Thursday, March 12, 2009
WGN America Spring Changes Includes Bullwinkle, WWE Superstars; ION Schedule Change
Then the week of April 13 is when the majority of the changes start! The weeknight 1am ET rotating hour will now have Funniest Pets & People on both Monday and Tuesday nights replacing AFV and Star Trek: TNG respectively. Reno 911's Thursday 1am airings migrate to Wednesday nights replacing ALF. ALF will still remain on Sundays on Outta Sight Retro Night, though. ALF has suffered a bit of a ratings let-down, but they are still keeping it on Sundays at least. The big change on WGN America will be the WWE Superstars series airing every Thursday on WGN America at 8pm ET and encoring at 11pm ET starting April 16. Thursdays in primetime will also see the series Around the World For Free at 9pm ET and 12am ET right after WWE Superstars. So what is Around the World for Free? Alex Boylan (winner of The Amazing Race, Season 2) attempts the impossible: he strips himself of all monetary funds, and with only a backpack and the help of an online community, sets off on a mission to circumnavigate the globe. So on Thursdays at 1am ET we will see Scrubs because its Thursday 11pm ET airings are preempted and at 4am ET Bob & Tom Show will air since its 12 am ET slot is preempted on Thursdays. This is bad news for Moesha fans because now the show will only air once a week at 5am ET on late Thursday nights (early Friday mornings). And for more bad news, Moesha will be gone after the end of June and will be replaced by more Funniest Pets & People. At least Moesha will still be on The N.
Moving to weekends, on Saturdays... Hollywood and Dine is going national. The local Cleveland produced food show on WJW, hosted by David "Mossman" Moss, will be syndicated on WGN America starting Saturday, April 18 at 12 noon ET and airing every Saturday at noon ET. Following Hollywood and Dine at 12:30pm ET will be Cultivating Life with Sean Conway. Both will replace an airing of Star Trek: TNG, so that series will only be in primetime on Tuesday nights by then. An episode of Boston Legal will follow at 1pm ET replacing a Bob & Tom Show airing, but that Bob & Tom airing will be moved to a Sunday slot of 11am ET. More on Sunday in a bit, but back to Saturday. The Saturday evening Boston Legal still remains in its slot. And the biggest news for us is that the classic '60s animated comedy The Bullwinkle Show is coming to WGN America on Saturday nights starting April 18! It will air Saturdays at 12 midnight ET (9pm PT) replacing an airing of The Honeymooners. Bullwinkle will follow two Scrubs episodes at 11 & 11:30pm ET. I'm still trying to find out what package of Bullwinkle this is, but I'm guessing it is the 98 episode package from The Program Exchange. It would be cool if it were all 130 episodes, though, including the Rocky episodes. And of course The Honeymooners will still air on the Outta Sight Retro Night on Sunday evenings, so the half-hour removal on Saturday nights is not a problem. So back to Sundays, we said Bob & Tom Show is in a Sunday slot of 11am ET, replacing Whacked Out Videos, which moves to Sunday nights at 3am ET replacing one of the Homicide: Life on the Street episodes, but that will still remain at 4am ET. The other Sunday change is at 12 noon ET with an encore of WWE Superstars replacing that Boston Legal airing, so both of its airings are on Saturdays starting April 18.
That's all for now, but Sean Compton of WGN America promises us that we will see more sitcom themed weeks this summer as we did last summer! Also, they will change up the Outta Sight Retro Night on Sundays in September a bit...so that will be cool to see what they add. So just because not much is added this spring, doesn't mean anything. WGN America is working on lots of classic TV stuff, and Bullwinkle is not a bad idea! Yes, ALF did well for them but it has weakened, but they are still airing it on Sundays at least. Stay tuned and keep it with us for all WGN America news!
Just a few days ago we gave you ION's April 2009 schedule saying that M*A*S*H would return to weekdays starting March 30. Well that is still happening...but two weeks earlier now! M*A*S*H will take over the 6pm hour on weekdays starting this Monday now (March 16). And in a twist, Family Feud will move to the 7pm hour from Mon-Thurs! Feud was supposed to be totally off the line-up by March 30, but ION is indeed keeping it! Feud will replace an airing of ER on Mondays and an airing of Boston Legal on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and a scheduled M*A*S*H hour or movie on Thursdays. So the only thing leaving is Steve Harvey Show...and two weeks earlier than planned. So tonight is the last night actually. This is tough news because BET removed it as well a few weeks back. Everything else we reported for April is intact, including the movies.
Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows
Friday, July 26
The Conners - "Keep on Truckin'" (The CW, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
After a sudden turn of events, the Conners are forced to face the daily struggles of life in Lanford in a way they never have before.
The Conners - "Tangled Up in Blue" (The CW, 8:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Darlene gets one surprise after another when David introduces his girlfriend at a parent-teacher conference and mentions that Mark & Harris will be spending the weekend with them.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of July 22)
Friday, July 26
- Nick Jonas (Jonas) - Watch Nick on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Michael Douglas (The Kominsky Method) - Michael appears on a repeat of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
- Sasheer Zamata (Home Economics/Woke/Robbie), Joe Lo Truglio (Brooklyn Nine-Nine/Burning Love/Reno 911!) and Aparna Nancherla (Corporate) - Sasheer, Joe and Aparna are guests on a repeat of After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
- Jennie Garth (Mystery Girls/What I Like About You) - Jennie chats with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT. NBC's Today catches up with Jennie in the 10am hour.
- Marcus Scribner (grown-ish/black-ish) - Marcus talks about his coming-of-age film How I Learned to Fly on a repeat of Sherri, so check your local listings.
- Delroy Lindo (UnPrisoned) - Delroy talks about UnPrisoned on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm.
- Dylan Sprouse (The Suite Life on Deck/The Suite Life of Zack & Cody/Grace Under Fire) - Dylan talks about Lionsgate's The Duel on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
New on DVD/Blu-ray
02/13 - Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/27 - The Really Loud House - Season One
03/12 - Ghosts (UK) - The Complete Series
03/12 - Looney Tunes Collector's Choice - Volume 3 (Blu-ray)
03/12 - Rick and Morty - Season 7 (Blu-ray Steelbook) (Blu-ray) (DVD)
04/03 - Too Close for Comfort - The Complete Series (VEI)
04/08 - Check It Out! - The Complete Series (VEI)
05/21 - Frasier (2023) - Season One
06/11 - The Jeffersons - The Complete Series (2024 Release)
06/11 - Welcome Back, Kotter - The Complete Series (2024 Release)
07/05 - Letterkenny - Season 12 (Final Season)
07/30 - Ted Lasso - The Richmond Way (The Complete Series) (Blu-ray) (DVD)
09/17 - Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray)
09/24 - Friends - The Complete Series (4K Ultra HD)
09/24 - Young Sheldon - The Complete Seventh Season / The Complete Series
10/08 - Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete Twelfth Season / The Complete Series
More Recent and Upcoming TV DVD Releases / DVD Reviews Archive / SitcomsOnline Digest
Recent SitcomsOnline.com News Blog Posts