ABC has much in common with another ailing network trying to find its next big hit.
By Patrick Harbron, ABC
Christina Ricci stars in Pan Am, a nighttime soap set in the 1960s.
By Patrick Harbron, ABC
Christina Ricci stars in Pan Am, a nighttime soap set in the 1960s.
Like NBC, it has a new programming chief (ABC Family's Paul Lee), a spotty track record with dramas, and a sturdy reality hit (Dancing With the Stars). With its fall picks, ABC also shares a penchant for easily promoted remakes (Charlie's Angels) and soapy period dramas (Pan Am, about '60s stewardesses, is its answer to NBC's Playboy Club).
And it has a strong appetite for new shows. In a schedule to be unveiled to advertisers today, ABC picks up a whopping 13 for next season, more than half the pilots it ordered as prototypes. Seven of them are on the fall schedule.
Lee says the lineup represents "stability for our established hits and ambition for our new shows," with escapist series he hopes will tap into the country's mood: "This is a time when a lot of people are looking for pure entertainment."
New shows in bold, new time periods
in italics. All times ET/PT.
MONDAY
8:00 Dancing with the Stars
10:00 Castle
TUESDAY
8:00
8:30 Man Up (new sitcom)
9:00 Dancing with the Stars
10:00 Body of Proof
WEDNESDAY
8:00 The Middle
8:30 Suburgatory (suburban satire)
9:00 Modern Family
9:30
10:00 Revenge (new drama)
THURSDAY
8:00 Charlie's Angels
9:00
10:00 Private Practice
FRIDAY
8:00
9:00
10:00 20/20
SATURDAY
8:00 Saturday Night College Football
SUNDAY
7:00 America's Funniest Home Videos
8:00
9:00 Desperate Housewives
10:00 Pan Am ('60s drama)
Though bottom-ranked NBC gets the lion's share of negative attention, ABC is a distant third among its target audience of young-adult viewers, down 9% from last year. (It's also in third place overall.) So it's not surprising that, like its rival, the network is spending heavily to rebuild, focusing on its core female audience.
One of the network's biggest former stars, Home Improvement's Tim Allen, will mark his TV return with Last Man Standing, as the sole guy in a female household, that will kick off a new Tuesday comedy block, followed by another male-centered sitcom, appropriately titled Man Up. (Cougar Town and new comedy Apartment 23 will expand Tuesday's comedy lineup to two hours once Dancing completes its fall run).
The gap between The Middle and Modern Family on Wednesdays will now be filled by Suburgatory, a satiricial look at suburban life, while the returning Happy Endings will follow Family at 9:30 ET/PT. At 10, look for Revenge, a soap about a woman seeking payback for her father's death.
A remake of Charlie's Angels, which Lee calls "pure camp," will kick off Thursdays as a lead-in to Grey's Anatomy. And Sunday's Desperate Housewives will be surrounded by two new dramas: Once Upon a Time, a fantasy drama with fairy-tale trappings, and Pan Am, a soapy look at 1960s stewardesses.
Mideason series include Missing, in which a globe-trotting ex-CIA agent (Ashley Judd) tracks her missing son; and Good Christian Belles, a soap set in Dallas starring Leslie Bibb, Kristin Chenoweth and Annie Potts.
Among the few time slot switches, fading Sunday staple Extreme Makeover: Home Edition moves to Fridays, joined by Shark Tank.
The cancellation heap includes Matthew Perry's Mr. Sunshine, plus Better With You, No Ordinary Family, Off the Map, Detroit 1-8-7 and the longer-running Brothers & Sisters and V.
Kristy Swanson Kristen Bell Missy Peregrym Paulina Rubio Shania Twain
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