the season premiere, good god!!!! If you're not watching LOST, you are missing the best thing on television and I hope you watch the show from the start in syndication!!!! It is mind blowing!! It's a very creative show with nothing generic about it. Great writing, acting, visuals, it has it ALL!

Thanks, Pavan,

LOST, IMHO is I think the best TV show ever. ABC has done every thing right with it and I hope they continue to find and develop unique shows like this that are unlike anything else on TV.

The ending with that look "The Man in Black" gave was something that just gives goosebumps. Wonderfully done by O'Quinn!

http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/200104911/m/581108272?r=302108272#302108272

In season-premiere news, two episodes of the final season of ABC’s Lost were on the map with a second-place finish in both the 9 p.m. (8.5/13) and 10 p.m. (7.9/13) hours. Take a look at the half-hour breakdown:

Lost (ABC)
9:00 p.m.: 8.6/13 (#2)
9:30 p.m.: 8.3/12 (#2)
10:00 p.m.: 7.9/12 (#2)
10:30 p.m.: 7.8/13 (#2)

Compared to the two-hour year-ago season opener on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2009 (6.7/10 from 9-11 p.m.) this was an increase of a noticeable 22 percent.

Lost (ABC) – season 5 premiere
9:00 p.m.: 6.9/10 (#3)
9:30 p.m.: 6.8/10 (#2t)
10:00 p.m.: 6.6/10 (#2)
10:30 p.m.: 6.5/11 (#2)

I knew it would do better than the previous season premiere. Maybe over a 6 in the 18-49 demo? Looks like it could have even beaten NCIS: LA in viewers at 9pm. We'll see in a bit.

Key press releases just announced:

DANA DELANY TO GUEST STAR IN A “CASTLE” TWO-PARTER,
SUNDAY AND MONDAY, MARCH 21 AND 22 ON ABC

Reunites with Nathan Fillion from Time on “Desperate Housewives”


Actress Dana Delany (“Desperate Housewives”) will guest star in two episodes of “Castle” airing Sunday, March 21 and Monday, March 22 (both nights 10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on ABC. This will reunite Delany and Nathan Fillion, who played Dr. Adam Mayfair, the younger husband of Katherine Mayfair (Delany) on “Desperate Housewives.”

In the special two-part storyline, Delany will play Federal Agent Jordan Shaw -- an insightful and accomplished Federal Investigator who teams with Richard Castle and Detective Beckett to hunt down a cunning and elusive serial killer.

“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work with such a talented and versatile actress as Dana, and we’re grateful to Marc Cherry and our partners at ABC for helping to make this happen,” said “Castle” Creator/Executive Producer Andrew Marlowe. “She and Nathan were so great together on ‘Desperate Housewives,’ we’re all excited to see them together again.”

Starring in the series are Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle, Stana Katic as NYPD Detective Kate Beckett, Ruben Santiago-Hudson as NYPD Captain Roy Montgomery, Tamala Jones as Medical Examiner Lanie Parish, Jon Huertas as NYPD Detective Javier Esposito, Seamus Dever as NYPD Detective Kevin Ryan, Susan Sullivan as Martha Rodgers, and Molly Quinn as Alexis Castle.

“Castle” is produced by ABC Studios. Andrew Marlowe serves as executive producer/writer, along with executive producers Rob Bowman, Rene Echevarria, Laurie Zaks and Armyan Bernstein.

For more information on “Castle,” visit ABC.com



No airdate yet:

PRODUCTION HAS BEGUN ON ABC’S “ROMANTICALLY CHALLENGED”


Production has begun in Studio City, California on “Romantically Challenged,” an ensemble comedy about four friends trying to find love and happiness, coming to ABC this season.

In “Romantically Challenged,” Alyssa Milano stars as Rebecca, a very recently divorced mom of two who hasn’t gone on a date since President Clinton was in office. Rebecca’s best friend since childhood, Perry, is a romance-aholic who falls in love with women 20 minutes after meeting them. Perry lives with his BFF Shawn, a struggling writer who has depended on Perry for financial stability since the turn of the century. Rounding out the group is Rebecca’s younger sister Lisa, a sweet kindergarten teacher who tries to hurt every man before he can hurt her.

The series stars Alyssa Milano as Rebecca, Kyle Bornheimer as Perry, Josh Lawson as Shawn and Kelly Stables as Lisa.

“Romantically Challenged” is executive produced by Ricky Blitt. James Burrows is executive producer and director. The series is produced by Warner Bros. Television.

http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/63310451/m/872108272?r=992108272#992108272

In season-premiere news, two episodes of the final season of ABC’s Lost finished second in the two hours in total viewers and first among adults 18-49 as follows:

Lost (ABC)
9:00 p.m. – Viewers: 12.43 million (#2), A18-49: 5.7/14 (#1)
10:00 p.m. – Viewers: 11.75 million (#2), A18-49: 5.5/15 (#1)

Here is the half-hour breakdown:

Lost (ABC)
9:00 p.m. – Viewers: 12.61 million (#2), A18-49: 5.7/14 (#1)
9:30 p.m. – Viewers: 12.25 million (#2), A18-49: 5.6/14 (#1)
10:00 p.m. – Viewers: 11.56 million (#2), A18-49: 5.4/14 (#1)
10:30 p.m. – Viewers: 11.94 million (#2), A18-49: 5.6/15 (#1)

Compared to the two-hour year-ago season opener on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2009 (Viewers: 11.35 million; A18-49: 5.0/12 from 9-11 p.m., according to the final nationals) this was an increase of 740,000 viewers and 12 percent among adults 18-49.

LOST: The Series Finale Event

Sunday, May 23, 2010
8:00pm "LOST: Recap Special” (working title)
9:00-11:00pm "LOST: The Finale" (Two-Hour Series Finale)

will be interesting to see what they do May 18th tues at 9p since they will have a space one week with the finale airing on Sun. I think they should have LOST special on the huge cultural impact of the show with interviews with cast and crew and celebs that are fans.

Yeah, or maybe a special of that nature can air a week before May sweep starts to get ready for the final four weeks. I'd have actual LOST episodes throughout sweeps, it is a major player for them. Whatever they do, it will be good as ABC is handling LOST very well. Sunday finale is brilliant! I hope they air the previous episode on Sunday of the finale at 7pm or the special they will air sometime this season since one week will have to be a repeat/special.

Good idea!

Wow, very strong ratings for Lost. Up from last year? That's excellent. Of course, it wasn't going up against Idol, and won't be this year, but still, very positive results. My guess is ratings will stay around the 11-12 million range for the first 10 episodes or so, where then we may begin seeing a buildup to the finale. Even the recap special, against American Idol, did excellent at 8pm.

Wednesdays, Effective Wednesday, April 28, 2010
10:00pm Happy Town

I guess the pilot won't air as two-hour premiere? Unless it launches on the Sunday before (April 25)? Still no official booking for Romantically Challenged.

Wednesdays, Effective Wednesday, April 28, 2010
10:00pm Happy Town

I guess the pilot won't air as two-hour premiere? Unless it launches on the Sunday before (April 25)? Still no official booking for Romantically Challenged.

well it certainly looks like Mondays at 9:30 now. As you know Im not happy about either of these moves.
Id sooner have RC wed at 8p now even though its not an 8p show, since it comp will be much lighter and ABC Mon would be better with a 2 hour DWTS into Castle

The screener ABC sent out already spilt up the pilot as 2 seperate hours with 2 different titles, so i dont think they were plannining on premiering it as a 2 hour ep.

http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/63310451/m/872108272?r=231109272#231109272

Lost premiere event quarter hour breakdown

8:00-8:15
- 10.613 million viewers
- 6.3/10 HH
- 4.2/11 A18-49

8:15-8:30
- 9.452 million viewers
- 5.5/8 HH
- 3.9/10 A18-49

8:30-8:45
- 9.671 million viewers
- 5.7/9 HH
- 4.1/10 A18-49

8:45-9:00
- 10.123 million viewers
- 5.8/9 HH
- 4.4/11 A18-49

9:00-9:15
- 12.857 million viewers
- 7.2/11 HH
- 5.8/14 A18-49

9:15-9:30
- 12.428 million viewers
- 6.9/11 HH
- 5.7/14 A18-49

9:30-9:45
- 12.092 million viewers
- 6.7/10 HH
- 5.6/14 A18-49

9:45-10:00
- 12.411 million viewers
- 6.9/11 HH
- 5.7/14 A18-49

10:00-10:15
- 11.346 million viewers
- 6.3/10 HH
- 5.2/13 A18-49

10:15-10:30
- 11.725 million viewers
- 6.5/11 HH
- 5.5/14 A18-49

10:30-10:45
- 11.722 million viewers
- 6.4/11 HH
- 5.5/14 A18-49

10:45-11:00
- 12.137 million viewers
- 6.7/12 HH
- 5.6/15 A18-49

Rival networks don't react much to fourth-place NBC these days — except when it comes to the Olympics.
The 17-day Vancouver Games, starting Feb. 12, will get more than 800 hours of coverage on NBC and its cable networks. The 2006 Winter Games from Torino, Italy, averaged a healthy 20 million viewers but were the lowest-rated Olympics since 1988. American Idol, Dancing With the Stars and Grey's Anatomy outdrew the Games in head-to-head competition.

Vancouver's proximity — it's in the Pacific time zone, so most events will air live — means "the Olympics are going to do better this year," predicts analyst Brad Adgate of ad firm Horizon Media. Sports ratings are surging, high-definition TV sets will drive more viewership, and competition will be less fierce, he says: "I don't think there is any show on TV that is like American Idol was four years ago."

Others say NBC's prime-time woes, declining ratings for non-U.S. Olympics and fewer breakout athletes will hurt. "We're projecting conservatively for ratings to be around the same (as Torino) or slightly worse," says Brian Hughes of Magna Global USA. (NBC is projecting a $250 million loss.)

Yet the Winter Olympics fall squarely into the February sweeps period, which smaller stations use to set ad rates, so there's pressure to air strong counterprogramming.

Reality series are Olympics Teflon; they have held up best in past years. CBS' all-star Survivor, The Amazing Race and Undercover Boss (beginning new seasons this month), Fox's Idol and ABC'sThe Bachelor will stay on the air.

Fox will air repeats of House, Bones and some Sunday animated series, but much of its lineup, including Human Target and 24, will remain intact. "It's a disservice to our audience if we lie down for two weeks," says scheduling chief Preston Beckman.

ABC will pre-empt Castle, its Wednesday family comedies and single episodes of Desperate Housewives and Grey's that face figure skating, the most popular Olympics event. Lost will continue in originals.

But CBS' sitcoms and dramas will take a breather. "We're more or less getting out of the way with our scripted programming," says program planning chief Kelly Kahl. "Running them against the Olympics doesn't give us the biggest bang for the buck."CW will sit out Tuesdays and Wednesdays, though it plans fresh episodes of Smallville and Vampire Diaries. And cable will mostly stay the course, except for USA and CNBC, which will air Olympics coverage.

Wow, very strong ratings for Lost. Up from last year? That's excellent. Of course, it wasn't going up against Idol, and won't be this year, but still, very positive results. My guess is ratings will stay around the 11-12 million range for the first 10 episodes or so, where then we may begin seeing a buildup to the finale. Even the recap special, against American Idol, did excellent at 8pm.

"American Idol" is 2-hour (8pm - 10pm) on Feb 16, Feb 23, March 2, March 16, March 23, March 30 and April 6. Glee returns on April 13.

So, I really don't thin Lost will stay around the 11-12 million range for the first 10 episodes. Moreover, don't forget the Olympics on Feb 16 and Feb 23 (Lost vs Idol vs Olypics for 2 weeks !)

According to Blll Lawrence's twitter page the final two Scrubs will air Mar 10th and 17th (i assume at 8p)

Will be interesting to see where they put final 2 TED.

By my calculations comedy wednesday needs 4 weeks of reruns in March and April. wonder how they'll split those up.

I assume the the week before sweeps it's new since HT premieres that night, so they'll have 5 in a row new.

This is how I would handle ABC Sunday (Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters, that is) after the Oscars to the end of the season:

March 14: All-new Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters (#17 for both)
March 21: All-new Desperate Housewives (#18) and special all-new Castle
March 28: V Episodes 1-4 encores from 7-11pm
April 4: The Ten Commandments 7-11pm
April 11: All-new Desperate Housewives (#19) and Brothers and Sisters (#18)
April 18: All-new Desperate Housewives (#20) and Brothers and Sisters (#19)
April 25: All-new Desperate Housewives (#21) and Brothers and Sisters (#20)
May 2: All-new Desperate Housewives (#22) and Brothers and Sisters (#21)
May 9: All-new Desperate Housewives (#23) and Brothers and Sisters (#22)
May 16: All-new Desperate Housewives (#24) and Brothers and Sisters (#23)

Assuming Desperate has 24 and B&S has 23 episodes.

its funny Pavan, i was just thinking the other night that as i suggest every year, I hope this year ABC returns 10 Commandments to Sunday, but I suggest it every year and every year they dont. So i am assuming they still wont. I also thought if they dont start running V eps 1-4 on Tuesdays at 10p starting March 1st (which is still a better option to me) then the Sun before the premiere on Tues the 30th would make sense to run all 4 from 7-11p, which I assume they will do.

I would think if DH and B&S had their orders extended we would have known by now, because all showrunners are in the home stretch of planning for the season. So it looks like its still 23 and 22. Plus every news outlet keeps referring to a 2 hour B&S event for April - the one where they cast younger versions of the whole cast

BTW in north carolina there is no Grey's Anatomy tonight due to a basketball game - what is with ABC affiliates always preempting their lineup. Id really like to see GREYS get a 5 again tonight.

I think March 14th and 21st are exactly as you laid out and the 28th is likely too. I hope April 4th is the movie.

This is how I would handle ABC Sunday (Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters, that is) after the Oscars to the end of the season:

March 14: All-new Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters (#17 for both)
March 21: All-new Desperate Housewives (#18) and special all-new Castle
March 28: V Episodes 1-4 encores from 7-11pm
April 4: The Ten Commandments 7-11pm
April 11: All-new Desperate Housewives (#19) and Brothers and Sisters (#18)
April 18: All-new Desperate Housewives (#20) and Brothers and Sisters (#19)
April 25: All-new Desperate Housewives (#21) and Brothers and Sisters (#20)
May 2: All-new Desperate Housewives (#22) and Brothers and Sisters (#21)
May 9: All-new Desperate Housewives (#23) and Brothers and Sisters (#22)
May 16: All-new Desperate Housewives (#24) and Brothers and Sisters (#23)

Assuming Desperate has 24 and B&S has 23 episodes.
if they didnt increase order here's how it could go after April 4th
April 11: All-new 2 hour EM:HE
April 18: All-new Desperate Housewives (#19) and Brothers and Sisters (#18) - ACM awards on CBS
April 25: All 2 hour Brothers and Sisters (#19 and #20)
May 2: All-new Desperate Housewives (#20) and Brothers and Sisters (#21)
May 9: All-new Desperate Housewives (#21) and Brothers and Sisters (#22)
May 16: All-new 2 hour finale Desperate Housewives (#22 and #23)

If they didnt want to put fresh eps of the dramas against the ACM they could always flop the 2 hour EM:HE to that date

Good thoughts. That is very likely since they always do a two-hour DH finale. But I hope we have 24 hours.

And where in North Carolina is there a preemption tonight? I doubt the entire state is preempting it. Maybe just a city...hopefully small.

trust me i would prefer 24 too. hope you are right. just seems like we would have heard by now if they extended. Id much rather have another DH than an extended EM which seem to be getting 2's now

I dont know where in NC. just saw someone tweeted to Shonda that its preempted there tonight.

According to zap2it, UB finale ia 4.14

In fairness to Home Edition, it has had heavy competition in the NFC Championship and Grammys. It will be back in mid 3s or so soon I'm sure. I mean AFV was strong again this week since it didn't face any competition. But as soon as the Grammy's started, Home Edition suffered a bit.

Interesting about Betty. I had heard 4/7. Maybe another preemption, special or repeat mixed in? Wonder what is airing 4/21?

Great Thursday tonight. The Deep End has its best episode. Hopefully it remains steady at least like it has in its first 2 episodes. Grey's and Private were on fire tonight.

Best GREYS of the season

I agree EM has had tons of competition but it usually loses to Amazing race too. I just mean the numbers are slowing down. Its in year 7 no one expects it to be huge forever. Plus were also assuming ABC will air 10 commandments on Sunday and they haven't done it since 04 even though they easily could have the last few years so for whatever reason they seem averse to it.

from billy bush:
Had a chat with #DWTS insider. Samantha harris replacement down to 5 ppl. One of whom I'm pulling for extra hard

I assume he's referring to nancy o dell

so GREYS has been shedding viewers every week since it came back - 4.8-4.7and now 4.5. Office had a 3.8 - they're pretty close. Plus THE DEEP END had a 1.3 came in 5th which cant be helping. that needs to be pulled now especially with Survivor starting next week. PP beat Mentalist by a tenth so in the finals itll probably be behind it.

HOUSE is now offically higher rated than GREYS. This Fall GA was still #1 scripted in 18-49. I think taking off December (and letting Fox dramas pick up new viewers) hurt it and now its #4 behind TBBT TAAHM and HOUSE. Very sad to see especially when its creatively still in good shape.

I know you like to see the positive Pavan, but this is concerning. Its not gonna get any easier once NBC pulls Leno out of 10 and The MArriage Ref comes in. ABC was owning this night in the FAll and now its lead in a matter of weeks is definitely shrinking.

I know its very short notice to plug up 8p next week, but if they cant get some kind of new Bachelor hour (which i am sure is impossible, although they could whip together a JAKE tells all if they wanted) here is what I propose. - A CASTLE rerun- especially since Bones will be a rerun next week.
EIther way 5th place at 8p leading in to GREYS is unacceptable and in my head taking a few tenth away from GA since people are watching something else at 8p.

Up against the OLympics I wonder what ABC's numbers are gonna look like on sun and Thurs considering how theyve been looking now

Oh and further proof 8p is a prob, Parks and Rec built on Community for the first time and I assume thats people that usually watch ABC that went there

The Marriage Ref is not going to do anythiong to hurt anybody, I predict this will tank big time...just my opinion...Maybe they should have brought back Betty in it's Thursday timeslot and have Deep End on Wednesday at 10pm, I think that would have worked better for both of them.

you could be right about Marriage Ref, i just mean it wont be getting a 1.2 like Leno. Betty got a 1.4 the other night. Thats not gonna help either. They just need to get something at 8p the next 2 weeks. After that I assume GREYS will be in reruns til FF comes back 3/18, or at least I think it shoudl be especially since IDOL at 8p will destroy everything in sight. NBC has a huge OFFICE ep March 4th and considering its not far from GREYS now its not far fetched to think it could come close to beating especially since 8p is non existent for ABC now.

I cant fault ABC for trying TDE but its clear its not working and only hurting them now so it should be cancelled ASAp, IMHO. I do think the 2 month hiatus hurt GA though

See I knew they should have went with Jamie Oliver like originally thought. I thought it would be better to air The Deep End at a later time in March or April (like Wednesdays at 10). 8pm seemed too early. Strange that last week it did a 1.8 with no new Grey's-Private, but a prelim 1.3 last night when they were new. I'm fine with a Castle repeat at 8pm starting next week (like the Alyssa Milano episode). Might be too late, but maybe a Betty-Deep End switch for next week?

I think The Deep End was the one hurting Grey's last night. Or I think if something like FLASHFORWARD was at 8, it would be doing much better and Grey's would be in the 5's at 9. I'm not worried about Grey's. I think they need to find something that does decent at 8pm. FLASHFORWARD was doing decent enough.

honestly Pavan I have seen the trailer for Jamie. its not gonna be a big ratings show which is why its going on Friday. It actually looks decent and well made. just doesnt look like a ratings grabber. Also, TDE would have flopped wherever. They had great promotion and last week there was no competition and it got a 1.8 tied with Vampire Diaries. all of ABC's other 10p shows failed this year. No reason to think this would have done any better at 10p. A 1.3 means NO ONE cares. it only did a little better last week (althogh still not acceptable because there was nothig againts it) I think ABC had a real predicament when they delayed FF and i think given their options they went with the one that best fit. Tonally TDE fits the night. They were able to promote it well. It just didnt work. Critics hated it and clearly the public couldnt care less. NO one can say they didnt give it a shot and ample promotion. GA was .4 away from OFFICE and its not like that had a huge lead in either. Honestly GA is an established hit and a lead in only accounts for so much. with a better lead in i could have seen a 4.8 maybe. but thats still way down from where GREYS has and should be. They just need to get TDE off now especially with Surivivor next week. As is Cbs was .1 behind them (as was FOX, i am assuming december helped clsoe that gap) Next week if the DEEP END is there CBS will wallop them.

I honestly still dont get passing over ITB for this. TDE is a harmless show but its really a bad retread of GREYS in a law firm. by all acconts from those who have seen it ITB was a very well produced ambitious Shonda show, plus its ABC studios. Oh well its done. Lets just move forward.

With all due respect, Pavan, a CASTLE rerun would get higher ratings than Betty on Thurs. Betty hasnt been a ratings grabber in 2 years. it got a 1.4 wed against much less competition it will face at 8p thurs. when a show gets a 1.3 you just cancel.

ABC should just switch Betty and The Deep End for next week only. Then the following week, instead of a Betty repeat air a new Deep End on Wed at 10, and a Castle repeat Thurs at 8. Same goes true for Feb. 24-25. Then Betty returns March 3 on Wednesdays and ABC can air something else March 4 at 8, since they don't seem to plan on airing the 7th episode of The Deep End (it was never scheduled).

I disagree. ABC needs something on Thurs at 8p now that can at least break a 2. Whether its lead on or not GREYS is down and its pretty close to OFFICE in its half hour. PLus Survivor is back next week and thats gonna get at least mid 3's and 9pm is gonna do better than CSI has been.

I dont understand why you are in favor of them airing TDE at all. They have relegated higher rated shows to Summer like the final PD and DSM. They can run the final 3 eps in Summer on sat at 10p. Just get it off now.

travisyanan

Hearing: David Goyer out on #Flashforward

Not a good sign after being off for 2 months. means they dont like the eps and theyve probably produced 18 of them already.

I dont understand why you are in favor of them airing TDE at all. They have relegated higher rated shows to Summer like the final PD and DSM. They can run the final 3 eps in Summer on sat at 10p. Just get it off now.

Well with the Olympics coming for 16 days, it doesn't make a big difference, I think. Betty would be repeats anyway for Wed at 10 those two weeks. I talked to ABC and if there is a change, Deep End will just get pulled instead of moved and replaced by repeats of Grey's at 8. So looks like that will happen.

i hear what you are saying but with GREYS trending down and more competition coming I think it does make a difference for the next 2 weeks when GREYS is orginal and Survivor starts.

