Aside from that egregious Everwood snub, CW's fall schedule is close to perfect. Monday: 7th Heaven, RunawayTuesday: Gilmore Girls, Veronica MarsWednesday: Top Model/Beauty and Geek, One Tree HillThursday: Smallville, SupernaturalFriday: WrestlingSunday: Everybody Hates Chris, All of Us, Girlfriends, The GameAlso, Reba received a last-minute 13-episode reprieve, which pretty much means Everwood is the only bubble show that didn't make the cut. Dawn Ostroff's got some explainin' to do.Speaking of Everwood, I've been trading e-mails with exec producer Rina Mimoun and she wanted to offer a "final thank you to all our fans for all their hard work and effort. I'd love to give a giant cyberhug to everyone who has been so amazing to us."The one silver lining here is that, as you know, Mimoun and her team prepared for the worst and shot an alternate series-finale ending. So at the very least, our beloved Everwood will get a fitting send-off. Little consolation, I know.Off to Madison Square ...
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Question: OK, please tell me what the new CW is thinking. I just read in the news section that the CW announced they will not be picking up Reba for next season. Yet when they first announced the merger, they listed Reba as an asset. Do they really have enough quality comedies in the works that they can afford to dump WB's No. 1 comedy? Is there any hope of Reba being picked up by another network? I am a huge Reba McEntire fan (both of her acting and singing). How can they treat this wonderful woman like yesterday's garbage?
Answer: All I can say is that CW must really not want this show on its schedule, because according to what the trades say, the network may have to pay a steep penalty to cancel Reba, which still had a year to go on its current WB contract (although in the long run, it may be cheaper not to produce a full season of episodes — don't ask me). To be honest, I was always puzzled about why Reba was on WB instead of on a more mainstream network like CBS, where she would be
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Tina Fey
It's crunch time in the network scheduling rooms, as many questions are being asked about next season. Will Grey's Anatomy go to Monday nights? Will Lost start in November, to cut down on repeats during the season? Is Wayne Brady getting another show? The answers will come next week. We hear there wasn't a lot of laughing during the executive screenings of most of the season's comedy pilots, but here's what industry insiders say are the hottest of that tepid lot. (Click here to read about the drama-pilot buzz.)
NBC: The Peacock network is only expected to add two sitcoms. One is the still-untitled show from Saturday Night Live head writer Tina Fey — a workplace comedy set behind the scenes of a
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Question: Hi, Matt! Love the column! I was wondering if there is any confirmed news, or even reliable speculation, about which current shows will be on CW in September. I've never been a fan of UPN, so personally, I'm more concerned with the current WB shows. Also, do you think that a possible reason for these individual networks' financial downfall is the money lost on mid-season replacement shows that are eventually canceled? As I said, I don't watch UPN, so I don't know if they have mid-season replacements, but it seems to me that if they just sucked it up and aired repeats instead of producing new shows to run for a couple months, viewers wouldn't lose interest in shows that go on a three-month hiatus (Everwood) and money wouldn't be lost on mid-season replacements that are just going to be canceled anyway. I did like Related, which aired in Everwood's time slot, and it was nice to see something new instead of repeats, but I'd rather have seen repeats if it meant I wouldn't have to ...
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The fun (and confusion) never stops as the networks continue scrambling their schedules, with a new wave of mid-season changes kicking in the instant the Olympics and February sweeps conclude.
As a helpful guide to get you through the exhausting month of March, here's a night-by-night rundown of what to expect (until the next changes are announced):
March 1: After a 90-minute American Idol, Fox airs a preview of quasi-improvised slacker sitcom Free Ride (it will regularly air on Sundays starting March 12, replacing American Dad for a while). Invasion is preempted for the annual Oscar-themed Barbara Walters Special, which for the first time is not airing on Oscar night.
March 2:
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Question: I've been reading some of the comments about the new CW, and one question came to mind: If you think about it, both Everwood and Reba could fit well on the CBS network. They appeal to broader audiences than the typical UPN/WB shows and have good "red state" (yes, I know you are sick of these "red state"/"blue state" analogies, but it fits here) feels to them, as do many CBS shows (NCIS, Ghost Whisperer, etc.). What do you think?
Answer: When Reba first premiered, I thought the very same thing, that it would have been an even better fit on CBS. Still feel that way. I'd much rather watch Reba than the anemic Still Standing. But I can't imagine either WB show making the jump from a defunct weblet to the No. 1 network — certainly not Everwood (CBS' recent track record with traditional family dramas has been dismal). Still, good observation ...
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Question: Why is Everwood not considered a shoo-in for CW when it's in the Top 10 of current UPN and WB shows and in the Top 7 of WB shows in ratings this season? Or when it gets consistent critical acclaim? Or when it succeeds on a night with so much competition and does much better than expected on that night? Everwood is doing everything right and yet there's a strong possibility this could be its last season. My question is: why? Why is Veronica Mars a shoo-in with its very poor ratings while Everwood might not even make it with much better ratings and somewhat similar critical acclaim? It just doesn't make any sense to me at all. Television decisions never do, but this one is just completely confusing.
Answer: This has been a very popular question since the UPN/WB merger was announced. I wish I had an answer, but this situation is uncharted territory. My problem in trying to speculate about Everwood or any other show on either network's current lineup (besides the very few obvious
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Tom Amandes, Treat Williams and Scott Wolf, Everwood
Question: We just heard the news that WB and UPN are merging to create the CW network. We are nonplussed to put it lightly, and shocked out of our socks to put it bluntly. UPN and WB have always been each other's closest competitor! We are wondering what your opinion of this development is — especially pertaining to the effect it will have on programming. On one hand, it could mean bigger budgets and better promotion for quality shows like Veronica Mars (which could definitely use a lot more of both). On the other hand, a bigger network means higher expectations and less patience. By that we mean, will the CW continue to nurture well-reviewed but low-rated niche shows or will they turn into another Fox, axing original, high-quality programming when it fails to be an immediate success? Do you think the merge will have any effect on in-development programming (such as Amy Sherman-Palladino's new series)? Also, will the CW be available in all the same areas that WB and UPN are currently? ...
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The question has hovered over UPN and WB since both "weblets" launched in 1995: Is there room for both?
The resounding answer came, with no warning, Tuesday morning: no. Instead, UPN and WB will merge into a new entity, known as the CW (conventional wisdom? country western?), in the fall.
The business implications are beyond me to comment upon — as in: In markets like mine, where there is both a UPN and WB affiliate, which channel becomes CW and what happens to the other? — but there does seem to be some logic in the notion of merging the best of both networks' schedules to create a truly viable fifth broadcast network with higher market penetration.
It's way too early to know for sure which UPN and WB shows will survive and how they'll be programmed to fill the six-night, 13-hour schedule (patterned on WB's). But if I had to put together a CW schedule from what exists now, keeping in mind that there will likely be new shows in the fall from the developme
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Question: I'm a Reba watcher and would like to know if Christopher Rich is the same person who played a reporter on Murphy Brown. Thanks.
Answer: That he is, Patricia. The Dallas, Texas, native — who portrays estranged husband Brock to Reba McEntire's Reba Hart on the WB sitcom — played anchorman Miller Redfield on the hit CBS show from 1995 to 1997. Fans will recall that on the series, the newsman's job depended on style rather than substance. You also might remember him as Dr. Neil, a plastic surgeon who hung out at the bar with George Carlin's George O'Grady on Fox's short-lived The George Carlin Show, as Sandy on Another World or from his work in a variety of TV movies.
Or you may have caught him on
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