SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

ABC Changes Premiere Date for Romantically Challenged; Fox Cancels Sons of Tucson, Finale Date for 'Til Death; NBC Renews Unscripted Series

It's all network news today and we have tons of scheduling updates that we must let you know! There are sitcom updates as well! ABC has changed the premiere date for upcoming Alyssa Milano sitcom Romantically Challenged from Monday, April 12 to Monday, April 19 but the timeslot of 9:32pm will remain. Not a big change, but a change nevertheless. It will now premiere a week later, giving Dancing with the Stars another two-hour episode on April 12 (8-10pm), leading into an all-new Castle which has guest star Tom Bergeron of Dancing with the Stars. So it makes sense to have Stars lead-in to that, but that is NOT the reason for the premiere delay for Romantically Challenged. So what is? The premiere date has been pushed back a week to April 19, to avoid premiering against a new episode of the CBS hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory on April 12, which also airs in the half-hour. That show will be in repeats on April 19 and 26, so Romantically Challenged will have a better premiere platform and a better shot of success now. It makes sense and now there will be a week more of promo time, as originally the show only had two weeks of promo time. Spread the word of the change and make sure you watch the new sitcom LIVE!
We have updated our original story so no confusion arises, please check that out for the complete details. I've seen the premiere and it is good (look for our review on Friday, April 16)!
In other ABC schedule updates, they will air an encore of last week's Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution at 8pm this Friday (April 9) leading into an all-new episode in the regular 9pm timeslot. Why? Just in case anyone missed last Friday's episode, which aired on Good Friday, ABC is giving you a shot to catch-up. Plus it is a better lead-in for the series. Wife Swap will not air on this date now, but as of now it will still air every other Friday at 8pm. Perhaps they will pull that though for the rest of the season and air it in summer? We'll let you know if they do decide to bump it for more than just one week.

Fox has pulled new sitcom Sons of Tucson from the schedule effective immediately after only 4 episodes. This is no surprise as the series was doing terrible in the ratings and the episodes have been bad, too. The series has been canceled, and the remaining 9 episodes will air Sundays at 7:30pm in the summer starting June 6, if that even lasts. As I predicted, American Dad! has returned and will air new episodes starting this Sunday at 9:30pm. And Fox has announced that the series finale of 'Til Death will air on Sunday, June 20 at 7pm. 'Til Death will now just air one episode on Sundays rather than two, as the 7:30pm half-hour will be repeats of The Simpsons starting this Sunday. This is no surprise, as we already mentioned 'Til Death has been canceled after four strangely airing seasons.

NBC has picked up three freshman alternative series as The Marriage Ref, Minute to Win It and Who Do You Think You Are? are renewed for the 2010-11 season. All three shows are not hits, but have done OK for NBC. 13 episodes for The Marriage Ref have been ordered, 8 for Who Do You Think You Are? and 10 for Minute to Win It, with the latter possibly airing some of those in the summer.
As for this season, NBC has picked up two additional episodes of Minute to Win It, giving it ten for this season. New episodes will air on Sunday, May 9 and Sunday, May 23 at 8PM ET/PT. As a result, Dateline will be cut to an hour on those dates at 7PM. Also, NBC has ordered three more episodes for this season for The Marriage Ref, so it will likely last through the rest of the season now. In addition, NBC has cut the episode order of Monday drama Trauma from 20 to 18 episodes and will now have its season finale on April 26 and is being replaced in the Monday 9PM ET/PT hour by repeats of Law & Order on May 3 and 10, leading into all-new episodes. Trauma is a very long shot to return next season.