The 2008/09 TV Season Thread

[Ananas]

So this is the week where all 5 networks present their fall schedules to advertisers. NBC is up first, although technically they announced their schedule a month ago in an attempt to one up their competitors. 90% of the next season's ad-sales will come out of the next few weeks, so let the groveling begin!

NBC's 2008-09 Schedule (Courtesy of The Futon Critic):

NBC PRIMETIME SCHEDULE FOR FALL 2008-09 *New programs in UPPER CASE (with the exception of "ER")

MONDAY 8-9 p.m. "Chuck" 9-10 p.m. "Heroes" 10-11 p.m. "MY OWN WORST ENEMY"

TUESDAY 8- 9:30 p.m. "The Biggest Loser: Families" 9:30-10 p.m. "KATH & KIM" 10-11 p.m. "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"

WEDNESDAY 8-9 p.m. "KNIGHT RIDER" 9-10 p.m. "Deal or No Deal" 10-11 p.m. "Lipstick Jungle"

THURSDAY 8- 8:30 p.m. "My Name Is Earl" 8:30-9 p.m. "30 Rock" 9- 9:30 p.m. "The Office" 9:30-10 p.m. "The Office"/ "SNL THURSDAY NIGHT LIVE" 10-11 p.m. "ER"

FRIDAY 8-9 p.m. "CRUSOE" 9-10 p.m. "Deal or No Deal" 10-11 p.m. "Life"

SATURDAY 8-9 p.m. "Dateline NBC" 9-10 p.m. "KNIGHT RIDER" (Encores) 10-11 p.m. "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (Encores)

SUNDAY 7- 8:20 p.m. "Football Night in America" 8:20-11 p.m. "NBC Sunday Night Football"

NBC PRIMETIME SCHEDULE FOR WINTER 2009

*New programs in UPPER CASE (with the exception of "ER")

MONDAY 8- 9 p.m. "Chuck" 9-10 p.m. "Heroes" 10-11 p.m. "THE PHILANTHROPIST"

TUESDAY 8- 9:30 p.m. "The Biggest Loser: Couples" 9:30-10 p.m. "KATH & KIM" 10-11 p.m. "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"

WEDNESDAY 8-9 p.m. "KNIGHT RIDER" 9-10 p.m. "Deal or No Deal" 10-11 p.m. "Law & Order"

THURSDAY 8- 8:30 p.m. "My Name Is Earl" 8:30-9 p.m. "30 Rock" 9- 9:30 p.m. "The Office" 9:30-10 p.m. "THE OFFICE" SPINOFF 10-11 p.m. "ER"/"The Celebrity Apprentice"

FRIDAY 8-9 p.m. "Deal or No Deal" 9-10 p.m. "Friday Night Lights" 10-11 p.m. "Life"

SATURDAY 8-9 p.m. "Dateline NBC" 9-10 p.m. "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (Encores) 10-11 p.m. "Law & Order" (Encores)

SUNDAY 7-8 p.m. Specials/"Dateline NBC" 8-9 p.m. Specials/"MERLIN" 9-10 p.m. Specials/"Medium" 10-11 p.m. Specials/"KINGS"

NBC PRIMETIME SCHEDULE FOR SUMMER 2009

*New programs in UPPER CASE

MONDAY 8-9 p.m. "American Gladiators" 9-10 p.m. "AMERICA'S TOUGHEST JOBS" 10-11 p.m. "Dateline NBC"

TUESDAY 8-9 p.m. "Most Outrageous Moments" 9-10 p.m. "America's Got Talent" 10-11 p.m. "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (Encores)

WEDNESDAY 8-9 p.m. "SHARK TAGGERS" 9-10 p.m. "America's Got Talent" (Results Show) 10-11 p.m. "Law & Order" (Encores)

THURSDAY 8- 8:30 p.m. "The Office" (Encores) 8:30- 9 p.m. "THE OFFICE" SPINOFF (Encores) 9-10 p.m. "Last Comic Standing" 10-11 p.m. "THE LISTENER"

FRIDAY 8-9 p.m. "CHOPPING BLOCK" 9-11 p.m. "Dateline NBC"

SATURDAY 8-9 p.m. Drama Encores 9-10 p.m. Drama Encores 10-11 p.m. Drama Encores

SUNDAY 7-8 p.m. "Dateline NBC" 8-9 p.m. "Monk" 9-10 p.m. "Nashville Star" 10-11 p.m. "KINGS" (Encores)

Program descriptions are available at NBC's Fall Preview Site.