Honestly think a CASTLE rerun would do better than a GA rerun.

I really do wish they had an hour of Jake and Chris doing a jake tell all since itll be right before the final 3. he can say what he was feeling all along they can air unused footage. promote it at the end of this weeks ep. Just a thought.

ABC feels a Grey's repeat would benefit a new Grey's more at 9pm than a repeat of anything else.

I normally agree with that. Just seeing how CASTLE has performed lately, I feel it could be the difference from a 1.5-2.0, but maybe Im wrong,

FlashForward' getting new showrunner

"FlashForward" is getting another new showrunner.

Co-creator David Goyer is stepping down from his role running the series, sources confirmed.

The "Dark Knight" scribe will still be "involved" with the show, but will focus on feature films and directing.

Flashforward runningGoyer had limited hands-on TV series experience, so "Eli Stone" co-creator Mark Guggenheim was brought on as showrunner after his "FlashForward" pilot received a pickup to help with the launch of the mystery drama based on Robert Sawyer's novel.

After the show creative struggled out of the gate, Guggenheim stepped down as showrunner in October and was replaced by Goyer.

Who will serve as the new showrunner for "FlashForward" is not yet clear, yet the position is becoming a bit like drumming for Spinal Tap.

"FlashForward" is set to return March 18.
You might also like:

UPDATE: Statement from Goyer: "As my feature projects have started ramping up again, I felt I was being pulled in too many directions. I'm proud of the show and excited about the relaunch. It's in great hands."

that's just a statement. The fact that there is no replacement yet tells me ABC asked him to leave. Look I am rooting for the project but the odds on it coming back are not good. IF V actually works and gets close to a 3.5 ABC shouldl be thrilled and they will have a show to bring back for tuesdays next Fall. If that would hit, along with the comedies they will have a lot to show for this past development.

Pavan,

are there any DEEP END promos scheduled?

I don't see any until one on Wednesday during Betty (0:45 shared with Greys/Private). In fact on Monday during The Bachelor/Castle they are only doing Greys/Private combo promos without Deep End included.

Thanks,
hopefully that means it will be pulled Monday

In this interview with Gilles Marini he says he "thinks" they are doing 24 so maybe they did get extended

http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2010/02/brothers-sisters-exclusive-gilles-marini-i-have-no-problem-taking-things-off.html

Good, it makes sense to have 24 of both Desperate and B&S.

well its hardly confirmation and he could be wrong. plus DH could possibly still be 23, after all ABC ordered less of that than GA in the first place when one would assume they would want 24, must be a reason, maybe Marc Cherry didnt want to do more thna that. do you know anyone at ABC you can ask?

this is the first year BIGGEST LOSER finale is going head to head with DWTS finale 5/25

They are still saying 23 for Desperate. Got no reply from the B&S camp. Hopefully it is atleast 23 and not 22.

Thanks

Got word from the B&S camp that the episode order is indeed 24 episodes! Marini is right! So, 24 for B&S and 23 for DH. B&S will have a special two-hour flashback episode on Sunday, April 11. Therefore, B&S is new on Feb. 21 (ep 15), Feb. 28 (ep 16), March 14 (ep 17), April 11 (ep 18/19), April 18 (ep 20), April 25 (ep 21), May 2 (ep 22), May 9 (ep 23) and May 16 (ep 24). I guess we can guess how Desperate is now from this B&S schedule. Here is my guess: Feb. 21 (ep 15), Feb. 28 (ep 16), March 14 (ep 17), March 21 (ep 18), April 18 (ep 19), April 25 (ep 20), May 2 (ep 21), May 9 (ep 22), May 16 (ep 23).

thanks, hopefully the only breaks are mar 28th for V from 7-11p and april 4th for 10 commandments (though based on the past years I am assuming its apr 3rd) and then they are set for the rest of season with no reruns.

April 4 has to be The Ten Commandments. Since B&S is not listed for April 4. Unless they go with a two-hour Home Edition.

i am beyond flabbergasted that THE DEEP END is staying scheduled for thurs. they are the one network that puts so much stock in sweeps (they're the only net including the CW that is skedding new eps against olympics because its sweeps) yet they came in 5th last week and the 4th place net (CW) was .6 ahead of them - hardly close. Its also hurting GA somewhat because people are clearly watching something else at 8p and some people arent switching back. THis week Survivor will certainly dominate at 8p esp with tons of promos during super bowl. The fact that it will continue at 9p means some people will stick with it and not switch to GA. i simply do not understand these scheduling decisions at all. There is no logic to this.

April 4 has to be The Ten Commandments. Since B&S is not listed for April 4. Unless they go with a two-hour Home Edition.
the only reason i think its the 2 hour EM is because thats what they have done since 05 even when they could have aired the movie

last night HOUSE had a 5.1. TAAHM had a 5.7 and TBBT had a 6.0. CASTLE had a 2.5. We dont have a show that breaks a 5 anymore. I am concerned. You cant blame it on Super Bowl promotion cause HOUSE didnt get any and it airs at 8p.

so our lowest score since dec. in Jan CASTLE had a 2.6-2.8-3.0 and we had a bigger lead in this week (and CSI MIAMI only had a 3.9 after a 6.0 lead in). what changed in my opinion - the rerun in between. You mean the rerun that could have been replaced by that ep 11 they wasted in Dec. Yeah that one. sorry for beating a dead horse but their inane scheduling keeps killing whatever momentum they have.

they have a younger skewing show THE BACHELOR and out of 9 weeks it gets 4 orginals.Obviously 5 is not much more. But 5 in a row makes a difference as you are building momentum.

Well don't forget LOST got a 5.5 last week, the highest rated scripted series of the week. And it could get a 5 tonight as well hopefully. I wouldn't count Grey's out yet for 5's, maybe this week it can get back up there. House keeps fluctuating from 4s to 5s, so Grey's can, too.

I see Castle at a 2.6, was hoping for a 3 again, but sill solid. Maybe the Super Bowl promoted CSI Miami episode hurt it just a tad. Maybe that rerun in December was the difference, but I liked the idea of a new episode then because then people would think Castle will be new even when Dancing isn't on.

ABC orders more 'Dating in the Dark'
ABC has picked up six more episodes of Endemol's summer reality show "Dating in the Dark."

The series pulled a respectable number airing after "The Bachelorette" last summer.

The Bachelor: On The Wings of Love finale has been extended to 10:05pm on March 1. After the Final Rose special follows at 10:05pm.

Is tvcrazed an investor? He acts like his livelihood depends on ABC doing well lol

'FlashForward' Finds New Leaders
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By Josef Adalian
Published: February 10, 2010
ABC Studios had found some new chiefs for "FlashForward."

Jessika Borsiczky, Lisa Zwerling and Tim Lea will serve as showrunners for the ABC drama, the network confirmed Wednesday. They replace David Goyer, who last week said he was stepping aside as showrunner (but staying on as executive producer).

Meanwhile, ABC had decided to hit rewind on its episode order for "FlashForward."

The network has quietly trimmed to 22 the number of episodes of the first-year ABC Studios drama it plans to produce this season. It had mostly recently planned on making 23 hours of the show.

Per ABC insiders, once the network decided to push back the show's return until March 18 -- getting out of the way of the "American Idol" monster -- ABC decided it didn't need all 23 episodes.

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Friday, March 5, 2010
9:00pm 20/20

This is in addition to its regular 10pm slot.

Not sure if they could do this in the early part of summer, since NBA season is still going on, but it would be great to pair it with Wipeout:

Shaq is back at ABC.

Alphabet net has given a second season order to "Shaq Vs.," its summer reality series starring basketball star Shaquille O'Neal.

Media Rights Capital and Dick Clark Prods. are behind the unscripted series, and will produce six episodes of the show.

"Shaq Vs." stars O'Neal as he faces off against top athletes in their respective fields. In season one, O'Neal faced off with the Pittsburgh Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger in football, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh in beach volleyball, the St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols in baseball, Oscar de la Hoya in boxing and Michael Phelps in swimming.

Despite being given a handicap advantage, O'Neal wound up losing each week.

According to MRC's Joe Hipps, the producers plan to take O'Neal out of sports in some segments this year -- placing him in other competitions such as spelling bees or competitive eating. But the shows will still mostly focus on sports.

"This is our third show with ABC but our first pickup," said MRC's Modi Wiczyk. "Everyone's happy with the show, and that's been incredibly encouraging."

Hipps said the producers are already mapping out the production, in order to work around O'Neal's basketball schedule. The show also already has a list of top-tier athletes who expressed interest last year in appearing on the show.

Dick Clark Prods.' Orly Adelson, Will Staeger and Barry Adelman are exec producers, along with O'Neal, Scott Messick, Perry Rogers and Steve Nash. (Nash reportedly received the EP credit after protesting that O'Neal took the original idea for the show from him.)

MRC's other TV credits include HBO's "The Ricky Gervais Show" and "The Life and Times of Tim," as well as the upcoming "House of Cards," from David Fincher.

Not sure if they could do this in the early part of summer, since NBA season is still going on, but it would be great to pair it with Wipeout:

Shaq is back at ABC.

Alphabet net has given a second season order to "Shaq Vs.," its summer reality series starring basketball star Shaquille O'Neal.

Media Rights Capital and Dick Clark Prods. are behind the unscripted series, and will produce six episodes of the show.

"Shaq Vs." stars O'Neal as he faces off against top athletes in their respective fields. In season one, O'Neal faced off with the Pittsburgh Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger in football, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh in beach volleyball, the St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols in baseball, Oscar de la Hoya in boxing and Michael Phelps in swimming.

Despite being given a handicap advantage, O'Neal wound up losing each week.

According to MRC's Joe Hipps, the producers plan to take O'Neal out of sports in some segments this year -- placing him in other competitions such as spelling bees or competitive eating. But the shows will still mostly focus on sports.

"This is our third show with ABC but our first pickup," said MRC's Modi Wiczyk. "Everyone's happy with the show, and that's been incredibly encouraging."

Hipps said the producers are already mapping out the production, in order to work around O'Neal's basketball schedule. The show also already has a list of top-tier athletes who expressed interest last year in appearing on the show.

Dick Clark Prods.' Orly Adelson, Will Staeger and Barry Adelman are exec producers, along with O'Neal, Scott Messick, Perry Rogers and Steve Nash. (Nash reportedly received the EP credit after protesting that O'Neal took the original idea for the show from him.)

MRC's other TV credits include HBO's "The Ricky Gervais Show" and "The Life and Times of Tim," as well as the upcoming "House of Cards," from David Fincher.

So ABC renews what really was an unsuccessful summer series and we still wait to see if they will renew Shark Tank which is a fair better show in quality and more entertaining. Unless they plan on airing this on weekends in place of the non-sports programming they have, this renewal makes no sense.

Shaq Vs. did decent. It was on its own really and aired at the end of summer. With a lead-in and airing right after the NBA Finals, it would do well. Imagine this airing after Wipeout on Wednesdays. It would do so much better than Japanese Game Show. I expect Shark Tank to return, so no need to worry about that.

The Middle did a series high last night in 18-49 with a 3.0 rating and its best since premiere in total viewers. Modern Family also tied a series high in 18-49 with a 4.2 rating (done twice before), so if it goes up in the finals, it is a series high. I believe as of now, it was at its third best in total viewers last night (so if it goes up a bit in finals it will be at second best ever in total viewers).

The Middle did a series high last night in 18-49 with a 3.0 rating and its best since premiere in total viewers. Modern Family also tied a series high in 18-49 with a 4.2 rating (done twice before), so if it goes up in the finals, it is a series high. I believe as of now, it was at its third best in total viewers last night (so if it goes up a bit in finals it will be at second best ever in total viewers).

Modern Family is completely Idol-repellent. Actually, it's almost doing better against Idol than it was without it. The Middle is also doing fantastic, and is at this point crushing competing Gary Unmarried. But Cougar Town - what has happened to this show? The last few episodes have been terrible. Ratings are terrible. If it doesnt pick up, do you think ABC would reverse its decision on a second season?

Cougar Town is fine. I think it is hurt by Idol. It was doing 3.4 before Idol came. I think it needs to air at a later time next season. 2.8 would be great at 10pm.

Scheduling news:

Tuesday, March 2, 2010
10:00pm A Special Edition of 20/20 - "Before They Were Famous”
[the forgotten is preempted.]

Monday, March 15, 2010
8:00pm-10:00pm A Special Edition of 20/20 - “Inside The Bachelor: The Stories Behind The Rose”

Thursday, March 4, 2010
8:00pm Grey's Anatomy (R)
[All-new episodes of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice will air in their normal times of 9 and 10pm.]

ABC has done decetly this season.Some flops and some hits and with LOST ending i now think ABC need some new strong hit shows to keep their network fresh and exciting.

Its how TV works.

Why UGLY BETTY is ending on April 14 instead of April 7 - ABC slates OPRAH WINFREY OSCAR SPECIAL for Wednesday, March 3 at 10/9c

More updates:

Wednesday, February 17 and Wednesday, February 24, 2010 ONLY
9:30pm The Middle (R)
10:00pm & 10:30pm Cougar Town (R)
[The Middle will air in its regular 8:30pm slot in repeats these two weeks as well. Ugly Betty repeats are no longer scheduled at 10pm.]

Wednesday, March 3, 2010
10:00pm The Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special

Saturday, March 6, 2010
8:00pm A Special Edition of 20/20 - "Before They Were Famous" (R, 3/2)
9:00pm The Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special (R, 3/3)
10:00pm Castle (R)

I like the Comedy Wednesday repeats schedule against the Olympics -- good move. I suggest they pull The Deep End for next week and air last night's Grey's again at 8pm (leading into the all-new episode at 9). The final two episodes of The Deep End can air Feb. 25 from 8-10 (leading into the scheduled Grey's repeat pushing it to 10pm).

It's odd that Brothers and Sisters gets one more episode than Desperate Housewives. I would think it would be the other way around.

Wednesday, March 10 and Wednesday, March 17, 2010
8:00pm [scrubs] (all-new)
[Season finale is the March 17 episode.]

Thursday, March 11, 2010
8:00pm Grey's Anatomy (R)
[This is in addition to the repeat at 8pm on March 4.)

I know the producers of FLASHFORWARD were working on a recap episode. I figured they would air it a week before it returns (returns March 18), but they scheduled a Grey's encore instead on March 11. Maybe they will air the recap after LOST on March 16 at 10pm and they can move the forgotten episode for that week to Friday at 9pm (since 9pm is TBD because the special Thin Ice is at 8pm)? the forgotten would still have its season finale on Tuesday, March 23 at 10.

EDIT: Eastwick fans, the finale aired in England on Sunday. Watch it here: http://www.divxden.com/jwp6rtj83egp/eastwick.s01e13.pdtv.xvid-bia.avi.html

I assume it wouldnt make sense to air a recap on the 11th since IDOL is still there and no one would see it. March 16th after LOST sounds right, its 2 days before premiere. i would think FORGOTTEN will/should be pulled off Tuesdays after next week. Its alreardy off the 1st so all eps werent gonna air before the 30th on tues anyway.

All of the forgotten episodes would still air even with the preemption in March 2. It has a 17 episode order.

Schedule news:
Saturday, March 13, 2010
8:00pm ABC Saturday Movie of the Week - “Over the Hedge”
10:00pm Castle (R)

Wednesday, March 10 and Wednesday, March 17, 2010
8:00pm [scrubs] (all-new)
[Season finale is the March 17 episode.]

Pavan, has there been any word from the Alphabet head office on when they plan to air the two remaining unaired 'Better Off Ted' episodes? I do hope they show up, perhaps in the Wednesday at 8 pm slot later in March or during April even.

No word. I'm guessing March 24 and 31 as I mentioned in today's story: http://www.sitcomsonline.com/blog/2010/02/final-two-scrubs-episodes-to-air-in.html

No word. I'm guessing March 24 and 31 as I mentioned in today's story: http://www.sitcomsonline.com/blog/2010/02/final-two-scrubs-episodes-to-air-in.html
Hi, Pavan? How are you doing?
Don`t you think that is a bad idea to put Scrubs as lead in for The Middle?
Scrubs is dead show and will hurt TM, this is my opinion.

I never was for Scrubs or Ted on Wednesdays, because they don't fit with the other series really. Maybe after Modern Family, but not before The Middle. Thankfully it is just two weeks and I think the other comedies are repeats on March 17.

Anyway, promos for Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution start this Monday during The Bachelor: Women Tell All. It will be heavily promoted from what I can see Mon-Wed this coming week (don't know about beyond that, but I would assume so).

My DVD review of the FLASHFORWARD first ten episodes DVD out Tuesday:

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/blog/2010/02/blog-dvd-review-flashforward-season-one.html

ABC has one or two new episodes of Desperate (new 2 of the 3 weeks), B&S (new 2 of the 3 weeks), Grey's (new 1 of the 2 weeks), Private (new 1 of the 2 weeks) opposite the Olympics because it is sweeps and they do not repeat well if they are in repeats. Olympics or not, it is still sweeps and ABC would be automatically (a distant) fourth if those shows were all repeats. CBS's crime series and Monday comedies repeat well, and Fox has Idol that will save them. The reason why Castle and Comedy Wednesday are repeats during the two weeks of the Olympics because they repeat well.

ABC might be hurt by the competition (Olympics, Grammy's, etc) lately in Live+Same Day numbers, but they are looking very good in Live+7 Day DVR ratings. For the week of Feb. 1-7:

- Grey's Anatomy goes from 4.5 18-49 rating to 5.9 (biggest increase of the week of 1.4 points)
- LOST premiere goes from 5.5 18-49 rating to 6.7 (+1.2 pts)
- Modern Family goes from 3.9 18-49 rating to 5.0 (+1.1 pts)
- Private Practice goes from 3.4 18-49 rating to 4.2 (+0.8 pts)
- Cougar Town goes from 2.9 18-49 rating to 3.5 (+0.6 pts)
- Ugly Betty goes from 1.4 18-49 rating to 2.0 (+0.6 pts)
- The Deep End goes from 1.3 18-49 rating to 1.8 (+0.5 pts)

Castle was a repeat. Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters were preempted that week for the Super Bowl, but on Jan. 31 opposite the Grammy's:
- Desperate Housewives goes from 3.7 18-49 rating to 4.5 in Live+7 (+0.8 pts)
- Brothers & Sisters goes from 2.4 18-49 rating to 3.0 in Live+7 (+0.6 pts)

I suspect last night when both were opposite the Olympics, they did similar ratings to Jan. 31 so they will be likely the same as above in Live+7 DVR. Thankfully starting next week the competition becomes lighter (well Olympics closing ceremony is still on) since early January so I expect Desperate and B&S to perk back up to their normal live ratings a bit, but by March 14 it will be fully back I think.

The age of DVR and internet have really made live TV viewing go down in recent years. Competition isn't the reason.

ABC's DVR report for Feb. 1-7:
Week No. 20: Live + 7 Day Ratings:
Based on Nielsen's Live + 7 Day information for the week of February 1, 2010, which included the first round of data for the Season 6 of "Lost," the 6th-year ABC drama premiere picked up an additional 2.2 million viewers (12.1 million to 14.3 million) and 1.1 Adult 18-49 rating points (5.6 rating to 6.7 rating) through DVR playback from its first-reported overnight numbers. In fact in terms of actual gains and percentage gains, it was the biggest-ever increase for a "Lost" season opener through DVR playback. In the finalized numbers, "Lost" stood as the week's No. 1 scripted TV show with Adults 18-49.

During the week, ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" was once again TV's most-played-back show, while "Lost," "Modern Family" and "Private Practice" all saw substantial gains in the finalized DVR playback averages.

* ABC claimed 3 of TV's Top 8 biggest overall gainers, with each show jumping by more than 2 million viewers: "Grey's Anatomy" - No. 1 (+2.758 million), "Lost" - No. 5 (+2.207 million) and "Modern Family" - No. 8 (+2.164 million - biggest freshman gainer).

* Among Adults 18-49, ABC aired 4 of the Top 10 TV series with the biggest rating increases: "Grey's Anatomy" - No. 1 (+1.4 rating points/+31%), "Lost" - No. 4 (+1.1 rating/+20%), "Modern Family" - No. 4 (+1.1 rating/+28% - biggest freshman gainer) and "Private Practice" - No. 10 (+0.8 rating/+24%).

Programming updates:

Time change: LOST will air 9pm-10:02pm this Tuesday (March 2). A Special Edition of 20/20 - “Before They Were Famous” will air from 10:02-11pm.

Friday, March 19, 2010
9:00pm 20/20
[Note: 20/20 will also air in its regular 10pm slot on this date.]

Saturday, March 20, 2010
8-10pm FLASHFORWARD (R, 3/18)
10:00pm Castle (R)

Sunday, April 4, 2010
8:00-10:00pm Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (all-new)

Schedule news:
Saturday, March 13, 2010
8:00pm ABC Saturday Movie of the Week - “Over the Hedge”
10:00pm Castle (R)

Over the Hedge is no longer airing on March 13. See below:

Saturday, March 13, 2010
8:00pm Desperate Housewives (R, 2/21)
9:00pm Desperate Housewives (R, 2/28)

Tuesday, March 16, 2010
10:00pm FLASHFORWARD: What Did You See (all-new special)
[the forgotten is preempted.]

I expect the first four episodes of V to be reaired on Sunday, March 28 from 7-11pm, in time for the return on March 30. As soon as it is official, I'll let you know.

Placements of Dancing with the Stars contestants announcements spots for tonight:

8:00PM THE BACHELOR FINALE
:05 Stay tuned for Dancing with the Stars announcements
:15 Dancing with the Stars (this might be saying stay tuned for next commercial break?)
1:30 Dancing with the Stars Announcement Part 1
:15 Dancing with the Stars (this might be saying stay tuned for next commercial break?)
2:00 Dancing with the Stars Announcement Part 2 (with mention of tune in tonight to Kimmel and tomorrow for GMA for two of the contestants on those shows)

10:05PM THE BACHELOR: AFTER THE FINAL ROSE
1:00 Dancing with the Stars Announcement Part 3

Possibly 5 of the 11 names have been revealed for Dancing S10...and the 5 are great names: http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=255291&page=2

Tune in tonight to see the rest and confirmations!

DWTS 10 Cast: Pamela Anderson (Baywatch), Shannen Doherty (original 90210, Charmed), Kate Gosselin (Jon & Kate Plus 8), Buzz Aldrin (Astronaut moonwalker), Nicole Scherzinger (Pussycat Dolls), Erin Andrews (ESPN journalist), Evan Lysacek (Olympian), Chad Ochocinco (NFL star), Niecy Nash (comedian), Aiden Turner (All My Children) and #11 will be announced in minutes.

My guess? Jake Pavelka from The Bachelor!

