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TCA Winter 2010 Press Tour: CBS and The CW; Hallmark Channel Does Daytime Time Shifting

The TCA Winter 2010 Press Tour has begun today in Pasadena, CA with CBS in the morning and The CW will go today in late afternoon (after Showtime). After breakfast at 8am PT, CBS had their executive session at 9am PT. CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler was on hand to answer questions. She even talked about her feelings about this Jay Leno Show fiasco going on at NBC, saying ABC, CBS and Fox has thrived over NBC's experiment. She confirmed that freshman medical drama Three Rivers has been officially canceled and is no longer on "hiatus." She is also trying to find a new series for the star of that show, Alex O'Loughlin. She also talked about the creative issues on CSI since Fishburne entered and the downfall of their Friday series in the ratings. NUMB3RS ending early doesn't mean it won't return next season, as new drama Miami Medical is launching in its slot. With this change, Canadian imports Flashpoint and The Bridge will not launch in the season, but will be available in the summer. Episode orders are 18 and 13 respectively. NUMB3RS and Medium still have a chance to return next season and Medium flows very well with Ghost Whisperer. She also mentioned that they are very high on Undercover Boss, which will launch after the Super Bowl. She has seen 5 or 6 episodes already and feels it could be their next big reality brand. That's about it. Nothing major here.
After the executive session, there were half-hour panels with casts and crews (with 15-minute breaks in between each). First up were producers from the CBS Comedy Power Hour (Two and a Half Men/The Big Bang Theory) at about 9:45am PT. Chuck Lorre, Lee Aronsohn and Bill Prady were on hand to talk about these two powerhouses. Addressed were the Charlie Sheen arrest situation and underusing Kaley Cuoco on Big Bang in the pilot. And no Sheldon-Penny will not happen! Then at 10:30am PT the executive producer (Stephen Lambert) of Undercover Boss along with the CEO from Waste Management (Larry O'Donnell, III) were on hand to talk about the upcoming reality series. Coming up at 11:15am PT are the cast and crew of the upcoming new medical drama Miami Medical. On hand will be stars Jeremy Northam, Lana Parrilla, Mike Vogel, Elisabeth Harnois, and Omar Gooding, along with creator Jeffrey Leiber, and producers Jerry Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman, and Steve Maeda. Ha, Leiber will be asked LOST questions, since he was a producer on that show. Lunch will be served at 11:45am PT as everyone gets gourmet box lunches.
Stay with us for updates and look back at yesterday's blog for CBS midseason 2010 updates. After everything is over today there will be a Survivor 10th Anniversary at CBS Television City starting at 7pm PT. Everyone will mix and mingle among castaways past and present including the entire cast of the upcoming Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. Also, in attendance will be Host Jeff Probst, Executive Producer Mark Burnett, as well as other producers, key crew members and CBS executives.

Following the lunch break will be Showtime at 12:30pm PT. We won't cover that, but the panels that are scheduled are Nurse Jackie, United States of Tara, The Green Room with Paul Provenza, and Oliver Stone's Secret History of America.

The CW goes later this afternoon starting at 4pm PT. If anything breaking happens, we will return and edit it in here, but they have panels with the cast and crew of the upcoming Monday drama series Life UneXpected and then the cast and crew of the popular The Vampire Diaries will be on hand. Following these two panels there will be The Vampire Diaries' Bloody Mary Cocktail Reception. In schedule news, the only thing they announced was the date for the all-new season of America's Next Top Model 14, launching Wednesday, March 3, 2010 with a two-hour premiere starting at 8pm. Programming for the post-Top Model hour will be announced at a later time. View our previous story on the Monday night changes. Other than that, The CW will remain the same through the season.

Stay tuned tomorrow for NBC's turn at the press tour. That will be interesting. More drama, I'm sure. Too bad they can't get anyone interested in any of their shows like they do with their idiotic moves.

And finally in regular news, Hallmark Channel will make some schedule changes starting Monday after only a week with the new schedule. The schedule changes are to daytime only from 9am-4pm, as 4pm-4am will remain the same. It will be only time shifting really. Golden Girls' daytime airing moves to the mornings, Little House will now move to mid-morning, 7th Heaven is now afternoons, and AFV's early airing is now paired with its late afternoon airings. So nothing is leaving.
View the full schedule changes so you know when to find your shows!