So as for the fall schedule, I have no interest in "My Own Worst Enemy", "Kath & Kim" (Australia now? What, did Ben Silverman run out of Latin American shows to rip off?), or for that matter SNL doing all political primetime episodes. I will however give a chance to "Knight Rider", the telemovie of which was not awful. "Crusoe" also interests me, although I wonder how much faith in it they really have to debut it on Fridays. I'm also happy to see "Life" returning, although it's a shame they opted for it to get the Friday death slot while giving the cushy Wednesdays at 10pm gig to "Lipstick Jungle".

I'm not sure how I feel about an "Office" spin-off, destined to debut in January. While I do thoroughly enjoy the show, it did seem to hurt a bit towards the end of the four hour-long episodes that opened the season. Could this be an over-extension of the brand? Only time will tell. Sunday's winter pairing of "Merlin" and "Kings" intrigues me, but only because they have the potential to be either a lot of fun or just miserable. "Kings" is told in a modern day setting, but "Merlin" I'm not sure about. It claims to be the story of a young Merlin and Arthur "through 21st century storytelling". I'm not sure what that means.

Other than that, "XIII" sounds awesome and everything else I don't care about. Will it help NBC's sagging ratings? I doubt it. I guess it depends on the strength of their reality programming, but reality is such a crapshoot because it really is usually the worst shit that ends up popping the biggest rating. "Knight Rider" may have started strong with the solid ratings for the movie (although one with an "American Gladiators" lead-in), but "Bionic Woman" started big too and fell apart because they couldn't keep it interesting. What almost certainly isn't here is a break-out hit. Unless one of the sophomore programs catches fire, I would predict another 4th place finish for the network.

Coming tomorrow: ABC and The CW.

Edited October 17, 2008 by B-B-B Beatty Hit His Head

[Chris the Human]

I cannot even begin to imagine how Kath & Kim might work in the US. The entire demographic that the show parodies (and, in a way, targets) doesn't even exist in the United States.

[Katsuya]

The original series was loved over in the UK, I doubt that the US would be much different.

[TGC]

Some thoughts on NBC's overall lackluster and sad line-up:

-Crusoe could be good, or it could be wretched. Really hard to say at this point. Friday night isn't the best night for it, but then it's not the best night to dump the excellent Life either.

-My Own Worst Enemy kind of sounds good, but it's also stuck in a dead zone for NBC, aka Monday's at 10pm. Much better shows than this have died there the last few years.

-Kath And Kim. Four weeks, max.

-I enjoyed the Knight Rider TV Movie. Now the series I don't know about, seeing as how the showrunner has said in every interview since he was announced as taking the show on that he hated the TV Movie and he won't be keeping much the same. This year's Bionic Woman I am sure.

-Wasn't THIS supposed to be ER's final season?

-Blue Blood sounds like a generic cop show.

-Kings sounds intriguing.

-The Last Templar sounds like a kick ass mini series, but so do some of SciFi's original movies. Then you start to watch them, and, well, they are shit. Big if here.

Yeah, here's hoping the other nets do something better, because NBC dropped the ball if you ask me.

[alldaws1]

-Wasn't THIS supposed to be ER's final season?

ER's final season will be Series 15. They're currently showing 14 here in the UK and I don't think we're too far behind you yanks.

[Ananas]

The 2007 Upfront makes no mention of ER being in its final season, so I guess it was probably just looked at as a possibility. They probably just looked at their pilot roster and realized they had nothing to replace it with.

[PkmnTrainerJ]

Heroes is all that I'm interested in off NBC I think

[Ananas]

ABC's Fall 2008 Schedule (Courtesy of The Futon Critic):

MONDAY: 8:00 p.m. "Dancing with the Stars" 9:30 p.m. "Samantha Who?" 10:00 p.m. "Boston Legal"

TUESDAY: 8:00 p.m. "Opportunity Knocks" 9:00 p.m. "Dancing with the Stars the Results Show" 10:00 p.m. "Eli Stone"

WEDNESDAY: 8:00 p.m. "Pushing Daisies" 9:00 p.m. "Private Practice" 10:00 p.m. "Dirty Sexy Money"

THURSDAY: 8:00 p.m. "Ugly Betty" 9:00 p.m. "Grey's Anatomy" 10:00 p.m. "Life on Mars"

FRIDAY: 8:00 p.m. "Wife Swap" 9:00 p.m. "Supernanny" 10:00 p.m. "20/20"

SATURDAY: 8:00 p.m. "Saturday Night College Football"

SUNDAY: 7:00 p.m. "America's Funniest Home Videos" 8:00 p.m. "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" 9:00 p.m. "Desperate Housewives" 10:00 p.m. "Brothers & Sisters"

They didn't release a winter schedule, although that will see the return of "Lost", "According to Jim", "The Bachelor" and the ABC debut of "Scrubs" as well as new series "The Goode Family" and a reality series from Ashton Kutcher and Tyra Banks. ABC has nothing in the way of pilot descriptions, but The Futon Critic's coverage does.

