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| The Alphabet web had a decent season. Last year, I thought the more than once-a-year runs of Dancing with the Stars would have hurt them like the idiocy of four-times-weekly editions of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
ABC Sunday is yesterday once more as they bring back the entire slate from last season. Hard to believe that America's Funniest Home Videos is entering its 19th season. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition bangs along into Season 6 and is showing no signs of stopping. Both of these programs have one thing in common: cheap production costs. Which is the exact opposite of the following two hours: Season 5 of Desperate Housewives and Season 3 of Brothers & Sisters. They are two of the most expensive shows in Primetime simply due to their ensemble casts. While DH's star isn't as bright as before, it moves along just fine for now and this summer, creator Marc Cherry made it publicly known that he would like to end the show after Season 7. 'Course that's three full seasons from now and anything can happen. Brothers & Sisters has had only football as actual competition for the past few years, yet gets some from CBS. It might take a tiny hit, but nothing to lose sleep over.
Monday is Dancing with the Stars day on ABC. As I said before, I'm still surprised that they didn't burn it out with multiple yearly editions. I thought it would have been better to follow the Idol model. Just like Dr. Houseman, when I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong. An interesting, yet not surprising slate of celebridancers. Samantha Who takes the post-Dancing slot which might get a little more sampling due to star Christina Applegate's public battle with cancer. The moved (since last year) Boston Legal rounds out the night. As long as they keep on, keep on, keep on dancing all through the night, ABC's got a good shot at winning the night, although more than likely not the 10pm hour.
ABC starts Tuesday by throwing a game show...on your lawn. Opportunity Knocks is bringing the game show right to you and yours. Although it's pure counterprogramming and seems more like the plot of a terrible movie-of-the-week, it's in what could be the most competitive slot of the week (NCIS, last year's #3 scripted show), House (LY #1 scripted), 90210, first hour of The Biggest Loser). Better get to the lightning round very, very fast. Back to the ballroom for the Dancing with the Stars Results show. Visions will be seen and there's pretty good chance George Michael will show up on the now-on-Tuesday Eli Stone. It's an uphill battle for our hallucinating friend against Without A Trace and Law & Order: SVU. ABC should place for the night, all on the heels of the foxtrot.
ABC tried to launch an entire night of new programming last year for its Wednesday slate. Even with the aborted season due to the strike and the just plain "huh?" of Private Practice, they actually didn't fail -- which isn't exactly succeeding, but good enough to bring 'em all back. Pushing Daisies, Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money didn't blow the doors off any ratings books, but all got some buzz...even if all of the buzz wasn't positive. As I said, ABC is bringing all three back for what is hopefully a full season. If they've fixed the leaks on Practice, it'll only help the entire ABC sked and directly DSM. There is competition on Wednesday, but nothing insurmountable especially if they all click.
The biggest night of the week for those studios to hawk their upcoming films returns mostly unchanged for ABC. Ugly Betty should pick up where she left off and now that production has moved to NY, expect more location shooting...which may or may not make any difference. Grey's Anatomy returns at 9pm and will go week to week against CSI. The new entry at 10pm (you'd think ABC could find something that would click in the post-Grey's slot...) is Life on Mars. Not entirely sure what it's going to be like, as I've mentioned elsewhere in the preview, there has been quite a bit of behind-the-scenes drama on this one. Don't know if it'll make a good fit with Grey's. The slot is wide open. ABC will do fine on Thursday as long as Grey's doesn't slip any more (last year, it tied as the #4 scripted drama, CSI was the #2 scripted).
It's time for the weekend to begin and ABC is programming it that way. They aren't going for the young demo, that's for sure. Wife Swap, Supernanny and 20/20 seem to be skewing 35+ at least. Not really a big deal, Friday night is all over the place, across the whole grid. They won't win it, but they'll more than likely do the numbers they were expecting when they set this up.
ABC ignores Saturday less than anyone but Fox. You'll see College Football on ABC until that season ends. After that, expect movies, encore plays of current programming and perhaps some midseason test runs.
Speaking of midseason in Alphabetland, at least as of press time, the 13th iteration of The Bachelor, Season 8 of According to Jim (nope, that's not a joke), the return of Lost and the sitcom-with-a-new-home (formerly NBC's) Scrubs.
Even with only one sitcom on the fall sked (their lowest number ever), the dramas they've got all truly have loyal audiences. Now if ABC could just get some of them to have bigger audiences. Fueled at the start by Dancing with the Stars, I expect ABC to be pretty much in line with their numbers from last year. |
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