To wind up our examination of the Upfronts, I thought I'd look at the final Fall Schedule on a night by night basis, giving my own thoughts on what's going to work and what's not. Bear in mind that these are only my personal opinions. (Times are Eastern)
Sunday ABC CBS FOX NBC The CW 7:00-8:00 America`s Funniest Home Videos 60 Minutes The OT (NFL Post-Game) Football Night in America TBD 8:00-8:30 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Amazing Race The Simpsons Sunday Night Football TBD 8:30-9:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Amazing Race King Of The Hill Sunday Night Football TBD 9:00-9:30 Desperate Housewives Cold Case Family Guy Sunday Night Football TBD 9:30-10:00 Desperate Housewives Cold Case American Dad Sunday Night Football TBD 10:00-11:00 Brothers & Sisters The Unit Sunday Night Football TBD It's pretty much the status quo here before the end of the Football season. The only real changes are that CBS has moved The Unit into the Sunday 10-11 slot, and of course the as yet undisclosed plans of The CW's partner on Sundays MRC. Things will change a lot after the end of the Football season when NBC reveals its Sunday line-up. If last year's ratings for Shark are any indication I do not expect smooth sailing for The Unit. I would expect the male demographic to move towards Football. ABC should remain dominant on the night once Football ends and most of their shows will be in second place during the season. (Worth noting is that The Amazing Race tends on the whole to perform extremely well in terms of ratings when CBS has a late Football game that runs long; not sure why this is the case, but it certainly doesn't extend beyond The Amazing Race to CBS shows later in the night.) Monday ABC CBS FOX NBC The CW 8:00-8:30 Dancing With The Stars How I Met Your Mother Terminator: The Sarah Connor... Chuck Gossip Girl 8:30-9:00 Dancing With The Stars The Big Bang Theory Terminator: The Sarah Connor... Chuck Gossip Girl 9:00-9:30 Dancing With The Stars Two And A Half Men Prison Break Heroes One Tree Hill 9:30-10:00 Samantha Who? THE WORST WEEK Prison Break Heroes One Tree Hill 10:00-11:00 Boston CSI Miami MY OWN WORST ENEMY The big changes on the night comes in the third hour, with ABC and NBC yet again trying to challenge the CBS hold on the hour – or at the very least score a viable second place. I'll give an edge in that area to ABC and Boston Legal which is a show with an existing cult following. That makes it different from October Road or What About Brian? NBC has to hope that the fans of Heroes will stick around for My Own Worst Enemy in numbers that look better to NBC; it could be a big – and quick – loser. Looking earlier in the night, the monster in the room is Dancing With The Stars which why it is more than a little surprising that ABC is planning only one series of the show in the 2008-09 season and being replaced with an untested Ashton Kutcher/Tyra Banks property. The CBS comedy block is a powerful one that is most likely to take second place against "Dancing" and beating the Kutcher property. CBS has the enviable luxury of "hammocking" a freshman comedy between the highest rated sitcom on TV (Two And A Half Men) and "the most popular show in the world" (CSI: Miami). The final big question is whether Chuck and Heroes will be competitive after the long, strike induced, hiatus. If there's some rejection of that FOX might be competitive for third place. The CW is doomed to fifth, but fifth with a very nice niche market for the night. Tuesday ABC CBS FOX NBC The CW 8:00-8:30 OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS NCIS House Biggest Loser 90210 8:30-9:00 OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS NCIS House Biggest Loser 90210 9:00-9:30 Dancing With The Stars THE MENTALIST FRINGE Biggest Loser SURVIVING THE FILTHY RICH 9:30-10:00 Dancing With The Stars THE MENTALIST FRINGE KATH & KIM SURVIVING THE FILTHY RICH 10:00-11:00 Eli Stone Without A Trace Law & Order: SVU A night of newbies. Six new shows, four of which are up against each other. I'm convinced that the big loser on the night, besides the winner Biggest Loser will be Opportunity Knocks. This show sounds awful and based on the clips shown that I've seen from YouTube it looks awful too. The other show that doesn't really fit is Kath & Kim. I really don't see the flow from Biggest Loser to Kath & Kim to Law & Order: SVU even if it is a good show. The battle for survival on the night will be between Fringe and The Mentalist. FOX seems very certain about Fringe to the point where they're reducing the number of minutes of network commercials in each episode and will be charging a premium to advertisers. The show looks good and initially at least it follows one of FOX's top shows. On the other hand there's a rather nice flow between NCIS, through The Mentalist, to Without A Trace. And speaking of Without A Trace, CBS may have finally gotten wise about how to deal with the 10-11 timeslot; an established show rather than a new series. That may give them an advantage over ABC Eli Stone. Wednesday ABC CBS FOX NBC The CW 8:00-8:30 Pushing Daisies New Adventures of Old Christine Bones KNIGHT RIDER America's Next Top Model 8:30-9:00 Pushing Daisies PROJECT GARY Bones KNIGHT RIDER America's Next Top Model 9:00-9:30 Private Practice Criminal Minds `Til Death Deal Or No Deal STYLISTA 9:30-10:00 Private Practice Criminal Minds DO NOT DISTURB Deal Or No Deal STYLISTA 10:00-11:00 Dirty Sexy Money CSI New York Lipstick Jungle The big experiment here comes from CBS in trying to start a second comedy night...again. New Adventures Of Old Christine might be the right anchor for this, but Project Gary sounds like a poor property for the second half of the