What I see here is some smart, stable programming. They didn't overdo it with new reality series (only 2) which I like, and they both seem like they could drive some solid ratings home for the Alphabet. Other than that, they've got a sort of embarassment of riches here. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday were all winning nights for the network, so there was no need to tinker (although they did drop the low rated "Big Shots" in favour of their highly anticipated remake of the British series "Life on Mars"). They moved "Boston Legal" to Monday to hold off the inconsistent "The Bachelor" until mid-season, making room for a 13 episode order of "Eli Stone" Tuesdays at 10pm. I'm over the moon about this. That show started slow and gained consistent momentum to the point where the last episode was exceptional. Great characters, an intriguing concept and wonderful stories. Hopefully it picks up steam ratings wise in season two.

In the midseason, I'm thrilled about the "Scrubs" pickup, and it probably makes business sense for the network from a DVD and syndication standpoint (more so than NBC which never produced the series and thus didn't make that money off of it). "The Goode Family" is an intriguing animated comedy from Mike Judge, a man who's had his two series go a combined 19 seasons. There's something to be said for consistency, and that right there is consistency. I suppose the "According to Jim" pickup means some sort of all-comedy block in the winter with "Samantha Who", "The Goode Family" and "Scrubs". And, of course, the "Lost" bandwagon gets back into gear in the winter too, giving the network yet another ratings boost. It's kind of hard to even remember 4 years ago when you couldn't pay people to watch this network. Now they're on top, and they're making all the right moves to stay there.

[PkmnTrainerJ]

MONDAY: 8:00 p.m. "Dancing with the Stars" 9:30 p.m. "Samantha Who?" 10:00 p.m. "Boston Legal"

TUESDAY: 8:00 p.m. "Opportunity Knocks" 9:00 p.m. "Dancing with the Stars the Results Show" 10:00 p.m. "Eli Stone"

WEDNESDAY: 8:00 p.m. "Pushing Daisies" 9:00 p.m. "Private Practice" 10:00 p.m. "Dirty Sexy Money"

THURSDAY: 8:00 p.m. "Ugly Betty" 9:00 p.m. "Grey's Anatomy" 10:00 p.m. "Life on Mars"

FRIDAY: 8:00 p.m. "Wife Swap" 9:00 p.m. "Supernanny" 10:00 p.m. "20/20"

SATURDAY: 8:00 p.m. "Saturday Night College Football"

SUNDAY: 7:00 p.m. "America's Funniest Home Videos" 8:00 p.m. "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" 9:00 p.m. "Desperate Housewives" 10:00 p.m. "Brothers & Sisters"

The bolded shows are shows I'll watch when we get them start again here.

[zero]

At the very least, NBC is bringing back Friday Night Lights. Even though last season wasn't anything great, I know the show was on the chopping block, so at least it's getting another chance. The Christian Slater show sounds like a Dexter ripoff. I fell behind on Life, but I enjoyed it, so I'm glad it's coming back, the rest is pretty much neither here nor there for me.

ABC's lineup is solid, but I don't really watch much on there other than Lost and Pushing Daisies. I am thrilled about Scrubs moving over though, I'm glad we'll get at least one more season. Any word on FOX or CBS?

[Ananas]

At the very least, NBC is bringing back Friday Night Lights. Even though last season wasn't anything great, I know the show was on the chopping block, so at least it's getting another chance. The Christian Slater show sounds like a Dexter ripoff. I fell behind on Life, but I enjoyed it, so I'm glad it's coming back, the rest is pretty much neither here nor there for me.

ABC's lineup is solid, but I don't really watch much on there other than Lost and Pushing Daisies. I am thrilled about Scrubs moving over though, I'm glad we'll get at least one more season. Any word on FOX or CBS?

CBS tomorrow, FOX Thursday, but I'll try to make up a list of what's already in and out in a few minutes.

[TGC]

I know that CBS dropped Moonlight (pricks) and Shark.

