SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

Today we will give you the launch schedule for new digital multicast network COZI TV, which is replacing the Nonstop Network on the NBC Owned Television Stations (which are in ten markets including NY, LA and Chicago). We mentioned last week that the network actually began with a "soft launch" on Dec. 20 with six straight days of Christmas episodes from various series (mostly public domain episodes) and now they will do a "Countdown to COZI" stunt from Dec. 26-31, but now we have the actual regular schedule that will begin Jan. 1. NBC has also struck a deal to carry COZI TV on a few non-NBC Owned Television Stations as well on digital networks in Tuscon, AZ (KVOA); Fresno, CA (KAIL); Pocatello, ID (KPVI); Las Vegas, NV (KSNV); and Waco, TX (KCEN). These are also NBC affiliates, because COZI TV will still air Nonstop programming, primarily on the weekends. So unlike MeTV and Antenna TV, COZI TV pretty much has to be on a digital network of an NBC affiliate.

Let's move on to the actual regular schedule. Keep in mind that your local COZI TV affiliate has the right to preempt any of this for local programming/Nonstop programming. The line-up starts off with back-to-back episodes of Lassie at 6am. Then at 7amm we have an episode each of The Roy Rogers Show and The Lone Ranger. Classic 90-minute western The Virginian will air weekdays at 8am-9:30am, followed by the half-hour western Tales of Wells Fargo at 9:30am. The 10am hour will have more The Lone Ranger and The Roy Rogers Show, since a few affiliates will not air them at 7am. At 11am, the classic western Alias Smith & Jones will air. At noon, the good doctor is in as COZI will air Marcus Welby, M.D. every weekday. In the afternoons, we have a double feature of movies at 1pm and 3pm, which includes The Munsters Go Home on day one of the launch. In early evening, more dramas will air with Highway to Heaven at 5pm and Bill Cosby & Robert Culp in I Spy at 6pm. At 7pm, some stations will air local programming (like WNBC's local news), but most will air the Nonstop programs 1st Look and Talk Stoop.

In primetime, each night will have something different from 8pm-12am. Monday nights will feature classic '70s detectives, with the 90-minue Banacek starring George Peppard at 8pm followed by the also 90-minute McMillan & Wife at 9:30pm and then McCloud at 11pm. Tuesday nights is classic female '70s crime-fighters with Charlie's Angels at 8pm & 9pm, followed by Lindsay Wagner as The Bionic Woman at 10pm & 11pm. On Wednesdays, it is four episodes in a row of The Six Million Dollar Man starring Lee Majors, which was the parent series for Bionic Woman. On Thursdays, COZI TV heads to Hawaii in the '80s with Tom Selleck in Magnum, P.I. And on Fridays, movies will be featured at 8pm followed by The Bold Ones: The Lawyers and '50s western Stories of the Century. All of these primetime series are from NBC-owned Universal, except Charlie's Angels, which comes from Sony Pictures Television. We hope other Universal owned dramas like Columbo, Kojak, Ironside, Quincy ME, Baretta, Simon & Simon, Airwolf, Knight Rider, Miami Vice, and A-Team will also migrate to COZI TV soon. Anyway, back to the schedule, in late nights more airings of 1st Look and Talk Stoop will air at midnight. And finally two late night movies will air at 1am and 3am to close the night off. On weekends, Lassie again starts it off at 6am, followed by two episodes of The Lone Ranger at 7am, and back-to-back hours of Hopalong Cassidy. Movies, local programming and Nonstop programming will fill the rest of the weekend out. It's a shame we don't have any sitcoms that are airing regularly. Universal owned ones like Out of this World or Harry and the Hendersons would be cool, as well as something more popular like Charles in Charge.
View the full regular COZI TV launch schedule (right below the soft launch/countdown schedule). Keep it right here for any further updates, so go on and get cozi to watch COXI TV!

"Oh buoy," as Alex Kerkovich (Elisha Cuthbert) would say on Happy Endings! ABC's Tuesday comedies Happy Endings and Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 will get an additional airing per week...well, at least for three weeks. The Tuesday comedies will also air Sundays at 10pm & 10:30pm on Jan. 6, 13 and 20, which is in addition to their airings on Tuesdays at 9pm & 9:30pm. Double the laughs! The network is trying the comedies after buzz-worthy drama Revenge on Sundays for "an effort to expose more viewers" to these underrated comedies. As a result of this change, canceled drama 666 Park Avenue will not air its remaining four episodes in its Sunday at 10pm time period. Sources tell SitcomsOnline that 666 Park Avenue's remaining four episodes will be aired in the summer instead. We think that might be too long of a wait and they should perhaps air it on four Saturdays this winter or possibly air all four remaining episodes opposite the Super Bowl on Feb. 3 from 7-11pm where ABC really has nothing to lose opposite something that will do over 100 million viewers.

Back to Happy Endings and Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, both comedies are still slated to have their season finales on Tuesday, March 19 at 9, as previously planned, before Dancing with the Stars returns the following week. ABC has more episodes to air of the comedies, so they will try this three week-run on Sundays to fulfill the episode order and to see how they do on Sundays. The Tuesday airings will be all-new in January on Jan. 8 and 15, with both preempted on Jan. 22 (for the premiere of The Taste) and Jan. 29 (for the State of the Union). Both comedies will presumably air uninterrupted from Feb. 5-March 19, for seven straight Tuesdays. Happy Endings has a 23 episode order (since one is leftover from last season), so it would still have four episodes left thru March 19, but ABC could slot those four on Feb. 10 and 17 in the 10pm hour and be done with the season by March 19 after all. As for Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, it has a 19 episode order (six of those are leftover from last season) and wouldn't need a second night airing after those three Sunday airings and would wrap up by March 19 if they air seven weeks in row from Tues, Feb. 5-Mar 19. Stay with us for for further updates, as both comedies are in our top comedy picks (especially Happy Endings).