NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – ABC is moving its ratings-challenged spy drama “Alias” to Wednesday next January, in the 9 p.m. slot following its rookie hit “Lost.”
The opening Jan. 5 episode of the fourth season will be a two-hour installment; the midseason introduction will allow the entire season to unspool without interruption week to week.
The move marks the first time the series has strayed from Sunday, where it has experienced mostly middling ratings, since it premiered on the network in 2001.
But ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson thought “Alias” would be bolstered by the compatible “Lost,” both of which were created by J.J. Abrams.
“There’s an entertainment octane level that feels very similar to us,” he said. “I’m really pleased to have the assets we now have and offer Jennifer Garner a compatible lead-in when on Sunday she just didn’t have that.”
ABC has also settled on a lineup to follow the exit of “Monday Night Football.” The network has decided to continue with “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: How’d They Do That?” a spinoff of the Sunday series that was successful in a Nov. 2 trial episode.
“Extreme” will anchor the night beginning Jan. 10 followed by the return of “The Bachelorette” at 9 p.m. A two-hour edition will kick-off the series, but the following week will see the premiere of previously announced unscripted “Supernanny” at 10 p.m.
McPherson was not concerned that Fox’s similarly themed “Nanny 911” would siphon the “Supernanny” viewership.
“‘Trading Spouses’ didn’t keep ‘Wife Swap’ from beating ‘Law & Order’,” he said.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
