SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

WGN America Makes Changes to Outta Sight Retro Night, Newhart Thanksgiving Marathon; TNT Picks-Up Mentalist, USA Picks-Up NCIS: LA

WGN America is making some changes starting the week of Nov. 23. On weekdays, the only change will be Nash Bridges returning to the weekday line-up, airing weekdays at 12 noon ET replacing one of the In the Heat of the Night episodes, which will remain weekdays at 11am ET.
Then starting Sunday, Nov. 29, the Sunday block Outta Sight Retro Night will get some schedule changes. The 6pm ET hour will now be Becker instead of ALF. Cosby Show, Newhart, Barney Miller remain in their 7pm-10pm ET hours, followed by a news break at 10pm ET. After the news, Cheers is still on during the 11pm ET hour, but then after that we have some changes. ALF moves to the 12 midnight hour, replacing Bewitched and more Barney Miller will air in the 1am hour replacing I Dream of Jeannie. It is not a big deal for Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie to be removed from Sundays, because they already air weekday afternoons. So with all of these schedule changes, nothing is being removed totally...which is good!
And finally, this Thanksgiving (Thursday, Nov. 26, 2009) spend the holiday once again with Newhart! WGN America will air a Newhart marathon from 2:30pm-8pm ET! For the second consecutive Thanksgiving WGN America is giving a nice Newhart marathon on Thanksgiving. Episodes airing this year in the marathon are (in order of airing): "Vermont Day," "Miss Stephanie," "A Hunting We Will Go," "Candidate Larry," "Will the Real Dick Loudon Please Shut Up," "Co-Hostess Twinkie," "Camp Stephanie," "The Gleeless Club," "The Nice Man Cometh," "Don't Rain on My Parade," and "Thanksgiving for the Memories."
Stay with us in the coming weeks as we tell you what WGN America has planned for Christmas and New Year's! I'll give you a hint, it's going to be good...as usual with them!

TNT has acquired exclusive syndication rights to The Mentalist from Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, commencing in Fall 2012. Currently in its second season on CBS, The Mentalist has emerged as one of the hottest shows on broadcast television. The series will begin running weekly on the cable network in Fall 2011, before getting the full 5-days a week treatment in Fall 2012.
USA Network has acquired the exclusive off-network rights to the CBS Television Distribution's drama NCIS: Los Angeles, the newest addition to the NCIS franchise. Under the agreement, USA Network will have access to weekly early exhibitions from season one beginning September 2011 and the right to start stripping the series weekdays in September 2013. The original NCIS on USA Network is the #1 "off-network" series on cable for 2009 to date averaging nearly 3.5million total viewers in Primetime.