BET Jazz Renames to Centric; The CW and TBS Cancelations

Monday, September 28, 2009

BET Jazz Renames to Centric; The CW and TBS Cancelations

We all know about the name change Viacom is doing for The N turning into TeenNick starting today, but did you know Viacom's BET Jazz is turning into Centric today? BET is rebranding its nearly 32 million subscriber "BET J" network under the Centric title, which will target African-American viewers with music and lifestyle programming. The network for the short-term will rely on acquired reality and music programming fare from its sister networks, including such shows as MTV's Run's House and VH1's The Salt-N-Pepa Show and I Want To Work for Diddy. Centric will also feature new shows originally slated to premiere this fall on BET J, including Leading Men, Lyrical Café and Urban Living. The network will also air classic episodes from the long-running Soul Train syndicated music/dance series, including singer Michael Jackson's first appearance on the show as a member of The Jackson Five. The network will pay homage to the "King of Pop," who died this past June, with a Jackson-themed primetime programming block tonight at 9pm (and encoring Friday at 11am). Also, the network will air the original Fame series to launch the network today from 9am-9pm with an encore on Sunday from 6am-6pm. Episode titles from the 1982 series airing in the block are "The Strike," "A Musical Bridge," "Passing Grade," "Tomorrow's Farewell," "The Crazies," "Teachers," "Class Act," "Feelings," "Star Quality," "Solo Song," "Ending on a High Note," and "Not in Kansas Anymore." I believe this is in honor of the new Fame movie that opened this past weekend. As of now, Centric is not airing this series as a regular.
While the network is officially on the air today, BET and MTV are not planning any major marketing campaigns for Centric until 2010. For the immediate future, Centric will run cross-promotional spots through such MTV Networks properties as VH1, MTV and BET. Hopefully we see some sitcoms on Centric, but it doesn't seem like we will see any...I guess sitcom will be just for BET itself.

The CW has canceled new Wednesday drama The Beautiful Life: TBL after just two airings. TBL was the fall's first cancelation, after draw just over 1 million viewers for its second episode not holding much of anything of the America's Next Top Model lead-in. Starting this Wednesday at 9pm, repeats of Melrose Place, which is not doing much better, will take over the slot. Melrose Place airs original episodes Tuesdays at 9pm.
And finally TBS has canceled multi-camera sitcom The Bill Engvall Show after three seasons. The series moved to Saturdays for its third season and didn't generate much numbers. TBS opted to go with a fourth season of single camera sitcom My Boys instead I guess.

Sitcoms Airing Tonight

Monday, November 29

The Neighborhood - "Welcome to the Family Business" (CBS, 8:00PM ET/PT)
When Tina struggles to keep up with her job at Calvin’s auto shop, due to her burgeoning baking business, he faces a tough decision: should he fire his own wife? Also, Malcolm delays breaking up with a girlfriend when her son becomes an unexpected asset to his youth baseball team.

Bob Hearts Abishola - "Light Duty" (CBS, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Abishola and Kemi take a directionless Christina to see a Yoruba priest, where she learns that her toxic relationship with her mother may be stifling her growth. Also, Bob deals with the fallout of promoting Kofo over Goodwin when Goodwin has a panic attack at work.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of November 29)

Monday, November 29

Kathy Griffin (Suddenly Susan) - Watch Kathy on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Alan Ruck (Spin City/Muscle/Going Places) - Alan appears on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Tracy Morgan (The Last O.G./30 Rock/The Tracy Morgan Show) - Tracy is a guest on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
Rami Malek (The War at Home) - Rami appears on a repeat of The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Vanessa Lachey (Truth Be Told/Dads) - Vanessa will be on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT. NBC's Today has Make Ahead Monday with Vanessa in the 9am hour.
Harry Hamlin (Movie Stars) - Harry is a guest on LIVE! with Kelly and Ryan, so check your listings.
Leah Remini (Kevin Can Wait/The Exes/Family Tools/The King of Queens/Fired Up) - Leah guest co-hosts The Wendy Williams Show, so check your local listings.
Jennifer Tilly (Out of Practice) - Jennifer appears on The Kelly Clarkson Show, so check your local listings.
Kathryn Hahn (Central Park/Happyish/Transparent/Free Agents) - Kathryn is a guest on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
Jane Levy (Suburgatory) - Jane will be on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
AnnaLynne McCord (Let's Get Physical) - Anan discusses her childhood sexual abuse, trauma and dissociative identity disorder diagnosis on a repeat of The Doctors, so check your local listings.
Kevin Hart (The Big House/Undeclared) - Kevin talks about True Story on CBS This Morning sometime between 7-9am.
Rita Moreno (One Day at a Time/Happily Divorced/9 to 5) - Rita talks about West Side Story on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am.
Julie Bowen (Modern Family/Ed) - NBC's Today catches up with Julie in the 9am hour.
Tituss Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) - Tituss talks about NBC's Annie Live! in the 9am hour.
Brooke Shields (Suddenly Susan) - Brooke talks about Castle for Christmas in the 10am hour.
Kim Fields (The Upshaws/Living Single/The Facts of Life/Baby, I'm Back) - Kim talks about VH1's Adventures in Christmasing on Access Live, so check your local listings.
Kyle Richards (Down to Earth) - Kyle is a guest on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm.