[Upfronts] ABC's New Fall Lineup

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ABC, the network that’s ratings grew in leaps and bounds in the 2004/2005 season, announced its slate of shows for the 2005/6 season. While many people would expect ABC to sit back and enjoy the fruits of its loins aka Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy, the network introduced some big changes.

The network plans to bring out five new shows in the fall season and has another six ready for the mid-season.

Monday nights on ABC will now start off with Wife Swap at 8 p.m., followed by Monday Night Football, which enters its last season. The plan for after the football season changes quite a bit. In January the 8 p.m. time slot will be filled with another edition of The Bachelor, despite the fact that its ratings are dropping and generally just sucks now. For the next hour ABC will pump out a couple of comedies. 9 p.m. will feature Emily’s Reasons Why Not, featuring Heather Graham (Scrubs, Boogie Nights) who plays Emily, an independent career woman. So basically a wannabee Sex and the City. After that viewers get another does of what is being called comedy with the return of Jake in Progress. Is it just me or does back-to-back Heather Graham and John Stamos comedies scare you more then any terrorist threat ever could? At 10 p.m. J. J. Abrams brings another drama to ABC called What About Brian. Sadly this show looks more like an hour-long Jake in Progress then another show as cool as Lost. The show stars Barry Watson from 7th Heaven as Brian, a mid-30s nice guy who is the last single guy among his group of friends. Ok first off if you are gonna do a show like this don’t cast a guy who is barely 30, Watson is 32, and doesn’t even look 30, and was also just recently playing a teenager on another crappy drama. I can’t see any guy actually watching this show and the only girls that will watch it will be those that were die-hard 7th Heaven fans who are in their late-teens early-20s. Hopefully by the time January rolls around ABC has come up with a better plan for their Monday night then this.

ABC’s Tuesdays are another night that has a great deal of change. Returning comedies According to Jim and Rodney, (Yeah I’ve never seen them either) move one hour earlier. At 9 p.m. ABC brings out the big guns with its new drama Commander-in-Chief. Genna Davis and Donald Sutherland come to the small screen with Davis playing Mackenzie Allen, the Vice-President of the United States. With the President on his deathbed, Allen has to choose to step-down, as the President and others would like, or take the reigns and become America’s first female President. Well obviously from the title of the show she does just that. No doubt ABC has high hopes for this show, whether the public will bite on the premise will no doubt wrest in the hands of the writers. At 10 p.m. Boston Legal makes its return after being replaced by Grey’s Anatomy, which showed that doctors do better than lawyers in TV world.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is ABC’s decision to move hit show Lost one hour later to 9 p.m. No doubt Lost fans will follow it to its new time slot but I am curious if the decision was made in order to avoid a confrontation with Martha Stewart over at NBC? At 8 p.m. ABC brings out two more comedies with the return of George Lopez and the introduction of Freddie”¦.YIKES! Yes that is right, Freddie Prinze Jr., perhaps the most annoying celebrity of modern time gets his shot at a sitcom. Oh and its produced by the people who brought us George Lopez and The Drew Carey Show, go mediocrity! I could tell you the premise of Freddie but it will be gone by November and I will be busy watching Martha Stewart yell at her wannabe Apprentices. At 10 p.m. the drama Invasion will try to keep the Lost viewers that Alias failed to capture. As you can probably guess Invasion is a show about aliens. The show centress around a small Florida town where a Sheriff, played by William Fichtner (Black Hawk Down) and a Park Ranger, Eddie Cibrian (Tilt, Third Watch) quarantine the town after some suspicious occurrences. Sure sounds like it could be a winner. Fichtner is a very underrated actor, who when you see him you will say, “Yeah I remember him, he was in”¦”

On Thursdays Alias gets a raw deal and is stuck in the ratings equivalent of Death Valley in the 8 p.m. time slot. At 9 p.m. ABC brings out new drama The Night Stalker, another supernatural thriller type show from a couple of guys who worked on The X-Files. Stuart Townsend, the guy famous for originally being cast as Aragon in Lord of the Rings (Hey what was the original Beattles drumme’s name again?, oh yeah Pete Best), stars as a man trying to find the people responsible for his wife’s death. But just like Mulder looking for his sister he starts to find other weird stuff. ABC ends off the night with Primetime Live, which is only notable because its better then Dateline.

Fridays are another pretty blah night starting off with Supernanny at 8 p.m. followed by returning comedy Hope and Faith at 9 p.m. At 9:30 audiences get another sitcom to wet their teeth with in Hot Properties. It’s about real-estate firm that has four Manhattan women, who are “very different”. Yawn. News show 20/20 ends off the night at 10 p.m.

ABC sticks with its Saturday night plan of a weekly movie or reruns.

On its power night ABC leaves things alone. America’s Funniest Home Videos, how is that still around, starts off the night at 7 p.m., followed by Extreme Makeover: Home Edition at 8 and the back-to-back powers of Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy. If those two don’t go in a sophomore slump ABC should easily win every Sunday.

All in all ABC should still have a solid year in 2005/6 if its new hits from this season don’t go into the tank. The new comedies don’t get me very excited but ABC has never had very many good comedies. No doubt one of its new dramas will be a big hit. Invasion has a great lead-in but tough competition of Law and Order and CSI: New York. Tuesday at 9 seems open for Commander-in-Chief to make a strong showing so I’ll make that my choice for ABC’s big freshman hit.

Monday Tuesday Wedneday
8 PM Wife Swap According to Jim
Rodney
George Lopez
Freddie
9 PM Monday Night Football Commander-in-Chief Lost
10 PM Boston Legal Invasion

Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
7 PM America’s Funniest Home Videos
8 PM Alias Supernanny Saturday Night Movie

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
9 PM The Night Stalker Hope & Faith
Hot Properties
Desperate Housewives
10 PM Primetime Live 20/20 Grey’s Anatomy

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