ABC Upfront: Fall 2009

[Pavan]

This is technically still considered a 2009-2010 season update:

Wednesday, September 1, 2010
8:00-11:00pm CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock (all-new)

[tvcrazed]

is Thursday the 2nd the NFL kickoff. No right? I dont get why this special isnt scheduled for that night. They could always double up Rookie Blue one week. 8p and 10p on Thursday in Sep are either Wipeout reruns or Primetime which can be moved. I just think taking off Comedy Wed so close to premiere week is not smart.

[Pavan]

NFL kicks-off Thursday, Sept. 9.

[tvcrazed]

exactly my point. this should be on Thursday

[Pavan]

I agree, but the CMA's preemption didn't hurt the comedies in November. I think the dramas the year before were hurt much more by the CMA's preemption.

[tvcrazed]

Its not the end of the world BUT as with lots of their scheduling it doesnt make much sense

1) comedies on Wed will probably be higher rated than their Thursdays will be, so why preempt the higher rated night

2) again it's the one night you're smartly leaving on in reruns to grow over Summer. As people return from Summer vacation and settle back into regular viewing patterns in September and there are more availbale viewers, why would u displace your one stable night.

[Pavan]

If it were Sept. 8, then I would REALLY question it. Labor Day is Sept. 6, so after that people will be watching more TV. I don't think it is a big deal for CMA to air Sept. 1. Comedy Wednesday is encoring all summer (June 2-Sept. 15). That's 15 weeks of repeats. 1 week won't hurt. Plus it will be on Sept. 8 and 15 leading into the new season on Sept. 22. CMA Festival will do better than the repeats in the ratings anyway.

I think Thursdays will likely be as same as Wednesdays in the ratings, but we'll see. You have a second night of Wipeout, which repeats well and it will be in originals on some nights on Thursdays, too.

[tvcrazed]

Another addendum to my previous post about what Id like to see ABc change about Fall sked. Why waste Secret Millionaire on Friday. I really believe they should rest EM:HE to midseason. I'd put SM at 8p in the Fall and I'd rest B&S until midseason too and put a new drama at 10p in the FALL. Steve McPherson said they plan to air OFF THE MAP there in Jan which means at least 8 eps of B&S will have to air on another night anyway. So why not air a new drama there in the Fall when their only scripted comp is CSI:MIAMI. in Jan they'll have to compete with NBC as well. Also, Jan is the worst time for them to launch a new drama there, with award shows and sports every other week.

A media exec was rating CBS fall sked in Medialifemagazine.com today and he commended CBS for shaking up their sked and expressed skepticism at ABCs lack of that. He didn't expand beyond that, but what I inferred was ABC has bigger issues, primarily on Sundays. For them not to change Sunday at all is baffling.

[Zedman2]

Originally Posted by tvcrazed

Another addendum to my previous post about what Id like to see ABc change about Fall sked. Why waste Secret Millionaire on Friday. I really believe they should rest EM:HE to midseason. I'd put SM at 8p in the Fall and I'd rest B&S until midseason too and put a new drama at 10p in the FALL. Steve McPherson said they plan to air OFF THE MAP there in Jan which means at least 8 eps of B&S will have to air on another night anyway. So why not air a new drama there in the Fall when their only scripted comp is CSI:MIAMI. in Jan they'll have to compete with NBC as well. Also, Jan is the worst time for them to launch a new drama there, with award shows and sports every other week.

A media exec was rating CBS fall sked in Medialifemagazine.com today and he commended CBS for shaking up their sked and expressed skepticism at ABCs lack of that. He didn't expand beyond that, but what I inferred was ABC has bigger issues, primarily on Sundays. For them not to change Sunday at all is baffling.

tvcrazed, I agree with you. Off the Map will struggle when it premieres in January. Desperate Housewives is trending down, and always returns with a big drop in January each year, therefore the lead-in will be lower and the competition will be stronger. In addition, there will probably be weeks where DH will either be a repeat or will not be the lead-in at all.

In terms of the fall schedule itself, it appears to be a schedule that was created by the Sales people rather than the programmers at the network. I can see sales being very afraid of any changes that would make it difficult to sell ads i.e. moving Brothers & Sisters to a new night, introducing NOP on Sundays. moving DWTS Results back to 9pm Tuesday, etc. A programmer would know changes are needed on Sundays, which in viewers minds is a very "STALE" night of programming. DWTS Results should remain at 8pm to keep NCIS in check, as the ABC show skews older. The move to 9pm just frees up viewers to go back to CBS and in effect provide a larger lead-in to NCIS LA. New shows at 10pm against established shows on the other networks will not help ABC, thus another reason why B&S should have moved from Sunday.

