ABC Season Finale Dates for 2011, More Wipeout; NBC Schedules Paul Reiser Show

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

ABC Season Finale Dates for 2011, More Wipeout; NBC Schedules Paul Reiser Show

ABC has announced the season finale dates for the 2010-11 season during May. The first season finale will be on Sunday, May 8 at 10:01pm for Brothers & Sisters. It is still on the bubble, so no word yet if it will be back next season. On Wednesday, May 11 at 8:30pm the season finale of freshman sitcom Better With You will air. On Sunday, May 15, there will be two finales. At 8:00 p.m. it is the season finale for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which is returning to the schedule on April 17 following the season finale of Secret Millionaire on April 10. Then from 9:00-11:00pm, Desperate Housewives gets a special two-hour season finale. On Monday, May 16 at 10:01pm it is the season finale of Castle. And on Tuesday, May 17 at 8pm, reality series Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution closes its second season. The reality series has its season premiere on April 12.
The final Thursday of the season (May 19) will feature three finales. At 8:00pm it is the season finale of Wipeout (Spring Edition). ABC has ordered three more Spring Wipeout episodes so it can fill the Thursday 8pm slot for the rest of the season. Previously, it was going to be a repeat on March 31 after new episodes (March 17/24) because it only had 4 episodes, but now ABC will air an all-new episode on March 31 with Grey's/Private being new. Repeats will air on April 7, 14 and 21, just like Grey's/Private. Then it will be back for sweeps for the remaining four Spring episodes (April 28, May 5, 12 and 19). The regular summer edition will start over a month later after the NBA Finals are over with and 16 all-new episodes will air, as previously planned. This means Wipeout will produce 31 total episodes this season (8 for winter, 7 for spring and 16 for summer). Airdates for the summer edition will be announced soon. So stay tuned. Anyway, back to Thursday May 19, following the Spring Wipeout finale are the season finales of Greyis Anatomy and Private Practice from 9-11pm. On Friday, May 20 at 8pm, Shark Tank closes its second season. The final Sunday of the season will have the season finale of America's Funniest Home Videos on Sunday, May 22 at 7pm leading into the Billboard Music Awards from 8-11pm. As we knew, Monday, May 23 will have the final Dancing with the Stars performance show at 8pm leading into the summer staple The Bachelorette from 9-11pm. On Tuesday, May 24 from 9:00-11:00pm it is the grand finale for season 12 of Dancing with the Stars. And finally on the last day of the TV season, Wednesday, May 25, the ABC comedies get their finales. At 8:00pm it is The Middle, followed by a repeat then at 9:00pm the megahit Modern Family has its season finale leading into the one-hour Hawaiian season finale of Cougar Town from 9:31-10:30pm.
ABC has not announced season finale dates for Mr. Sunshine, Happy Endings or Body of Proof since all three will have leftover episodes. Depending on their plans for them, they could air in summer or be held for next season. Everything else is pretty much set except ABC News series Primetime What Would You Do? and 20/20, which are likely to continue into summer.

Moving on to NBC, they have pulled Perfect Couples starting April 14. NBC announced that The Paul Reiser Show, a new comedy series starring Paul Reiser (Mad About You), will premiere on Thursday, April 14 at 8:30pm ET.
NBC's The Paul Reiser Show is a new single-camera comedy from Emmy and Golden Globe Award-nominated actor/writer/producer Reiser and writer/producer Jonathan Shapiro. The show stars Reiser as -- Paul Reiser. It's been a few years since his hit TV series went off the air. Since then, he's been enjoying the quiet life at home with his lovely wife, Claire (Amy Landecker), and kids and generally minding his own business, writing and producing television but enjoying life out of the spotlight. Getting him into trouble -- and into adventures -- are a group of new "friends," most of which he didn't choose since they're the husbands of his wife's friends and the dads of his kids' classmates. Thrown together by circumstance, Reiser and his cohorts, including Jonathan (Ben Shenkman), Habib (Omid Djalili), Fernando (Duane Martin, All of Us) and Brad (Andrew Daly, MADtv), form an unlikely comradeship -- and a pretty lame basketball team.
The new comedy will air Thursdays at 8:30pm through Thursday, May 19. It will also air at a special time of 8pm leading into the finale on May 19. As a result of the premiere of the new sitcom, Community will now be all-new on April 14, thus its season finale on Thursday, May 12 is no longer two episodes. The Community season finale is now a half-hour on Thursday, May 12 at 8pm. As for Perfect Couples, as of this writing it would have 4 episodes still to air after April 14, though it could be as low as only 2 because on March 31 and April 7, currently repeats are listed, so NBC could change those to new episodes--then only two would remain. It is almost 100% certain this series is all but done though.

Sitcoms Airing Tonight

Friday, July 3

The Dick Van Dyke Show - Now in Living Color! - (CBS, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
CBS will honor the memory of legendary actor, producer, director, writer, comedian and Emmy Award winner Carl Reiner with THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW – NOW IN LIVING COLOR! A SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO CARL REINER, featuring two colorized back-to-back classic episodes of the beloved 1960s series, Friday, July 3 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. As series creator and co-star, Carl Reiner personally supervised the original colorization of the episodes.

The special features “Coast to Coast Big Mouth,” which ranked #8 on TV Guide’s list of the “100 Greatest TV Episodes of All-Time,” and “October Eve,” which Mr. Reiner considered to be one of the series’ funniest episodes. Both were written by Bill Persky and Sam Denoff.

In “Coast to Coast Big Mouth,” Laura Petrie blurts out a top secret on a national television quiz show, revealing that comedian Alan Brady wears a toupee. The episode, which was the show’s fifth and final season premiere, was originally broadcast on Sept. 15, 1965. “Coast to Coast Big Mouth” won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in 1966.

In “October Eve,” a painting of Laura returns to haunt her when, despite her having posed fully clothed, the artist (played by Carl Reiner) takes the liberty of “undraping” her. The episode was first presented on April 8, 1964, during season three.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of June 29)

Friday, July 3

Kevin Hart (The Big House/Undeclared) - Watch Kevin on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 12:35am on ABC.
Tina Fey (30 Rock) - Tina appears on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
Laura Dern (Enlightened) - Laura is a guest on a repeat of The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Mark Duplass (Togetherness/The Mindy Project/The League) - Mark appears on a repeat of The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Melissa McCarthy (Mike & Molly/Samantha Who?) - Melissa guest hosts a repeat of The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Brett Gelman (Camping/Fleabag/Love/Married/Go On) - Brett appears on a repeat of A Little Late with Lilly Singh at 1:35am on NBC.
Tika Sumpter (mixed-ish/The Game) - Tika talks about the season finale of mixed-ish and her latest project helping new moms on a repeat of Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.
Peter Gallagher (Grace and Frankie/The Secret Lives of Men) - Peter talks about Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist and Grace and Frankie on a repeat of Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.