SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

All month long TV One will feature music-centric episodes of its sitcoms on Tuesday nights in primetime (with an immediate encore following). The block will air Tuesdays from 8pm-11pm and encore from 11pm-2am. The music-centic episodes launches tomorrow night (Tuesday, Jan. 7) with back-to-back What's Happening!! episodes centered around Stevie Wonder and The Doobie Brothers. Episodes of The Rick Smiley Show, A Different World and The Tracy Morgan Show follow from 9-11pm on Jan. 7 which center around Gladys Knight, Snoop Dogg and others. On Jan. 14 we get another hour of What's Happening!! (with more Doobie Brothers action and music acts on The Gong Show), another episode of The Rick Smiley Show followed by a triple shot of A Different World, which will have Lena Horne guest starring. Tuesday, Jan. 21 will feature two episodes of Living Single, an episode of Everybody Hates Chris, back-to-back A Different World and another Living Single. Music talent guest starring on this night includes Heavy D & The Boyz. And on Tuesday, Jan. 28 we get another hour of Living Single, followed by The Rick Smiley Show at 9, then an episode of A Different World and an hour of Love That Girl from 10-11pm. TV One airs original series centered around music like R&B Divas and Unsung.

Moving on, TV One will officially launch Everybody Hates Chris (which they previewed on New Year's Day) on Friday, Jan. 17 with a marathon from 8pm-2am. The sitcom will then air every Friday night from 8-9pm and encores will be seen later that night from 11pm-12am. As we mentioned, Chris can also be seen on UP Mon-Thurs from 11pm-12am and Saturday afternoons. I think we now officially covered all the details on Chris on TV One and UP! Enjoy!

Dedicated to expanding its network and channel brands and content across multiple platforms and devices, Disney/ABC Television Group announced that the new "WATCH ABC Family" authenticated service will launch today (Monday, January 6, 2014). Similar to DATG's WATCH ABC and suite of WATCH DISNEY services, the new WATCH ABC Family offering will allow viewers with participating TV subscription services access to 24/7 live viewing of the network, as well as continued on demand access to such popular series as Pretty Little Liars, Switched at Birth, The Fosters, Baby Daddy and Melissa & Joey at home and on the go via a wide array of devices. At launch today, the WATCH ABC Family app will be available on iOS and Kindle Fire devices, as well as select Android tablets, including Samsung Galaxy devices. Select Android phones, as well as Blackberry and Windows 8 devices, will be able to access the WATCH ABC Family service later this month. Viewers can also access WATCH ABC Family online at WATCHABCFamily.com.

Also, in support of DATG's growing authenticated WATCH initiative, the availability of free streaming episodes from ABC and ABC Family will change beginning January 6. To watch the most current episodes of ABC and ABC Family shows the day after they air, viewers will log in to the WATCH ABC and WATCH ABC Family apps, WATCHABC.com, WATCHABCFamily.com and hulu.com with their subscription TV account usernames and passwords. Following an advantaged viewing window for subscription TV customers, on demand episodes will be unlocked for all WATCH ABC users eight days after their initial broadcast. On demand episodes of ABC Family series will only be available to verified customers of participating subscription TV providers.