ABC's fall line-up is a smart one indeed. I second the jubilation over a second season of Eli Stone. I so highly recommend anyone who didn't watch it to do so. I think ABC.com has every episode online. I loved that show so much. Sucks that it will be up against L&O:SVU, but I am glad it's back. Otherwise it looks like a good solid schedule. I might go back and catch Dirty Sexy Money as I heard nothing but good about it. The Americanized Life On Mars intrigues me. Also the return of Samantha Who makes me happy. I've not seen them all yet, but I do love the ones I have seen. Fun show. ABC did much better than NBC if you ask me.

[Ananas]

The Futon Critic has a list of what's in, out and coming back for next season here, but in case you don't want to click over:

CBS

Renewed: Amazing Race, Big Bang Theory, Cold Case, Criminal Minds, All CSI shows, Ghost Whisperer, How I Met Your Mother, NCIS, New Adventures of Old Christine, Numb3rs, Rules of Engagement, Survivor, Two And a Half Men, The Unit, Without A Trace

Cancelled: Cane, Jericho (not for all the peanuts in the world), Moonlight (could have been renewed but Warner wouldn't pony up more of the production budget), Secret Talents of the Stars, Shark, Viva Laughlin, Welcome To the Captain

FOX

Renewed: American Dad, American Idol, King of the Hill, Kitchen Nightmares, Prison Break, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, 'Til Death, 24

Cancelled: Back to You, K-Ville, Nashville, New Amsterdam, The Return of the Jezebel James

Everything else is not necessarily in doubt, just not formally renewed yet. It's not like there's any real notion that Bones, House or The Simpsons are going anywhere, just FOX is keeping its developments close to its sleave. Back to You, just cancelled by FOX on Monday, has received interest from CBS.

Edited May 13, 2008 by GoodGodWhatAB-Jay

[Ananas]

The CW's Fall Sked (The Futon Critic):

THE CW's 2008-2009 PRIMETIME SCHEDULE MONDAY 8:00-9:00 PM GOSSIP GIRL 9:00-10:00 PM ONE TREE HILL

TUESDAY 8:00-9:00 PM 90210 (New Series) 9:00-10:00 PM SURVIVING THE FILTHY RICH (New Series)

WEDNESDAY 8:00-9:00 PM AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL 9:00-10:00 PM STYLISTA (New Series)

THURSDAY 8:00-9:00 PM SMALLVILLE 9:00-10:00 PM SUPERNATURAL

FRIDAY 8:00-8:30 PM EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS 8:30-9:00 PM THE GAME 9:00-10:00 PM AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL (Encore Presentation)

Pilot descriptions available at CWTV.com

Wow. This is the least varied a network schedule I think I've ever seen. So you start the week with 4 shows, all teen soaps and 3 of which about rich kids. Then you go with 2 fashion themed reality shows. Then you've got the sci-fi night. And Friday they stick their remaining sitcoms where their older skewing audiences can find it. The demo's for the CW's audience from Monday-Thursday isn't going to include much variety. They tried to light the 18-34 crowd on fire with "Gossip Girl", and I guess they half succeeded so perhaps they figured a re-branding was in order. The reality is that it's actually a step backwards; away from whatever small diversity points they'd been trying to earn with shows like "Life is Wild", "Runaways" or their urban adult sitcoms like "The Game" and "Girlfriends". As if their were ever any doubt, this is the teen network. And maybe that's not such a bad thing. MTV's "reality" soaps aimed at teenagers have become tabloid star-making hits. Disney Channel has become THE major player in the tween crowd with placement in 10 million less households, with "High School Musical 2" scoring more viewers than any CW/WB/UPN broadcast in history. Perhaps CW is setting itself up to become the defacto spot for the emerging post-Disney crowd; hormonal teenagers can only survive on Hannah Montana and Zoey 101 for so long.

In the short term they lose a couple of their moderate ratings successes. "Smackdown" heads over to become the flagship program of the fledgling MyNetworkTV, while the rebrand sees the end of reality franchises "Beauty And the Geek" and "Pussy Cat Dolls Present...". In the end they replace it with perhaps the buzzworthy pilot of the year in the "90210" remake and develop a number of different possible companion pieces. Are many of us going to like much of what The CW has to offer in 2008/09? Doubtful. Is this good strategy? Probably. At least they gave us another "Reaper" season (it returns midseason for another 13 episodes).

[tristy]

I guess Ric Flair won't be on national television anymore, what with the cancellation of the Secret Talents of the Stars.