And #11 is ... Jake Pavelka (The Bachelor).

This is going to be a killer season. Expect great ratings!

A SPECTACULAR LINEUP OF STARS MAKE THEIR WAY TO THE DANCE FLOOR
AS THE TELEVISION PHENOMENON “DANCING WITH THE STARS” RETURNS,
MONDAY, MARCH 22 ON ABC

All Eleven Couples Will Compete in Weeks One and Two

“Dancing with the Stars the Results Show” Premieres with First Elimination in
Regular Timeslot on Tuesday, March 30

The “Dance Off” Returns

Macy’s “Stars of Dance” Returns with All-new Performances Featured in the Results Shows

An all new lineup of stars -- including a legendary astronaut, a Bachelor, an Olympic gold medalist, a Bengal, an ESPN Reporter, a pop singer, a “90210” alum, an actor, a comedienne and a reality television star who is the mother of eight -- will strut their stuff on the dance floor in the highly anticipated two-hour season premiere of “Dancing with the Stars,” MONDAY, MARCH 22 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

All eleven couples will dance for the first time on live national television on MONDAY, MARCH 22 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET), with couples either performing the Viennese Waltz or Cha Cha. In week two, all of the couples will return to dance their second routines in a two-hour show, MONDAY, MARCH 29 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET). The couple with the lowest combined judges’ scores and public votes for both performances will be sent home on TUESDAY, MARCH 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) in the season premiere of “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show.”

The eleven celebrities heading to the dance floor this season, as announced tonight on the finale of the “The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love,” are:


BUZZ ALDRIN – Astronaut, scientist/inventor, bestselling author, advocate for man’s future in space, Buzz Aldrin is considered one of the greatest heroes of space exploration. On July 20, 1969, he and Neil Armstrong made their historic Apollo 11 moonwalk, becoming the first two humans to set foot on another world. An estimated 600 million people -- the world’s largest television audience in history -- witnessed this unprecedented, heroic endeavor. Upon his return from the Apollo 11 mission, Aldrin was decorated with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest American peacetime award. Born in 1930, Aldrin was educated at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He then joined the Air Force, where he flew 66 combat missions in Korea and was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross. Dr. Aldrin received his Doctorate of Science in Astronautics at MIT before being selected by NASA in 1963. He devised docking and rendezvous techniques for spacecraft in Earth and lunar orbit which became critical to the success of the Gemini and Apollo programs. He has received three U.S. patents for his schematics of a modular space station, founded Starcraft Boosters, Inc., a rocket design company, and the ShareSpace Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to advancing space education. An accomplished writer whose work has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, Aldrin has most recently written an autobiography entitled Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon. Named after Aldrin are Asteroid “6470 Aldrin,” “Aldrin Crater” on the moon, Buzz Lightyear from “Toy Story,” and the MTV Music Video Award “The Moonman” was originally called “The Buzzy” and is shaped in his image.

PAMELA ANDERSON – Model, actress, mother, entrepreneur, philanthropist and activist, Pamela Anderson is a sex symbol who has appeared on more magazine covers than any other star of her generation and was named in the Guinness Book of World Records as “most downloaded.” Introduced to television audiences as the “Tool Time Girl” on the hit series “Home Improvement, “ Anderson went on to star in the global phenomenon “Baywatch.” Her other television work includes the hit series “V.I.P.” and her recent documentary series “Pam – Girl on the Loose.” Among her film work is her star turn in “Barb Wire” and “Borat,” in which she played herself and the object of Borat’s affections. Current projects include her role as the “face” of the current campaign for the work of legendary designer Vivienne Westwood, and her partnership with her friend, designer Richie Rich, on the A*Muse brand – a line of clothing inspired by Anderson and created by Rich. Anderson recently launched her own fragrance, Malibu by Pamela Anderson (along with other beauty-related products, all now available in drug stores worldwide). She also continues her extensive charity work in many areas – among which PETA remains her first love.

ERIN ANDREWS – Since joining ESPN in 2004, Erin Andrews has become one of the most well-known sports reporters in the country. Having begun her career at ESPN as a reporter for the network’s NHL coverage, Andrews has served as a reporter for “ESPN College Football Saturday” telecasts, “Saturday Primetime” college basketball games and Big Ten college basketball coverage. In 2005 she began reporting from the sidelines of the “ESPN College Football Primetime” series on Thursday nights, and added Major League Baseball sideline reporting to her responsibilities, including the “Monday Night Baseball” telecasts. Andrews has been a reporter on ESPN’s College World Series telecasts since 2005 and has worked ABC’s coverage of the Scripps National Spelling Bee as a reporter since 2008. A native of Lewiston, Maine, Andrews graduated from the University of Florida, where she was a member of the Gators’ basketball dance team from 1997-2000.

SHANNEN DOHERTY – Shannen Doherty is a television icon known throughout the world. She rose to stardom for her portrayal of Brenda Walsh in the popular television series “Beverly Hills, 90210” and later as Prue Halliwell on “Charmed,” after beginning her career at 11 as Jenny Wilder in “Little House: A New Beginning.” Over the course of her career, Doherty has appeared in numerous made-for-TV-movies, television series and films, including “Heathers” and “Mallrats.” She later went on to produce and star in her own reality show, “Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty,” for the Oxygen Network in 2006. Recently Doherty reprised her role as Brenda Walsh on the CW’s spin off “90210,” and completed filming on the Hallmark made-for-TV-movie, “Growing the Big One.” She is also the author of the upcoming book Bad Ass from publisher Clarkson Potter.

KATE GOSSELIN -- Kate Gosselin has the joy, frustration and honor of raising eight children -- twins and sextuplets -- in central Pennsylvania. The daily lives of her family were previously chronicled for five seasons on TLC’s hit show “Jon and Kate Plus 8.” Gosselin is a sought-after speaker, author of the New York Times bestselling books Multiple Blessings and Eight Little Faces, and is currently in production on a new show for TLC. Her newest book, I Just Want You to Know, will be in stores this spring.

EVAN LYSACEK – Olympic gold medalist and World Figure Skating champion Evan Lysacek has been skating since the age of 8, when he received a pair of hockey skates. His win in Vancouver was the first in 22 years for an American male figure skater at the Olympics. A native of Naperville, IL, Lysacek relocated to Los Angeles at the age of 18 to train with Frank Carroll who, in addition to his Olympic and World titles, has also coached Lysacek to two U.S. National titles and a 4th-place showing at the Torino Games in 2006. This spring Lysacek will also be touring as a member of the cast of “Stars on Ice.”

NIECY NASH -- The host and producer of the Style Network’s home makeover show, “Clean House,” Niecy Nash is a two-time 2009 Daytime Emmy nominee and the new Celebrity Panelist for the entertainment news program, “The Insider.” She recently won a 2010 Gracie Award for her role as no-nonsense Officer Raineesha Williams on the Comedy Central hit, “Reno 911!” and it’s spin-off film, “Reno 911: Miami.” In 2008 Nash starred in her own FOX comedy series, “Do Not Disturb.” She is also well-known for her recurring role on the comedy series “The Bernie Mac Show.” Her most recent film work includes “Not Easily Broken” and Walt Disney Pictures’ “G-Force.” Additionally, Nash is developing various television and film projects through her own production company, Chocolate Chick, Inc. The proud mother of three adoring children, when asked what her hobbies are, Nash proudly replies, “motherhood,” which she considers her greatest success in life.

CHAD OCHOCINCO – Chad Ochocinco is one of the NFL’s most prolific wide receivers. The Cincinnati Bengals drafted him from Oregon State in 2001. In his 9th season with the Bengals, he holds the franchise record for most receiving yards in a season, most receiving yards of all time, the most receptions, the most receiving yards in a game, the most seasons with over 1,000 receiving yards and the most touchdowns in a game. He is a six-time Pro-Bowler and was named All-Pro three times. He made headlines in 2008 when he legally changed his name from Chad Johnson to Chad Ochocinco to match his jersey number, “85.” Currently the spokesman for Degree, teaming up with them to endorse their line of men’s deodorant products, Ochocinco’s popularity can best be seen by his use of social media sites like Twitter and Ustream. Alternatively, Rock Software has produced an iPhone Application that gives users the ultimate “Ocho Cinco Experience.” Whether it is teaming with corporations to give away hundreds of seats to a Bengals game or racing a thoroughbred for charity, Ochocinco understands the importance of giving back and staying grounded to his roots. On a more global scale, he has partnered with Feed the Children to raise awareness of the worldwide epidemic of hunger and poverty among children.

JAKE PAVELKA -- As the handsome commercial pilot and most recent bachelor looking for love on ABC’s “The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love,” Jake Pavelka has the reputation as an honest guy with an open heart. He has been a fan favorite since viewers were stunned when Jillian Harris rejected him right before the hometown dates on the previous season’s “The Bachelorette.” With a positive outlook on the experience, Pavelka won over the hearts of many and met his match when he narrowed 25 lucky bachelorettes down to one this past season. An accomplished pilot, he grew up in Denton, Texas and attended University of North Texas and Embry Engineering University for Aerospace Science. Pavelka became an airline captain flight instructor at 23. On his days off, he has fun flying acrobatic planes and woodworking at the home he owns near Dallas.

NICOLE SCHERZINGER – Nicole Scherzinger was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. She is a singer, songwriter, trained actress, performer and the lead singer of The Pussycat Dolls. She was asked to join the Pussycat Dolls recording group as the lead singer after being recognized from her success on the TV show “Popstars” and the group Eden’s Crush. The Pussycat Dolls’ 2006 debut album, “PCD,” went double-platinum in America and sold over 9 million copies worldwide, with several Top 10 hits songs, including “Don’t Cha”, “Buttons” and “Stickwitu”. Following the success of “PCD,” Scherzinger recorded a series of duets and guest vocal appearances with artists such as P.Diddy, 50 Cent, Timbaland, Vittorio and several others. She also released two solo singles and videos before recording the second Pussycat Dolls album, “Doll Domination,” which to date has sold over 5 million copies and features hits like “When I grow Up and “I Hate This Part.” Scherzinger has toured the world as a headline act for over six years, playing stadiums and arenas and appearing on countless TV shows. In 2009 she wrote and recorded an adaptation of the AR Rahman song, “Jai Ho,” from the film “Slumdog Millionaire.” The song went #1 in 17 countries. Scherzinger is currently writing and recording new songs for release in 2010 while pursuing her love for acting and musical theater.

AIDEN TURNER – Aiden Turner was born on April 2, 1977 in Hertforshire, England and was educated at St. Edmund's College. He attended culinary school to pursue his love of cooking, and for two years he worked as a chef in Hertford. While doing so, he taught himself how to mix music, and so he also began working at night as a DJ. He then went on to follow his dream to travel all over the world, visiting Thailand, Malaysia, Bali, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and North America. He studied acting at the Method Studio Covent Garden in London, which helped him land commercial and television castings. He was cast for the role of Aiden Devane on ABC’s “All My Children” in 2002. He played that role for eight years, and recently left the show to pursue other acting opportunities in film and television.

“Dancing with the Stars” returns with new surprises and all the elements viewers have come to know and love. “Macy’s Stars of Dance,” which features some of the most renowned dancers and choreographers of our time, will be back with performances on “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show.” One of the “Macy’s Stars of Dance” performances will be the hugely popular “Design-a-Dance,” where fans have the chance to select their favorite celebrity dancers, dance styles and wardrobe at www.abc.com. Three weeks of the competition will feature the return of the “Dance Off,” where contestants will perform a dance style of their choosing to fight for their spot in the competition, followed by three consecutive single eliminations.

Below are key dates for Season 10 (dates and times subject to change):

• “Dancing with the Stars,” two-hour season premiere performance show, MONDAY, MARCH 22 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET).
• “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show,” one-hour season premiere, TUESDAY MARCH 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET).
• “Dancing with the Stars,” one-hour final performance show, MONDAY, MAY 24 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET).
• “Dancing with the Stars” season finale, two-hours, TUESDAY, MAY 25 (9:00-11:00 p.m., ET)

Each week this season, the celebrity and professional dance pairs will perform live choreographed Latin, traditional and contemporary ballroom dance routines to popular live music played by a 17-piece orchestra, led by musical director Harold Wheeler. Viewers may cast their votes for their favorite teams via phone on Monday night during and up to 30 minutes after the “Dancing with the Stars” performance shows. AT&T customers may also text message their votes by texting the word “VOTE” and entering the number that corresponds to the team they want to support (message and data rates may apply). Viewers may also vote online at www.abc.com starting from the opening of each episode on the East Coast and until 12:00 Noon, ET the following day.

Hosted by Tom Bergeron (“America’s Funniest Home Videos”), the celebrities perform choreographed dance routines which will be judged by renowned Ballroom judge Len Goodman and dancer/choreographers Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba, who all return for their tenth season together.

“Dancing with the Stars” is the U.S. version of the international smash hit series, “Strictly Come Dancing.” This version is produced by BBC Worldwide Productions. Conrad Green serves as executive producer and Rob Wade is co-executive producer. Alex Rudzinski directs. “Dancing with the Stars” is broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC’s selected HDTV format, with 5.1 channel surround sound.

Pairings:

ABC ANNOUNCES THE CELEBRITY AND PROFESSIONAL PAIRINGS
FOR “DANCING WITH THE STARS,” PREMIERING MARCH 22 ON ABC

The “Dancing with the Stars” Pros Begin Training Their New Celebrity Partners,
As the Couples Get Set to Showcase Their Fancy Footwork

One New Professional Ballroom Dancer Joins the Show, Damian Whitewood

An all-new cast of celebrities and their professional partners hit the dance floor on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” with the highly anticipated two-hour season premiere, MONDAY, MARCH 22 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

In alphabetical order, and with their professional partners, the 11 stars making their ballroom dancing debut are:

• BUZZ ALDRIN, legendary astronaut, partners up with ASHLY COSTA (formerly DelGrosso), who returns for her fourth season.

• PAMELA ANDERSON, actress and model, joins professional dancer DAMIAN WHITEWOOD, who makes his “Dancing with the Stars” debut this season.

• ERIN ANDREWS, ESPN host, teams with MAKSIM CHMERKOVSKIY, who returns for his eighth season.

• SHANNEN DOHERTY, actress, teams up with two-time “Dancing with the Stars” champ MARK BALLAS, who returns for his sixth season.

• KATE GOSSELIN, TLC star, teams with TONY DOVOLANI, who returns for his ninth season.

• EVAN LYSACEK, Olympic figure skating champion, teams with ANNA TREBUNSKAYA, who returns for her fifth season.

• NIECY NASH, comedienne and host, teams up with LOUIS VAN AMSTEL, who returns for his sixth season

• CHAD OCHOCINCO, NFL Star, teams up with two-time champion CHERYL BURKE, who returns for her ninth season.

• JAKE PAVELKA, “The Bachelor” star, joins CHELSIE HIGHTOWER, who returns for her third season.

• NICOLE SCHERZINGER, pop star, teams with Season 7 champ DEREK HOUGH, who returns for his sixth season.

• AIDEN TURNER, soap star, teams with EDYTA SLIWINSKA, who is the only pro to compete in all 10 seasons of “Dancing with the Stars.”

All 11 teams will showcase their fancy footwork for the first time on MONDAY, MARCH 22 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET), with no eliminations in first week of the competition. In week two, all of the couples will return and try to outshine each other once again in a two-hour show, MONDAY,
MARCH 29 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET). The couple with the lowest combined judges’ scores and public votes for both performances will be sent home on TUESDAY, MARCH 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) in the season premiere of “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show.”

Viewers may cast their votes for their favorite teams via phone on Monday night during and up to 30 minutes after the “Dancing with the Stars” performance shows. AT&T customers may also text message their votes by texting the word “VOTE” and entering the number that corresponds to the team they want to support (message and data rates may apply). Viewers may also vote online at www.abc.com starting from the opening of each episode on the East Coast and until 12:00 Noon, ET the following day.

ABC shortens 'Forgotten' run

Forgotten In case you were planning to watch "The Forgotten" in three weeks ... well, forget about it.

ABC is cutting short the crime procedural, ending its run a couple episodes early.

The network is yanking the March 23 episode of the Christian Slater drama and designating next week's episode the season finale instead. The March 16 episode was previously replaced by a "FlashForward" clip show. (And, yes, these actions, along with the show's generally poor ratings, means the show is pretty unlikely to return).


http://www.thrfeed.com/2010/03/abcs-shortens-forgotten-run.html

If Romantically Challenged does air Monday at 9:30pm, it won't be on April 5. ABC has scheduled a two-hour episode of Dancing with the Stars on that night from 8-10:02pm (like March 22 and March 29). However, Dancing is still scheduled to air from 8-9:32pm on April 12, 19, 26, May 3 and 17. May 10 it is two-hours again and May 24 the performance finale is is one-hour from 8-9pm, as usual leading into The Bachelorette premiere from 9-11pm. The Bachelorette would go to 8-10pm starting May 31, then True Beauty at 10pm starting May 31.

My guess is that those 5 weeks Dancing is 90 minutes, it will be Romantically Challenged and the remaining 2 episodes can air on a Wednesday (April 21 10-11pm is TBD still). Romantically Challenged has a 7 episode order.

Schedule updates:

Tuesday, March 23, 2010
10:00PM V: Clip Show (wt)
[the forgotten will have its last airing on March 9. 2 episodes still remain.]

Saturday, April 3, 2010
7:00PM ABC SPECIAL PRESENTATION: THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

In addition to our announcement about True Beauty yesterday (Mondays at 10 starting May 31), summer hit Wipeout returns Tuesday, June 22 at 8pm after the NBA Finals are over.

(If I were to guess, Shaq Vs. would follow.)

Blog story: http://www.sitcomsonline.com/blog/2010/03/wipeout-returns-june-22-on-abc-more.html

EDIT: LOST will run from 9pm-10:06pm on March 23! V Clip Show follows at 10:06pm.

Saturday, March 27, 2010
8:00pm-10:00pm V (R, episodes 3 and 4)
10:00pm Castle (R)

Saturday, April 3 and 10, 2010
3pm ET/1pm PT Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution (R)

If Romantically Challenged does air Monday at 9:30pm, it won't be on April 5. ABC has scheduled a two-hour episode of Dancing with the Stars on that night from 8-10:02pm (like March 22 and March 29). However, Dancing is still scheduled to air from 8-9:32pm on April 12, 19, 26, May 3 and 17. May 10 it is two-hours again and May 24 the performance finale is is one-hour from 8-9pm, as usual leading into The Bachelorette premiere from 9-11pm. The Bachelorette would go to 8-10pm starting May 31, then True Beauty at 10pm starting May 31.

My guess is that those 5 weeks Dancing is 90 minutes, it will be Romantically Challenged and the remaining 2 episodes can air on a Wednesday (April 21 10-11pm is TBD still). Romantically Challenged has a 7 episode order.

I wouldn't be surprised to see 2 of the episodes end up Wednesday at 8pm for a couple weeks. Either that, or ABC may just hold the episodes over for next season, if it does end up doing well on Mondays.

More on The Bachelorette/True Beauty:

Monday, May 24, 2010
9:00-11:00pm The Bachelorette (season premiere)

Monday, May 31, 2010
8:00-10:02pm The Bachelorette (thru and including 7/19)
10:02pm True Beauty (thru and including 7/19)

Monday, July 26, 2010
8:00-10:02pm The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All
10:02pm TBD

Monday, August 2, 2010
8:00-10:02pm The Bachelorette (season finale)
[After the Final Rose has not been scheduled yet, but I would assume at 10:02pm on Aug. 2.]

Maybe The Bachelor Pad and Dating in the Dark would take over on Aug. 9?

8:00-10:02pm The Bachelorette: The Women Tell All
Unless she is a lesbian, I'm assuming this should be The Men Tell All. :D

Eek, you're correct! BTW, the V: Clip Show is now titled: V: The Arrrival airing March 23 at 10:06pm.

ABC has added Happy Town promos during the Oscars on Sunday night. That will be the promo's premiere. Be on the look out.

Promos for Sunday:
7:00PM ET Barbara Walters Special (before Oscars time zones): GMA (:05), Dancing with the Stars (0:30), V (0:15), Desperate Housewives (:30), Jamie Oliver (0:30), Modern Family (0:30)

8:00PM/5:00PM PT Academy Awards Pre-Show: ABC Comedy Wednesday (1:00)

8:30PM/5:30PM PT Academy Awards: GMA tomorrow (:05), Jimmy Kimmel Oscar Show tonight (0:30), Dancing with the Stars (0:30), Jamie Oliver (0:30), V (0:45), Happy Town (0:30), Modern Family (0:30), Happy Town (0:30), Dancing with the Stars (0:30), V (0:30), Castle (0:45), Modern Family (0:30), Jamie Oliver (0:30), GMA tomorrow (0:15)

approx. 8:30PM PT Barbara Walters Special (AFTER Oscars time zone): Desperate Housewives (:30), Jamie Oliver (0:30), Dancing with the Stars (0:30), V (0:15), GMA tomorrow (:05), Modern Family (0:30)

approx. 12:05AM ET Jimmy Kimmel Live Oscar Show: V (0:30), ABC Logo (:03), Dancing with the Stars (0:15), Modern Family (0:30), GMA tomorrow (0:15), The View tomorrow (:05), V (0:30)


Also of note, Scrubs promos are being done actually on Wednesday for its Wednesday airing. During GMA, All My Children and General Hospital. 15 seconds each.

Don't you find it strange that there are 2 Happy Town promos but no FF? That to me speaks volumes about ABC's expectations about FF. Starting to wonder if RC is being saved til Summer

No promos for Lost, Grey's Anatomy and Flash Forward during the Oscars ?
Is the list correct ?

Correct. LOST and FLASHFORWARD will get promoted during the NBA game earlier in the day (along with V) and late night after 2am on Sunday. Strange, but they will be heavily promoted in primetime every other night. Grey's promos begin on Monday.

Romantically Challenged will be on air before the summer?

It's tentatively slated for April 12 at 9:32pm, but it is not officially scheduled yet.

This makes sense because Alyssa tweeted they will shoot just 6 episodes, not 7.

Brothers & Sisters renewed for 5th season

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/03/06/report-brothers-sisters-renewed-by-abc-for-a-fifth-season/44082

It's tentatively slated for April 12 at 9:32pm, but it is not officially scheduled yet.

ABC does know this is the scheduled date for The Big Bang Theory's Wil Wheaton return episode ? You know, the one where the ratings will be through the roof.

I guess I shouldn't expect more from a network that just pulled its signal off Cablevision that controls over 40% of the New York Market.

ABC does know this is the scheduled date for The Big Bang Theory's Wil Wheaton return episode ? You know, the one where the ratings will be through the roof.

