V I D E O • A G E Se p t e m b e r/ Oc t o b e r 2 0 0 9 42 scientists who create an experiment where millions of people briefly see visions of their future 20 years later for two minutes and 17 seconds and it changes them forever. ABC currently has no new shows listed as mid-season replacements nor do they have current plans to re-enter the movie or miniseries business. The Bachelor will replace Dancing with the Stars on Mondays mid-season, and a Scrubs/Better Off Tedcombo will be a mid-season replacement for Dancing with the Stars : The Resultson Tuesdays. CBS CBS has one of the strongest primetime line-ups for this Fall, including dramas, comedies and reality shows. According to Nina Tassler, CBS Network President, at the TCA, “We are poised, ready to grow. We’ve got the new shows coming in at 10 PM, between The Good Wifeand The Mentalist ….It’s going to do well. It generates billions of dollars for us in revenue between foreign sales and syndication.” CBS began the premiere of its new shows on September 21 at 9 PM, CBS premiered the spin-off NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS Studios International), starring LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell as undercover Special Agents in the hightech Office of Special Projects. The same evening at 10 PM, Julianna Margulies and Chris Noth starred in the new drama, The Good Wife (CBS Studios International). Margulies plays a former attorney who must go back to work to support her family when her Chicago District Attorney husband is caught cheating, resigns from his job and is sent to prison. As for mid-season replacements, Flashpoint will return for at least nine more episodes, probably following Medium’s seasonal run. CW This Fall, the CW has revived an oldclassic, Melrose Place , with a whole new cast of tenants, and brought vampires and beautiful people to the forefront. Skewing primarily young and female during all five nights of programming, Dawn Ostroff, the CW’s President of Entertainment, said at the TCA, “In three short years, we have carved out a niche in the marketplace programming to young women, and we feel that this network is starting to resonate across all platforms.” Having eliminated Sunday night’s programming, returning it to affiliates, the network is focusing on dramas during the weeknights, where “our bread and butter is and where we know we can migrate all of our viewers across the schedule….I just don’t know if we can do sitcoms that are loud enough or noisy enough to get the attention that we’re able to get with the dramas and with some of the reality shows.” On September 8 at 9 PM, the new Melrose Place premiered, starring an ensemble cast of 20-somethings, including veterans Laura Leighton and Thomas Calabro. Antics and melodrama ensue at the trendy Melrose Place apartment complex in this soapy ‘90s remake. The much talked about The Vampire Diaries (Warner Bros International TV), based on the book series, premiered on September 10 at 8 PM, starring Paul Wesley, Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder, as two vampire brothers who desire the same female classmate. And on September 16, the new drama about teen models, The Beautiful Life premiered at 9 PM. Produced by Ashton Kutcher, Sara Paxton, Corbin Blue and Elle MacPherson co-star. CW will premiere Life Unexpected, the story of a 15-year old girl who has resided in several foster homes and is then accidentally reunited with her birth parents as a mid-season replacement. No confirmed time period is known. FOX Fox has two new shows premiering this Fall, Brothers starring former NFL star Michael Strahan, and the muchhyped, musical drama, Glee . At the TCA, Kevin Reilly, President of Entertainment at Fox, said, “It’s been a long-term evolution of the network, and I feel that we’ve actually come to a very mature place with how to construct it….This year’s big step forward obviously is getting a Fall that mirrors the second season with So You Think You Can Dance . If we can lock that in so we don’t have to completely re-jigger the schedule and throw everything up in the air, that will create a lot of stability.” Glee , the dark high school dramedy which Fox previewed earlier this Spring, premiered on September 9 at 9 PM, starring Matthew Morrison, Lea Michele and Jayma Mays. Morrison plays a 30-something new teacher attempting to take his misfit musical students to compete at regionals. The Cleveland Show(Twentieth Century Fox TV Distribution), the spin-off of Family Guy, premiered on September 25 at 8:30 PM. Series creators Seth McFarlane and Mike Henry, Sanaa Lathan and Kevin Michael Richardson provide the voices for the Brown family, recently moved to sunny California. Fox has Human Target (Warner Bros International TV), the new drama based on the DC Comics property, waiting in the wings as a mid-season replacement to Glee . Chi McBride, Mark Valley and Jackie Earle Haley co-star, and McG, Jonathan Steinberg and Brad Kern are executive producers. On Tuesdays at 9 PM, Past Life(Warner Bros International TV) will fill in for So You Think You Can Dance , when its season ends. NBC NBC is debuting four new shows this Fall: The Jay Leno Show, Community, Mercy (NBC Universal International Television Distribution) and Trauma (NBC Universal International Television Distribution). Even with benchmarks to mark the progress, NBC has taken a big chance, with The Jay Leno Showairing five nights a week for 52 weeks (with 46 original weeks) a year at 10 PM beginning September 14. It takes an hour away from additional primetime programming each week night, will skew older, and ABC and CBS have lined up some of their top shows to air against it. If Jay Leno is going to survive, it’s going to be a tough choice for viewers. At TCA, Angela Bromstad, President, Primetime Entertainment at NBC and Universal Studios Entertainment stated, “Based on our information, based on the research and based on the numbers that we see, this is going to be a long-term commitment for us. We feel really good because for the viewers, it does give them an alternative at 10 o’clock.” Community (Sony Pictures International Television), the new sitcom co-starring Chevy Chase and Joel McHale, premiered on September 17 at 9:30 PM (for six weeks, then at Thursdays at 8 PM) and is about a group of community college misfits trying to get by. As for mid-season replacements, NBC has quite a few. The sitcom Chuck returns on Mondays to replace Heroesat 8 PM, Day One replaces Trauma (originals) in the Spring, and Parenthood (NBC Universal International Television Distribution) replaces Mercy on Wednesdays at 8 PM also in the Spring. On Thursdays, Community moves to 8 PM and 30 Rock will air at 9:30 PM once SNL Weekend Update Thursday ends. Southland repeats will replace Trauma repeats in the Spring on Saturdays, and once football ends on Sundays, Marriage Ref (International Distributor TBA) will air at 8 PM, with a two-hour Celebrity Apprenticeairing at 9 PM. Overall, comedies like Accidentally on Purpose (CBS Studios International, airing on CBS), Hank (Warner Bros International TV, airing on ABC), Brothers (Sony Pictures Television, airing on Fox) and The Middle(Warner Bros International TV, airing on ABC) appear to be similar to what viewers have seen in the past, only refurbished. Same with Mercyand Trauma. Cougar Townand FlashForwardhave potential. Modern Family, screened in full at the May upfront is promising as well if it can gather viewers seeking comedy and not drama in its timeslot. Will a second dose of NCISdirectly following the first be enough to hold on to viewers, even with a great ensemble cast? With competition from Desperate Housewives and Family Guy, how many times can one hear about dying patients and organ transplants in Three Rivers(CBS Studios International, airing on CBS)? The Fall lineup looks to be most promising with Community, The Vampire Diaries and Melrose Place . U . S . T V ( C O N T I N U E D ) (Continued from Page 40) Aimee Garcia, star of NBC’s Trauma at the NBC Uni Int’l TV Distribution Latin luncheon during the L.A. Screenings RTE’s Dermot Horan at the L.A. Screenings
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