NBC is the first network going at upfront, which will be next Monday, but they have already announced their 2008-09 schedule
last month so we can't preview and make predictions for NBC...so we decided to go with the next network ... ABC (which will go next Tuesday). With the writers' strike causing a lot of delays to the pilot season, many pilots won't be ready before the upfronts, thus we won't see many new shows this fall, unfortunately. I think mid-season will see a lot more shows than normal.
So, ABC will likely build on their sophomore shows (the current freshman series such as
Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, Dirty Sexy Money, and
Samantha Who?). Most of those have not returned after the strike ended, so they will likely do large return promotions for these. New shows wise, I expect maybe 1-2 new dramas or 1-2 new sitcoms on ABC this fall, with lots of new shows being ordered for mid-season.
Here is the SitcomsOnline.com ABC 2008-09 preview:
New Series Already Picked-Up:
Section 8 (6 episode order, but doesn't mean it will be on in the fall).
New Series We Think That Are Almost Good To Go:
Good Behavior (drama),
Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas (drama),
My Brother's Hot And Other Dilemas (wt for Milano series) (sitcom).
New Series Perhaps Picked-Up for Mid-Season:
Prince of Motor City (drama),
Life on Mars (drama),
Cupid (dramedy),
Bad Mother's Handbook (sitcom),
Never Better (sitcom),
This Might Hurt (sitcom).
OUR FALL 2008 PREDICTION:
Sundays
7:00PM
America's Funniest Home Videos
8:00PM
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
9:00PM
Desperate Housewives
10:00PM
Dirty Sexy Money
Mondays
8:00PM
Dancing with the Stars
9:30PM
Samantha Who?
10:00PM
Good Behavior (NEW!)
Tuesdays
8:00PM
My Brother's Hot (And Other Dilemas) (NEW!)
8:30PM
Miss Guided
9:00PM
Dancing with the Stars: The Results
10:00PM
Boston Legal
Wednesdays
8:00PM
Pushing Daisies
9:00PM
Private Practice
10:00PM
Brothers & Sisters
Thursdays
8:00PM
Ugly Betty
9:00PM
Grey's Anatomy
10:00PM
Eli Stone
Fridays
8:00PM
Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas (NEW!)
9:00PM
According to Jim
9:30PM
According to Jim or Cedric the Entertainer Project
(NEW!)
10:00PM
20/20
Saturdays
8:00PM
College Football
Comments: It is really hard to predict what shows will be ready for the fall since the strike has caused a lot of production delays. I'm hoping new dramas
Good Behavior and
Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas will be ready for the fall...they sound very good. For Mondays, I'm leaving 8-10 intact right now but 10pm needs a change.
The Bachelor is an average performer, but they can do better...especially with the high profile
Good Behavior, which is the
Outrageous Fortune Australian remake.
The Bachelor would come back in January.
My Brother's Hot (And Other Dilemas) is the new Kristin Newman sitcom project that will star Alyssa Milano! I think
Miss Guided should return. It was fed to the strike and it had to start itself off without any support and besides it is very funny and should be given another chance. It would do well out of Milano's show. However, if there is a chance CBS drops
Old Christine, then I think ABC should really go after it and air it 9:30 Mondays after
Dancing with the Stars because I think a multi-camera sitcom would do better. Thus if that happens, then I would slide
Samantha Who in the 8pm hour on Tuesdays paired with Alyssa Milano's sitcom, and hold on to
Miss Guided for later. ABC should start
Boston Legal in the Tuesday at 10 slot for the fall since not many new shows will be available, and this show proves it can do decent in this slot out of
Stars..so don't mess with it until mid-season. Wednesdays ABC should bring back the combo of
Pushing Daisies and
Private Practice from 8-10pm because they were very solid and helped ABC win this past fall on Wednesday nights. Closing the night I think the addictive
Brothers & Sisters should move to this night and give a nice flow to the night...as it has proven itself already on Sunday nights. As for Thursdays,
Betty and
Grey's are a given, but I think
Eli Stone should return for a second season and air in the fall at least. If it doesn't work, then try something else...but it should be tried because the show is high class and deserves to be given a shot after
Grey's. If
Betty continues to slide (which I think it will perk up when Lohan comes), they could try something else in the slot mid-season.