I guess I shouldn't expect more from a network that just pulled its signal off Cablevision that controls over 40% of the New York Market.
They should air that sitcom on Wednesday, maybe after the Middle. I was looking forward to it but it is now a dead show walking. lol

They should air that sitcom on Wednesday, maybe after the Middle. I was looking forward to it but it is now a dead show walking. lol

I can't agree more. I was really looking forward to Romantically Challenged. I love Alyssa Milano. However, it has no chance going against The Big Bang Theory. ABC really should respect the monster hit that The Big Bang Theory has become. This is not like going up against some mediocre sitcom like Old Christine. The Big Bang Theory is a monster.

Kyle Bornheimer cast in CBS pilot from HIMYM creators. With no date for RC yet and him taking a job in high profile project I am guessing this means ABC not high on RC. seems like wed in Summer

LOVED the Happy Town promos during the oscars. Not sure the show will hold up to the promos in quality standard, but ABC did an amazing job of those.

Kyle Bornheimer cast in CBS pilot from HIMYM creators. With no date for RC yet and him taking a job in high profile project I am guessing this means ABC not high on RC. seems like wed in Summer

Yup, I think that is very bad news for Romantically Challenged. When one of the stars is already cast in another pilot things are not looking up.

It doesn't mean anything because ABC has yet to air RC. And he is in second position, which means if ABC picks-up RC for next season, he can't do the CBS show (if it is picked-up).

It doesn't mean anything because ABC has yet to air RC. And he is in second position, which means if ABC picks-up RC for next season, he can't do the CBS show (if it is picked-up).

Well, I tweeted Alyssa, asking what this means and she replied.

My tweet-@Alyssa_Milano Is "RC" DOA? According to @THR, Kyle's been cast in a new pilot 4 CBS. Why would he join another pilot if he had faith in RC

Alyssa reply-@canuk75 He felt it important to have a plan B. No air date has made him nervous

My follow up tweet-@Alyssa_Milano Do you have a plan B? Should your fans be worried that ABC is not 100% behind the show? Seems like that. Frustrating

Alyssa reply-@canuk75 You'd have to ask abc that question. I have faith. The show is really good.

I guess we will have to see. But considering how slow ABC appears to be in committing to the show, I'm not holding out much hope for it's success. Which really sucks, since this is the 3rd show Alyssa's done for them the past few years. I've been following Romantically Challenged's progress on twitter and all tweets by people who've been to a taping have praised the show. So, I would like to know why ABC is dragging their heels with it.

Well, I tweeted Alyssa, asking what this means and she replied.

My tweet-@Alyssa_Milano Is "RC" DOA? According to @THR, Kyle's been cast in a new pilot 4 CBS. Why would he join another pilot if he had faith in RC

Alyssa reply-@canuk75 He felt it important to have a plan B. No air date has made him nervous

My follow up tweet-@Alyssa_Milano Do you have a plan B? Should your fans be worried that ABC is not 100% behind the show? Seems like that. Frustrating

Alyssa reply-@canuk75 You'd have to ask abc that question. I have faith. The show is really good.

I guess we will have to see. But considering how slow ABC appears to be in committing to the show, I'm not holding out much hope for it's success. Which really sucks, since this is the 3rd show Alyssa's done for them the past few years. I've been following Romantically Challenged's progress on twitter and all tweets by people who've been to a taping have praised the show. So, I would like to know why ABC is dragging their heels with it.

How many episodes are actually competed and ready to air? Didn't production on the show only start on Feb 3 of this year. I would assume ABC want all six episodes ready before airing and by trying to avoid American Idol, the only logical place it can air is Monday's at 9:30 unless they give Cougar Town a rest.

They have taped 4 of its 6 episodes so far.

ABC's 'Castle' Staying Put on Mondays

By Josef Adalian
Published: March 08, 2010

Looks like "Castle" won't be getting a Sunday night tryout after all.

Earlier this year, ABC announced that it would be airing a two-part episode of "Castle," with the first part airing Sunday, March 21 at 10 p.m. behind an all-new "Desperate Housewives." The show, with special guest Dana Delany, would then conclude on March 22 in "Castle's" regular 10 p.m. Monday slot.

Delany's still set to guest. But ABC today told affiliates it was pulled the planned Sunday broadcast of "Castle."

So what happened?

An ABC insider says that with the new "Dancing with Stars" cast getting good buzz, the network wanted to maximize the number of original episodes of "Castle" on Mondays. Airing a first-run hour on Sunday would've mean an extra "Castle" repeat in the show's normal timeslot.

The good news: "Castle" has been doing great on Mondays behind "The Bachelor" and now seems to have firmly established itself as a success story for the network.

Meanwhile, though nothing's official, it's still looking as if new comedy "Romantically Challenged" will get the 9:30 p.m. post- "DWTS" timeslot sometime in April (assuming ABC doesn't change its mind about the show)

THR explains the second position pilot casting today:

Similarly, producers from two ABC pilots -- "Women Are Crazy, Men Are Stupid" from ABC Studios and "Happy Endings" from Sony TV -- reached out to Milano and Bornheimer, whose series "Challenged" has not been slotted but is rumored for early-April premiere behind "Dancing With the Stars" on Mondays.

After Warner Bros. TV, which produces "Challenged," got wind of the offers, it contacted the network and, to show support for the upcoming series, ABC asked its pilot-casting directors not to go out to actors for "Challenged," effectively pulling the offers.

But the "Challenged" stars were fair game for other networks, and CBS mounted an intense campaign to land Bornheimer, offering him three comedy pilots: the untitled Bays/Thomas project, "True Love" and the untitled Tad Quill project.

That put the actor in a difficult position because, while he has obligation to ABC on his current series, he also has loyalty to CBS, which, after years of bit parts, cast him in his first starring role on the critically praised but short-lived comedy series "Worst Week."

He eventually settled on the lead role in the Bays/Thomas comedy.

Nobody is doing anything illegal or wrong in second-position casting, and both sides can make compelling arguments to justify their actions. Producers have the right to go for whomever they think would be best for a role, and actors have to think long term. If an actor misses a pilot season waiting for his or her show to premiere and that show gets canceled, they'll have to wait another year before they get another shot. And if that midseason show is a success, they'll be committed for the duration of their contract.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ib047da6a5b38efff6e1f98c895a3090c

I know ABC believes in RC, but it is very hard to schedule it right now being the only multicam comedy and it can't go to an earlier slot (like 8 or 8:30) because it is not suitable for that hour (and would make no sense leading into The Middle or Modern Family). I think they will go with 9:30 on Mondays and give it a chance next season (on another night) as well, as 9:30 Monday is a tough slot.

What is airing on March 21st at 10 now?

Not sure yet, probably won't be all-new Brothers and Sisters because the next episode is a two-part episode and ABC has already booked it to air April 11 from 9-11pm. Brothers and Sisters is in repeats on March 28 and April 4, the latter will follow an all-new two-hour Home Edition, though.

Still nothing on March 21 at 10pm. Any guesses Brent, tvcrazed and anyone else on what will air? I'm guessing a special sneak peek of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

But we do have some updates:

Wednesday, March 31, 2010
8:00pm It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown (half-hour, leading into all-new ABC Comedy Wednesday)

Friday, June 4, 2010
8:00-10:00pm The 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee
[Back on a Friday this year after airing on a Thursday last season.]

They could reair the pilot episode of Castle, it hasn't aired in awhile and could still get DH viewers to tune in the next night.

More updates:

Saturday, March 13, 2010
10:00pm Jimmy Kimmel Live: After The Academy Awards (R, 3/7)
[Due to the huge popularity of this special, it will air again. Castle repeat is no longer scheduled for this night.]

Sunday, March 21, 2010
10:01pm Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (special sneak preview)

Friday, March 26, 2010
8:00pm Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (R, 3/21)
9:00pm Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (all-new, timeslot premiere)

Sunday, March 28, 2010
10:01pm Castle (R, 3/22)
[An encore of part one of the 2-part Castle will air following a repeat of Desperate. Part 2 of this 2-part episode airs the following night on its normal night and will be all-new. Brothers & Sisters repeat for this night is no longer scheduled.]

Friday, April 2, 2010
8:00pm Wife Swap (season premiere)

@thefutoncritic
This just in: JAMIE OLIVER'S FOOD REVOLUTION to premiere Sunday, March 21 after DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES; moves to regular time period on 3/26

@thefutoncritic
This just in: JAMIE OLIVER'S FOOD REVOLUTION to premiere Sunday, March 21 after DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES; moves to regular time period on 3/26
Nice! Glad to see ABC giving it a chance! :)

@thefutoncritic
This just in: JAMIE OLIVER'S FOOD REVOLUTION to premiere Sunday, March 21 after DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES; moves to regular time period on 3/26

Good move here. Friday's are tough to premiere a show on. This will definitely help it out.

But in the long run, it's airing against Kitchen Nightmares and Medium - Medium may not affect it all that much, but you'd have to think it would share a similar audience with Kitchen Nightmares. ABC might have been better off airing it at 8pm, with WifeSwap going to 9pm.

Correct about Jamie Oliver launching after Desperate on March 21. I knew they would do that...good move. Wife Swap will now launch on Friday, April 2:

Sunday, March 21, 2010
10:01pm Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (special sneak preview)

Friday, March 26, 2010
8:00pm Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (R, 3/21)
9:00pm Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (all-new, timeslot premiere)

Friday, April 2, 2010
8:00pm Wife Swap (season premiere)

I'm guessing episode 2 of Jamie Oliver could encore after the all-new two-hour Home Edition on April 4 for even more exposure instead of a Brothers and Sisters repeat...but it might not work out financially for them, so maybe not.

ESPN Sports Saturday is coming to ABC Saturday afternoons (4-6pm ET/2-4pm PT) starting Saturday, April 3, 2010, which includes a new series titled Winning Bracket at 5pm ET/3pm PT:

ABC to Debut ESPN Sports Saturday Block April 3

Two-Hour Window Comprised of New Series and Popular ESPN Franchises


ESPN Sports Saturday, a new block of sports programming on ABC, will launch Saturday, April 3, from 4-6 p.m. ET, it was announced by John Skipper, ESPN executive vice president, content. The two-hour window will consist of a new 60-minute, highlight-driven series entitled Winners Bracket and a mix of some of ESPN’s most distinctive offerings, including films from the acclaimed 30 for 30 documentary series, episodes of the ESPN’s award-winning newsmagazine E:60 and installments of the interview-focused Homecoming with Rick Reilly.

ESPN Sports Saturday will generally be featured Saturdays from 4-6 p.m. April through mid-August before returning for another round of shows December 2010 through August 2011. For certain weeks as schedule dictates, ESPN Sports Saturday may be less than two hours.


“ESPN Sports Saturday is a creative way to mix more high quality sports product with ABC’s strong live event lineup,” Skipper said. "Winners Bracket will review the sports week using a fresh and fun approach, while some of the very best ESPN series will provide an extremely compelling companion.”

Bill Hoffman, vice president, general manager, WSB-TV in Atlanta and the chair of the sports committee for the ABC Affiliate Board of Governors commented, "We are excited about this brand new sports offering from such a trusted brand. This program comes as a result of great creative thinking and collaboration between the ABC Board and ESPN."


ESPN Sports Saturday

The two-hour block, anchored by ESPN SportsCenter’s Hannah Storm, will generally begin with a 60-minute episode of one of the three ESPN series at 4:00 p.m. followed by the all-new hour-long Winners Bracket at 5:00 p.m. Storm will guide viewers throughout, with comments from ESPN’s Bristol, Conn., studios. Additionally, during the last portion of the block, local ABC affiliates will have the opportunity to insert a short, local update to promote upcoming programming.


April 3 and 10 Programming

For the first two weeks of ESPN Sports Saturday, new episodes of different ESPN shows will make their debut in the block’s first hour. Coinciding with the start of the Final Four on April 3, the television debut of the 30 for 30 film, Guru of Go, a documentary about the incredible run of Loyola Marymount’s men’s basketball team and the tragic death of star Hank Gathers, airs at 4 p.m. ET and will be followed by the premiere of new series Winners Bracket at 5 p.m. ET.
The following week (April 10) – the first full weekend of the MLB season -- a new episode of Homecoming with Rick Reilly featuring Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer wil air at 4 p.m. ETl lead into Winners Bracket at 5 p.m. ET


About Winners Bracket

This new, 60-minute series, hosted from Bristol, Conn., by ESPN SportsNation co-host Michelle Beadle and ESPN contributor and former NFL star Marcellus Wiley, will debate and recap the week in sports in a bracket-style format. Frequent appearances and perspective from ESPN’s experts in various sports will be a regular part of the show. Each episode will include highlights, analysis and discussion of the biggest newsmakers and stories from the world of sports, culminating with the determination of the bracket champion.

From great performances to record-setting moments to unforgettable quotes, the 16 biggest newsmakers of the week will be pitted against each other in seeded brackets. For each round, the debate will be framed through highlights, comments from ESPN analysts and perspective from the hosts.

Other elements planned for Winners Bracket include segments on a collection of athlete and coach sound bytes, a taste of that week in sports history, a countdown of the 20 “lowlights” from the week and a look at athletes that fans would have expected to see in the bracket but missed.


Other Series on ESPN Sports Sunday:
30 for 30, E:60, Homecoming with Rick Reilly

Inspired by ESPN's 30th anniversary this past year, ESPN Films launched 30 for 30, an unprecedented documentary series featuring 30 of today's finest storytellers who chronicle 30 remarkable stories from the ESPN era. Each storyteller brings their passion and point of view to his/her film detailing the issues and events that transformed the sports landscape since 1979.

E:60 is ESPN’s first multi-subject, prime-time news magazine program offering a combination of investigative features, profiles of intriguing sports personalities, and cutting edge stories on innovation in the sports world, including emerging sports and new technology. The series focuses on life stories that relate or have a basis in sports, melding its stories with a glimpse of the reporters’ experiences – discussing the story idea with producers, creating storylines and shooting the interviews. By turning the camera on the story subjects and reporters, the program gives the viewer a unique behind-the-scenes look at television storytelling.

Homecoming with Rick Reilly challenges that old adage "you can't go home again." Hosted by 11-time Sportswriter of the Year Rick Reilly, the show features a one-on-one interview with a prominent athlete. Reilly brings his unique style of storytelling to the series set in the athletes’ hometown or formative place surrounded by friends and family they’ve known throughout their life.


Existing ESPN on ABC Programming

In addition to the new ESPN Sports Saturday, ESPN on ABC offers a variety of top quality live event programming. Among the offerings are NBA regular-season and playoffs, including The Finals, World Cup soccer, NASCAR Sprint Cup, the Indianapolis 500, SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament semifinals and championship, Belmont Stakes, Little League World Series and Saturday Night Football, the only weekly primetime college football series on broadcast television.

More on ESPN Sports Saturday on ABC:

Regular 4-6PM ET/2-4PM PT dates for 2010: Saturdays April 3, 10, May 1, 8, 22, July 24, 31, August 7, 14, December 11, 18, 2010
Special dates: Saturday May 15, 2010 from 5-6PM ET/3-4PM PT; Saturday June 12, 2010 from 5-6PM ET/2-3PM PT; Saturdays June 19, 26, July 3, 10, 2010 from 4:30-6PM ET/1:30-3PM PT (because World Cup Soccer airs from 2-4:30PM ET).


NBA Playoffs Schedule on ABC:

Saturday, April 17, 2010
2:30PM-5:30PM ET First Round Game

Sunday, April 18, 2010
2:30PM-5:30PM ET First Round Game

Sunday, April 25, 2010
12:30PM-3:30PM ET First Round Game
3:30PM-6:00PM ET First Round Game

Sunday, May 2, 2010
12:30PM-3:30PM ET First Round Game #7 or Semifinals Game #1
3:30PM-6:00PM ET First Round Game #7 or Semifinals Game #1

Saturday, May 8, 2010
8:00PM-11:00PM ET Semifinals Game

Sunday, May 9, 2010
3:00PM-6:00PM ET Semifinals Game

Sunday, May 16, 2010
3:00PM-6:00PM ET Semifinals Game #7 or Conference Final Game #1
[Note the rest of the Conference Finals would be on ESPN if ABC does have Game 1 on this afternoon.]


NBA Finals on ABC Schedule

Thursday, June 3, 2010
8:30PM-11:30PM ET: Game #1

Sunday, June 6, 2010
7:30PM-11:00PM ET: Game #2

Tuesday, June 8, 2010
8:30PM-11:30PM ET: Game #3

Thursday, June 10, 2010
8:30PM-11:30PM ET: Game #4

Sunday, June 13, 2010
7:30PM-11:00PM ET: Game #5 (if necessary)

Tuesday, June 15, 2010
8:30PM-11:30PM ET: Game #6 (if necessary)

Thursday, June 17, 2010
8:30PM-11:30PM ET: Game #7 (if necessary)

ROMANTICALLY CHALLENGED

Episode Titles

1. #101 "Don't Be Yourself" (taped Thursday, January 28, 2010)
2. #102 "Perry Dates His Assistant" (taped Thursday, February 11, 2010)
3. #103 "The Charade" (taped Friday, February 19, 2010)
4. #104 "Rebecca Has a One Night Stand" (taped Thursday, March 4, 2010)
5. #105 "Perry & Rebecca's High School Reunion" (taped Thursday, March 11, 2010)
6. #106 TBD season finale (tapes Thursday, March 18, 2010)

So far ABC Comedy Wednesday have aired 17 episodes each. Two more will air this month (March 24 and 31), for a total of 19 for each. All three series (The Middle, Modern Family, Cougar Town) have an order of 24 episodes each. How do you think they should be aired? April 7, ABC has scheduled repeats already for that night, so that is out of the question.

I'm guessing April 14 will be all-new (for episode 20 for all three), since the Betty finale is at 10pm. Maybe repeats on April 21 then all-new on April 28 (episode 21's) since Happy Town premieres. Then May sweep starts, so May 5 episode 22's would air for all three. May 12 would have episode 23's. And May 19 would be episode 24's, the season finales of each. I doubt they would air the finales against Idol finale on May 26.

I wonder if the two-part Modern Family Hawaii episode would air as an hour-long finale though?

if thye are airing comedies againts IDOL finale then it will be 5 in a row, from apr 28th. if not, then i suggest april 21st is the start of 5 in a row. Betty is leaving, it doesnt need fresh eps, and even when it has fresh eps it gets at most a 1.4. So if they air finales of comedies on the 27th, then they will have 3 straight weeks of reruns, if not only 2. We know there are gonna be at least 4 in a row at the end and I would suggest they run 5 consecutive., Its not ideal to have one week on and one week off. April 14th is Idol Gives Back too

BTW since you're asking about scheduling why is there a PP rerun this week? If they, as always, run a 2 hour finale of GA, there will need to be one week of PP with out GA and this would logically be the week, as oppossed to airing after a GA rerun. There is no Mentalist this week. I assume GA is gonna be off Apr 1st, 8th and 15th. with ep 19 airing the 22nd. the folllowing week starts sweeps. Not thrilled that ABC thurs are going into reruns right when FOX comes back. This is what happened in Dec. Its not smart if you ask me. I would have kept Thur reruns til this week and run three GA's in a row starting this week (will give FF some support although prob too late for that show anyway) and would at least be comepetetive with FOX april 1st. April is gonna have lots of wed, thurs rerun weeks. NBC is airng a new SNL special to take place a week of Thurs reruns. that did really well in DEC. I wish ABC would try something special too. I know they need to make money off reruns, but if you ask me i would schedule those reruns on Fri or Sat. At this point originals are down, reruns make them virtually off the air. CBS will be new all Apr and May. NBC has one week of OFFICE rerun marathon and one week SNL and then all originals. FOX is all originals. ABC is gonna be the only net in reruns from 9-11p for 3 weeks, Unless they have another plan. I have mentioned this before but I think this scheduling hurts them.
I would at least try to make some GREYS behind the scenes special just to try to be comeptetive.

Well Wednesday in repeats is not because they scheduled them against the Olympics, because they were repeats those two weeks. Imagine if they aired the comedies throughout Feb. sweeps, it would have been worse for repeats in April. I still would rather have more originals Sept. to March because viewership is higher.

Grey's/Private are next new on March 25 and April 1. So they are not giving up against Fox (which is not a big deal if you ask me) on April 1. I am not sure about beyond that yet. And I am thinking Grey's is not having a two-episode finale on one night, which would mean both Greys would be new from April 22-May 20, and only two weeks off (April 8 and 15). Maybe Private will end May 13, since it has 23 episode order rather than 24 (which Grey's has). Maybe a preview of Copper or something will air after Grey's on May 20 at 10pm.

I havent checked the grid at ABC yet, so thats good they are new April 1st too and yeah a preview of Copper sounds like a good idea. Guess it depends on what they doing for Summer. Please let it not be GREYS reruns on Thurs again. Maybe you are right. Im just going by what ABC always does and they seem to love 2 hour finales. But if there is a 2 hr finale, there will be 3 weeks of no new eps from the 8th-22nd.

Look i dont want to get into a back and forth about this and we can agree to disagree but FOX has made strides on Thurs and GREYS has come down, you cant argue with facts. I dont think its necessarily fair cause i think GREYS has been great creatively but lets be honest. It's been beaten by Survivor, OFFICE, even this week it tied the OFFICE in its half hour. GREYS is a full point lower than the FALL. No other shows have dropped that much. In the fall it was the flat out winner. I personally think when other nets were original in Dec and ABC wasnt, it allowed FRINGE to pick up some new viewers that never came back, so yeah the fact that it will be off for (possibly) 3 weeks when others nets have shows that people watch, I dont think is a good idea. I dont think it was smart to waste new eps against the Olympics, GREYS was low that week and it means another week of reruns in April. They also could have scheduled another Bachelor ep Thursday (more bachelorettes) and they would have gotten the same rating and conserved the GREYS. Other nets chose not to run originals against Olympics. Clearly my thinking isnt off. Wouldnt it be better to have new eps of Sunday shows the 28th instead of reruns, esp with CBS and NBC new.

Im less concerned about Wed reruns than Thurs, and I am well aware that if they ran comedies againts Olympics there would be more,but you asked aq ues about scheduling so I gave my opinion.

ABC said they had to schedule 1 or 2 episodes of Desperate/Brothers/Grey's/Private against the Olympics because it was during Feb. sweeps and those shows do not repeat well at all (unfortunately for Sunday, there were three Sundays against the Olympics, thus Desperate/B&S aired 2 new eps vs. it while Thurs only aired one new ep against it). It's all about ad time and pleasing their local affiliates and it would cost a bundle to replace big guns like Greys/Desperate even for one week during a major sweep period. They're better off airing a repeat of them even than not airing them. I know you're just looking at a ratings point of view, but they have to think financially as well. So The Bachelor idea on that Thursday against the Olympics is indeed a good idea, but wouldn't work for them to pull Grey's in ad time during a major sweep, even a repeat. The other nets (CBS), repeat well with their crime and comedy (notice they didn't preempt anything). So you can see why ABC repeated the comedies and Castle during the Olympics. Really wish there was a better way to look at ratings these days, since DVR/internet has changed the game.

