SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

As we suspected, The Hallmark Channel has revised its April 2011 schedule. As we mentioned on Friday, The Waltons will be starting today at 3pm & 4pm every weekday. That will continue into April as well, so that means changes to the original April schedule will be made. First up, the full day Cheers marathon on Sunday, April 3, 2011 is no longer happening. This marathon was to promote spin-off series Frasier joining the line-up the following day. Instead, Hallmark will showcase all of its shows this Sunday. Each sitcom will air in blocks on this date: I Love Lucy from 6am-8am, The Golden Girls from 8am-11am, Empty Nest from 11am-3pm, more The Golden Girls from 3pm-6pm, more I Love Lucy from 6pm-11pm, yet more The Golden Girls from 11pm-2am, and Cheers from 2am-5am.
Now that is just for one day, the regular April schedule starts on Monday, April 4. Going through it from the original plan, I Love Lucy remains from 5am-8am, Frasier still remains from 8am-10am leading into the Martha at Home block. The Waltons will remain in the 3pm and 4pm hours, replacing the planned Touched by an Angel airings. The evening line-up also remains intact with Little House on the Prairie at 5pm & 6pm leading into a block of The Golden Girls from 7-9pm and Frasier from 9pm-11pm. Now the original post-primetime line-up had Cheers from 11pm-1am, but now Hallmark will keep The Golden Girls from 11pm-1am instead of moving it to 1am-3am. And as we revealed on Friday, Empty Nest will be back after a two week break and will air weeknights from 1am-3am, pushing Cheers to 3am-5am. Who's the Boss? is still missing from the April schedule, but we think it was a one-year deal and the contract has expired. That is not certain though and we will let you know as soon as we find out.
As for weekends, it will remain as planned from the original weekend plan. There are a few marathon changes, though. The Touched by an Angel marathon planned for Saturday, April 9 is now scrapped and the regular schedule will air instead. If you noticed, Touched by an Angel is also missing from the regular schedule as well. On Sunday, April 10, Hallmark will give a full day marathon for its newest series Frasier starting at 6am for 24 straight hours! One other marathon note, the full-day Little House on the Prairie marathon scheduled for Saturday, April 23 is now removed in favor of a full-day with The Waltons starting at 6am!
View the full and updated Hallmark Channel April 2011 schedule.

Moving on to some network notes, as you all know there were special airings of Shark Tank and Detroit 1-8-7 last night on ABC on special nights, but there are more notes. On Tuesday, March 29, ABC will air the special Dancing With The Stars: The Story So Far at 8pm, highlighting the first two dances for each star leading into the first Results Show of the season. This means No Ordinary Family will be preempted on March 29. Instead, the episode will air on a special night and time on Saturday, March 26 at 10pm following a repeat of the season premiere of Dancing with the Stars. That is the second to last episode of the season, as the season finale as of now will air Tuesday, April 5. The series returns with the first of three all-new episodes tomorrow (Tuesday, March 22) at 8pm.
Elsewhere, ABC has announced it will air a two-hour episode of Sunday drama Brothers & Sisters on Sunday, April 10, which is its next airing, from 9-11pm. The series will then air every Sunday until its season finale tentatively scheduled for Sunday, May 8. Desperate Housewives will be preempted at 9pm on April 10, but the show will be all-new on April 3 and will be all-new every week until its finale starting April 17.
And finally, The CW will move America's Next Top Model to 9pm starting April 20 in order to avoid Survivor and American Idol at 8pm. Repeats of Top Model will lead into new episodes, as Shedding for the Wedding has its finale on April 13 at 9pm.