CBS Comedy Change for Next Monday; Fox Notes; Remembering Ron Silver

Next Monday (Monday, March 23), CBS will preempt The Big Bang Theory for an all-new episode of How I Met Your Mother at a special time of 8:00PM ET/PT. Big Bang was scheduled to be a repeat anyway. Mother will also still air in its normal 8:30PM ET/PT on this night, but that will be a repeat broadcast. It will be interesting if CBS is seeing how strong Mother is at 8PM in comparison to Big Bang. Both comedies have been down the last two weeks thanks to the return of Dancing with the Stars. Two and a Half Men will also be a repeat at 9PM, but Rules of Engagement is all-new at 9:30PM.

Fox has removed Hole in the Wall from the schedule yet again. Effective this Sunday, Fox will now air repeats of American Dad! and King of the Hill at 7PM & 7:30PM in place of the half-hour showings of Hole in the Wall which certainly was a hole in the Sunday night schedule, perhaps effecting the animated comedies to lower numbers from 8-10PM.
In other Fox programming news, the variety series of specials, The Osbournes: Reloaded, will now launch as a 40-minute airing instead of an hour on Tuesday, March 31 from 9:20-10PM, so yes American Idol will be from 8PM-9:20PM on that night, just what we needed, more Idol. Fox has ordered six Osbournes variety specials, so each are 30-minutes, so four will remain after these two half-hours air. Not sure if Fox is cutting anything from these or if they will run with limited commercials.

Award-winning actor and activist Ron Silver, who was Emmy-nominated for his recurring role on the hit television drama The West Wing, died on Sunday after a two-year ordeal of esophageal cancer. His portrayal of White House strategist Bruno Gianelli on The West Wing was perhaps his best known part in recent years, but he earned another Emmy nomination for the murder thriller Billionaire Boys Club, a TV miniseries from 1987.
He had a recurring role on the TV hospital drama Chicago Hope and a regular role on the sitcom Veronica's Closet, and he won acclaim for playing lawyer Alan Dershowitz in the film Reversal of Fortune. Among his other TV credits include guest-starring on sitcoms such as Rhoda, Big Eddie, Trying Times, and regular roles on short-lived sitcoms The Stockard Channing Show and Baker's Dozen. He guest starred on many TV dramas as well such as The Practice, Crossing Jordan, Law & Order, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, Wiseguy, Hill Street Blues, The Rockford Files, McMillan & Wife and a regular role on the short-lived Skin on Fox.
He was also known for his work on Broadway. Broadway theatre bosses will dim the lights of New York's theatreland on Wednesday as a mark of respect. He won a 1988 Tony Award for his performance in David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow. Theatre marquees will be dimmed for one minute at 8pm on Wednesday, which is the traditional starting time for evening performances of Broadway shows. Ron will certainly be missed. He was only 62.