As for Grey's now, it is very strange it is down a point. The Office/CSI are about the same where they were in the fall (not counting the hyped Office one-hour episode), so it's not like viewers went there instead. Grey's only was new once against the Olympics, too. Maybe it was the two month break from mid-Nov to mid-Jan that was the reason, who knows. You can argue that Fringe will have the same 2 month break to overcome when it was starting to gain ground against repeats, but even then the best Fringe could do was a 3. I think we'll see it back to its 2.2-2.5 levels come April 1 when it has Greys/CSI/Office to overcome.

I hope Grey's can go back to its Jan-Feb levels of 4.5-4.8 at least instead of this 3.7-4.0 crap.

As for Grey's now, it is very strange it is down a point. The Office/CSI are about the same where they were in the fall (not counting the hyped Office one-hour episode), so it's not like viewers went there instead. Grey's only was new once against the Olympics, too. Maybe it was the two month break from mid-Nov to mid-Jan that was the reason, who knows. You can argue that Fringe will have the same 2 month break to overcome when it was starting to gain ground against repeats, but even then the best Fringe could do was a 3. I think we'll see it back to its 2.2-2.5 levels come April 1 when it has Greys/CSI/Office to overcome.

I hope Grey's can go back to its Jan-Feb levels of 4.5-4.8 at least instead of this 3.7-4.0 crap.

I have heard of loads of grumbling from Grey's Anatomy fans how the show is just not good anymore. I think this is a show clearly in decline, and has seen its better days behind it.

I'm not sure why you're still talking about the Olympics. For Sundays, if anything, it's Undercover Boss that's hurting Desperate Housewives. And now, it has to go up against that and Celebrity Apprentice. I wouldn't be surprised to see DH hit series low for the rest of the season, as the audience is clearly leaving. As for Grey's, I'm not really sure why ratings are down, but they're down. It's competition is the same as before. I guess viewers just aren't responding to all the cast and quality changes.

I'm not sure why you're still talking about the Olympics. For Sundays, if anything, it's Undercover Boss that's hurting Desperate Housewives. And now, it has to go up against that and Celebrity Apprentice. I wouldn't be surprised to see DH hit series low for the rest of the season, as the audience is clearly leaving. As for Grey's, I'm not really sure why ratings are down, but they're down. It's competition is the same as before. I guess viewers just aren't responding to all the cast and quality changes.

I'm sorry but there isn't anything of quality occurring on Grey's. I'm a regular viewer and i've completely lost interest. No character development, the hospital merger is a complete bore and the storylines are being presented as if 14 years are writing the program. These are just some of the reasons people have stopped watching. In terms of DH, there isn't anything of interest happening on the show. Where's the mystery storyline? Better yet who really cares about that storyline. Each week we're presented with standalone episodes about minor or recently introduced characters that we the viewer have no vested interest in. I can miss three back to back episodes and still nothing happens which basically sums up Grey's this season. Watching a strong character like Bailey act like a teenage girl on her first date is pathetic.

Multiple Emmy Award winner and social media sensation Betty White will guest star in the season finale episode of “The Middle,” which will air in May. “The Middle” airs WEDNESDAYS (8:30-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network and stars Emmy winner Patricia Heaton.

In the episode, which shoots next week, Ms. White will play a school librarian who confronts Brick (Atticus Shaffer) over his failure to return numerous overdue books.

“The Middle” stars Patricia Heaton as Frankie, Neil Flynn as Mike, Charlie McDermott as Axl, Eden Sher as Sue, Atticus Shaffer as Brick and Chris Kattan as Bob.

“The Middle” Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline are the co-creators and executive producers of “The Middle,” which is a production of Warner Bros. Television.

With aging veteran hits Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives clearly in decline, and Lost retiring ABC is going to have trouble moving forward. The only hits left are Dancing With The Stars/The Bachelor with Modern Family being a modest hit. If they are to compete with FOX and CBS in the future they are going to need to develop more hits. When it comes to new hits ABC has nothing more than modest hit Modern Family to show for the past few years of development. ABC is lucky to have NBC around to keep it out of last place in the 18-49 year olds in the coming years.

I have heard of loads of grumbling from Grey's Anatomy fans how the show is just not good anymore. I think this is a show clearly in decline, and has seen its better days behind it.

Besides last week's Grey's episode, I have found the season to be excellent. Yes, there are more standalone episodes, but wasn't that the complaint from people before? That it was too serialized? Now that they have some standalone episodes, it gets complaints the other way around. People always complain about everything. And it is in its sixth season, so of course its best days are behind it but it still has legs.


I'm not sure why you're still talking about the Olympics. For Sundays, if anything, it's Undercover Boss that's hurting Desperate Housewives. And now, it has to go up against that and Celebrity Apprentice. I wouldn't be surprised to see DH hit series low for the rest of the season, as the audience is clearly leaving. As for Grey's, I'm not really sure why ratings are down, but they're down. It's competition is the same as before. I guess viewers just aren't responding to all the cast and quality changes.

Live ratings are getting very old fashioned as the days go by. People are still watching Desperate Housewives (and Grey's), but at their own time via DVR (they are top shows in DVR). And still the both are the top shows on television even in their sixth season (and they are serials, so it is even tougher to sustain). Yes, the last few weeks have been not too high in the ratings for Desperate, but I guess people forgot how it was doing earlier in the season and as recent as Jan. 3 when it got a 5.2 rating (Jan. 10 was not that far off from that either). Going up against the Grammy's and Olympics doesn't help either. I hope we get back to normal ratings for tonight (tonight was the first time it will be facing regular shows since mid-January), because it was an excellent episode (and with MAJOR plot movements). I'm thinking ABC asked Marc Cherry to slow the plot movement for the previous 2-3 episodes (since they were going up against the Grammys/Olympics). Same goes true for Grey's vs. Olympics (well that was just one episode). Celebrity Apprentice will get slaughtered (at least I think so) by Desperate/Boss/Family Guy.


With aging veteran hits Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives clearly in decline, and Lost retiring ABC is going to have trouble moving forward. The only hits left are Dancing With The Stars/The Bachelor with Modern Family being a modest hit. If they are to compete with FOX and CBS in the future they are going to need to develop more hits. When it comes to new hits ABC has nothing more than modest hit Modern Family to show for the past few years of development. ABC is lucky to have NBC around to keep it out of last place in the 18-49 year olds in the coming years.

I like how you just write off Grey's/Desperate based on a few weeks. I guess when The Bachelor was written off two years ago, no one would have guessed its comeback last January. And this is not that steep of a drop like The Bachelor's drop a few years ago. I think we should wait and see still on how they perform the rest of the season. They are still top shows for ad sales and even with these drops, still will be next season. As for Modern Family, it will continue to grow. You know that it can, as you saw Big Bang Theory grow. Comedies are easier to maintain than serialized series, because anyone can tune in at any point.

I like how you just write off Grey's/Desperate based on a few weeks. I guess when The Bachelor was written off two years ago, no one would have guessed its comeback last January. And this is not that steep of a drop like The Bachelor's drop a few years ago. I think we should wait and see still on how they perform the rest of the season. They are still top shows for ad sales and even with these drops, still will be next season. As for Modern Family, it will continue to grow. You know that it can, as you saw Big Bang Theory grow. Comedies are easier to maintain than serialized series, because anyone can tune in at any point.

I think we are seeing more of a pattern then just a few off weeks for Grey's/Desperate. These are aging shows. The Bachelor is different because people can just pick it up and watch in any given season or episode. Once Grey's/Desperate loses its audience it will be difficult to get it back. That is the nature of serialized type shows.

I agree on Modern Family. That is ABC's one find for several years of development now. It does have room for growth. It is a modest hit now, it could become bigger in the future. However, they need to find some new hits or they are going to really fall behind CBS and FOX. ABC may be pushing it to find a show on their schedule next season averaging over a 4.0 in the demo.

Still no premiere date announced for Romantically Challenged. ABC likes the show but it is just hard to schedule something when they don't have any other multicam sitcoms.

It could still air Mondays at 9:30 starting April 12, but it is becoming less likely as we get closer to that date (and Big Bang airs here on CBS). It can't air with Wednesday since they are all single camera and family comedies (unless it airs with Cougar Town, but not likely since they have booked Happy Town at 10). I wouldn't be surprised if ABC schedules it Wednesdays at 9:30pm (leading into Happy Town) in early summer out of Modern repeats. It would work, I think. Especially if they launch it June 9 after big promotion during NBA Finals Games 1 (June 3), 2 (June 6), and 3 (June 8).

Happy Town will end its season after the June 16 airing. They could schedule Primetime: Crime or something on Wednesdays at 10 starting June 23.

I'd do this for Wednesdays in summer (my thoughts, this is NOT ABC's schedule):

My June 2
8-9pm The Middle (R, first two eps)
9-10pm Modern Family (R, first two eps)
10pm Happy Town (all-new, ep 6)

My June 9 and 16
8pm Modern Family (R, ep 3/5)
8:30 The Middle (R, ep 3/4)
9pm Modern Family (R ep 4/6)
9:30pm Romantically Challenged (all-new, eps 1/2)
10pm Happy Town (all-new, eps 7/8)

My June 23-July 14
8pm Modern Family (R, eps 7/9/11/13)
8:30 The Middle (R, eps 5-8)
9pm Modern Family (R, eps 8/10/12/14)
9:30pm Romantically Challenged (all-new, eps 3-6)
10pm Primetime: Crime OR What Would You Do? (all-new)

My July 21-rest of summer
8pm Modern Family (R)
8:30 The Middle (R)
9pm Modern Family (R)
9:30pm Cougar Town/Romantically Challenged (R)
10pm Primetime: Crime OR What Would You Do? (all-new)
[Note: Whenever 10pm is finished in late summer, Cougar Town repeats can take over the 10pm hour with Challenged coming back for repeats at 9:30, if it does well.)

I would re-air ALL 24 episodes of Modern Family in the summer.

Is ABC planning on reairing the Thanksgiving episode of The Middle in the summer? I really hope so, it's the only episode I've missed and ABC didn't do any favors to its fans airing new episodes on Thanksgiving Eve. Also, are there any burn-off plans for Hank? They could air a one night marathon of the six unaired episodes, if it does bad it would still only take up one night of their schedule.

Still no premiere date announced for Romantically Challenged. ABC likes the show but it is just hard to schedule something when they don't have any other multicam sitcoms.

It could still air Mondays at 9:30 starting April 12, but it is becoming less likely as we get closer to that date (and Big Bang airs here on CBS). It can't air with Wednesday since they are all single camera and family comedies (unless it airs with Cougar Town, but not likely since they have booked Happy Town at 10). I wouldn't be surprised if ABC schedules it Wednesdays at 9:30pm (leading into Happy Town) in early summer out of Modern repeats. It would work, I think. Especially if they launch it June 9 after big promotion during NBA Finals Games 1 (June 3), 2 (June 6), and 3 (June 8).

Happy Town will end its season after the June 16 airing. They could schedule Primetime: Crime or something on Wednesdays at 10 starting June 23.

I'd do this for Wednesdays in summer (my thoughts, this is NOT ABC's schedule):

My June 2
8-9pm The Middle (R, first two eps)
9-10pm Modern Family (R, first two eps)
10pm Happy Town (all-new, ep 6)

My June 9 and 16
8pm Modern Family (R, ep 3/5)
8:30 The Middle (R, ep 3/4)
9pm Modern Family (R ep 4/6)
9:30pm Romantically Challenged (all-new, eps 1/2)
10pm Happy Town (all-new, eps 7/8)

My June 23-July 14
8pm Modern Family (R, eps 7/9/11/13)
8:30 The Middle (R, eps 5-8)
9pm Modern Family (R, eps 8/10/12/14)
9:30pm Romantically Challenged (all-new, eps 3-6)
10pm Primetime: Crime OR What Would You Do? (all-new)

My July 21-rest of summer
8pm Modern Family (R)
8:30 The Middle (R)
9pm Modern Family (R)
9:30pm Cougar Town/Romantically Challenged (R)
10pm Primetime: Crime OR What Would You Do? (all-new)
[Note: Whenever 10pm is finished in late summer, Cougar Town repeats can take over the 10pm hour with Challenged coming back for repeats at 9:30, if it does well.)

I would re-air ALL 24 episodes of Modern Family in the summer.

Pavan, why does it matter to ABC that Romantically Challenged is the only multi-cam comedy? I don't get what that has to do with airing the show on Wed. with their other single cam comedies. Well, I pray ABC doesn't air it in the summer. That's just a death sentence. Is it possible that if ABC likes the show as much as you think, that instead of airing it now or in the summer, they hold off and air it in the fall as part of the 2010-2011 season?

As an Alyssa fan, I believe she deserves to be on a hit show, which I think RC can be(I've read 'sides' for all 6 eps). I just don't want ABC to screw this up for her by bad scheduling. I think scheduling it in the summer is just a nail in its coffin. I don't know of any series that premiered during the summer to become a huge hit in the fall seasons(except on cable or reality shows). I hope you are wrong and that ABC does air it in April after DWTS. I think if DWTS holds it's own on Mondays, RC can compete against BBT, with good promotion. I may be in the minority but I can't stand BBT and no one I know watches it. So, I'm sure there are enough viewers around to accomodate both comedies.

catsrule, I'm not sure about the Thanksgiving episode of The Middle reairing in summer, but there is a chance I guess. I don't think Hank will be burned-off. If it does it might be Wednesdays at 8 leading into the repeats, but I doubt it.

canuck75, RC is an adult comedy, so I don't think airing in the 8pm hour is a good idea, that is why I said it wouldn't work with the single camera family comedies. So Wednesdays at 8pm is not an option even if ABC has repeats airing there now. It would work in between Modern Family and Cougar Town I think, but then the comedy block would have to be moved into the 10pm hour, too, and that isn't going to happen this season since they have scheduled Happy Town in the hour. So the only options for this season is Mondays at 9:30 starting April 12 or Wednesdays in the summer.
I would love for ABC to hold it for the fall. I have been waiting for this show since last May. If they don't schedule it during this season (before May), then I do hope they hold it for fall.

ABC should pick up Gary Unmarried.

catsrule, I'm not sure about the Thanksgiving episode of The Middle reairing in summer, but there is a chance I guess. I don't think Hank will be burned-off. If it does it might be Wednesdays at 8 leading into the repeats, but I doubt it.

canuck75, RC is an adult comedy, so I don't think airing in the 8pm hour is a good idea, that is why I said it wouldn't work with the single camera family comedies. So Wednesdays at 8pm is not an option even if ABC has repeats airing there now. It would work in between Modern Family and Cougar Town I think, but then the comedy block would have to be moved into the 10pm hour, too, and that isn't going to happen this season since they have scheduled Happy Town in the hour. So the only options for this season is Mondays at 9:30 starting April 12 or Wednesdays in the summer.
I would love for ABC to hold it for the fall. I have been waiting for this show since last May. If they don't schedule it during this season (before May), then I do hope they hold it for fall.

If RC does not make it to air in April/May, during the regular season, then it probably will air in the summer, much like new episodes of Better off Ted did last year. It just feels like ABC has lost faith in the show in the same way they lost faith in Traveler a few years back when they premiered that in mid-May to burn off in summer.

They should put Cougar Town on hiatus and air RC in that timeslot starting the first week of April. If the show airs on Mondays, it will not do well. DWTS is skewing so much older now than when Samantha Who? aired in the slot and the competition from CBS is so much stronger.

catsrule, I'm not sure about the Thanksgiving episode of The Middle reairing in summer, but there is a chance I guess. I don't think Hank will be burned-off. If it does it might be Wednesdays at 8 leading into the repeats, but I doubt it.

canuck75, RC is an adult comedy, so I don't think airing in the 8pm hour is a good idea, that is why I said it wouldn't work with the single camera family comedies. So Wednesdays at 8pm is not an option even if ABC has repeats airing there now. It would work in between Modern Family and Cougar Town I think, but then the comedy block would have to be moved into the 10pm hour, too, and that isn't going to happen this season since they have scheduled Happy Town in the hour. So the only options for this season is Mondays at 9:30 starting April 12 or Wednesdays in the summer.
I would love for ABC to hold it for the fall. I have been waiting for this show since last May. If they don't schedule it during this season (before May), then I do hope they hold it for fall.


For Rom Challenged to air before the summer/next fall when's the latest they have to announce the premiere? In your previous post you said ABC likes the show, do you know what the brass @ ABC is saying 'behind closed doors'?

I agree with Pavan. They should just hold Romantically Challenged until the Fall. If ABC lowers its expectations for RC then they could do it in the summer.

And yes, canuck75, you are in a very tiny minority. The Big Bang Theory has become one of the two biggest sitcoms (and biggest of all shows on TV for that matter). It will squash RC like a bug. Loads of people will watch DWTS, and then switch over to CBS for The Big Bang Theory. There will be very few people who will watch the other CBS sitcoms and switch to ABC, but many will leave DWTS after 9:30. As much as I would love to watch RC there is no way I would watch it over The Big Bang Theory. ABC needs to save RC. The season is almost over anyway. Just save it for the Fall so they can find a proper time slot for it.

"Flash Forward" is a huge disaster !!!
There is no chance it will be back this fall.

From what I can tell, Romantically Challenged does not fit anywhere on their schedule, and that's basically the problem. The only comedy it could possible fit with is Cougar Town, and even now, CT has become so more family-oriented than when it first started that it would even have a hard time fitting with that now. ABC wants family comedies on their schedule, especially single-camera ones, which is why RC isn't being scheduled.

Perhaps ABC needs to try giving CT/RC their own comedy hour next season. I'd say Wednesdays at 10pm, but ABC doesn't seem to intent on having a 10pm comedy hour. Perhaps on Tuesdays next season, maybe even Thursdays? If that's the case, might as well just hold RC over until next season.

And agreed on FlashForward - not a chance its returning next season. Under a 2.0 demo and losing to low-rated NBC comedies is not acceptable by any standards.

Cougar Town is still risque. I like it, but it certainly has a more less innocent vibe than Modern Family and The Middle. And FLASHFORWARD's premiere was GREAT at least. Hopefully word spreads and it can see an uptick. Encore tomorrow in primetime and DVR/online viewing will help since it was going up against male-skewing NCAA Basketball. In the fall, it gained 1.8 million an episode in DVR, so hopefully it does similar to that.

Anyway, to some news:

ABC Saturday Movie of the Week is scheduled to air on Saturdays from 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT:

Saturday, April 10, 2010: “Anchor Man: The Legend of Ron Burgundy”
Saturday, April 17, 2010: “Shrek 2”
Saturday, April 24, 2010: “Norbit”
Saturday, May 1, 2010: “Meet the Fockers”
Saturday, May 15, 2010: “Just Like Heaven”

Saturday, May 8 is an NBA Playoff Round 2 (Semifinals) game.

Castle encores will likely follow at 10PM when the movies air, but officially it is only scheduled right now on April 10 with other dates 10PM is listed as TBD.

V encores of episodes 3 and 4 are no longer scheduled this Saturday.

An encore of the season premiere of Dancing with the Stars is scheduled to air instead on Saturday, March 27, 2010 from 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT.

Last night's Dancing with the Stars premiere was the highest rated season premiere EVER for the series with 24.19 million viewers and the second highest season premiere ever among A18-49 with a 6.4 rating.

Other highlights for last night's massive premiere:

- Highest rated ABC Monday in the ratings since Jan. 2001
- Third straight year of ratings growth for a season premiere of a Spring version of the series
- 24.19 million is the 6th highest overall ratings for the series all-time (the top 5 are all performance finales or grand finales: 1. 27.52 million 11/15/06 grand finale, 2. 27.2 million 2/26/06 grand finale, 3. 26.8 million 11/14/06 performance finale, 4. 24.88 million 11/27/07 grand finale, 5. 24.23 million 11/26/07 performance finale)

http://whosnews.usaweekend.com/2010/03/alyssa-milano-sitcom-slated-for-april-debut/

Interesting. I'll ask Alyssa on Twitter. Still nothing official from ABC. But April 19 would be avoiding Big Bang, since it is a repeat. In fact, April 26 Big Bang is also a repeat. Though the next three it would have to face it (May 3, 10, and 17).

ABC has 6 episodes of Romantically Challenged, so I'm guessing the 6th one will air on a special night of Wednesday once.

cool, thanks

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118016813.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&ref=verttv

Personally, I can't imagine RC holding even half the DWTS lead-in. Seems like Castle would have benefited more from the larger lead-in. But, stretching for 2 hours is a bit much I suppose. And, hopefully after this Castle mini-event (which is so far excellent!) is over, it will be able to stand on its own a bit better.

ABC is saying the news on RC as of now, is not true. Honestly, I think we will see two-hour Dancing all Mondays for the rest of the season. I am hoping RC is saved for the fall, but I just found out that is not likely because it was developed for this season not next season. It has great potential and would be a waste to launch it now (or in summer).

ABC is saying the news on RC as of now, is not true. Honestly, I think we will see two-hour Dancing all Mondays for the rest of the season. I am hoping RC is saved for the fall, but I just found out that is not likely because it was developed for this season not next season. It has great potential and would be a waste to launch it now (or in summer).

If ABC is going out of their way to see the news is NOT true, then it seems to me that RC will not be airing this season. Which doesn't make much sense, considering all the comedy pilots they currently have in development. Unless, it ends up as a summer burn-off. Which again makes no sense, considering it was a late pick-up in the first place.

What is going to tell us if ABC is going to use Romantically Challenged this season or is not is if they start running promos, or not. You can't just throw a new series on the schedule without promoting it for several weeks. If they don't start running promos in the next week or so you can forget about April 19. I would think after that date it would just be too late to launch a new show for this season. Watch the promos to see if ABC will launch the show soon, or not.

Superbowl, ABC said it is not premiering April 19. And they have to air it this season (summer does count) I'm told since it was developed for this season. The options for the stars would expire at the end of the summer, so it would be difficult to launch it in the fall because their contracts would have expired since the show never aired.

Superbowl, ABC said it is not premiering April 19. And they have to air it this season (summer does count) I'm told since it was developed for this season. The options for the stars would expire at the end of the summer, so it would be difficult to launch it in the fall because their contracts would have expired since the show never aired.

If ABC did want to premiere it in the fall, wouldn't they just negotiate contract extensions with the cast & crew? It's my understanding that is what ABC did with the cast last summer when it chose to keep the show for midseason instead of the fall. I'm aware that Kyle has already accepted a role in a pilot for CBS, but would he still be obligated to Romantically Challenged even if ABC does decide to keep it off the air until the fall? By this I mean, ABC gives the show an extra 7 episodes to produce to bring the total to 13 episodes(the usual # of episodes ordered by a network for picking up a pilot, with the chance for more episodes).

