UPN has reshuffled its new Thursday-night lineup just a week before its launch. Per The Hollywood Reporter, buzz-magnet Everybody Hates Chris will stay put at 8 pm, but it will now be followed at 8:30 by Love, Inc., not Eve, which moves to 9 pm. Cuts, meanwhile, will shift to 9:30, where Love, Inc. was originally skedded. UPN says the changes make for better "flow" on the night. I say it's akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, since this ship's going down at 8:30 no matter what.
read more
Question: I work. I go to graduate school. I love TV. Unfortunately, I won't have time to watch all the new shows on the dial. I need to be selective. Can you recommend five new shows that I shouldn't miss? By the way, my TV tastes run from Gilmore Girls to Lost to Sci Fi's Friday lineup, so any genre is fair game.
Answer: For a full list of the dozen shows we're recommending this season, check out our Fall Preview issue, currently on sale. (Shameless-plug alert... oops, too late.) But of those shows, the five I'm probably most confident in standing behind are, for a change, mostly comedies. Top of the list: Everybody Hates Chris, How I Met Your Mother and My Name Is Earl. Of the dramas, I'm keen on Invasion and would put Threshold on the short list, except for the fact that I won't get to see the full two-hour pilot until later this week. So for the fifth slot, let's go (for now) with Supernatural, which really gave me the heebie-jeebies. But seriously, depending on your taste, I'd
...
read more
Question: Why in the world did USA Network decide to get into airing wrestling again? Especially when you consider that UPN has moved its wrestling program from Thursdays to Friday nights. In my opinion, the audience that watches wrestling (males 18 to 34) in general goes out on Friday nights. UPN doesn't have much to air anyway, and moving wrestling to Friday makes no sense. Where does this leave Spike TV? They will no longer be airing Monday Night Raw (wrestling). I believe the popularity of wrestling has declined dramatically, but given what else Spike has to offer, I am surprised they didn't keep it.
Answer: Having zero (or less) interest in wrestling, my grasp of this situation is something less than a choke hold. But basically, USA Network, being part of the huge NBC-Universal group, made an offer that the WWE folks liked better. It had something to do, I believe, with USA's stronger ratings base and the cross-promotional opportunities with the other NBC-U platforms. Plus, even if
...
read more
