SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

ION August 2008; Slight Nick at Nite Change; Summer 2008 TCA Press Tour: Cable Day 4

We have an action packed Friday today. So much stuff we couldn't fit everything we planned. So some of it will spill into next week.
ION Television has announced its August 2008 higlights. There really are no changes to the regular line-up, but the RHI block is getting a bit of a twist. RHI programming airs Fri-Sun from 7-11pm, but now Fridays they will show Flash Gordon: The Series. That was a 2007 Sci-Fi Channel series produced by RHI and now ION will air the reruns to all 22 episodes airing in the 7pm hour on Fridays. ION will pair Flash Gordon: The Series with the 2000 mini-series The 10th Kingdom broken down into hour episodes airing in the 8pm hour on Fridays. I believe originally it was like 9 parts.
As far as the regular schedule Mon-Thurs, there are no changes and the line-up will remain Hangin 'with Mr. Cooper, Steve Harvey Show, Family Feud, Quantum Leap, The Dead Zone and ER from 5-11pm. The Drew Carey Show will get two filler airings on Thursdays at 10:30pm on Aug. 21 and Aug. 28 following the Total Theatre Movie. The sitcom is still slated to return regularly this September. August Total Theatre Thursday movies are Clear and Present Danger, Elvis: That's The Way It Is, Superman II, and Point of No Return.
And the RHI movies and mini-series for August include Rear Window, Noah's Ark, and more.
Check our our ION August 2008 highlights for complete details!

Yet more changes are happening on Nick at Nite. Starting Monday (July 14), Mon-Thurs 11:30pm will now be Family Matters, replacing Fresh Prince. So Family Matters will air for a full hour at 11pm now! It will also still air at 8:30pm Mon-Thurs. However, the 4-5am Mon-Thurs encores of Family Matters will be replaced by a third late night hour of Fresh Prince. So Fresh Prince will air from 2-5am Mon-Thurs. Also, Fridays at 12:30am Family Matters will now air for the full hour at 12am, replacing a half-hour Fresh Prince. It is great that the Winslows and the Urkeman have done so well already on Nick at Nite!
Check out the full schedule starting July 14.

Well it is the final day of the cable portion of the summer 2008 TCA press tour. The broadcast networks will start going next week and we will have updates from that, too, of course. Here is the schedule for the broadcast portion:
July 12-13: PBS; July 14: Fox; July 15: Fox/TCA; July 16-17: ABC; July 18: CBS; July 19: CBS/CW/Showtime/TCA Awards; July 20: NBC/TCA (possible set visits); July 21: NBC; July 22: TCA Set Visits
I don't think we will cover PBS, unless it is something very noteworthy. Remember cable stations that are owned by a broadcast channel (ABC: ABC Family, NBC: Sci-Fi, etc) will be also presenting during the broadcast portion of the press tour, so we will cover that as well.
Anyway, here is what happened today on the last day of the cable portion:

Turner Broadcasting kicked off the day. CNN was up first and they discussed their coverage plans for the 2008 election. The Best Political Team on Television discusses the 2008 presidential election and CNN's unrivaled coverage, with a behind-the-scenes preview of the summer conventions and the fall election. CNN also has a special coming July 23-24 titled CNN Presents Black in America. Forty years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., CNN's Black in America series continues with two groundbreaking documentaries, Black Men and Black Women & Family, as well as a topical special co-produced with Essence magazine.
Cartoon Network was touting its original animated series Star Wars: Clone Wars. From creator George Lucas, Star Wars: The Clone Wars combines the scope of the legendary Star Wars saga with state-of-the-art computer-generated animation.
TNT has two new dramas coming. The first one premieres September 1 at 10pm, Raising the Bar. This series follows the lives and cases of young attorneys who have been friends since law school but are now on opposing sides as defense and prosecution. Raising The Bar comes to TNT from ABC Studios and Steven Bochco. Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Jane Kaczmarek, and Gloria Reuben star. Then in December, they will launch Leverage. This series follows a team of thieves, hackers and grifters who act as modern-day Robin Hoods, taking revenge against those who use power and wealth to victimize others. Leverage comes to TNT from Electric Entertainment. Among off-network programming, Cold Case will be available to air five-days-a-week this October.
TBS will launch a second season of late night comedy Frank TV this October. This sketch comedy features Frank Caliendo, famous for his pitch-perfect takes on such personalitiesas John Madden, Dr. Phil, President Bush and Former President Clinton. When it debuted in November 2007, Frank TV delivered ad-supported cable's biggest young adult audience ever for a late-night series launch. Among off-network programming, Married...with Children joins the early morning line-up this September.

Then Fox Reality Channel stepped up and announced its August 2 premiere of Long Way Down, a ten-episode series. It features two close friends, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, on the ultimate motorcycle trip through distant lands, unique cultures and some of the most impressive natural wonders in the world, while raising over $1 million for charities including UNICEF, Riders for Health, and CHAS (Children's Hospice Association Scotland).

Starz was giving press about its new buzz filled drama Crash coming in October. Dennis Hopper stars. Set in Los Angeles, Crash explores the complexities of social tolerance in contemporary America by digging into the meaning of what it takes to reach the American dream. Characters will intertwine and crash into each other, coming face to face with the daily hurdles and obstacles that threaten to get in the way of achieving that dream. Based on the movie by the same name.

Then it was Lifetime's turn. They have announced a lot of original programming. How to Look Good Naked returns July 22 with its second season with Carson Kressley. As we mentioned before, Lifetime will have its own original sitcom to be paired with Reba reruns this Fall called Rita Rocks. Overworked wife and mother Rita is in the middle of a full-blown identity crisis. Trying to maintain romance with her husband Jay, juggling the demands of her nine-year-old daughter Shannon and disciplining her defiant, teenage daughter Hallie, Rita is at her wit's end. In search of "youthful" Rita, she dusts off her old guitar and forms a garage band with her nosy postal carrier Patty and unemployed neighbor Owen. Stars include Nicole Sullivan, Richard Ruccolo and Tisha Campbell—Martin. They will also have original movies, of course. The movie Coco Chanel premieres September 13. Coco Chanel follows the rags—to-riches story of influential and iconic French designer Coco Chanel from her humble beginnings in an orphanage outside Paris, through her meteoric rise to fame and success, revealing a fiery and ambitious woman and the significant relationships, both familial and romantic, that shaped and inspired her success. Stars Shirley MacLaine. Then they have Living Proof, Lifetime Television's Marquee Original Movie starring Harry Connick, Jr., Amanda Bynes, Angie Harmon, Swoosie Kurtz, Bernadette Peters, Jennifer Coolidge, Regina King, Tammy Blanchard, John Benjamin Hickey, Paula Cale and Trudie Styler. Living Proof will premiere in October 2008 on Lifetime Television, as part of the Network's Stop Breast Cancer for Life campaign during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It is the moving true story of Dr. Dennis Slamon, the UCLA doctor who developed the revolutionary breast cancer drug, Herceptin, and his relentless battle to keep the drug trials afloat and save the lives of thousands of women. But before those two moves this Fall, they have a few movies coming in August as well! Ashley Benson and Jenna Dewan star in Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal, Valerie Bertinelli and Joanna Levesque star in True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet and Judy Reyes, A Martinez and Hector Bustamante star in Little Girl Lost: The Delimar Vera Story.