Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
There's an old adage that states "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." ABC's programming honchos have certainly taken that notion to heart in debuting their brand-spanking new schedule, which, while new as a whole, has very few new programs in it. Seriously, very, very few.
While I appreciate that ABC made my job really easy today in redoing the schedule, I might have been slightly more aggressive. They're only throwing two new shows onto the fall schedule with two and a half more waiting in the wings.
Here, check out the fall schedule:
|
|
Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wed. | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| 7:00 | America's Funniest Home Videos |
||||||
| 7:30 | |||||||
| 8:00 | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition |
Dancing with the Stars |
Opportunity Knocks |
Pushing Daisies |
Ugly Betty | Wife Swap | College Football |
| 8:30 | |||||||
| 9:00 | Desperate Housewives |
DWTS: Results Show |
Private Practice |
Grey's Anatomy |
Supernanny | ||
| 9:30 | Samantha Who? | ||||||
| 10:00 | Brothers & Sisters |
Boston Legal | Eli Stone | Dirty Sexy Money | Life on Mars | 20/20 | |
| 10:30 |
As you can see (it's bolded), the new stuff in the fall is Opportunity Knocks and Life on Mars. Opportunity Knocks is a reality show wherein the show comes to the contestants rather than vice versa. Apparently in the show, a semi-truck pulls up to people's houses, the host pops out, knocks on the door, and the homeowner (or renter) gets to compete for fabulous prizes. The press release states that the host, J.D. Roth, asks questions to the family based on their lives and the articles found in their house.
As for Life on Mars, that's being executive produced by David E. Kelley and is based on the British show of the same name. In the series a cop from the present day is transported back to the 1970s. Is he crazy? Is he in a coma? He does his whole cop thing in 1973 and, I assume, is good at it. It stars Jason O'Mara and, if it's as good as the British version could be a nice addition to the schedule.
Mid-season replacements for ABC include a comedy Life is Goode which revolves around a family that does good things; it's animated and from Mike Judge. There's also an untitled reality show from Tyra Banks and Ashton Kutcher which is some sort of beauty pageant, and… wait for it… wait for it… wait for it… Scrubs.
Yes, you knew it and I knew it, NBC knew it (and that's why they aired the "finale" out of order), and ABC announced it. They're bringing Scrubs over to their network. I still don't quite understand, but I'm happy to have a show I enjoy regularly air for another season.
And that, as they say, is that. ABC has made changes on four nights and most of those involve time/day changes rather than new shows. Will their ratings go up? Only time (and Nielsen) will tell.
