Nick@Nite Renews Original Series 'Hi-Jinks' For Second Season; ABC Schedules Two Sitcoms for Monday Nights This Mid-Season

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Nick@Nite Renews Original Series 'Hi-Jinks' For Second Season; ABC Schedules Two Sitcoms for Monday Nights This Mid-Season

Nick@Nite has greenlit a second season of the hit hidden-camera series, Hi-Jinks. The next thirteen episodes of the series - in which parents play good-natured pranks on kids - will continue to be hosted by Leila Sbitani and will go into production immediately to air in 2006. The second season of Hi-Jinks will be produced by Stone & Company Entertainment.
In its first six weeks, it averaged a 0.5 among Nick@Nite's target audience of adults 18-49, up +25% from last year. The series delivered 532,000 A18-49 viewers, lifting +36% over last year, and it averaged over 2.2 million total viewers, up +36% versus year ago. The series has been watched by over 37 million people, including premiere and repeat telecasts. To read their full press release, click here.

Meanwhile, ABC has announced that their post-Monday Night Football schedule will be slightly different than what was planned back in May. Originally, it was The Bachelor at 8 p.m., then new sitcom Emily's Reasons Why Not at 9 p.m. and second season sitcom Jake in Progress at 9:30 p.m., followed by an all-new drama from mastermind J.J. Abrams titled What About Brian. Now instead, Wife Swap will remain at 8 p.m., the two sitcoms are unchanged, and The Bachelor will now be 10 p.m. instead. There is no word yet when the drama What About Brian will be scheduled. They did announce though that the new Monday line-up will begin Monday, January 9.
So why is Wife Swap sticking at 8 p.m.? Wife Swap has greatly improved the time period for ABC, boosting the its delivery by 2.8 million viewers (7.6 million vs. 4.8 million) and by 81% in Adults 18-49 (2.8/8 vs. 1.6/5). Wife Swap is ABC’s highest-rated program to be teamed with Monday Night Football in 4 years – since 2001.

I had a chance to watch the pilot of the 9 p.m. sitcom Emily's Reasons Why Not starring Heather Graham this past summer and it is pretty good. I'm not that big of a fan of one camera sitcoms, but this is good and will likely do well.

Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows

Monday, December 15

St. Denis Medical - "A Waste of Time and Marble" (NBC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
With the threat of a nurse walkout, Alex is caught between her colleagues and Joyce; Ron and Bruce go above and beyond to help an unexpected patient.

The Paper - "Churnalism" (NBC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Ned takes over Esmeralda's advertorials and assigns the staff to test products themselves, but Esmeralda retaliates and covers one of Ned's stories and finds a scandal; Ken turns Adam into a lab rat; Oscar and Adelola compare pain tolerances.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of December 15)

Monday, December 15

Simu Liu (Kim's Convenience) - Watch Simu on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC. He also talks about The Copenhagen Test on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am and in the 10am hour.
Paul Rudd (The Shrink Next Door/Living with Yourself/Wild Oats) - Paul appears on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
Maria Bamford (Lady Dynamite/Benched) - Maria is a guest on Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen at 12:37am on CBS.
Kerry Washington (UnPrisoned) - Andy Cohen interviews Kerry on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen at 11pm on Bravo.
Odessa A'zion (I Love LA/Fam) - Odessa talks about Marty Supreme on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm.
Patti LaBelle (Out All Night) - Patti treats us to an EXCLUSIVE festive performance of It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year on Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.
Kate Hudson (Running Point) - Kate talks about Song Sung Blue on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am.
Rosie Perez (Human Resources/Search Party) - Rosie co-hosts NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
Hank Azaria (The Simpsons/Brockmire/Free Agents/Herman's Head) - Hank and The EZ Street Band stop by for a chat and performance on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your local listings.
Ana Gasteyer (American Auto/People of Earth/Lady Dynamite/Suburgatory) - NBC's Today catches up with Ana in the 10am hour.
Connie Britton (SMILF/Lost at Home/The Fighting Fitzgeralds/Spin City) - Connie tells Sherri about starring in The Family McMullen, the sequel to The Brothers McMullen, on a repeat of Sherri, so check your local listings.
Ashley Park (Emily in Paris/Only Murders in the Building/Girls5eva/Nightcap) - Ashley talks about the highly-anticipated fifth season of Emily in Paris on Netflix on a repeat of Sherri, so check your local listings.
Glen Powell (Chad Powers/Scream Queens) - Glen talks about The Running Man on a repeat of The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
William H. Macy (Sports Night) - William talks about Netflix's Train Dreams on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
Andy Richter (Andy Barker, P.I./Quintuplets/Andy Richter Controls the Universe) - Andy talks about ABC's Dancing with the Stars on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.