Just curious, have you ever seen a show get treated this way before?

Network supposedly happy with pilot-hold show for midseason-recast a lead character-change show premise-cut order from 13 to 6-produce 6 episodes-have episodes in the can, but no announcement of a premiere date with about 8 weeks left in the regular TV season

This whole thing seems mind boggling to me, but maybe it's a regular occurance but just caught my attention because this particular show involves my favorite actress.

One other question, do you know what pilots Alyssa was offered earlier this spring as a potential "2nd" option?

Well, they picked-up the pilot late (like August instead of the usual May pick-up) and extended the actors' options because the TV season was still to come. This show was developed for this season (fall and mid-season are the same season still) so they would have to extend their options on the actors again, so that is not likely. So it wouldn't be saved for the fall. It is this season or nothing. If the show airs before the options expire, ABC has them contractually and they wouldn't be able to go anywhere (unless ABC cancels it before Sept.), but if it doesn't air before their options expire they are free to go.

I just hope everything works out and this show airs (maybe it would do well in summer, who knows) and becomes a big hit because it looks very good. Best case would be it does great in the summer and ABC picks-up a second season and they could launch it next midseason. I don't know what other pilots Alyssa was offered this season in second position.

This kind of thing has happened before, mainly at NBC (they usually have one sitcom every year that they pick-up but it never airs). This year the comedy for NBC is 100 Questions, but they are actually airing it...but in the summer. Last season ABC had Alyssa in Single with Parents and they picked it up, but they scrapped it after that. Only one episode was shot though. They didn't like the direction I believe of where that was headed, which is NOT the case here with RomChallenged, so I think scheduling is the main issue here.

Well, they picked-up the pilot late (like August instead of the usual May pick-up) and extended the actors' options because the TV season was still to come. This show was developed for this season (fall and mid-season are the same season still) so they would have to extend their options on the actors again, so that is not likely. So it wouldn't be saved for the fall. It is this season or nothing. If the show airs before the options expire, ABC has them contractually and they wouldn't be able to go anywhere (unless ABC cancels it before Sept.), but if it doesn't air before their options expire they are free to go.

I just hope everything works out and this show airs (maybe it would do well in summer, who knows) and becomes a big hit because it looks very good. Best case would be it does great in the summer and ABC picks-up a second season and they could launch it next midseason. I don't know what other pilots Alyssa was offered this season in second position.

This kind of thing has happened before, mainly at NBC (they usually have one sitcom every year that they pick-up but it never airs). This year the comedy for NBC is 100 Questions, but they are actually airing it...but in the summer. Last season ABC had Alyssa in Single with Parents and they picked it up, but they scrapped it after that. Only one episode was shot though. They didn't like the direction I believe of where that was headed, which is NOT the case here with RomChallenged, so I think scheduling is the main issue here.

Thanks for explaining the situation in more detail. You are awesome. I'm praying ABC comes to their senses soon.

If you haven't seen the threads for the 2010-11 pilot development for ABC:

ABC Sitcoms: http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=264158
ABC Dramas: http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=264161

Superbowl, ABC said it is not premiering April 19. And they have to air it this season (summer does count) I'm told since it was developed for this season. The options for the stars would expire at the end of the summer, so it would be difficult to launch it in the fall because their contracts would have expired since the show never aired.

If they launch it in the summer then it would basically be burn off material. I cannot remember the last successful sitcom that launched in the summer. ABC obviously has just taken a dislkining to this show. If they had any regard for it they would have found a place for it by now. Alyssa will just have to find a new show.

Alyssa says the premiere date will be announced tomorrow. So I don't think this is going to be a summer series. Interesting. They like the show, Superbowl, they are supporting it. I think it could be a big hit because the plot of these episodes sound great.

Premiere date for RomChallenged being announced at 1pm ET. I'll post it as soon as I can. Maybe even before. Keep checking.

Announcement has been delayed by a bit (figures right?). But still happening today hopefully by 3pm.

And the official premiere date for Romantically Challenged is... Monday, April 12, 2010 at 9:30pm. More info to come.

Details: http://www.sitcomsonline.com/blog/2010/03/abc-officially-announces-romantically.html

Schedule updates:

Monday, April 12, 19, 26; May 3, 17, 2010
9:32pm Romantically Challenged
[one more episode will remain, could air on a Wednesday]

Effective Friday, May 7, 2010
9:00pm What Would You Do?
[Jamie Oliver has its season finale on April 30.]

Well, so much for Romantically Challenged for me. Good luck Alyssa and company. I will not be watching. I will be watching The Big Bang Theory.

Superbowl, you can always DVR or TiVo/record it (whatever you have). And Big Bang will be repeats on April 19 and 26. You should be happy a sitcom of this caliber is airing. Both shows can succeed in one time slot and if it does well this show will be Wednesday-bound next season anyway. It's not like Big Bang Theory will be in any danger of cancelation or anything.

I love The Big Bang Theory but I watch Dancing with the Stars live, but I still watch Big Bang later on at night around 11. Doesn't mean I don't watch a show just because another show is on opposite it. Really this isn't 1980 anymore.

Superbowl, you can always DVR or TiVo/record it (whatever you have). And Big Bang will be repeats on April 19 and 26. You should be happy a sitcom of this caliber is airing. Both shows can succeed in one time slot and if it does well this show will be Wednesday-bound next season anyway. It's not like Big Bang Theory will be in any danger of cancelation or anything.

I love The Big Bang Theory but I watch Dancing with the Stars live, but I still watch Big Bang later on at night around 11. Doesn't mean I don't watch a show just because another show is on opposite it. Really this isn't 1980 anymore.

I do not watch shows on DVR. The DVR in my house is not in the room I watch TV. I will not start watching a show that I can only see two episodes of. I have said I love Alyssa, but not more than The Big Bang Theory. Sorry, Romantically Challenged, you lose.

If you love Alyssa, you'd watch. ABC.com? Hulu? Why so stubborn?

If you love Alyssa, you'd watch. ABC.com? Hulu? Why so stubborn?

I guess I am old fashioned. I don't watch TV online either.

Yes, I do love Alyssa, but you know I love Kaley more. Not even close. ;)

Old fashioned? Get that VCR to record the premiere then, lol. You can watch episodes 2 and 3 live.

More news:

Saturday Night Football on ABC will kick-off with the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game:

Saturday, September 4, 2010
8:00-11:30 PM ET Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game: LSU vs. North Carolina (live from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta)

The first Romantically Challenged promo will air during DWTS this Monday on ABC! Will run 15 seconds, but still good! It'll air after a Greys/PP promo.

Last night's timeslot premiere for Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution posted an impressive prelim 2.6 18-49 rating at 9pm. That was the highest rated rating for any regular series this season on a Friday (excluding sports/Olympics) in the 9pm hour (and the 8pm hour as well). The only regular airing that was rated higher this season was ABC's 20/20 on Nov. 6 at 10pm which did a 2.8 18-49 rating.

The highest rated regular Friday series from 8-10pm this season prior to Jamie Oliver was the season premiere of Ghost Whisperer which did a 2.3 18-49 rating on Sept. 25 in the 8pm hour.

Last night's timeslot premiere for Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution posted an impressive prelim 2.6 18-49 rating at 9pm. That was the highest rated rating for any regular series this season on a Friday (excluding sports/Olympics) in the 9pm hour (and the 8pm hour as well). The only regular airing that was rated higher this season was ABC's 20/20 on Nov. 6 at 10pm which did a 2.8 18-49 rating.

The highest rated regular Friday series from 8-10pm this season prior to Jamie Oliver was the season premiere of Ghost Whisperer which did a 2.3 18-49 rating on Sept. 25 in the 8pm hour.

Do you know if ABC will be airing repeats of Romantically Challenged on another night, like Saturdays?

Probably not, but I'm guessing the first two episodes will repeat on Wednesday, April 21 from 10-11pm since Comedy Wednesday is repeats that night and nothing is scheduled in this 10pm hour yet.

Last night's week two of season 10 of Dancing with the Stars did a prelim 22.56 million viewers. That is the second highest ratings ever for a non-premiere and non-performance/grand finale behind only the 11/19/2007 episode which did 22.85 million (and that was a week before the finale). So when the finals come out, last night could outrate that episode in total viewers and become the highest rated episode non-premiere/finale wise.

And Castle hit series highs of course last night with the conclusion of a thrilling two-part episode! Prelim 3.7 18-49 rating!

Last night's week two of season 10 of Dancing with the Stars did a prelim 22.56 million viewers. That is the second highest ratings ever for a non-premiere and non-performance/grand finale behind only the 11/19/2007 episode which did 22.85 million (and that was a week before the finale). So when the finals come out, last night could outrate that episode in total viewers and become the highest rated episode non-premiere/finale wise.

And Castle hit series highs of course last night with the conclusion of a thrilling two-part episode! Prelim 3.7 18-49 rating!


ABC just picked up a third season of Monday night drama "Castle."

@franklinavenue
Michael Schneider

Published on The Wrap (http://www.thewrap.com)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

March 30, 2010, 4:01PM PDT
By: Josef Adalian

Quickie Q&A: ABC's Steve McPherson on 'Castle'


It's a big day at ABC.

The network's decision to greenlight another season of "Castle" marks a big turning point. While serialized dramas such as "Grey's Anatomy" and "Brothers & Sisters" have come almost easily to ABC, finding repeatable procedural dramas that work has seemed to be all but impossible for the network.

But now, with "Castle" a hit, ABC seems to have gotten the procedural monkey off its back. TV MoJoe caught up with ABC chief Steve McPherson Tuesday to check in on the day's events:

It's rare these days that shows grow into hits as opposed to simply launching successfully out of the box. "Castle" is clearly in the former camp?
We all believed, on both the production side and the network side, we believed in the creative on this show from the get-go. We loved the casting, we loved Andrew (Marlowe, executive producer) and the work he was doing on the story-telling. It's a great story of patience. It's good to see the ability of broadcast networks to be patient when they can.

What have viewers responded to with "Castle"?
There's a certain amount of alchemy that goes into any kind of show. Our procedurals are always going to have to have a big character element. But I think the mystery and the play-along storytelling and certainly the chemistry (of the stars) is a big part, too.

Have the showrunners been good at working with you to bring up the ratings?
They've been fantastic collaborators. They're very reactive, whether it's ripped from the headlines stuff or the Dana Delany two-part episode... they've been great at adjusting on the fly. One of the biggest things for this show is, it shows the power of what the ABC Entertainment Group can do. It's been a great collaboration between the network and the studio, really working together. It's a great example of success.

This is your first big procedural in a long time.
In terms of close-ended mystery storytelling, yes. The big goals for us going into this season. were procedural dramas that repeat and (boosting) 10 p.m. Those were a big goals for us, along with launching comedies. So that's another check in the success box. There are a lot of positive things about this one.

Now that you've launched one successful close-ended procedural, does it get easier to find more?
Hopefully they become calling cards for us. Before "Modern Family" and "The Middle" and "Cougar Town," people had to take our word for it that we were going to really invest in comedy. Now they see it. People have always brought us the big, serialized ambitious out-there high-concept stuff. Now they know they can bring us this kind of fare as well.

ABC plans scripted three-pack for summer

ABC Planning Scripted 3-Pack for Summer



ABC is hoping to keep its drama momentum going into the summer, moving ahead with plans to launch three new scripted series during what had previously been TV's off-season.

Steve McPherson, head of both ABC and ABC Studios, told TheWrap Tuesday that the the network has decided to launch three new first-run dramas this summer. Scheduling hasn't been announced yet, but should come soon.

"We're doing three originals," McPherson said. "So summer now really is the third trimester for us."

ABC's big push into summer scripted isn't a complete shock, as the network has made no secret of its intention to beef up its warm weather scripted slate, developing certain projects specifically for summer. Still, network plans often change -- so McPherson's statement indicates the network has moved first-run in the summer from the "goal" box to the category of "firm plan."

The scripted shows join previously scheduled unscripted fare, including "Wipeout" and "True Beauty."

For more from McPerson, check out our Instant Q&A with him right here. Descriptions of ABCs previously announced summer shows below:

SCOUNDRELS – “Scoundrels” is an ABC one-hour comedy/drama series produced by ABC Studios that focuses on a family of small-time criminals who attempt to go straight after the father is sent to prison. Virginia Madsen, Independent Spirit Award winner as well as an Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee (“Sideways,” The Astronaut Farmer”) will play Cheryl West, the mother who must take charge and try to keep her kids on the straight and narrow.

“Scoundrels” also stars David James Elliott as Wolfgang “Wolf” West; Patrick Flueger as Logan West/Calvin “Cal” West; Leven Rambin as Heather West; Vanessa Marano as Hope West and Carlos Bernard as Sergeant Mack.

“Scoundrels” is based on a New Zealand series entitled “Outrageous Fortune.” Lyn Greene & Richard Levine (“Nip/Tuck”) and Francie Calfo serve as executive producers. John Barnett, whose company South Pacific Pictures produces the New Zealand series, will also be an executive producer. Co-executive producers will include Michael Larkin, Michael Goldstein, Bruce Cervi and John Lansing.

THE GATES – Nestled inside a private mountain community are The Gates. The image of perpetual suburban bliss, each street is lined with perfectly manicured homes protected by the massive iron gates, but a dark and delicious secret is buried just beneath the surface of this picturesque neighborhood.

Like most families that settle inside The Gates, the Monahans are unmoored from a complicated life they abandoned in Chicago. Named the new police chief of The Gates, Nick Monahan is expecting a change of pace in this quiet suburb. Nick's wife Sarah and their children Charlie and Dana are embarking on new adventures as well. Their house is to die for, but amidst the excitement, Sarah is still burdened with the revelation that her husband may not be the man she thought he was. Their children Charlie and Dana will also face some challenges of their own. Along with navigating the trials and tribulations of adolescence, they will also face the daunting task of fitting into their new upscale school where their new friends run in tight knit packs.

There's something very different about this place almost...haunting. Unions will be complicated by friends with an unnatural influence. Insatiable housewives will struggle with ravenous cravings, and teenagers will be cursed with keeping their beastly instincts in check. The Monahans are facing an uncertain fate. Nick is about to be tangled up in a mystery where he will begin to piece together the dark truth about their new home, and the supernatural elements that lurk behind the shadows of The Gates.

“The Gates” stars Frank Grillo as Nick Monohan, Marisol Nichols as Sarah Monahan, Rhona Mitra as Claire Radcliff, Luke Mably as Dylan Radcliff, Travis Caldwell as Charlie Monohan, Skyler Samuels as Andie Bates, Colton Haynes as Brett Crezski, Chandra West as Devon, Victoria Platt as Peg Mueller, Justin Miles as Marcus Jordan, and Janina Gavankar as Leigh Turner. “The Gates” is produced by Fox Television Studios. Series is executive produced by Gina Matthews, and written and executive produced by Grant Scharbo and Richard Hatem.

ROOKIE BLUE – “Rookie Blue,” a sexy, high-stakes drama with a twist of danger, follows the lives of five inexperienced rookie cops plunged into the world of big city policing, where even the smallest mistake can have life-or-death consequences. The soul of this close-knit group, Andy McNally (Missy Peregrym), comes from a police family and it’s all she’s ever wanted to be. Her dad was cop, although not exactly the best cop nor the best father, so now she is left searching for that sense of family. This group of young, ambitious 20-somethings carries big guns and even bigger emotional baggage. The series examines the trials and triumphs, competition and camaraderie of this rookie family: boyfriends, best friends and “frenemies,” who are about to learn that no amount of training can prepare them for this job – or for life.

“Rookie Blue” stars Missy Peregrym as Andy McNally, Gregory Smith as Dov Epstein, Charlotte Sullivan as Gail Peck, Enuka Okuma as Traci Nash and Travis Milne as Chris Diaz. Tassie Cameron, Ilana Frank, Noreen Halpern, John Morayniss and David Wellington are the executive producers. “Rookie Blue” is produced by Thump Inc. and E1 Entertainment. E1 holds all international rights to the drama series.



Source URL: http://www.thewrap.com/ind-column/quickie-qa-abcs-steve-mcpherson-15805
Links:
[1] http://www.thewrap.com/users/adalian
[2] http://www.thewrap.com/column/tv-mojoe
[3] http://www.thewrap.com/ind-column/abc-planning-scripted-three-pack-summer-1

9:30pm repeat for Modern Family added on a night of repeats on Wednesday, April 21. Also, 8pm half-hour and 10pm hour are TBD:

Wednesday, April 21, 2010
8:00pm The Middle (R, TBD)
8:30pm The Middle (R, TBD)
9:00pm Modern Family (R, "Moon Landing")
9:30pm Modern Family (R, "Starry Night")
10:00pm Cougar Town (R, TBD)
10:30pm Cougar Town (R, TBD)

or possibly Matt Damon special at 10p or maybe V without LOST lead in, which I would love to see them try, but dont expect?

Either way has to be decided by today, doesnt it?

The Damon special will probably air in summer, I think. Don't those type of specials always end up airing in summer? Like those AFI specials.
I don't think V would air out of repeats. I think the show will be back for a second season (probably as an event type series for 13 weeks or so) regardless.

Anyway, more schedule updates:

Saturday, April 17, 2010
8:00pm-10:00pm ABC Saturday Movie of the Week: Shark Tale (replaces Shrek 2)

Sunday, May 23, 2010
11:35pm-12:35am Jimmy Kimmel Live!: Aloha to LOST
[LOST finale night programming airs from 7-11pm with the finale airing from 9-11pm]

April 21 8pm half-hour and 10-11pm now scheduled: http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showpost.php?p=4399733&postcount=1199

ABC April updates:

SUNDAY
* America's Funniest Home Videos: 4/4 (R), 4/11 (all-new #20), 4/18 (R), 4/25 (all-new #21) -- likely May schedule: 5/2 (all-new #22), 5/9 (all-new #23), and 5/16 (all-new #24)
* Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: 4/4 (all-new #20 two-hours), 4/11 (all-new #21), 4/18 (R), 4/25 (R) -- likely May schedule: 5/2 (all-new #22), 5/9 (all-new #23), and 5/16 (all-new #24) [maybe no two-hour finale this season]
* Desperate Housewives: 4/4 and 4/11 (preempted), 4/18 (all-new #19), 4/25 (all-new #20) -- likely May schedule May schedule: 5/2 (all-new #21), 5/9 (all-new #22), and 5/16 (all-new #23) [looks like no two-hour finale]
* Brothers & Sisters: 4/4 (R), 4/11 (all-new #18-19), 4/18 (all-new #20), 4/25 (all-new #201 -- likely May schedule May schedule: 5/2 (all-new #22), 5/9 (all-new #23), and 5/16 (all-new #24)

MONDAY
* Dancing with the Stars (90-minutes unless noted): 4/5 (all-new two-hours #3), 4/12 (all-new #4), 4/19 (all-new #5), 4/25 (all-new #6), 5/3 (all-new #7), 5/10 (all-new two-hours #8), 5/17 (all-new #9), 5/24 (all-new one-hour #10)
* Romantically Challenged: 4/19 (all-new #1), 4/26 (all-new #2) -- likely May schedule: 5/3 (all-new #3), 5/10 preempted, and 5/17 (? TBD if it airs)
* Castle: 4/5 (all-new #19), 4/12 (all-new #20) 4/19 (all-new #21), 4/26 (R) -- likely May schedule: 5/3 (all-new #22), 5/10 (all-new #23), and 5/17 (all-new #24)

TUESDAY
* Dancing with the Stars: The Results: 4/6 (all-new #3a), 4/13 (all-new #4a), 4/20 (all-new #5a), 4/27 (all-new #6a), 5/4 (all-new #7a), 5/11 (all-new #8a), 5/18 (all-new #9a), 5/25 (all-new two-hours #10a)
* LOST: 4/6 (all-new #11), 4/13 (all-new #12), 4/20 (all-new #13), 4/27 (R, "Ab Aterno") -- likely May schedule: 5/4 (all-new #14), 5/11 (all-new #15), 5/18 (all-new #16), and Sun 5/23 (all-new two-hour series finale #17-18)
* V: 4/6 (all-new #6), 4/13 (all-new #7), 4/20 (all-new #8), 4/27 (all-new #9) -- likely May schedule: 5/4 (all-new #10), 5/11 (all-new #11), and 5/18 (all-new #12)

WEDNESDAY
* The Middle: 4/7 (R), 4/14 (all-new #20), 4/21 (R), 4/28 (all-new #21) -- likely May schedule: 5/5 (all-new #22), 5/12 (all-new #23), and 5/19 (all-new #24)
* Modern Family: 4/7 (R), 4/14 (all-new #20), 4/21 (R), 4/28 (all-new #21) -- likely May schedule: 5/5 (all-new #22), 5/12 (all-new #23), and 5/19 (all-new #24)
Cougar Town: 4/7 (R), 4/14 (all-new #20), 4/21 (R), 4/28 (all-new #21) -- likely May schedule: 5/5 (all-new #22), 5/12 (all-new #23), and 5/19 (all-new #24)

THURSDAY:
* FLASHFORWARD: 4/8 (all-new #15), 4/15 (all-new #16), 4/22 (all-new #17), 4/29 (all-new #18) -- likely May schedule: 5/6 (all-new #19), 5/13 (all-new #20), 5/20 (all-new #21), and 5/27 (all-new #22)
* Grey's Anatomy: 4/8 (R), 4/15 (R), 4/22 (R), 4/29 (all-new #20) -- likely May schedule: 5/6 (all-new #21), 5/13 (all-new #22), and 5/20 (all-new two-hour finale #23-24)
* Private Practice: 4/8 (R), 4/15 (R), 4/22 (all-new #20), 4/29 (all-new #21) -- likely May schedule: 5/6 (all-new #22), 5/13 (all-new #23)

But Pavan may 26 is not a season finale of American Idol?
I hope that season finale of wednesday comedy abc stay be may 19.

The futon critic said about april 21 of the middle:
4/21/10 (We.) - 8:30 PM - The Bee (R)
4/21/10 (We.) - 8:00 PM -The Break Up (R)

I don't see this as good news for the show:

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2010/04/05/exclusive-abc-pushes-romantically-challenged-to-april-19/8607/

04.05.10 - 04:50 PM]
EXCLUSIVE: ABC PUSHES "ROMANTICALLY CHALLENGED" TO APRIL 19
By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- ABC has postponed the launch of its Alyssa Milano-led comedy "Romantically Challenged" to Monday, April 19 at 9:32/8:32c.

The news was confirmed to the site exclusively this afternoon.

Originally set for April 12, the half-hour is being delayed an additional week in favor of another expanded edition of "Dancing With the Stars."

