CW sets midseason schedule, moves comedies, "Gossip Girl"
David
CW PLANS MIDSEASON MAKEOVER
By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)
LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The CW has announced its
post-strike schedule, which as expected includes new seasons of
"Pussycat Dolls Present," "Beauty and the Geek" and "America's Next
Top Model."
Said seasons will anchor the netlet's Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
lineups, respectively.
In addition, new time periods have also been set for "Gossip Girl"
(Mondays at 8:00/7:00c starting January 28) and its comedy quartet
(Sundays at 8:00/7:00c starting February 10).
Furthermore, "Reaper" will return to the schedule on Tuesday, January
15 at 8:00/7:00c before sliding to Thursdays at 9:00/8:00c on February
28. ("Supernatural" will have completed airing its first-run episodes
by said date.)
To review, here's a complete breakdown of the aforementioned plans:
Mondays
8:00-9:00 p.m. "Gossip Girl" (Beginning January 28)
9:00-10:00 p.m. "Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious" (Beginning
February 18)
Tuesdays
8:00-9:00 p.m. "Reaper" (Beginning January 15)
8:00-9:00 p.m. "Beauty and the Geek" (Beginning March 11)
9:00-10:00 p.m. "One Tree Hill"
Wednesdays (Beginning February 20)
8:00-10:00 p.m. "America's Next Top Model"
9:00-10:00 p.m. "Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious" (Encores)
Thursdays
8:00-9:00 p.m. "Smallville"
9:00-10:00 p.m. "Reaper" (Beginning February 28)
Sundays (Beginning February 10)
7:00-7:30 p.m. "CW Now"
7:30-8:00 p.m. "Everybody Hates Chris" (Encores)
8:00-8:30 p.m. "Everybody Hates Chris"
8:30-9:00 p.m. "Aliens in America"
9:00-9:30 p.m. "Girlfriends"
9:30-10:00 p.m. "The Game"
An official press release confirming said changes is expected to be
put out on Monday.
WQ
--- Will any of this matter? And didn't the Sunday sitcom strategy
collapse with practically the same shows after a week or two when it
was tried back in '06?
Jude Cormier
"WQ" <w...@email.com> wrote in message
news:77dbcb32-078b-4dc6...@e25g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
it sure did--they even had worse ratings on Sunday than Monday.
Rob Jensen
>To review, here's a complete breakdown of the aforementioned plans:
Which, of course, are subject to being changed every week and a half
due to Fox changing its mind every week and a half and other channels
scrambling to dodge wherever they're going to put House and American
Idol this week.
>Mondays
>
>8:00-9:00 p.m. "Gossip Girl" (Beginning January 28)
>9:00-10:00 p.m. "Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious" (Beginning
>February 18)
Got to admit, this one is a smart move as Prison Break basically shed
its entire female audience by killing off Sara and thereby revealing
the show to be irredeemably misogynistic.
The Pussycat Whores won't stand a chance against the Sarah Conner
Chronicles, though, IMO.
>Tuesdays
>
>8:00-9:00 p.m. "Reaper" (Beginning January 15)
>8:00-9:00 p.m. "Beauty and the Geek" (Beginning March 11)
>9:00-10:00 p.m. "One Tree Hill"
The CW is in a no-win situation with Tuesdays. Yeah, they should have
called Alexis Bledel's welch-bluff and gone with the 8-episode season
8 for Gilmore Girls, which, ironically, would have finished before the
strike. But at least doing that would have saved some good will for
what to put into the 8pm timeslot once a s8 of Gg had wrapped. And
*then* to see what damage the net *did* do by starting BatG out in the
timeslot in the fall. So the CW is dumping Reaper in a *much* bigger
hole than it had to be for two disastrous reasons.
OTOH, it *is* male-ish skewing counterprogramming against the
femme-skewing Idol. So there's a certain respectable logic in the
move in and of itself. If only the timeslot move could be viewed in a
vaccuum outside of the context that The CW peeps couldn't program a
full schedule if their lives depended on it (which, well, they do, but
that's beside the point.)
>Wednesdays (Beginning February 20)
>
>8:00-10:00 p.m. "America's Next Top Model"
>9:00-10:00 p.m. "Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious" (Encores)
Yawn. Without Gossip Girl to DVR off KTLA at 10pm CT, my viewing
schedule will be much easier.
And say, the strike ends and the schedule goes back to Pushing
Daisies, Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money by the end of February
and The CW goes back to being dead to me on Wednesdays.
