The CW Unveils its 2008 Fall Schedule

Oh The CW, whatever are we going to do with you. Your teen identity seems not to attract terribly many viewers (though I'm sure there's some way to rejigger the numbers to prove me wrong) and you've been unable to fully program six nights of the week despite using Friday Night Smackdown to cover a whole evening. And now? Now, you've lost the Smackdown.

Your solution? You're selling Sunday nights to Media Rights Capital who will do everything that night from making shows to selling the time. Pretty much you're going back to a much older methodology of programming in primetime, which is actually still what some networks do on Saturday mornings these days. I guess it makes things better for you as you can include the Sunday nights in your ratings if their good and ignore them if their not.

As for the other five nights, they look something like this:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8:00	Gossip Girl	90210	America's Next Top Model	Smallville	Everybody Hates Chris
8:30					The Game
9:00	One Tree Hill	Surviving the Filthy Rich	Stylista	Supernatural	America's Next Top Model (Encore)
9:30

I actually like notion of this new Tuesday night at 8 show. Or, is it an old Tuesday night at 8 show? It's got 90210 in the name and Jennie Garth in the cast. It's like the '90s all over again. Actually, that's exactly what it is, an update of Beverly Hills 90210, with Jennie Garth's Kelly Taylor returning to her old school as a guidance counselor (quite possibly the one she lacked back in the day). It also stars Lori Loughlin, and who doesn't like Lori. Now, I didn't watch the original, but I don't think that matters greatly as much of your audience wasn't even alive when the show was on (god I feel old).

As for the other new things on your schedule, there's Surviving the Filthy Rich, that has a very nice, very small Yale-educated woman become the live-in tutor for the twin granddaughters of a cosmetic company founder. Until The CW came around I had no idea that there were so many ways to do petulant, rich, obnoxious teenager shows. My eyes have been opened.

The last new show for the fall is Stylista, a reality show where the contestants are fighting for an editorial position at Elle. The Creative Director of the magazine, Joe Zee, and their Fashion News Director, Anne Slowey, eliminate one contestant every week until only the winner remains. To me, that sounds like The Apprentice, except the winner goes to work for a fashion mag. instead of Trump.

For the three of you out there who still watch, Reaper will return as a midseason replacement. Or, at the very least, a bunch of episodes have been ordered.

Above I joked around about The CW's selling off Sunday night as a whole. I don't think they're doing it from a position of strength, but it still could work out really well for them. They get a full night of programming and are guaranteed money no matter the ratings. It'll be very interesting to see if the plan works.