I don't see this as good news for the show:

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2010/04/05/exclusive-abc-pushes-romantically-challenged-to-april-19/8607/

04.05.10 - 04:50 PM]
EXCLUSIVE: ABC PUSHES "ROMANTICALLY CHALLENGED" TO APRIL 19
By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- ABC has postponed the launch of its Alyssa Milano-led comedy "Romantically Challenged" to Monday, April 19 at 9:32/8:32c.

The news was confirmed to the site exclusively this afternoon.

Originally set for April 12, the half-hour is being delayed an additional week in favor of another expanded edition of "Dancing With the Stars."

ABC might as well just give up on this show. It seems pretty obvious they don't want to air it. It's going to premiere, air for 3 weeks, then go on a 3 week hiatus before airing a final episode. On top of that, 2 episodes as of now will be left without a home. And there's only 6 episodes ordered. It's insane.

I don't see this as good news for the show:

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2010/04/05/exclusive-abc-pushes-romantically-challenged-to-april-19/8607/

04.05.10 - 04:50 PM]
EXCLUSIVE: ABC PUSHES "ROMANTICALLY CHALLENGED" TO APRIL 19
By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- ABC has postponed the launch of its Alyssa Milano-led comedy "Romantically Challenged" to Monday, April 19 at 9:32/8:32c.

The news was confirmed to the site exclusively this afternoon.

Originally set for April 12, the half-hour is being delayed an additional week in favor of another expanded edition of "Dancing With the Stars."

yeah that doesn't bode well for the show at all.

That being said, I don't think the promos look good at all. I'll still give it a chance but it looks pretty formulaic to me. I'm not as excited as I once was

The postponement by a week could work in shows favor.
But the fact that the show is set to premiere 2 weeks from tonight, and theres not one promo tonight, yet HT which is over 3 weeks away has promos, tells me ABC is having second thoughts.

ABC orders game show set on skyscraper
THR EXCLUSIVE

By James Hibberd

April 5, 2010, 11:00 PM ET
ABC is taking the network game show to new heights with a series from Fremantle Media North America.

In "Downfall," players answer trivia questions on top of a skyscraper in a major metropolitan city for $1 million in cash and prizes.

If they lose, the contestants risk seeing their winnings go off the side of the building. The players might also take a controlled plunge, though that part is still being worked out.

"'Downfall' is a new, hybrid, high-stakes field game show where fearless contestants have to fight and focus hard to keep their winnings from falling off the side of a building," executive producer Scott St. John said.

ABC has ordered an unspecified number of episodes for a summer bow from veteran game show producers Fremantle. Chris Ahern and Graham Shaw are supervising producers.

"Downfall" joins several projects that ABC has in the works for summer and beyond, including an ice dancing series from BBC Worldwide, an extreme weight-loss reality show from J.D. Roth and a deceptive game show from producer Mark Burnett.

I don't see this as good news for the show:

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2010/04/05/exclusive-abc-pushes-romantically-challenged-to-april-19/8607/

04.05.10 - 04:50 PM]
EXCLUSIVE: ABC PUSHES "ROMANTICALLY CHALLENGED" TO APRIL 19
By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- ABC has postponed the launch of its Alyssa Milano-led comedy "Romantically Challenged" to Monday, April 19 at 9:32/8:32c.

The news was confirmed to the site exclusively this afternoon.

Originally set for April 12, the half-hour is being delayed an additional week in favor of another expanded edition of "Dancing With the Stars."

It is a good move because The Big Bang Theory is in repeats on April 19 and 26 (more promo time now and Superbowl can watch now ;) ). I've watched the premiere episode, it is good and has tons of potential. Our review will go up next Friday now as a result of the new premiere date. Reason for the delayed date was to give it a better chance of succeeding than to air against an all-new Big Bang. Make sense.

As for tonight's promos, there were 4 scheduled during DWTS and one during Castle. They were pulled 15 min before the start of DWTS tonight. That is why they didn't air, because of the new premiere date. You'll see the new promos tomorrow.

Julie: I don't understand what you're saying at all. There is no 3 week hiatus. And give up on the show when they're trying to get the best premiere possible? They have went through so much to get this show on the air and creatively it is good they feel or they would have never picked-up the option back in August. You're making no sense at all.

benjamoon: It is a good premiere and will get only better. Very funny by the middle to the end of the premiere. Josh Lawson steals the show.

Schedule updates:

Friday, April 9, 2010
8:00pm Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (R, 4/2)
[Wife Swap is not scheduled to air on this date.]

Monday, April 19, 2010
9:32pm Romantically Challenged (new premiere date)
[Scheduled for April 19, 26, May 3, and May 17]

Blog story: http://www.sitcomsonline.com/blog/2010/04/abc-changes-premiere-date-for.html\

Havent seen any RC since the date change. Last night there were a bunch of HT promos. whats going on? Any RC promos skedded tonight?

Yes, every half-hour tonight during the comedies and Ugly Betty. There were some yesterday in daytime with the new date. It is on YouTube.

thanks

ABC Summer 2010:


ABC ANNOUNCES ITS SUMMER SCHEDULE WITH THE RETURN OF FAVORITES

“THE BACHELORETTE,” “TRUE BEAUTY,” “SHAQ VS,” “WIPEOUT” AND “DATING IN THE DARK,”

ALONG WITH NEW DRAMA SERIES “SCOUNDRELS,” “THE GATES” AND “ROOKIE BLUE,”

NEW ALTERNATIVE SERIES “DOWNFALL” AND “BACHELOR PAD,”

AND ABC NEWS’ SERIES “BOSTON MED,” “PRIMETIME: MIND GAMES,” “HEAD CASES”
AND “PRIMETIME: CRIME”



ABC announces its summer schedule, with the return “The Bachelorette” on Monday, May 24 (9:00-11:00 p.m.); “True Beauty” on Monday, May 31 (10:00-11:00 p.m.); a special two-hour blind date themed episode of “Wipeout” on Tuesday, June 1 (8:00-10:00 p.m.), before the premiere on Tuesday, June 22 (8:00-10:00 p.m.); “Dating in the Dark” on Monday, August 9 (10:00-11:00 p.m.), and “Shaq VS” on Tuesday, August 10 (9:00-10:00 p.m.).

Also premiering are three new scripted series, “The Gates” on Sunday, June 20 (9:00-10:00 p.m.); “Scoundrels” on Sunday, June 20 (10:00-11:00 p.m.); and “Rookie Blue” on Thursday, June 24 (9:00-10:00 p.m.).

New alternative series premiering are “Downfall” on Tuesday, June 29 (9:00-10:00 p.m.), and “Bachelor Pad” on Monday, August 9 (8:00-10:00 p.m.).

ABC News’ series joining the line-up are “Boston Med” on Thursday, June 24 (10:00-11:00 p.m.); “Primetime: Mind Games” on Tuesday, July 20 (10:00-11:00 p.m.); “Head Cases” on Thursday, August 19 (10:00-11:00 p.m.); and “Primetime: Crime” on Tuesday, August 24 (10:00-11:00 p.m.).

"Our strategy is to use the strength of our May programming to launch a strong summer schedule bolstered by three new scripted series," said Stephen McPherson, President, ABC Entertainment Group. "We've got more than 210 hours of original programming this summer, including the return of our hits 'Wipeout' and 'The Bachelorette.' ABC will be a summer destination for viewers."

Additional series and specials will be announced at a later date.



Following is a list of upcoming programming in chronological order (all times ET):

THE BACHELORETTE – PREMIERES MONDAY, MAY 24 (9:00-11:00 p.m.), AND MOVES TO ITS REGULAR TIMESLOT (8:00-10:00 p.m.) ON MONDAY, MAY 31 – Ali Fedotowsky has finally decided to risk it all for love. The energetic and charismatic career-oriented woman from San Francisco has re-prioritized her life – and now love comes out on top. She will have her own opportunity to find her soul mate when she stars in the sixth edition of “The Bachelorette.”

Ali, 25, has been a fan favorite from the moment she stepped out of the limo with her sexy raspy voice and a peacock feather to meet Jake Pavelka on the last season of “The Bachelor.” She became the front-runner for Jake’s heart, but instead they found themselves in a heartbreaking situation when she made a gut-wrenching decision to choose a job she loved over the man she loved. Ali made the surprising safe choice to go back to work, but regretted it immediately. By the time she sorted out her work affairs, Jake had already moved on with his search for love with the three fabulous women who stayed with him, and he did not allow Ali to return. But it’s not too late for Ali now. Admitting that she made one of the biggest mistakes of her life, she has let go of everything this time – her apartment, her job, her stability – to really make a life-changing commitment to put her heart first.

Hosted by Chris Harrison, “The Bachelorette” is produced by Next Entertainment in association with Warner Horizon Television. Mike Fleiss and Martin Hilton are the executive producers.



TRUE BEAUTY – PREMIERES MONDAY, MAY 31 (10:00-11:00 p.m.) – Executive producers Tyra Banks (“The Tyra Banks Show,” “America’s Next Top Model”) and Ashton Kutcher (executive producer of “Punk’d” and “Beauty and the Geek”) team up again to put their spin on beauty in Sin City. Five gorgeous females and five hot men will live together at Planet Hollywood Hotel and think they’re competing to become the “Face of Vegas.” Unbeknownst to them they will be challenged and be put in moral situations to see which contestant really is kind, generous, compassionate and has what it takes to be truly beautiful inside and out.

At the end of eight episodes one winner will be declared after successfully demonstrating that their inner beauty matches their outer beauty. The winner will receive a $100,000 cash prize and a feature article in People magazine.

Vanessa Minnillo (“former host of ET”) returns as a host and judge but will only reveal herself to the contestants once they’re eliminated. Carson Kressley (“Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”) will host as well as judge and put his spin on things in a way only he can. Beth Ostrosky Stern, the wife of the self-described “King of All Media” Howard Stern, will be making her broadcast television debut and share her opinion on beauty being a former model herself.

Executive producers of “True Beauty” are Denise Cramsey (ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition), Tyra Banks and Laura Armstrong for Bankable Productions, and Ashton Kutcher, Jason Goldberg, Karey Burke and Rod Aissa for Katalyst Productions. The series is a production of Warner Horizon Television.



WIPEOUT – SPECIAL TWO-HOUR SNEAK PEEK BLIND DATE THEMED EPISODE TUESDAY, JUNE 1 (8:00-10:00 p.m.), BEFORE THE SERIES PREMIERE TUESDAY, JUNE 22 (8:00-10:00 p.m.) - ABC’s hit summer series “Wipeout,” returns for season three. In a special sneak peek “Wipeout Blind Date” themed episode, love is in the air as we’ve paired up 12 single guys with 12 single girls to take on the “Wipeout” course as their first date and a chance to win a grand prize of $100,000. New stunts to be featured this season are the overdrive, bruise ball and spin cycle.

Contestants will compete in the world’s largest extreme obstacle course, providing the biggest spills and spectacular wipeouts ever seen on television. “Wipeout” was recently nominated for a Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award and was named Entertainment Weekly’s best Guilty Pleasure Reality TV show of all time.

The third season of “Wipeout” will feature brand new, bigger, better and wilder obstacles in addition to specially themed episodes including “Ladies Night,” and “Family Edition.” Each week, 24 energetic new contestants of all ages, shapes and sizes go head to head through four rounds of demanding but hilarious obstacle courses to win the title of “Wipeout Champion” and the $50,000 grand prize. In the end, only one contestant will be victorious, while everyone else will Wipeout!

The series is hosted by John Anderson (ESPN’s “SportsCenter,”), John Henson (“Talk Soup”) and co-hosted by Jill Wagner. “Wipeout” executive producers are Matt Kunitz (“Fear Factor”) and Scott Larsen. Shye Sutherland, Kevin Wehrenberg, Trice Barto and J. Rupert Thompson are co-executive producers. The series is produced by Endemol USA. David Goldberg is the chairman of Endemol North America



THE GATES – PREMIERES SUNDAY, JUNE 20 (9:00-10:00 p.m.) – Nestled inside a private mountain community are The Gates. The image of perpetual suburban bliss, each street is lined with perfectly manicured homes protected by the massive iron gates, but a dark and delicious secret is buried just beneath the surface of this picturesque neighborhood.

Like most families that settle inside The Gates, the Monahans are unmoored from a complicated life they abandoned in Chicago. Named the new police chief of The Gates, Nick Monahan is expecting a change of pace in this quiet suburb. Nick's wife Sarah and their children Charlie and Dana are embarking on new adventures as well. Their house is to die for, but amidst the excitement, Sarah is still burdened with the revelation that her husband may not be the man she thought he was. Their children Charlie and Dana will also face some challenges of their own. Along with navigating the trials and tribulations of adolescence, they will also face the daunting task of fitting into their new upscale school where their new friends run in tight knit packs.

There's something very different about this place almost...haunting. Unions will be complicated by friends with an unnatural influence. Insatiable housewives will struggle with ravenous cravings, and teenagers will be cursed with keeping their beastly instincts in check. The Monahans are facing an uncertain fate. Nick is about to be tangled up in a mystery where he will begin to piece together the dark truth about their new home, and the supernatural elements that lurk behind the shadows of The Gates.

“The Gates” stars Frank Grillo as Nick Monohan, Marisol Nichols as Sarah Monahan, Rhona Mitra as Claire Radcliff, Luke Mably as Dylan Radcliff, Travis Caldwell as Charlie Monohan, Skyler Samuels as Andie Bates, Colton Haynes as Brett Crezski, Chandra West as Devon, Victoria Platt as Peg Mueller, Justin Miles as Marcus Jordan, and Janina Gavankar as Leigh Turner. “The Gates” is produced by Fox Television Studios. Series is executive produced by Gina Matthews, and written and executive produced by Grant Scharbo and Richard Hatem.



SCOUNDRELS – PREMIERES SUNDAY, JUNE 20 (10:00-11:00 p.m.) – “Scoundrels” is an ABC one-hour comedy/drama series produced by ABC Studios that focuses on a family of small-time criminals who attempt to go straight after the father is sent to prison. Virginia Madsen, Independent Spirit Award winner as well as an Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee (“Sideways,” The Astronaut Farmer”) will play Cheryl West, the mother who must take charge and try to keep her kids on the straight and narrow.

“Scoundrels” also stars David James Elliott as Wolfgang “Wolf” West; Patrick Flueger as Logan West/Calvin “Cal” West; Leven Rambin as Heather West; Vanessa Marano as Hope West and Carlos Bernard as Sergeant Mack.

“Scoundrels” is based on a New Zealand series entitled “Outrageous Fortune.” Lyn Greene & Richard Levine (“Nip/Tuck”) and Francie Calfo serve as executive producers. John Barnett, whose company South Pacific Pictures produces the New Zealand series, will also be an executive producer. Co-executive producers will include Michael Larkin, Michael Goldstein, Bruce Cervi and John Lansing.



ROOKIE BLUE – PREMIERES THURSDAY, JUNE 24 (9:00-10:00 p.m.) – A fun, fresh, high-stakes drama with a twist of danger -- follows the lives of five young, ambitious cops, right out of the Academy. From their very first day on the job, these rookies are plunged into the world of big city policing: a world where even the smallest mistake can have life-or-death consequences and serious emotional fall-out. The soul of this close-knit group is 26-year-old perfectionist, Andy McNally (Missy Peregrym). Honest to a fault, all Andy has ever wanted to be is “good police.” Her father was cop, and while he wasn’t the best cop -- or the best father – Andy knows she’ll never find this sense of family, loyalty and excitement in any other job. The series explores the trials, triumphs, competition and camaraderie of Andy and her rookie family: boyfriends, best friends, mentors and competitors, who are about to learn that no amount of training can prepare them for life.

“Rookie Blue” stars Missy Peregrym as Andy McNally, Gregory Smith as Dov Epstein, Charlotte Sullivan as Gail Peck, Enuka Okuma as Traci Nash and Travis Milne as Chris Diaz. Tassie Cameron, Ilana Frank, David Wellington, Noreen Halpern and John Morayniss are the executive producers. “Rookie Blue” is produced by Thump Inc. and E1 Entertainment. E1 holds all international rights to the drama series.



ABC NEWS’ BOSTON MED – PREMIERES THURSDAY, JUNE 24 (10:00-11:00 p.m.) – “Boston Med” picks up where the Peabody award-winning “Hopkins” left off, going even deeper into the lives of caregivers and the cutting edge medical cases they confront inside the walls of America's top hospitals. In this original eight hour series, the unforgettable stories of doctors, nurses and patients are adeptly woven to give each hour the pace and intensity of a drama. Whether it is the young resident in crisis doubting that she is good enough to become a Harvard-trained doctor, or the deployed soldier's pregnant wife praying for a miracle surgery to save her baby, “Boston Med” is sure to touch your heart. Filmed over four months at Massachusetts General, Brigham and Womens, and Children's Hospital Boston, this powerfully real series breaks new ground in the documentary landscape. Meet the charismatic Hollywood producer before either he or the film-makers realize that through a twist of fate, his face will be transplanted onto a Vietnam veteran badly scarred in an accident. The second face transplant performed in this country and the first anywhere to be so extensively filmed, this operation involved two dozen surgeons and up to a hundred additional doctors and nurses. It is a stunning example of both the high caliber medicine and the unprecedented and unique access captured by the film-makers in “Boston Med.”



DOWNFALL – PREMIERES TUESDAY, JUNE 29 (9:00-10:00 p.m.) “Downfall” is a unique, high-stakes, adrenaline-charged and larger-than-life game show from Fremantle Media North America (The Price Is Right, Family Feud, Let’s Make a Deal). Played atop a tall building amidst a metropolitan landscape, contestants have to quickly answer a series of trivia questions against the clock. If they play the perfect game, they could leave with a million dollars in cash and prizes. But if not, they could just as easily see their hopes and dreams slip through their fingers and off the side building, literally.



ABC NEWS’ PRIMETIME: MIND GAMES – PREMIERES TUESDAY, JULY 20 (10:00-11:00 p.m.) – The newest of Prime Time’s collection of limited series, this five episode series takes you into the darkest corners of the human mind and how it can be twisted—real cases where “reality” gives way to fantasy. Discover what it’s like to live a double life… go inside interrogation room to see the games police play to get suspects to confess—whether they’re guilty or not… hear from people who slavishly followed their new age leader into horrifying circumstances… we go inside the minds of kids who kill… and behind the scenes of the real-life War of the Roses—husbands and wives who turn their homes into battlefields.



BACHELOR PAD – PREMIERES MONDAY, AUGUST 9 (8:00-10:00 p.m.) – Twenty of the most unforgettable contestants/suitors from the hit franchise “The Bachelor” will reunite – all under one roof – for the all-new series “Bachelor Pad.” The series, the first “all-star” reunion from previous seasons of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” will feature the participants living together in a house in a competitive reality show. The show will also offer the 20 now-single contestants a “second chance” at finding love, something that didn’t quite work out during their first stint on “The Bachelor” or “The Bachelorette.”

Each week, the reunited contestants will compete in challenges, some of which are inspired by incidents from prior seasons. Each two-hour episode will conclude with evictions from the residence. At the end of the six-episode run, one contestant will emerge victorious and will take home a cash prize - and who knows, maybe even find “the one” for them. Participants and further details about the prize will be announced at a later date.

“The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” host Chris Harrison will host “Bachelor Pad.” Executive producers of “Bachelor Pad” are Mike Fleiss, Martin Hilton and Jay Bienstock. The series is from Next Entertainment in association with Warner Horizon Television.



DATING IN THE DARK – PREMIERES MONDAY, AUGUST 9 (10:00-11:00 p.m.) – Back for it's second season, “Dating In The Dark” is the unique reality series that asks the age-old question, “Is Love Blind?” Each week, three single men and three single women, all looking for love, will move into a house together, but be totally sequestered from the opposite sex. While they will have no chance of seeing each other in the light, they will have the opportunity to date in a completely dark room. Looks will be taken out of the equation as the men and women get to know each other and form bonds in total darkness. After several days of dating in the darkroom, the participants will select the one member of the opposite sex that they want to see revealed in the light. For the first time, the participants will see who they have been dating, wooing, kissing and forming bonds with. And after they see each other in the light for the first time, they have to make the difficult decision...do they stay with the person they fell for in the dark, or leave them behind. Hosted by Rossi Moreale.

“Dating in the Dark” is produced by Endemol USA, a division of Endemol holding, along with Talpa Content, the format department of Dutch media entrepreneur John’s de Mol’s company. David Goldberg is the North America Chairman of Endemol USA. The series is executive-produced by Tom Shelly.


SHAQ VS – PREMIERES TUESDAY, AUGUST 10 (9:00-10:00 p.m.) – "Shaq VS" stars Shaquille O'Neal as he faces off against top athletes in their respective fields. In season one, O'Neal faced off against Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh in beach volleyball, the St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols in baseball, Oscar de la Hoya in boxing and Michael Phelps in swimming. Each episode in season two will not rely solely on sporting matches but will also feature some fun, comedic non-sports competitions as well such as a spelling bee contest or a dance crew battle among others to be named. Casting for the second season is currently underway.

“Shaq VS” is produced by Media Rights Capital in association with dick clark productions. Orly Adelson, Will Staeger and Barry Adelman of dick clark productions, Shaquille O’Neal, Scott Messick Perry Rogers and Steve Nash serve as executive producers.



ABC NEWS’ HEAD CASES – PREMIERES THURSDAY, AUGUST 19 (10:00-11:00 p.m.) – A ground breaking series into how science and technology are enabling us to look inside our heads and affect the processes of the brain. Is it possible to detect a murderous mindset before a child reaches his 7th birthday? Can a permanent electrical pulse, fitted to the brain like a pace-maker, stop people from eating and reduce the obesity epidemic? And is it now possible to reverse the effects of a stroke, so that an individual’s four limbs are almost raised from the dead? Martin Bashir follows Neuro-surgeon Dr Julian Bailes as he pushes the brain to its limits.



ABC NEWS’ PRIMETIME: CRIME – PREMIERES TUESDAY, AUGUST 24 (10:00-11:00 p.m.) – The series takes the viewer inside investigations of breaking crime stories, and those that have been stumping authorities for years.