>Thursdays
>
>8:00-9:00 p.m. "Smallville"
>9:00-10:00 p.m. "Reaper" (Beginning February 28)
Methinks they might be contemplating moving Supernatural to Tuesdays
at 8pm next season and are seeing how Reaper fares opposite Greys if
the strike is over by then.
>Sundays (Beginning February 10)
>
>7:00-7:30 p.m. "CW Now"
>7:30-8:00 p.m. "Everybody Hates Chris" (Encores)
>8:00-8:30 p.m. "Everybody Hates Chris"
>8:30-9:00 p.m. "Aliens in America"
>9:00-9:30 p.m. "Girlfriends"
>9:30-10:00 p.m. "The Game"
I agree with Jude, The CW moving its entire comedy block to Sundays
seems to me to be a last-ditch effort to have *some* sort of
consistent block of programming throughout the night. This is the
first time in *years* that they've had any original scripted
programming in the 9-10pm timeslot rather than filling it with reruns
of ANTM or Supernatural or whatever.
So I think they're trying to save Sundays by moving the comedy block
there or they're trying to kill the comedy block by moving it there,
one of the two.
-- Rob
--
LORELAI: I am so done with plans. I am never, ever making one again.
It never works. I spend the day obsessing over why it didn't work
and what I could've done differently. I'm analyzing all my shortcomings
when all I really need to be doing is vowing to never, ever make a plan
ever again, which I'm doing now, having once again been the innocent
victim of my own stupid plans. God, I need some coffee.
record hunter
> >Mondays
>
> >8:00-9:00 p.m. "Gossip Girl" (Beginning January 28)
> >9:00-10:00 p.m. "Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious" (Beginning
> >February 18)
>
> Got to admit, this one is a smart move as Prison Break basically shed
> its entire female audience by killing off Sara and thereby revealing
> the show to be irredeemably misogynistic.
Except for the people who like both HIMYM and GG. Obvi, I can record,
but Wednesday was perfect for me for GG.
jayembee
>> Thursdays
>>
>>8:00-9:00 p.m. "Smallville"
>>9:00-10:00 p.m. "Reaper" (Beginning February 28)
>
> Methinks they might be contemplating moving Supernatural to Tuesdays
> at 8pm next season and are seeing how Reaper fares opposite Greys if
> the strike is over by then.
Actually, I suspect that they are thinking of nothing more than that
REAPER will benefit from the SMALLVILLE lead-in.
-- jayembee
(J)
> On Jan 4, 4:27 pm, David <dimla...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > from the futon critic
>
> > CW PLANS MIDSEASON MAKEOVER
> > By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)
>
>
> > Sundays (Beginning February 10)
>
> > 7:00-7:30 p.m. "CW Now"
> > 7:30-8:00 p.m. "Everybody Hates Chris" (Encores)
> > 8:00-8:30 p.m. "Everybody Hates Chris"
> > 8:30-9:00 p.m. "Aliens in America"
> > 9:00-9:30 p.m. "Girlfriends"
> > 9:30-10:00 p.m. "The Game"
>
>
> --- Will any of this matter? And didn't the Sunday sitcom strategy
> collapse with practically the same shows after a week or two when it
>
No. It was the Monday schedule that collapsed and was yanked after
only two weeks. The 7th Heaven season that aired after the so-called
final season of 7th Heaven. Missing a few too many key cast members.
And Runaway.
The Sunday schedule was moved into Monday's place and encored or
repeated again on Sundays before primetime. That lasted all season.
(J)
P.S. If you don't remember Runaway you're not alone. It only aired a
few times.
The father framed for murder and embezzlement. An evil conspiracy
threatening his family so he had to take his wife and kids with him
when he ran. They fell into pretending to be displaced by Hurrican
Katrina so they didn't have to show their school records, etc. Yada
yada yada.
WQ
> On Jan 4, 4:29 pm, WQ <w...@email.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Jan 4, 4:27 pm, David <dimla...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > > from the futon critic
>
> > > CW PLANS MIDSEASON MAKEOVER
> > > By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)
>
> [SNIP]
>
> > > Sundays (Beginning February 10)
>
> > > 7:00-7:30 p.m. "CW Now"
> > > 7:30-8:00 p.m. "Everybody Hates Chris" (Encores)
> > > 8:00-8:30 p.m. "Everybody Hates Chris"
> > > 8:30-9:00 p.m. "Aliens in America"
> > > 9:00-9:30 p.m. "Girlfriends"
> > > 9:30-10:00 p.m. "The Game"
>
> [SNIP]
>
> > --- Will any of this matter? And didn't the Sunday sitcom strategy
> > collapse with practically the same shows after a week or two when it
> > was tried back in '06?- Hide quoted text -
>
> No. It was the Monday schedule that collapsed and was yanked after
> only two weeks. The 7th Heaven season that aired after the so-called
> final season of 7th Heaven. Missing a few too many key cast members.
