[Upfronts] – Global and CH's Fall Line-up

Two days after getting an up close look at CTV’s fall launch Murtz and I got the chance to see their main competition’s response.

Be sure to check out Murtz’z recap of the launch presentation itself.

Global and CH are both owned by the same parent company CanWest MediaWorks. So essentially we are getting two seperate schedules but they are not completely seperate. For example ‘Deal or No Deal,’ which appeared last year on CH, will appear on Global on Thursdays and CH on Mondays.

Global is the true national network and the only real competitor CTV in the national primetime market. Therefore most of the big name new shows are headed to Global’s sked. CH isn’t just given scraps though as ‘The Unit’, ‘Boston Legal’ and the solid ratings comedy block of ‘Two and a Half Men’ and ‘The New Adventures of Old Christine’ all appear on CH.

This year CH has really stepped out of the box in its U.S. purchases. Instead of sticking to the big four it has bought promising shows from TNT and USA. Since most Canadians don’t have access to TNT or USA shows like like ‘Saved’ and ‘The Closer’ do not get shown in Canada during their original airing. Both of those TNT shows have been highly acclaimed and add a critical edge to mixed bag line schedule fill with average reality shows and movies three nights a week.

CH can take a chance on shows that most Canadian networks would ignore and if they are a hit they can be shuffled over to Global, see ‘Deal or No Deal’ as the best recent example.

Global itself put out big bucks to get some of the biggest new American dramas. Friday is the only night on the schedule without a new drama. While this is encouraging it also shows the weakness in Global’s schedule, lack of proven hits. Other than ‘House’ and ’24’ they really don’t have what can be called a dominant drama.

‘Prison Break’ is very likely to hit a sophomore slump. ‘Survivor’ has been dipping in the ratings ranks the past few years. And ‘Deal or No Deal’ could be a great hit next year or it could be a fad and go the way of ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire.’

And these are their big five shows, of which only two do not have big question marks.

Their FOX comedy block is enjoyable and solid but not a ratings darling. Their Friday night line-up has some proven shows that will have a decent audience but none of them are expected to break through. Also ‘Crossing Jordan’ isn’t even on NBC’s sked but it’s listed here so I have no idea what is going on there.

For Global to take a big bite out of CTV they will need at least three, if not four or five, of their new drams to be super-hits. At worst though you have to imagine one or two of the shows to be very solid and another one or two to stick around with average to above average ratings.

The only new drams that I would call risky buys would be ‘Standoff’ and ‘Friday Night Lights.’ This isn’t to say they can’t be hits but they don’t have the pedigree of the other shows.

Here are the schedules for both Global and CH.

As Murtz said over the next weeks will more closely examine the new shows and also I will be posting the interview highlights from the celebs who appeared at the Global fall launch.

Global Line-up

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday
8 PM	Prison Break	Friday Night Lights	Bones
9 PM	VANISHED/24	House	SIX DEGREES
10 PM	STANDOFF	Gilmore Girls	KIDNAPPED

	Thursday	Friday	Sunday
8 PM	Survivor	Crossing Jordan	The SimpsonsAmerican Dad
9 PM	Deal or No Deal	Las Vegas	Family GuyThe War at Home
10 PM	SHARK	Numb3rs	BROTHERS & SISTERS

CH Line-up

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday
8 PM	Deal or No Deal	NCIS	‘TIL DEATHBIG DAY
9 PM	Two and a Half MenThe New Adventures of Old Christine	The Unit	Biggest Loser
10 PM	The Closer	Boston Legal	PSYCH

	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
8 PM	CH Movie	The Next Great Chef	Doc	Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
9 PM		Trading Spouses	CH Movie	CH Movie
10 PM	SAVED	20/20