Another Voice
Charter Member of The Element
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2000
The Los Angeles Times gave a sneak preview of the network line-ups that will be announced this week. The highlights for Disney-owned ABC include eight new shows and canceling stalwarts Spin City, Dharma and Greg and dropping Who Whats to be a Millionaire as a series. Its expected that ABC will announce its intention to use WWTBM as a specials, but rumors are circulating which say that may not happen.
ABC--whose ratings dropped more than 20% this season--is expected to overhaul its lineup with changes to every night except the Saturday movie. The revamped schedule, to be presented Tuesday, will probably leave "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" off (after the show occupied four hours in prime time just two seasons ago) while the network tries to reclaim its roots by offering family-oriented comedies at 8 p.m. across the week.
That could include moving "The Drew Carey Show" from Wednesdays to Monday nights, paired with the Carey-hosted improv show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?," creating an hour that would precede "Monday Night Football" in other time zones and follow it on the West Coast.
ABC's lineup was still in flux, but the network is expected to schedule at least eight new series and move several existing shows to different time periods, including the first-year sitcoms "According to Jim" and possibly "The George Lopez Show," which has been renewed. Two long-running ABC comedies, "Spin City" and "Dharma & Greg," have reportedly been canceled.
The network's strength once rested on family comedies such as "Roseanne" and "Home Improvement," and its roster of new shows clearly seeks to recapture that niche. It includes John Ritter as the protective father of teenage daughters in "Eight Simple Rules," comic Bonnie Hunt playing a talk-show host and mother in "Life With Bonnie," a "Bridget Jones's Diary"-esque sitcom about a plain secretary tentatively titled "Less Than Perfect," and "I've Got You," an interracial romance from writer John Ridley ("Three Kings"), starring Duane Martin and "ER's" Ming-Na.
Among ABC's new dramas are "That Was Then," about a 30-something man who travels back in time to high school; and "Push, Nevada," billed as an interactive mystery, with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck among its producers.
Notably, all six of those programs are produced by Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC and supplied 26 of the network's 30 new series candidates.
As an aside, the pool around the office already has the Ben Affleck mystery series as the first to be cancelled. My guess is three episodes, long before Matt can move the Colonel Mustard token all the way to the Billiards Room.
ABC--whose ratings dropped more than 20% this season--is expected to overhaul its lineup with changes to every night except the Saturday movie. The revamped schedule, to be presented Tuesday, will probably leave "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" off (after the show occupied four hours in prime time just two seasons ago) while the network tries to reclaim its roots by offering family-oriented comedies at 8 p.m. across the week.
That could include moving "The Drew Carey Show" from Wednesdays to Monday nights, paired with the Carey-hosted improv show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?," creating an hour that would precede "Monday Night Football" in other time zones and follow it on the West Coast.
ABC's lineup was still in flux, but the network is expected to schedule at least eight new series and move several existing shows to different time periods, including the first-year sitcoms "According to Jim" and possibly "The George Lopez Show," which has been renewed. Two long-running ABC comedies, "Spin City" and "Dharma & Greg," have reportedly been canceled.
The network's strength once rested on family comedies such as "Roseanne" and "Home Improvement," and its roster of new shows clearly seeks to recapture that niche. It includes John Ritter as the protective father of teenage daughters in "Eight Simple Rules," comic Bonnie Hunt playing a talk-show host and mother in "Life With Bonnie," a "Bridget Jones's Diary"-esque sitcom about a plain secretary tentatively titled "Less Than Perfect," and "I've Got You," an interracial romance from writer John Ridley ("Three Kings"), starring Duane Martin and "ER's" Ming-Na.
Among ABC's new dramas are "That Was Then," about a 30-something man who travels back in time to high school; and "Push, Nevada," billed as an interactive mystery, with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck among its producers.
Notably, all six of those programs are produced by Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC and supplied 26 of the network's 30 new series candidates.
As an aside, the pool around the office already has the Ben Affleck mystery series as the first to be cancelled. My guess is three episodes, long before Matt can move the Colonel Mustard token all the way to the Billiards Room.
