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 / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows

Thursday, December 11

Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage - "Bitin’, Spankin’ and a Load of Yankee Psychobabble" (CBS, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Georgie and Mandy get upset when Audrey disciplines CeeCee without their permission.

Ghosts - "The Life and Times of Esther Greene" (CBS, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Now a successful podcaster, Todd Pearlman returns to profile Sam and Isaac’s book, but becomes obsessed with Jay. Meanwhile, Pete tries to get to the bottom of why Alberta changed her name, forcing her to admit a hidden truth.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of December 8)

Thursday, December 11

Jamie Lee Curtis (The Sticky/Anything But Love/Operation Petticoat) - Catch Jamie Lee on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Rachel Sennott (I Love LA/Call Your Mother) - Rachel appears on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Ike Barinholtz (The Studio/The Afterparty/Bless the Harts/The Mindy Project/Eastbound & Down) - Ike stops by Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
Elon Gold (Stacked/In-Laws) - Elon is a guest on Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen at 12:37am on CBS.
Zooey Deschanel (Physical/New Girl) - Andy Cohen interviews Zooey on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen at 3:30am on Bravo. She also talks about Merv on Live with Kelly and Mark (check your local listings) and on ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis at 7pm.
Lucien Laviscount (Emily in Paris) - Lucien talks about Emily in Paris on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am and on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm.
Kyra Sedgwick (Call Your Mother/Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and Kevin Bacon (I Love Dick) - Kyra and Kevin talk about The Best You Can with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
Loretta Devine (Family Reunion/The Carmichael Show) and Lela Rochon (The Wayans Bros.) - Co-host Gayle King sits down with Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine and Lela Rochon, original cast of Waiting to Exhale, on CBS Mornings sometime between 7-9am.
Lea Michele (The Mayor) - Lea talks about Broadway's Chess on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am. She also performs in the 10am hour.
Daryl McCormack (Bad Sisters - NBC's Today catches up with Daryl in the 9am hour.
Brooke Shields (Suddenly Susan) - Brooke co-hosts NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
Mila Kunis (Family Guy/That '70s Show) - Mila tells Drew about her role in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
Ashley Park (Emily in Paris) - Emily tells Drew about what to expect in season five of Emily in Paris on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
Joey McIntyre (Return of the Mac/The McCarthys) - Joey talks about Roku's Jingle Bell Wedding on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
Danica McKellar (The Wonder Years) - Danica is a guest on New York Living on WPIX in New York at 10:15am.