Summer at a glance:

MONDAYS
8:00pm The Bachelorette (May 24-Aug. 2) / The Bachelor Pad (Aug. 9-Sept. 13)
10:00pm True Beauty (May 31-July 19)/ TBD (July 26) / The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose (Aug. 2) / Dating in the Dark (Aug. 9-Sept. 13)

TUESDAYS
8:00pm Wipeout (June 1, June 22-Sept. 14) / Kimmel Game Night & NBA Finals (June 8/15)
9:00pm Wipeout (June 1/22) / NBA Finals (June 8/15) / Downfall (June 29-Aug. 3) / Shaq Vs. (Aug. 10-Sept. 14)
10:00pm TBD (June 1, June 22-July 13) / NBA Finals (June 8/15) / Primetime: Mind Games (July 20-Aug. 17) / Primetime: Crime (Aug. 24-Sept. 14)

WEDNESDAY
8:00pm-10:00pm Comedy Wednesday (repeats of The Middle, Modern Family, Cougar Town, and possibly Romantically Challenged thru Sept. 15)
10:00pm Happy Town (thru June 16) / Comedy Repeats or TBD (June 16-Sept. 15)

THURSDAY
8:00pm Kimmel Game Night & NBA Finals (June 3/10/17) / TBD (June 24-Sept. 16)
9:00pm NBA Finals (June 3/10/17) / Rookie Blue (June 24-Sept. 16)
10:00pm NBA Finals (June 3/10/17) / ABC News' Boston Med (June 24-Aug. 12) / Primetime: Head Cases (Aug. 19-Sept. 16)

FRIDAYS
8:00pm Wife Swap (runs through summer) / Scripps National Spelling Bee (June 4) / World Cup Soccer Kickoff Celebration (June 11)
9:00pm Primetime: What Would You Do? (starts May 7) / Scripps National Spelling Bee (June 4) / World Cup Soccer Kickoff Celebration (June 11) / TBD
10:00pm 20/20

SATURDAYS
TBD (possibly movies/encores and Castle repeats)

SUNDAYS
7:00pm America's Funniest Home Videos (repeats, May 30, June 20-Sept. 19) / Kimmel Game Night & NBA Finals (June 6/13)
8:00pm TBD (May 30, June 20-Sept. 19) / NBA Finals (June 6/13)
9:00pm TBD (May 30) / NBA Finals (June 6/13) / The Gates (June 20-Sept. 19)
10:00pm TBD (May 30, Aug. 15-Sept. 19) / NBA Finals (June 6/13) / Scoundrels (June 20-Aug. 8)

NOTE: NBA Finals on June 13/15/17 are only if games are necessary.

I'll update this every time I get an update.

Pavan, any word from the Alphabet on whether they plan to broadcast the remaining 'Hank' episodes this summer? Perhaps on Saturday nights, or even Comedy Wednesdays (at 8 pm or at 10:00/10:30 pm)?

I also think there are a few unaired 'Eastwick' episodes sitting around in someone's office at ABC.

Haven't heard yet but they have unaired episodes of Hank (like 5), Better off Ted (2), Eastwick (2) and the forgotten (2). I hope they air on Saturdays because wouldn't want Hank and Ted to ruin Comedy Wednesday rhythm (unless Ted airs after ModFam). I don't think Eastwick will air since they skipped around at the end (plus I saw the two unaired ones thanks to Hallmark in England).

Hopefully ABC will smartly schedule Castle repeats somewhere on the schedule. A good spot may be Sundays at 8pm, leading into the new dramas 9-11pm. I wouldn't see a problem with Hank airing Wednesdays at 8pm in the summer. They have like 5 unaired episodes, don't they? Same goes for Ted. They might as well air them on Wednesday in summer, since the chance of a renewal is about as slim as you can get.

I am really liking this summer schedule, feels very strong. Now left to schedule:

Ben-Hur (4 hours mini-series)
Secret Millionnaire (maybe Thursday at 8pm?)
Let's Dance (if not dead)

Possible:
Star Search (Unlikely I think)
Shark Tank (if renewed)
Conveyer Belt of Love (if anything fails, possible quick replacement)

Maybe Ben-Hur will be saved for December or something. I don't see any room really for it in summer. It would need to air in two 2-hour blocks (perhaps a Sunday and Tuesday in December?). ABC usually does well with these mini-series in December.

I could see Secret Millionaire possibly twice a week -- Sundays at 8 and Thursdays at 8. Hopefully Let's Dance moves forward. Shark Tank would be good, too, but maybe it will be for fall on Fridays?

ABC ANNOUNCES FINALE DATES FOR THE 2009-2010 SEASON,
INCLUDING THE PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED
GROUNDBREAKING SERIES FINALE DATE FOR “LOST”


ABC announced the following finale dates for the 2009-2010 Season:

Wednesday, April 14
10:00-11:00 p.m. “Ugly Betty”

Friday, April 23
9:00-10:00 p.m. “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution”

Thursday, May 13
10:00-11:00 p.m. “Private Practice”

Sunday, May 16
8:00-9:00 p.m. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”
9:00-10:00 p.m. “Desperate Housewives”
10:00-11:00 p.m. “Brothers & Sisters”

Monday, May 17
10:00-11:00 p.m. “Castle”

Tuesday, May 18
10:00-11:00 p.m. “V”

Wednesday, May 19
8:30-9:00 p.m. “The Middle”
9:00-9:30 p.m. “Modern Family”
9:30-10:00 p.m. “Cougar Town”

Thursday, May 20
9:00-11:00 p.m. “Grey’s Anatomy” (Special Two-Hour Finale)

Sunday, May 23
7:00-8:00 p.m “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
8:00-9:00 p.m. “Lost Recap Special”
9:00-11:00 p.m. “Lost” (Special Two-Hour Finale on a Special Night)

Monday, May 24
8:00-9:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars” (Performance Show Finale)

Tuesday, May 25:
9:00-11:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars The Results Show” (Grand Finale)

Thursday, May 27
8:00-9:00 p.m. “FlashForward”

Friday, June 11, 2010
8:00pm-10:00pm World Cup Soccer Kickoff Celebration

See post #1216 for the rest of summer updates.

Exclusive: ABC Supersizes 'Lost' Finale
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By Josef Adalian
Published: April 08, 2010
EXCLUSIVE

ABC has found more time to say goobye to "Lost."

The network has decided to supersize its farewell to the iconic drama, expanding a previously announced one-hour pre-show to two full hours. The special is now expected to air from 7-9 p.m. on Sunday, May 23, right before the two-hour "Lost" finale.

Add in a special "Jimmy Kimmel Live" -- "Lost: After the Final Rose"-- airing that Sunday, and ABC is now planning to devote no less than five hours of airtime to the "Lost" swan song.

That's really showing some (Dharma) initiative!

Meanwhile, "America's Funniest Home Videos" will now have its finale a week earlier. (Wonder if there'll be a cliffhanger?)

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I think I posted that the LOST finale night would be 7-11pm in primetime a few weeks back, but not sure why ABC listed AFV's season finale on that night in the press release earlier today (it was the first I have seen of that). I'm guessing the AFV finale will be on Friday, May 21 or they'll remove one of the repeats in April and have the finale on Sunday, May 16 with the other regular Sunday show finales.

Anyway, my LOST finale ratings prediction (18-49): 7pm hour approaching a 3, 8pm hour approaching a 6 (closer to mid 5s though), 9pm hour approaching a 7, and 10pm hour approaching a 8. I think it will be huge. If it does better than an 8 I'm sure ABC will be celebrating even more.

from the article it implies theyll just replace a rerun with original and it'll finish May 16th at 7p. Personally, one of the 2 EM rerun weeks, I'd be curious to see air the fresh AFV at 8p out of either rerun of EM or AFV. I dont expect them to do it, just think it would be cool.

I think I posted that the LOST finale night would be 7-11pm in primetime a few weeks back, but not sure why ABC listed AFV's season finale on that night in the press release earlier today (it was the first I have seen of that). I'm guessing the AFV finale will be on Friday, May 21 or they'll remove one of the repeats in April and have the finale on Sunday, May 16 with the other regular Sunday show finales.

Anyway, my LOST finale ratings prediction (18-49): 7pm hour approaching a 3, 8pm hour approaching a 6 (closer to mid 5s though), 9pm hour approaching a 7, and 10pm hour approaching a 8. I think it will be huge. If it does better than an 8 I'm sure ABC will be celebrating even more.
I have this feeling that the 'Lost' finale will exhibit the same ratings pattern as ABC's 'The Fugitive' exhibited 33 years ago, where the finale attracts back all of the casual viewers of the six season run who are curious to see how it all ends up, just as viewers were keen to find out if Dr. Richard Kimble had his final confrontation with the one-armed man. The finale of 'The Fugitive' racked up an incredible rating on August 29, 1967 with a 45.9HH/72%, albeit up against summer encores on CBS and NBC.

I agree with Pavan that the final hour of 'Lost' will go back to, and exceed, the 6.6 A18-49 numbers it garnered when Oceanic Flight #815 first crash-landed back in 2004. I'm estimating the four hours on the final Sunday will be 7-8pm: 4.2, 8-9pm: 5.1, 9-10pm: 6.1 and 10-11pm: 8.4, with 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' pulling down an all-time series high 2.3 in the A18-49 measure.

FROM THR;
ABC trying 'Private Practice' in 'Grey's' slot
Another broadcaster is experimenting with its Thursday lineup.

On April 22, ABC will try swapping "Grey's Anatomy" with its spinoff "Private Practice." This isn't quite the same as when CBS recently swapped "CSI" and "The Mentalist," however, since "Grey's" is a repeat that week. So experiment aside, it makes sense to have the stronger episode at 9 p.m. Still, it gives ABC a look at what "Practice" does in the earlier slot.

Since they are swapping, wish they would air Jamie Oliver on this night at 9p maybe with new PP at 10p

Then they would lose the Grey's revenue if they put Jamie at 9.

Thursday, April 22, 1010
9:00pm Private Practice (all-new, special time)
10:00pm Grey's Anatomy (R, special time)

well they are not gonna get what they'd normally get by airing it at 10 and i'd just like to see them
a) not get 1's on this night
b) give Jamie a shot at better numbers on a more viewed night
c) give PP a better shot, because out of FF and against all new comp on all other nets, it's gonna come in 3rd at best.

I understand what you're saying, though Jamie Oliver on Thurs at 9 is not a given 3 or anything. In fact, it performed better in its Friday 9pm premiere than in its Sunday premiere after Desperate.

Anyway, another schedule update:

Friday, April 30, 2010
9:00pm Wife Swap
[Wife Swap remains in its 8pm slot on this date as well.]

is the new season starting Sep 27th? cause if it does, I could see Mon Sep 20th as CMA Music Fest

thefutoncritic This just in: WIFE SWAP off again this Friday in favor of another JAMIE OLIVER'S FOOD REVOLUTION encore

I'm back after a few days not available. The 2010-2011 season starts Sept. 20, from what I see.

Friday, April 16, 2010
8:00pm Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (R, 4/9)
[Leads into a new episode. Wife Swap is preempted again.]

I know we disagree somewhat about scheduling Pavan. And I know ABC runs GREY reruns for ad rates and to make money back. But I think Thurs is such an important night for them and with other nets all in originals or good stunts (NBC), running reruns of GA and PP make zero sense to me. Last night ABC tied with CW for 5th (if you include Univision). If they need to rerun GA and PP to make back money, thats what Friday or Sat are for. I know thankfully this Summer they arent doing it on Thurs and there are no more PP reruns, but still.

I guess we now know why ABC has been throwing aside Romantically Challenged like a piece of garbage all season. According to Robert Bianco of USA Today (a very good reviewer) Romantically Challenged is another bomb in the same class as Hank. From USA Today :

ABC had well-deserved failures, led by Hank this fall and probably next week's equally awful Romantically Challenged

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2010-04-16-TVgrades16_CV_N.htm

No thanks ABC, but I'll stick with my The Big Bang Theory repeats on CBS. A Big Bang Theory repeat is better than most first run sitcoms, anyway.

i am going to give Romantically Challenged a chance - but only for Kelly Stables.

I guess we now know why ABC has been throwing aside Romantically Challenged like a piece of garbage all season. According to Robert Bianco of USA Today (a very good reviewer) Romantically Challenged is another bomb in the same class as Hank. From USA Today :



http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2010-04-16-TVgrades16_CV_N.htm

No thanks ABC, but I'll stick with my The Big Bang Theory repeats on CBS. A Big Bang Theory repeat is better than most first run sitcoms, anyway.

Because of a critic you won't watch? Sorry, but I have seen the first two episodes of RC and it is a thousand times better than the generic Hank. Many critics didn't like Big Bang Theory's first episode either. That didn't stop that show.

I agree with Pavan. Its far better than HANK. Is it in the caliber of ABC Wed comedies, well no. But its a very decent, sometimes funny, even relatable show with a throughly likeable cast. Unlike HANK, you could see how with tighter scripts this show could really blossom into something very good.

That being said, Im still worried about where they scheduled it. I know TBBT is in rerun for 2 weeks, but even in reruns (when not against DWTS) that show gets a 4.0, higher than most of ABC's shows in originals. I have argued against scheduling it here all this year and they are doing it so I am rooting for its success, but I still think it wasnt smart.

DWTS is doing great and CASTLE has a great lead in. ABC Monday is their strongest night of the week. WHy mess with that? All it takes it one mediocre performer to hamper the night. Theyve been winning Monday. All you need to look at is how last years SS changed that (and hurt CASTLE)., Now CASTLE is stronger this year, but still, id hate for ABC to lose momentum on the night because of RC at 9:30. Dont give people a chance to change channel at 9:30 to CBS and stay there for the rest of night . I think RC is way better than SS, but I guess with these negative reviews (and Ive seen more than 1) and a very strong option at 9:30 on CBS, Im worried again. I love ABC development etc but I continue to think their scheduling doesnt match up with everything else they do brilliantly. Before you ask, I would have put RC somewhere on WED. Anyway its happening so I am really rooting for it to work, just nervous that it wont. But its always a gamble, I guess.

DWTS should always be 2 hours, IMHO. For the few weeks they have had less couples they could have stunted somehow to fill out the 2 hours. Were talking 3 weeks max. Once it gets to 6 or 5 couples they could be doing 2 dances a week. This proves that the 2 hour format wasnt the problem last Fall. People just didnt like the cast. The show has so much buzz everywhere now, why cut out that half hour? They stretched out last weeks show and they won every half hour. With comp everywhere and a huge comedy at 9:30 on CBS, DWTS should be 2 hours all the time, IMHO.

I am rooting for RC to do well on Monday.

I guess we now know why ABC has been throwing aside Romantically Challenged like a piece of garbage all season. According to Robert Bianco of USA Today (a very good reviewer) Romantically Challenged is another bomb in the same class as Hank. From USA Today :



http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2010-04-16-TVgrades16_CV_N.htm

No thanks ABC, but I'll stick with my The Big Bang Theory repeats on CBS. A Big Bang Theory repeat is better than most first run sitcoms, anyway.

Romantically Challenged actually looks funny. I mean, come on - it's Alyssa Milano. She's incredible at what she does. I'm looking forward to this show, and I'm more than glad CBS is showing BBT repeats 3/4 of its airings. So, I'll definitely be tuning in on Monday to watch it. Hopefully it succeeds - I'm expecting about a 14 million premiere, although I'm also expecting the BBT repeat to outrate the 2.5 Men repeat.

Just a quick note - I find it interesting how the article you posted listed "Old Christine" as a high point on CBS. It's a good thing ABC is still interested in this show, as it really is one of the best comedies on the air.

We all should be rooting for Romantically Challenged here. It is a sitcom and a traditional one. Not to mention it stars a classic TV actress. She is great and stunning in this show, but Josh Lawson steals the show in the first episode. He is comedy gold in it. And the second as well, but Kyle Bornheimer shows off his great timing like he did on Worst Week (which was great!). I prefer the second episode just because of Bornheimer's greatness in it.

The trade reviews are way too harsh, I think. The Variety one is so bad. They don't even have their facts straight. That was a piece of crap written by Variety. It made no sense. The Hollywood Reporter review was a better piece, even though they didn't love it (they made some good points about it), it was well written. All of these trade reviews are basing it on just the first episode airing, too, I think the second one airing is a bit more stronger and better uses Bornheimer.

I agree tvcrazed, it is not better than the Wednesday comedies yet (nor should it be compared to them, since those are single camera and family comedies). I think we are all used to the smart writing of single camera shows now, especially TV critics, and they slam all of the traditional comedies (they slammed ALL the newbies this season). Hank deserved to be slammed, but RomChallenged does not. It has loads of potential. The thing about multi-camera sitcoms is, that nearly all of the big ones, the first seasons were the worst ones compared to the other seasons. I can give you so many examples (Three's Company, Perfect Strangers, Facts of Life, Family Ties, etc), so I can see (hopefully) ABC being patient with this one and bringing it back. They were patient with George Lopez after its four episodes in the first season...and that lasted 6 seasons and critics didn't like it, but viewers did.

If you don't think Romantically Challenged is better than Hank, Accidentally on Purpose or Brothers, then I don't know what to think...

Scratch all of those reviews off! ABC is now airing the actual pilot first and not the fourth episode (which was slated to air first):

HAPPY ANNOUNCEMENT: Premiere episode ABC is airing Mon. is now the 1st one we shot - the pilot & the one that sets everything up! -Ricky Blitt

Scratch all of those reviews off! ABC is now airing the actual pilot first and not the fourth episode (which was slated to air first):

HAPPY ANNOUNCEMENT: Premiere episode ABC is airing Mon. is now the 1st one we shot - the pilot & the one that sets everything up! -Ricky Blitt
Thats great news! When a show starts from another episode, that is never good.

I don't think this will be made available for review in time, but I'm glad they are changing the episode to the actual first episode.

"ROMANTICALLY CHALLENGED"

*EPISODE CHANGE* OF MONDAY, APRIL 19 PREMIERE:

REBECCA AND PERRY DISCOVER THERE’S A HIGH PRICE TO PAY
FOR BEING THEMSELVES AS THEY VENTURE OUT INTO THE DATING WORLD, ON THE PREMIERE OF ABC’S “ROMANTICALLY CHALLENGED,” MONDAY, APRIL 19

Alyssa Milano stars in “Romantically Challenged,” an ensemble comedy about four friends trying to find love and happiness while navigating their way through today’s tricky world of dating, premiering MONDAY, APRIL 19 (9:32-10:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

“Don’t Be Yourself” – After Rebecca learns about her ex-husband’s impending wedding, she decides to jump headfirst into the dating pool. But the crew get her so worked up that, when it comes time to the actual date, she becomes flustered and ends up saying some ridiculous things about herself. Meanwhile Perry meets a girl he thinks is perfect – until he finds out she likes to be talked dirty to during their romantic encounters, so Lisa takes it upon herself to coach Perry through Dirty Talk 101; and Rebecca enlists struggling and unpublished writer Shawn to help her son, Justin, write a story for his high school English class, on “Romantically Challenged,” MONDAY, APRIL 19 (9:32-10:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

*EDITOR’S NOTE: This episode replaces “Rebecca’s One Night Stand,” which has not yet been rescheduled.

“Romantically Challenged” stars Alyssa Milano as Rebecca, Kyle Bornheimer as Perry, Josh Lawson as Shawn and Kelly Stables as Lisa.

Guest starring is Israel Broussard as Justin, Mark Deklin as Doug, Dorian Brown as Marika, Valorie Hubbard as Mrs. Gordon and Nicole Pettis as cooking teacher.

“Don’t Be Yourself” was written by Ricky Blitt and directed by James Burrows.

Because of a critic you won't watch? Sorry, but I have seen the first two episodes of RC and it is a thousand times better than the generic Hank. Many critics didn't like Big Bang Theory's first episode either. That didn't stop that show.

No, the critics opinion has nothing do with anything. I told you before I will not watch this show opposite The Big Bang Theory. I am one of the millions who also watch The Big Bang Theory repeats.

Romantically Challenged actually looks funny. I mean, come on - it's Alyssa Milano. She's incredible at what she does. I'm looking forward to this show, and I'm more than glad CBS is showing BBT repeats 3/4 of its airings. So, I'll definitely be tuning in on Monday to watch it. Hopefully it succeeds - I'm expecting about a 14 million premiere, although I'm also expecting the BBT repeat to outrate the 2.5 Men repeat.

Just a quick note - I find it interesting how the article you posted listed "Old Christine" as a high point on CBS. It's a good thing ABC is still interested in this show, as it really is one of the best comedies on the air.

Romantically challenged will premiere to great numbers with the DWTS lead in. The show will decline in weeks 2 and 3 as many people will probably decide they do not like it. I have heard from a few others who have seen the pilot as well, and did not like it.

Just a quick note - I find it interesting how the article you posted listed "Old Christine" as a high point on CBS. It's a good thing ABC is still interested in this show, as it really is one of the best comedies on the air.

Robert Bianco has always been a big fan of Old Christine. He is a very good critic. He knows his stuff.

Why are you being so negative towards Romantically Challenged? As a fan of comedy (multi-cam comedy at that), you should be happy that ABC is giving it such a good show at success. If you've already seen the BBT episode, why watch it again when you could give RC a chance?

I'll say it for the last time. I have never missed a Big Bang Theory episode. New or repeat. Regular time slot or special day. I am not about to start missing that classic show for any other sitcom. Period.

Romantically challenged will premiere to great numbers with the DWTS lead in. The show will decline in weeks 2 and 3 as many people will probably decide they do not like it. I have heard from a few others who have seen the pilot as well, and did not like it.

It hasn't been promoted that long, but clearly anyone who watched DWTS knows that RC will be premiering after it on Monday. Either people will stick with it, whether that be because they want to see it or because they're waiting for Castle to come on at 10, or people won't watch.

Still, I'm looking forward to it. I don't see why you seem to be so set against not giving this show a shot. Critic reviews mean nothing. Everyone has their own tastes, and just because on person didn't like it doesn't mean it's a terrible show. "Generic" seems to be the main critical problem with RC. But, let's face it - what multi-cam comedy isn't generic? Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, and Old Christine, which are the best in their genre, are pretty average shows. But, it's the acting that makes it so funny, and I bet the same will be the case with RC. With BBT in repeats for 3 weeks, you might as well watch RC.

It hasn't been promoted that long, but clearly anyone who watched DWTS knows that RC will be premiering after it on Monday. Either people will stick with it, whether that be because they want to see it or because they're waiting for Castle to come on at 10, or people won't watch.

Still, I'm looking forward to it. I don't see why you seem to be so set against not giving this show a shot. Critic reviews mean nothing. Everyone has their own tastes, and just because on person didn't like it doesn't mean it's a terrible show. "Generic" seems to be the main critical problem with RC. But, let's face it - what multi-cam comedy isn't generic? Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, and Old Christine, which are the best in their genre, are pretty average shows. But, it's the acting that makes it so funny, and I bet the same will be the case with RC. With BBT in repeats for 3 weeks, you might as well watch RC.

You may not agree, but I think I have been very, very consistent here. I have always said I would not watch it over The Big Bang Theory, and I meant that. Did you ever see the repeat numbers that Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory put up ? How about the syndication numbers that Two and a Half Men puts up, as well ? Obviously, lots of people like me like to watch these shows multiple times.

I would love to watch Romantically Challenged. ABC needs to find another time slot if I am going to watch.

By the way, you can call The Big Bang Theory average if you like, but we are witnessing the next great sitcom that will live in syndication for years and years to come. It is very far from average.