[Chris the Human]

The original series was loved over in the UK, I doubt that the US would be much different.

In its original format, sure. But how does a US made show expect to be anything like the original when, I'd imagine, they'll have to change virtually everything about the characters? The Kath & Kim characters are classically Australian bogans. They could make them rednecks, I guess, but it's not really the same thing.

[Ananas]

CBS Fall Schedule (From the Futon Critic):

CBS TELEVISON NETWORK 2008-2009 PRIMETIME SCHEDULE

(N=New, NT=New Time, all times ET/PT)

MONDAY

8:00-8:30 PM THE BIG BANG THEORY

8:30-9:00 PM HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER

9:00-9:30 PM TWO AND A HALF MEN

9:30-10:00 PM WORST WEEK (N)

10:00-11:00 PM CSI: MIAMI

TUESDAY

8:00-9:00 PM NCIS

9:00-10:00 PM THE MENTALIST (N)

10:00-11:00 PM WITHOUT A TRACE (NT)

WEDNESDAY

8:00-8:30 PM THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE (NT)

8:30-9:00 PM PROJECT GARY (N)

9:00-10:00 PM CRIMINAL MINDS

10:00-11:00 PM CSI: NY

THURSDAY

8:00-9:00 PM SURVIVOR

9:00-10:00 PM CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION

10:00-11:00 PM ELEVENTH HOUR (N)

FRIDAY

8:00-9:00 PM GHOST WHISPERER

9:00-10:00 PM THE EX LIST (N)

10:00-11:00 PM NUMB3RS

SATURDAY

8:00-9:00 PM CRIMETIME SATURDAY

9:00-10:00 PM CRIMETIME SATURDAY

10:00-11:00 PM 48 HOURS MYSTERY

SUNDAY

7:00-8:00 PM 60 MINUTES

8:00-9:00 PM THE AMAZING RACE

9:00-10:00 PM COLD CASE

10:00-11:00 PM THE UNIT (NT)

In addition, murder mystery "Harper's Island" will debut and "Rules of Engagement" will return at midseason. CBS' audience is too old to know what the internet is hence no pilot descriptions on the website, but The Futon Critic's release has them.

So CBS' programming is what it is. We're all about three decades shy of their target demographic, and so I can't really say if this is a schedule that's going to help them get any stronger than they already are. "The Mentalist" sounds cliched and silly, but I have a sinking suspicion that most of the Eye's audience have just fallen asleep with the TV on, so the ratings will be counted and no one will remember hating it. "Eleventh Hour" I know nothing about, but considering it's Bruckheimer it'll probably be a hit. "The Ex List" sounds like an awful rom-com movie spread out over multiple episodes. Yuck. And as for the new sitcoms... what can I say? They usually sound bad on premise alone. "Big Bang Theory" sounded like awful lowest common denominator garbage and turned out surprisingly awesome. "Worst Week" is a new series awarded the coveted "Two And a Half Men" slot, so maybe there's something to that. "Project Gary" however has Paula Marshall so I think we can safely conclude it'll be cancelled after 4 episodes.

But really, how could I be mad? They brought back "How I Met Your Mother" and "Big Bang Theory" and left them right where they are. They switched "Survivor" over to HD. They... okay that's all the CBS programming I watch (and even "Survivor" usually not). Just like The CW's programming may skew to young for us, CBS is the number one network in the geriatrics ward, and they've not developed a single show here that's going to change that. But hey, everyone's got to find their niche. Let NBC, FOX and ABC fight for the young affluent viewers, when Freedent and Depends are looking for somewhere to advertise, they've got but one place to go!

[Katsuya]

FUCK YES! Race moves out of midseason and that more or less guarantees TAR14 in 2009 as well. TAR13's currently filming, too, albeit I doubt they'll put that out before the Fall season.

So 2 TAR's and 3 Project Runway's in 2008. FUCKAWESOME!

[St. Dubb]

I'm just glad they didn't cancel HIMYM...that would've been a travesty.

[TheSqauredCircleMessiah]

I'm just glad they didn't cancel HIMYM...that would've been a travesty.

Ditto, but CBS waiting to announce the show being picked upped untill the upfronts is getting pretty old.

This was supposed to be ER's final season, but the writer's strike changed everything and nobody wants to wrap up a 14-year show with blitzing through storylines in 6 weeks.

I'm really interested in "The Office" spinoff but I doubt I'll watch anything new. I watch far too much sports & wrestling to include new stuff not to mention I have no idea on what the TV situation at college is going to be like.