ABC Upfront: Fall 2009

[Pavan]

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.

[Pavan]

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.

[Zedman2]

http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/t...8272#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.

[Pavan]

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)

[tvcrazed]

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.

[Pavan]

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.

[tvcrazed]

Good idea!

[JulieSomoski]

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.

[Pavan]

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.

[tvcrazed]

Originally Posted by Pavan

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.

[Zedman2]

http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/t...9272#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

[tvcrazed]

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.

[Yobb]

Originally Posted by JulieSomoski

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 !)

[tvcrazed]

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.

[Pavan]

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.