New Season Fallout: Changes Everywhere
Didn't take long for the first shoes to drop this season, did it? Let's analyze the moves network by network.
CBS
We start here because CBS has wielded the cancellation ax first, dropping the
Sopranos-lite caper
Smith immediately from the otherwise successful Tuesday lineup. Strike one for this season's new wave of serialized dramas. Crime-drama repeats (what else?) will occupy its slot starting this Tuesday.
I'm not terribly surprised. Though there was some buzz for the show and its very expensive (I heard $6 million at least) pilot, plus its starry cast (someone sign Simon Baker up for another show now!),
Smith always struck me as an empty version of a
Sopranos or a
Shield, to name two distinguished shows with criminals as protagonists. The characters on
Smith just felt hollow to me, giving us little reason to care or to root for or against them.
CBS' other big move was a no-brainer: switching the time periods for Monday comedies
The Class and
How I Met Your Mother, so that the more established
Mother now airs first. It should have been that way from the start.
The Class is not star-driven or particularly concept-driven, and it will take some time, some nurturing and possibly some creative tinkering to get this promising ensemble comedy on its feet. By nesting it between
Mother and the night's anchor,
Two and a Half Men, CBS ensures
The Class will at least get a fair shot within a strong comedy block.
NBC
Kidnapped is moving to Saturdays, starting Oct. 21. Strike two for the serialized mystery-drama. The show is now expected to wrap its story in 13 episodes (three have aired so far), and if so, NBC deserves some sort of kudos for living up to its promise to critics this summer that if a show like this didn't open and catch on, it would still be able to achieve some closure and the audience wouldn't be left hanging. Moving
Kidnapped to Saturday is the equivalent of putting it out to pasture, but I can't think of a better use of this empty night of programming. Low risk, low gain, but at least
Kidnapped's small audience is being looked after. For now.
Fox
No cancellations yet (not even for the unwatchable
Happy Hour), but there are significant moves for
Justice (from Wednesday to Mondays after
Prison Break, starting October 23) and for
Vanished (banished to Fridays starting Oct. 27, where it will live up to its title). This is a good move for
Justice, a stylish but so far overly formulaic legal procedural. It could be strong counterprogramming against the only other drama in the time period, NBC's breakout
Heroes, which just got picked up for a full season. As for
Vanished, even killing off the robotic Gale Harold isn't going to be enough to save this increasingly ludicrous conspiracy thriller. Sadly, the producers appear to have no intention of simplifying this story or moving it toward a fast resolution. So chances are excellent that whatever fans the show still has will be left in the lurch whenever the boom falls. Strike three for the serialized thriller.
The other move is no surprise, with
Standoff and
House switching places when they return from the baseball hiatus on Oct. 31. Fox never intended
House to air in the earlier time period beyond September, and now it will be back where it belongs. This strands
Standoff in the unenviable position (as the wonderful
Friday Night Lights just learned) of facing the
Dancing with the Stars juggernaut and the mainstream smash
NCIS. Good luck with that.
The CW
Some pretty radical instant schedule surgery, as the new Frankenstein network cobbled together from the WB's and UPN's aging components pulls a switcheroo, moving Sunday's comedies to Monday (starting this week) and moving Monday's dramas, including the venerable
7th Heaven, to Sundays as of Oct. 15. This means the former UPN block of African-American sitcoms, now including
Everybody Hates Chris, will be back on Monday, facing CBS' more popular sitcom lineup.
The shocker this season has been how underwhelming the numbers for
7th Heaven have been. Which makes me think last season's strong showing was in part due to the much-publicized fact that it was the final season, heightening interest in the Camden clan. Once the CW reversed the WB's call and resurrected the show, it seems a percentage of the fan base has decided to move on. (Can't blame them.) I'm already getting e-mails from
Heaven fans complaining that this move puts the show up against another family favorite, ABC's blockbuster
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Tough luck, Camdens. Perhaps you should have thought about retiring gracefully. As for the DOA
Runaway: There's no reason to think it will do any better in this tough Sunday time slot opposite
Desperate Housewives than where it bombed instantly on Mondays. Strike four for... oh, why bother?
ABC
As of this moment, no cancellations yet, but how long can
Six Degrees survive on Thursdays, dropping as precipitously as it does from the
Grey's Anatomy lead-in? (Plus: What a lousy and pointless show, despite some fine actors.)
The major move announced by ABC this week: postponing the launch of the whimsical caper comedy
The Knights of Prosperity from later this month to sometime in the mid-season, probably early '07. Seems ABC was distracted by launching so many new shows this month, with the focus on
Ugly Betty, The Nine and
Brothers & Sisters and little left over for its half-hour comedies. Ted Danson's uneven
Help Me Help You is ailing in the post-
Dancing time slot for now, and it will be joined on Nov. 28 by the strained farce
Big Day, a filmed comedy whose entire first season takes place during a hectic wedding day. I'll be shocked if they make it down the aisle. ABC has gone a little crazy in its zeal for offbeat single-camera comedies this season. Even
Knights, the most agreeable of the lot, is probably going to be a slow build at best. But at least ABC is trying to break out of its mold of mediocrity, epitomized by the waiting-in-the-wings
According to Jim.
