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, November 30

Young Sheldon - "A Romantic Getaway and a Germanic Meat-Based Diet" (CBS, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Mandy surprises Georgie with a spa weekend and Sheldon prepares for his summer in Germany.

Ghosts - "Ghost Hunter" (CBS, 8:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Sam and Jay’s assistant, Freddie (Mike Lane), purchases ghost-hunting equipment when suspicious activity leads him to theorize the B&B is haunted. Also, Sasappis risks losing his relationship with Jessica (Nichole Sakura) when Freddie sells his car.

Ghosts (UK) - "Moonah Ston" (CBS, 9:00PM ET/PT)
When Mike and Alison’s posh neighbors swindle Mike into agreeing to an obscene payment for the rights to their contested driveway, Alison attempts to win the rights back over a game of poker. Also, the ghosts help Robin celebrate the lunar eclipse.

Ghosts (UK) - "Getting Out" (CBS, 9:30PM ET/PT)
Alison and Mike, exhausted and broke, are ecstatic to receive an offer from a luxury hotel chain to buy Button House, but their potential departure drives a wedge between the ghosts.

Son of a Critch - "Who Dares Dare Hudaro?" (The CW, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Mark falls under the spell of a visiting hypnotist and lets his grades slip; Pop struggles to lose weight when he gets too fat for his pants.

Children Ruin Everything - "Money" (The CW, 8:30PM ET/PT)
With saving for retirement at the top of her mind, Astrid proposes to James that they try to get through the last few days of the month without dipping beyond their monthly budget just once; the Berney's find creative ways to stay on target.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of November 27)

Thursday, November 30

Sarah Silverman (The Sarah Silverman Program) - Catch Sarah on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
John Stamos (Fuller House/Grandfathered/Jake in Progress/Full House/You, Again?) - John is a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
Josh Gad (Wolf Like Me/Avenue 5/The Comedians/1600 Penn/Back to You) - Josh appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
Fred Armisen (Los Espookys/Forever/Final Space) - Fred sits-in with the 8G Band on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
Sara Bareilles (Girls5eva) - NBC's Today has Sara for the Citi Music Series in the 9am hour.
Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy/American Dad!/The Cleveland Show) and Liz Gillies (Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll/Victorious) - Seth and Liz perform on The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
Ariana DeBose (Schmigadoon!) - Ariana is telling Drew about her role in Wish, facing rejection and manifesting getting to where she is now on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
Tatyana Ali (Second Generation Wayans/Love That Girl!/The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) - Tatyana talks about Lifetime's The Holiday Proposal Plan on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
Niecy Nash-Betts (Reno 911!/Getting On/The Soul Man/Do Not Disturb) - Niecy stops by and chef Brian Hart Hoffman mixes things up in the Sherri kitchen on Sherri, so check your local listings.