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SitcomsOnline Digest: Disney to Acquire Much of Fox; Roseanne Debut Date Set for ABC

• It's official: Disney has announced a plan to buy most of then entertainment assets of Fox, which leaves a lot of people wondering what will happen to the broadcast network that uses that name and currently depends upon that studio for most of their big hits. (Deadline)
• There is some speculation that the acquisition of Fox by Disney could hit the network FX the hardest, as it doesn't fit in very well with the expectations of Disney. (Washington Post)
• Let's face it: The Simpsons has been very good at predicting the future, and this merger between Disney and Fox is no exception. (Deadline)
• Mark your calendar for March 27, as that is when Roseanne will be returning to the ABC lineup, complete with John Goodman's character Dan coming back to life. (Entertainment Weekly)
• For over a decade now, NBC has been attempting to develop an American version of the series The IT Crowd (it was envisioned as the perfect companion for their hit series The Office at the time), and it seems that they're still trying to make it happen, so let's hope that ten seasons worth of work that has so far resulting in nothing leads to some success. (Variety)
• Speaking of The Office, despite it being a cult favorite on the NBC lineup, it has been absent in syndication in recent years, but that will change in January as Comedy Central picks up reruns of the series. (Hollywood Reporter)
• Weekend Update hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost now have additional duties as head writers for Saturday Night Live. (New York Daily News)
• Not surprisingly, this week brings even more TV related fallout over sexual harassment scandals: Mario Batali of ABC's The Chew has been fired and PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley has been suspended (though not yet fired). (Variety, NPR)
• A trio of sitcoms that have been a long time staple of Antenna TV will be unstapled, but don't worry, you'll still be able to see them if you have getTV. (SitcomsOnline)

• South Park - The Complete Sixth Season (Blu-ray, $39.98): Comedy Central is bringing even more seasons of this series to Blu-ray, which will actually bring all of the old seasons to the format, with these releases. Also available: Season 7, Season 8, Season 9, Season 10, Season 11.

• Antenna TV is celebrating Christmas for four hours tonight beginning at 7:00pm EST, and within that block, you'll see some special sneak previews of Growing Pains, Murphy Brown, and The Hogan Family.
• On Decades, you can enjoy the Weekend Binge of Lost in Space, which ends at 7:00am EST on Monday.
• Saturday Night Live is known for their annual Christmas episodes, and this year, it features Kevin Hart and the Foo Fighters, so make sure to catch it tonight at 11:29pm EST/8:29pm PST on NBC. 
• The broadcast networks are mostly on Christmas vacation this week with reruns, but CBS is airing mostly new episodes of their sitcoms (aside from The Big Bang Theory, which will be a rerun of the season premiere) on Monday and Thursday night this week.
• NBC will also have a little bit of new programming this week with two new episodes of Great News on Thursday.
• CBS is airing newly colorized episodes of I Love Lucy and The Dick Van Dyke Show, as well as the colorized Christmas episode of I Love Lucy that has previously aired, on Friday night.
• The Oprah Winfrey Network, OWN, recently added reruns of 227 to their lineup, with binge watching opportunities both today and tomorrow.
• On Hulu, you can catch up with every episode of Blossom, which was recently added to the streaming service.

Posted by Skees -- SitcomsOnline.com at 2:30 PM

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Labels: Fox, FX, Roseanne, SitcomsOnline Digest, South Park, The Office