Lost will return in February most likely for 16 or 17 straight weeks, possibly Thursdays at 10 again? Or maybe on another night? I don't see that happening though unless they want to have an all male night with
Scrubs and a new comedy (possibly
This Might Hurt). Speaking of
Scrubs, I think ABC will indeed pick it up but not air it until January. I have no idea where they would slot it, too. Tuesdays at 8 in January or Thursdays at 8 giving
Betty a break in January? I think ABC should go after Fridays. They shouldn't give up. They should go after the family audience. And new adventure drama
Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas is exactly what they should air...especially in the the colder months between October-February when viewership is higher. I think
According to Jim should wrap up its series run in the fall rather than being fed to
American Idol in the winter/spring. I would double up on it because I'm too scared to launch a new sitcom, like Cedric the Entertainer's new sitcom. I guess they could double pump
Jim for a while then bring in Cedric in one of the slots if this night clicks. Finally, on Sundays...I would leave 7-10pm alone. I think
Dirty Sexy Money would be a better fit out of
Desperate Housewives than
Private Practice was...so yes it is a risk to move
Brothers & Sisters, but I think that drama can do well on another night, too.
Series that will be canceled or are ending include:
Notes from the Underbelly, October Road, Women's Murder Club, Big Shots, Cashmere Mafia, Cavemen, Carpoolers, Duel, MEN IN TREES.
The Bachelor, Wife Swap & Supernanny will all return for mid-season or maybe December/January on Monday nights. Other reality shows like
Oprah's Big Give, Here Come the Newlyweds, and
Dance War all did decent, and should be tried again for mid-season or maybe next summer.
Looking at the fall line-up, ABC is pretty stacked with shows that are hits and sophomores that could build and be big hits...but with the strike it is very hard to tell what new shows will be available in the fall. Some shows that should make it sometime this season that I haven't mentioned yet are dramas
Prince of Motor City, Life on Mars, Section 8 (has a 6 episode order), and comedies
Bad Mother's Handbook, Cupid,
Never Better, and the animated
Goode Family.
Anyway, this season ABC had some decent hits like
Private Practice, Samantha Who, Pushing Daises and some promising shows such as
Eli Stone, Miss Guided and
Dirty Sexy Money. But this coming year will have ABC trying to build on those even more with their mega hits like
Dancing with the Stars, Desperate Housewives, and
Grey's Anatomy. Hopefully there isn't an actors strike to mess the TV landscape again.
Discuss your thoughts on our prediction and feel free to make suggestions of your own, by clicking
HERE!
Remember, next Tuesday (May 13) is the actual date when we will find out ABC's plans for the 2008-09 season. So, come on back next Tuesday and we will let you know the details and you can see how much we were right (or wrong). Stay tuned tomorrow for a preview on The CW's upfront.
Turning to the news,
Ghost Whisperer was acquired by ION Television starting in September 2009 for broadcast rights, but now the show has been sold to cable as well! Both Sci Fi Channel and WE tv will share the show in a joint contract. Sci Fi Channel will air the show in four hour marathon blocks once a week, while WE tv will air it daily, similar to ION. We will have more on WE tv's part soon, but Sci Fi has already announced their plans this morning.
SCI FI Channel has secured off-network cable rights to CBS's Emmy-nominated series,
Ghost Whisperer, from CBS Television Distribution. SCI FI will launch the series in the fall of 2009.
In addition, SCI FI will have access to shows in the CBS-Paramount library, including
Star Trek: The Next Generation, which will premiere Monday June 2, 2008 on SCI FI,
Charmed, Early Edition, Highlander, Highlander: The Raven, Seven Days, The Sentinel, The Invaders, Friday the Thirteenth: The Series and the classic Robin Williams sitcom
Mork & Mindy, among others.
We will have more details on those classic series later, but we know
Star Trek: The Next Generation starts Monday, June 2 and will air Mondays from 7-11pm. SCI FI likes to air shows in marathon blocks, so they have something fresh each day. Look for the classic series to be rotated into their morning daytime rotation slots. Nice to have a sitcom on SCI FI! Maybe they can get
Webster from CBS-Paramount as well? We all know Webster was secretly an alien...just kidding! Seriously, they should get more sitcoms of this nature from other studios like Debmar-Mercury's
ALF, 20th Century Fox's
Small Wonder and Universal's
Out of this World...just my suggestions and thoughts.
Mork & Mindy is a nice start, though! We will keep you up to date on these library shows. Yes, the
Charmed deal will be shared with TNT ... so SCI and TNT can air it.
In other news, WE tv has also secured rights to the last three seasons of the sitcom
Girlfriends! BET will have rights to the other seasons still. We will have more on this shortly. We already mentioned WE tv has acquired
The Golden Girls for March 2009, in a shared deal with Hallmark, so it seems WE Tv is loading up more on off-net programming. Meanwhile, SCI FI will launch
Lost this fall, as we stated previously.
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