SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

Day 17: WGA's Strike; RTN Coming to Seattle; TV Land's 50 Greatest Icons Scores; Thanksgiving Marathons

It is now day 17 of the writers' strike. Nothing really new to report. Come back tomorrow for some network schedule notes.

Retro Television Network (RTN) announced today that it will partner with COX Television to bring RTN programming to Seattle, the nation's 14th largest television market. The new affiliate will launch in January on a digital stream of KIRO-TV, Seattle's CBS affiliate. Viewers will love seeing Don Adams and Barbara Feldon in Get Smart, prior to next summer's hit movie starring Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart and Anne Hathaway as Agent 99, and will enjoy escaping to Waikiki Beach each evening as they watch Hawaii 5-0 and Magnum P.I. In addition, the weekends are a cavalcade of hit shows, including It Takes a Thief, Gunsmoke, A-Team, Knight Rider, Emergency, Wild, Wild West and many more. Mission: Impossible and Happy Days are also slated to come.

The 50 Greatest TV Icons was a huge hit for TV Land with viewers for its premiere on Friday, November 16, scoring double-digit gains in rating and delivery among its target A25-54 audience and triple-digit ratings and delivery gains among its core audience A40-54. The two-hour special an editorial/on-air collaboration with Entertainment Weekly presented 50 timeless performers from the history of television like Johnny Carson, Lucille Ball and Jerry Seinfeld who have all made their indelible mark in TV history.
According to Nielsen Media Research, The 50 Greatest TV Icons posted a 0.5 rating (500,000 viewers) among A25-54, up +67% in rating and +67% in delivery over last year. Among its core audience, Adults 40-54, TV Land scored triple-digit gains in rating and delivery, averaging a 0.8 rating (432,000 viewers), up +100% in rating and +100% in delivery. The special scored triple digit gains among total viewers over last year, averaging nearly 1.1 million total viewers, a rise of +112% over from a year ago.

Finally, we leave you today with some Thanksgiving marathons for tomorrow and this weekend. Before and after you eat with your family tomorrow, you could spend some time watching some marathons together! We gave you details on TV Land's Overstuffed Thanksgiving marathon which has I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show, among others. If you're in L.A. don't forget KTLA's 60th Anniversary celebration this weekend. ION will have its Thanksgiving marathon tonight with Mama's Family from 7p-11p!
TBS will share marathons of Saved by the Bell from 7a-10a, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from 10a-4p and House of Payne from 4p-9p. On Fresh Prince, a holiday visit from Will's taskmaster mother puts the kibosh on conspicuous consumption and puts the kids to work preparing Thanksgiving dinner.
TNT goes Charmed this Thanksgiving with a marathon of the hit drama from 8am-6pm.
FX will give us movies on Thanksgiving, but the day after we get a marathon of Malcolm in the Middle! A 22-episode marathon begins with a 2000 episode in which Malcolm's cushy babysitting job provides relief from the trailer his family's using while their house is being fumigated. Meanwhile, the school's master key leads Francis to a corpse, for which he provides a proper send-off. Airs 7am-5:30pm.
Nickelodeon will have days worth of marathons, including some classics! I urge you to click HERE for the schedule.
GSN will give us two marathons. A Family Feud marathon on Turkey Day from 9am-7pm and a Viewer's Choice Marathon on Friday. The latter sounds VERY good and you all should click HERE to see what I mean!!
WGN will go with laughs on the day after Thanksgiving with America's Funniest Home Videos from 9am-8pm.
USA Network will have a marathon battle between Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: SVU each airing after one another starting 6am Thursday and ending 9pm Friday!
Comedy Central will give us Drawn Together in the late night after our feast from 11pm-3am. Eight episodes of the animated comedy are featured.
G4 will showcase Jamie Kennedy Experiment from 9am-8pm. And on Friday Ninja Warrior from 10am-8pm.
Sci-Fi Channel will bring us episodes from the reality series Ghost Hunters investigating accounts of strange phenomena are featured. First up at 8am "Whispers and Voices" has the team probing two Massachusetts locales. Star Trek: Enterprise airs the day after.
Discovery Channel will have a Dirty Jobs marathon on Turkey Day from 9am-9pm.
Bravo will give a block of the delicious reality show Top Chef that features 10 Season 3 episodes from 8a-6p. It's a dessert storm in the first hour when the chefs are challenged to create a sublime pie crust, after which they must cook up tasty fare for personalities of the Telemundo television network.
TLC gives us two shows. Little People, Big World on Thursday from 9a-3a and What Not to Wear from 9p-3a on Friday.
News channel CNN will give us CNN: SIU episodes from 1p-6a with a break at 5p for a special on Larry King's 50 Years.
Cartoon Network will give us Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends all-day starting at 7am through 7pm, then we will have an all-new special Tom & Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale.
A&E will give us marathons of Cold Case Files and First 48 on Thanksgiving and a CSI: Miami marathon the day after from 8am-4am.
BET gives us a 10-episode block of the reality series following singer Keyshia Cole from 9a-2p on Turkey Day and Baldwin Hills on Friday from 1p-6p.
Regional sports network YES will have a Yankeeography marathon from 12pm-12am featuring profiles on stars such as Catfish Hunter, Tino Martinez, Billy Martin, and Reggie Jackson.
I think that covers the majority of them.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving and don't forget to check back with us each day this Thanksgiving weekend for some news. We don't take any days off!