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!
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 / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows
Monday, March 2
The Neighorhood - "Welcome to the Hoodwink" (CBS, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Tina grows concerned about Malcolm’s romantic choices. Meanwhile, Calvin and Dave’s street smarts are put to the test.
DMV - "Power Shift" (CBS, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Barb leaves Ceci in charge, but when Ceci improves the DMV, Barb sabotages the progress and injures her “good foot.” Meanwhile, Colette pushes back against Vic’s outdated views by challenging him to a game of basketball against former pro basketball player Renee Montgomery.
St. Denis Medical - "A New Best Friend" (NBC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Alex's husband gets treated by Bruce; Joyce goes on an accidental journey; Ron's shoes squeak.
The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins - "Put It on Your Cabbage!" (NBC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Tobin urges Reggie to leave the house and face the outside world; Monica learns there's more to Brina than meets the eye.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of March 2)
Monday, March 2
- Daniel Radcliffe (The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins/Miracle Workers) - Watch Daniel on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS. He also talks about The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am.
- Tracy Morgan (The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins/Crutch/The Last O.G./30 Rock/The Tracy Morgan Show) - Tracy appears on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Christina Applegate (Dead to Me/Up All Night/Samantha Who?/Jesse/Married... with Children) - ABC's Good Morning America and GMA 3: What You Need to Know has Part 1 of Robin Roberts’ interview with Christina discussing her new memoir You with the Sad Eyes sometime between 7-9am and at 1pm.
- Zach Braff (Scrubs/Alex, Inc.) and Donald Faison (Scrubs/Extended Family/The Exes/Clueless) - Zach and Donald talk about Scrubs on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am, on GMA 3: What You Need to Know, and on ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis at 7pm. Zach dishes on ABC's Scrubs on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your local listings.
- Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family/The Class) - Jesse talks about Tru on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am.
- Christa Miller (Shrinking/Cougar Town/Scrubs/The Drew Carey Show) - Christa talks about Shrinking on CBS Mornings sometime between 7-9am.
- Jamie Lee Curtis (The Sticky/Anything But Love/Operation Petticoat) - Jamie Lee talks about Scarpetta on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am and in the 10am hour.
- Dermot Mulroney (The Righteous Gemstones/Four Weddings and a Funeral) and LaRoyce Hawkins (South Side) - Dermot and LaRoyce will be on NBC's Today in the 9am hour.
- Ariana DeBose (Schmigadoon!) - Ariana talks about Scarpetta on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
- Erika Alexander (The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins/Run the World/Living Single/The Cosby Show) - Erika talks about The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
- Valerie Bertinelli (Hot in Cleveland/Cafe Americain/Sydney/One Day at a Time) - Valerie is joining the Drew's News desk for a cozy news story on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
New on DVD and Blu-ray
07/22 - Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray)
08/26 - The Huckleberry Hound Show - The Complete Original Series (Blu-ray)
09/30 - Touché Turtle and Dum Dum - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
10/07 - Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage - The Complete First Season (DVD)
10/14 - Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (DVD)
10/28 - St. Denis Medical - Season One (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/04 - Happy's Place - Season One (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/11 - Rick and Morty - Season 8 (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/11 - SpongeBob SquarePants - The Complete Fifteenth Season (DVD)
11/11 - Two and a Half Men - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/02 - Tom and Jerry - The Golden Era Anthology (1940-1958) (Blu-ray) (DVD)
12/16 - Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/16 - Wally Gator - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
01/20 - The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Golden Age Collection (Blu-ray)
01/27 - The New Fred and Barney Show - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/11 - Tom and Jerry - The Complete CinemaScope Collection (Blu-ray)
03/24 - Looney Tunes Collector's Vault - Volume 2 (Blu-ray)
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