hour. Actually it looks like the weaker of the two new CBS comedies this season. But I have to confess that I hope it – or something – will take Knight Rider out to the wood shed and beat it. I wouldn't mind if they were bringing some new perspective to the concept but it's quite clear that "only the names have changed" and that just doesn't cut it with me. As for the other new shows on the night, the only thing that looks worse than Do Not Disturb, a concept that had the potential to be so much more, is the Apprentice clone Stylista. Hopefully both will die a swift and well deserved death, but that's just my opinion. Thursday ABC CBS FOX NBC The CW 8:00-8:30 Ugly Betty Survivor Moment Of Truth My Name Is Earl Smallville 8:30-9:00 Ugly Betty Survivor Moment Of Truth 30 Rock Smallville 9:00-9:30 Grey`s Anatomy CSI Kitchen Nightmares The Office Supernatural 9:30-10:00 Grey`s Anatomy CSI Kitchen Nightmares SNL THURSDAY NIGHT LIVE Supernatural 10:00-11:00 LIFE ON MARS ELEVENTH HOUR ER Thursday is the most competitive night of the week, with all five networks throwing up what they consider to be their big guns. At the same time it is also one of the most stable nights this year with the only major changes in the first two hours – besides the SNL Thursday Night Live show (which is actually a series of three pre-election comedy specials; the normal placeholder for this time will be Office repeats until the debut of the spinoff of The Office) is FOX's decision to move Moment Of Truth and Kitchen Nightmares to the night to replace Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? and Don't Forget The Lyrics. Apparently a FOX executive has stated "Look, it's eroding. It's an older show. It's eventually going to give up and were trying to accelerate that." He may in fact be right in so far as Survivor isn't the ratings juggernaut that it once was. However it does still win the time slot rather handily, and I for one can't believe that the excremental (which means exactly what you think it means) Moment Of Truth will take ratings points from Survivor. In fact – and I'm going to be bold in this prediction – I don't think the show will perform as well as Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader. If any of these two show is going to drop in the ratings it will be Moment Of Truth. The big battle on Thursday night will be in the 10-11 slot. ER won't lose audience) although that is a show that really has eroded over the years) but it will be ending its run at the end of February. At that point it will be replaced by a new season of Celebrity Apprentice, and with due respect to Donald Trump (and in my opinion not much respect is due) his show is no ER. As a result the real battle in the time slot will begin when ER ends. I have no real idea who will win, but if I were to pick right now, based on the clips that I've seen and the way that the shows "flow" into each other, I'd have to give an edge to CBS's Eleventh Hour which matches with CSI in a way that Life On Mars really doesn't match with Grey's Anatomy. But I'm also going to make this prediction – barring an absolute ratings melt down, both shows are going to be around to take on Celebrity Apprentice. Friday ABC CBS FOX NBC The CW 8:00-8:30 Wife Swap Ghost Whisperer Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? CRUSOE Everybody Hates Chris 8:30-9:00 Wife Swap Ghost Whisperer Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? CRUSOE The Game 9:00-10:00 Supernanny THE EX-LIST Don't Forget The Lyrics Deal Or No Deal America's Next Top Model (Encore) 10:00-11:00 20/20 Numb3rs Life Friday night is now TV's new wasteland – Saturday having been pretty much abandoned by the networks – and it shows in the programs their offering. BAC has reality shows and a news magazine while FOX has two game shows. I actually like The CW's decision to move its comedies to Friday night – it recalls The WB's Friday night comedy line-up which was one of its stronger programming periods (even if the critics and supposedly sophisticated people hated the lynchpin of that line-up Reba – that show was still the highest rated CW comedy when it was cancelled). What I'm less than pleased with is that the network has given its second hour over to a repeat of America's Next Top Model. If you're going to build a night of comedy, build a night of comedy. The big news on the night has to be CBS's decision to replace Midnight with The Ex-List, a decision that apparently had more to do with business decisions on the part of CBS and a rivalry with Warner Brothers than it did with the actual show. Even on a night as weak as this I can't see this decision turning out well. The Ex-List clip that was released looks as bad as the concept sounds. As for the other new show on the night, Crusoe, no one knows much about it except that it's an adaptation of Robinson Crusoe. Whether it's a modernized version or done in period, I can't imagine anything like good ratings coming from this. So there is the Fall 2008 schedule. There will be changes in the winter, particularly from FOX and NBC, and inevitably there will be changes happening a lot sooner than January. For the most part – as in just about every case – the new series fall into the "nothing at all" category – as in "if you can't say anything nice, say nothing at all." Can it really be two years ago that we had shows debuting like Studio 60, 30 Rock, Kidnapped, Vanished, Friday Night Lights, Brothers & Sisters, and Men In Trees. Even the failures from that list of shows were better, in my opinion, than most of what the networks will offering us as new shows in this coming season. This is not going to be one of TV's great seasons.
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