ABC Family's 2011 Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas Schedule; The CW Picks-Up Full Seasons For All 3 New Dramas, Including Ringer

Thursday, October 13, 2011

ABC Family's 2011 Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas Schedule; The CW Picks-Up Full Seasons For All 3 New Dramas, Including Ringer

We know it isn't even Halloween yet, but we like to look ahead and Christmas, believe it or not, is right around the corner! ABC Family will kick off the holiday season with 36 days of festive, family-friendly programming starting with the annual "Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas" from November 20-30, 2011, and then the actual "25 Days of Christmas" from December 1-25, 2011. The highly-anticipated annual programming event will include all-new original Christmas-themed movies, as well as the return of holiday favorites. On-air and online, viewers can enjoy the best time of the year with "25 Days of Christmas" exclusives, such as an original theme song and video from hit country music artists, The Band Perry; two holly, jolly sweepstakes; and many other very merry digital treats.
This year, "Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas" will feature the ABC Family original movie premiere of Desperately Seeking Santa on Sunday, November 27 (8:00–10:00 PM ET/PT). Laura Vandervoort (V) stars as an ambitious young marketing executive who dreams up the ticket to Christmas sales: a sexy Santa contest. Teenage girls and their moms flock to her mall when the gorgeous winner of the contest becomes a local hero, sending sales through the roof. She counted on this new Santa to win her a promotion - not win her heart, complicate her life and question everything she ever wanted. In addition, ABC Family is proud to bring the wooftastic holiday movie The Search for Santa Paws to television for the first time on Monday, November 21 (9:00–11:00 PM ET/PT). Triple platinum artists, The Band Perry, who are currently nominated for three AMA and a total of five CMA Awards, have written and recorded an original holiday song for "25 Days of Christmas" and will shoot a music video for the song, which will be part of the network's on-air and online campaign. Viewers will get an exclusive 60-second sneak peek of the music video during the November 20 (8:00–10:00 PM ET/PT) airing of the ABC Family movie Holiday in Handcuffs starring Melissa Joan Hart & Mario Lopez, and the entire video will be available immediately afterward online at ABCFamily.com/25Days.
The rest of the "Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas" will have movies such as Santa Baby, Once Upon a Christmas, Christmas Cupid, Richie Rich's Christmas Wish, Home Alone 2, and the premiere of Surf's Up. As for the actual "25 Days of Christmas," it is the biggest cable programming event of the year, and ABC Family delivers the gift of holiday cheer with the world premiere of the original movie, 12 Dates of Christmas, starring Amy Smart and Mark-Paul Gosselaar. Premiering Sunday, December 11 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT), 12 Dates of Christmas follows a young woman who re-lives the same first date on Christmas Eve over and over again until she learns to open up her world to new things and stop living in the past. "25 Days of Christmas" also brings the basic cable premiere of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Sunday, December 4, 8:30 PM – 12:00 AM ET/PT), which headlines the network's annual Harry Potter movie marathon running on Saturday, December 3 and Sunday, December 4. The marathon also includes the first five installments of the Harry Potter film franchise. Viewers can also ring in the holidays with the television premiere of the Pink Panther animated short A Very Pink Christmas, on Wednesday, December 7 (6:00 – 6:30 PM ET/PT) and the network premiere broadcasts of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, on Wednesday, December 7 (9:00 – 11:00 PM ET/PT), and Disney∙Pixar's Up on Friday, December 16 (9:00–11:00 PM ET/PT). More details on the specials and movies will come soon.
View the full Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas schedule (Nov. 20-30). We will have the full schedule for the actual 25 Days of Christmas (Dec. 1-25) in the coming weeks, so come on back!

The CW Network gave full season orders to its three freshmen drama series Hart of Dixie, Ringer and The Secret Circle. Hart of Dixie airs Mondays at 9:00 p.m. ET , while Ringer airs Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET and The Secret Circle airs Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. ET. All three series have done decently in the ratings for The CW, but not great. All three series received nine extra episodes, for a total of 22 episodes each. The fate of all of the new CW series have now been revealed, as they canceled reality entry H8R already. The three CW dramas join previous new series picked-up for the full season on other networks: New Girl, 2 Broke Girls, Up All Night and Whitney. Full season pick-ups are expected for series like Suburgatory, Revenge and Person of Interest. A few others are in contention as well, but nothing concrete yet. New comedy Last Man Standing had a strong series debut and is likely for a pick-up if it can stay close to those numbers. We will keep you up to date what has been picked-up or canceled, so as always, stay with us!

Sitcoms Airing Tonight

Thursday, December 7

Ghosts (UK) - "The Grey Lady" (CBS, 9:00PM ET/PT)
After a photographer accidentally captures a photo of Fanny and posts it on social media, Alison and Mike try to capitalize on the attention by offering admission to the haunted Button House.

Ghosts (UK) - "About Last Night" (CBS, 9:30PM ET/PT)
After a night of partying, Alison tries to figure out why the ghosts are acting so strangely as she and Mike scramble to clean up the house for a wedding planner to view.

Son of a Critch - "The Perfect Storm" (The CW, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Mark learns new things about his parents after a historic storm knocks out power to the Critch house; when his father's back goes out, Mike Jr. has to broadcast all night alone.

Children Ruin Everything - "Weekends" (The CW, 8:30PM ET/PT)
With long days at the office, Astrid cannot shake the feeling that she is missing out on key moments with their kids; Astrid convinces James that what the family needs is an adventure together.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of December 4)

Thursday, December 7

Halle Bailey (grown-ish) - Catch Halle on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Olivia Rodrigo (Bizaardvark) - Olivia is a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
Daniel Radcliffe (Miracle Workers) - Daniel appears on a repeat of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
Sara Bareilles (Girls5eva) - Sara is a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
Gael García Bernal (Mozart in the Jungle) - Gael appears on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
Michelle Pfeiffer (Delta House) - Michelle appears on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
Allison Williams (Girls) - Allison and writer/director Allison Flom talk about joining forces in their new podcast, Erased: The Murder of Elma Sand, on Tamron Hall, so check your local listings. She can also be heard on the Morning Mashup on SiriusXM.
Tony Shalhoub (We Are Men/Stark Raving Mad/Wings) - NBC's Today catches up with Tony in the 9am hour.
Kelsey Grammer (Frasier/Partners/Hank/Back to You/Cheers) - Kelsey talks about the reboot of Frasier on Paramount+ and opens up about the loss of his friend, Kirstie Alley, on Sherri, so check your local listings.
Dennis Quaid (Merry Happy Whatever) - Dennis talks about Paramount+'s Lawmen: Bass Reeves on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
Jack Cutmore-Scott (Frasier) - Jack talks about Paramount+'s Frasier on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
John Brotherton (Fuller House) - John and Erin Cahill are guests (tentative) on New York Living on WPIX in New York at 10:15am.