Skip to main content

ABC Tweaks Midseason Schedule Ahead of Announcement

Remember that leaked ABC midseason schedule I had on Televisionary a few days ago? Well, it now appears that much have that will be changed, given ABC's eleventh hour decision not to renew sophomore series Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, and Eli Stone. (Eli Stone, according to that schedule, was meant to air on Tuesdays at 10 pm in the spring.)

So what can we expect when ABC officially announces their lineup later today?

For one, According to Jim will be double-pumped in the 8 pm timeslot on Tuesdays, followed by back-to-back episodes of Scrubs at 9 pm. (Really? Double episodes of comedies, rather than another drama? Sigh.) The two comedies will kick off with new episodes on January 6th.

Private Practice will move to Thursdays at 10 pm ET/PT beginning January 8th, where it will air behind Grey's Anatomy. It's the perfect spot for the ratings-starved medical drama, especially given that ABC is planning a Grey's/Private Practice multiple-episode crossover during February sweeps.

And Life on Mars, which got picked up for another four episodes, will get the plum post-Lost timeslot on Thursdays at 10 pm, rather than the previously mentioned freshman police drama The Unusuals. Life on Mars won't offer any fresh installments until it takes over that timeslot on January 28th.

As for what series will now take over the Tuesdays at 10 pm and Wednesdays at 8 pm slots, that remains to be seen. (I'm hoping ABC rethinks Border Security: USA.) But look for The Unusuals to get one of those timeslots (my guess: Tuesdays at 10 pm) and likely the earlier slot on Wednesdays will go to The Goode Family... or Cupid, should they decide to launch earlier than March. But we'll find out for certain later today...

Stay tuned.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Blurg. It makes me sick to my stomach that a hack show like Life on Mars gets four more eps AND a post-Lost timeslot while a truly fantastic show like Pushing Daisies gets the chop. I know this is the way of the television world but it's truly mind-boggling! (Even Sam Tyler would say so.)
Anonymous said…
Maybe we can get lucky and NBC will pick it (Pushing Daisies) up and put it on Monday at 10pm...

Popular posts from this blog

What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season

Pilot Inspektor: CBS' "Smith"

I may just have to change my original "What I'll Be Watching This Fall" post, as I sat down and finally watched CBS' new crime drama Smith this weekend. (What? It's taken me a long time to make my way through the stack of pilot DVDs.) While it's on following Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars on Tuesday nights (10 pm ET/PT, to be exact), I'm going to be sure to leave enough room on my TiVo to make sure that I catch this compelling, amoral drama. While one can't help but be impressed by what might just be the most marquee-friendly cast in primetime--Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Jonny Lee Miller, Amy Smart, Simon Baker, and Franky G all star and Shohreh Aghdashloo has a recurring role--the pilot's premise alone earned major points in my book: it's a crime drama from the point of view of the criminals, who engage in high-stakes heists. But don't be alarmed; it's nothing like NBC's short-lived Heist . Instead, think of it as The Italian

The Daily Beast: "How The Killing Went Wrong"

While the uproar over the U.S. version of The Killing has quieted, the show is still a pale imitation of the Danish series on which it is based. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "How The Killing Went Wrong," in which I look at how The Killing has handled itself during its second season, and compare it to the stunning and electrifying original Danish series, Forbrydelsen , on which it is based. (I recently watched all 20 episodes of Forbrydelsen over a few evenings.) The original is a mind-blowing and gut-wrenching work of genius. It’s not necessary to rehash the anger that followed in the wake of the conclusion last June of the first season of AMC’s mystery drama The Killing, based on Søren Sveistrup’s landmark Danish show Forbrydelsen, which follows the murder of a schoolgirl and its impact on the people whose lives the investigation touches upon. What followed were irate reviews, burnished with the “burning intensity of 10,000 white-hot suns