EM:HE should have moved to Friday 8pm to rotate with other reality shows ie. Secret Millionaire, Jamie Oliver (if it's still in play), and What Would You Do should have remained on the sked at Friday 9pm and rotated with Shark Tank. And God forbid ABC schedule another comedy at 9:30 on Mondays, as is being rumoured, after DWTS Performance Show for it too will die like others before it because of middle of the road results.

And don't kid yourself, CBS's move of TBBT to Thursday 8pm will hurt ABC and in effect Grey's Anatomy. I can only assume McPherson has lost interest because the ABC Fall Sked is poor and ABC will be taking a big step back. Unfortunately, now upfront selling in full swing, I can't see ABC making many changes, changes I think they need to make in order to compete come fall.

[tvcrazed]

Zedman I totally agree. It feels like the lack of changes on Sunday in particular was motivated by ad dollars. But as you articulately stated and I intimated, leaving the status quo on Sunday, which has been severley dropping is not an option if you want to be a contender. Theres no way they are anywhere but 4th with this scenraio in Fall. CBS now has a killer 8-10p and with CSI at 10p a whole night vs nothing a year ago. ABC is not thinking long term with this sked. Surround DH with 2 new hits or at least one to rejuvinbate the night and protect DH.

I actually do think theres life left in EM;HE and if they rest it and bring back at midseason, it can still be a decent player like BACHELOR. Sending it to Fridays would finish it off IMHO.

Secret Millionaire is fresh and did well for FOX those 2 weeks it ran. Its very much an ABC show. Also, it's so along the lines of Undercover Boss which it would air an hour before. It feels like it could atract EM viewers but also some people that dont watch it and could hopefully pull at least a 3.

As I said a few weeks back, I honestly think their best bet for a breakout hit is NO ORDINARY FAMILY, but by putting it at 8p, they are limiting its potential since every net has a gargantuan hit there and theres little audience left. I agree with you leave DWTS at 8p and NOF has a shot at 9p where as opposed to 8p, there arent monster hits there except for TBL

I agree with you about TBBT doing great for CBS on Thurs, but there's nothing ABC can do about that, however they can fix Sun and Tues.

The only reason I have hope (naively) that ABC will make some changes before Fall are:

1) come on, they need to

2) They smartly removed WWYD from Summer and hopefully plan on leaving it on Fridays at 9p in Fall where it was winning for them and costs less than a scripted show for which there is a low ceiling for them on Friday night

3) Other industry professionals are commenting on it now like Today in Medialife, so clearly they must be getting pressure

4) I assume when they set their schedule they didnt anticipate CBS being as aggressive as they were, although to be honest I expected TBBT to Thursday since March and MoJoe called it.

I am hoping that no later than Press Tour, they will make changes

[tvcrazed]

Also, NOF, DWTS, DETROIT, what kind of flow is that?

DWTS, NOF, DETROIT works much better. DWTS has families which ABC wants for NOF. NOF , unlike DWTS will also target males, which will lead into nicely to male DETROIT

[Zedman2]

Do you think ABC can ship 'Happy Town' off to a Saturday night burnoff? If no one wanted to watch during the regular season, what made them think people would care now? Eli Stone and Pushing Daisies were far superior shows and they got burned off on a Saturday and yet this gets the mid-week special treatment.

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/06/03...-repeats/53038

10:00 NBC Law & Order: SVU (repeat) 1.9 6 6.485
CBS CSI: NY (repeat) 1.7 5 8.556
ABC Happy Town 0.9 3 2.964

10:30 NBC Law & Order: SVU (repeat) 2.0 6 6.270
CBS CSI: NY (repeat) 1.8 5 8.635
ABC Happy Town 0.7 2 2.562

[Pavan]

I give ABC another week or hopefully they will pull it this week. It's an easy fix. Just swap it with Castle on Saturday.

[tvcrazed]

an easier fix is play them on ABC.com. Any other net would yank it NOW! Actually they would have yanked it already. They smartly yanked HANK with a 1.3. Under a 1 on a weeknight, there is no justification and if I were an affiliate i'd be pissed. We hear all the time about their affiliates and ad sales, how is there sense to continue airing this at all?

It's not even good for Saturday night. If people need to see them, they can play them on ABC.com like they did with the far superior and higher rated THE NINE

[tvcrazed]

According to James Hibberd of the HOLLYWOOD REPORER, despite the anemic ratings, ABC plans to leave the show in this slot for the duration of this run.