> And Runaway.
>
> The Sunday schedule was moved into Monday's place and encored or
> repeated again on Sundays before primetime. That lasted all season.
--- Actually, in checking the numbers, it really boils down to Monday
9-10 pm that collapsed while Sunday 7-9 was a block that saw the
sitcoms underperform compared to their original Monday placement. The
2 Sunday airings for the sitcoms averaged 1.6 for 7-9 pm, 7th Heaven
on Monday got a 2.0 and 2.1 in its 2 airings on Monday, and Runaway a
1.4 and 1.2. 7th Heaven's switch to Sunday at 8 saw the show steadily
improve till it hit 3 in mid-December, which is better than the 1.7
average the sitcoms did in that hour, and the 2-hour sitcom block
itself, after being moved back to Monday, inched its way back to its
usual 2 rating average by the end of November. So in having the
Sunday sitcom block, CW only did well with 7th Heaven on Monday. With
a Monday sitcom block, it held 7th Heaven's numbers in the 8 pm hour,
improved on the 9 pm hour by nearly 3/4 of a rating point over
Runaway, and saw 7th Heaven's numbers on Sunday increase by a full
point or 1.3 over the sitcoms. Only the repeats slotted at 7 pm did
worse than the sitcoms, averaging around a 1.2. So, overall, by
having the sitcom block on Monday, it lifted the ratings for the
comedies and 7th Heaven. Ironically, it did nothing to lift the 2-
night average since in both the Sunday sitcom and Monday sitcom
scenarios both nights usually totalled around 3.7, thanks to CW's
Sunday 7 pm and 9 pm weak spots.
Rob Jensen
wrote:
>On Jan 4, 4:29 pm, WQ <w...@email.com> wrote:
>> On Jan 4, 4:27 pm, David <dimla...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> > from the futon critic
>>
>> > CW PLANS MIDSEASON MAKEOVER
>> > By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)
>>
>[SNIP]
>>
>> > Sundays (Beginning February 10)
>>
>> > 7:00-7:30 p.m. "CW Now"
>> > 7:30-8:00 p.m. "Everybody Hates Chris" (Encores)
>> > 8:00-8:30 p.m. "Everybody Hates Chris"
>> > 8:30-9:00 p.m. "Aliens in America"
>> > 9:00-9:30 p.m. "Girlfriends"
>> > 9:30-10:00 p.m. "The Game"
>>
>[SNIP]
>>
>> --- Will any of this matter? And didn't the Sunday sitcom strategy
>> collapse with practically the same shows after a week or two when it
>> was tried back in '06?- Hide quoted text -
>>
>
>No. It was the Monday schedule that collapsed and was yanked after
>only two weeks. The 7th Heaven season that aired after the so-called
>final season of 7th Heaven. Missing a few too many key cast members.
>And Runaway.
>
>The Sunday schedule was moved into Monday's place and encored or
>repeated again on Sundays before primetime. That lasted all season.
Technically speaking, you're both right. Runaway was killing 7th
Heaven's ratings *and* the Comedy block was sinking down a black hole
on Sunday nights (and with nothing at 9-10pm but reruns). Since they
were going to cancel Runaway anyway (Runaway anyway runaway anyway . .
.), it was easier to move the comedy block to Monday nights and orphan
7H on Sunday nights, the effect being Monday nights get shored up
with a complete 2-hour block that they thought worked flow-wise and
abandoning Sunday nights to retool the next fall. Mondays are the
more critical night and Sundays are an ongoing rehabilitation project
not made any better by the network continuing to dump shows there.
In moving the comedy block back there whole, an hour later, with the
second hour as good counterprogramming to both DH and Cold Case and
whatever NBC will dump at 9pm, they've now got a shot at stabilizing
Sundays if they have the attention span to stick with it.
Conversely, they've shown a lot of confidence in Gossip Girl to have
it anchor Monday nights (it helps that 7H skewed to the young female
demos, so Go-Girl's audience is already there.) teamed with a
similar-demo (sur)reality show, albeit that said (sur)reality show is
the Pussycat Whores.