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Television--- As detailed in yesterday's live updates from the television industry's annual upfront presentations, this is the week of the year in which all of the TV networks reveal their fall line-ups and drop the axe on numerous cancelled shows.

Yesterday, the NBC line-up was officially revealed, along with some surprising cancellations, and today it's time for ABC and The WB to give their upfront presenations. CBS is scheduled to make its presentation tomorrow, followed by Fox and UPN on Thursday.

First Post at 5:04 PM:
-As previously reported on Ivan's Blog, ABC has indeed cancelled Eight Simple Rules and My Wife & Kids, making it official that the two veteran comedies will not be returning despite still delivering decent ratings...

-Less Than Perfect has been renewed by ABC despite fairly low ratings, but it will serve as a midseason replacement show and is not on the fall schedule...

-The Bachelor has been renewed by ABC despite slipping ratings, and it will air on Monday nights starting in January 2006 after Monday Night Football's season is over...

-The status of The Bachelorette is still very much up the air after the most recent season failed to peak in the ratings as it normally does, and the series may or may not return at some point as a midseason replacement show...

-As previously announced, this upcoming season of Monday Night Football will be the last season for the show on ABC, as starting in the fall of 2006, the series will air on ESPN... despite high ratings, the series was a big money-loser for ABC due to high rights fees and advertising rates that are lower than what you'd expect...

UPDATE at 5:25 PM:
-ABC officially confirms that it is renewing the little-watched comedy Jake in Progress, some of the show's stars had actually starting the casting process for the next season of pilot series, which is normally an indication that a show is a sure goner... the show will air on Mondays at 9:30 PM starting in January 2006 when the Monday Night Football season ends...

-ABC renews its smash hit Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and keeps it in the same Sundays at 8:00 PM timeslot, but cancels the show's two poorly-rated cousins... Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: How'd They Do That? has been given the axe because the American public apparently wasn't all that interested in seeing "how they did that," while the original Extreme Makeover is also cancelled, as for whatever reason the public has been far more receptive to seeing homes get makeovers than seeing people get makeovers...

-The previously rumored cancellations of Eyes, Complete Savages, and Blind Justice have been officially confirmed by ABC...

-The WB will have to find a new co-star for its midseason comedy Modern Men, as Wendie Malick of Just Shoot Me fame had been cast in the lead female role with the expectation that Jake in Progress was dead in the water... with Jake in Progress renewed and Malick still obligated to appear in her role on that show, WB is now scrambling to find a last-minute replacement to play Malick's role in Modern Men...

UPDATE at 5:41 PM:
-Much of the talk of the TV industry has been Fox's announcement that it has renewed Arrested Development for a full third season of 22 episodes, as the new president of Fox TV is getting major kudos for sticking with a critically acclaimed show despite its low ratings, what's not known is whether the series will keep its Sunday night timeslot or get bumped to a different night...

-The hot rumor about Fox's Thursday presentation is that the network will announce that it has reached a renewal agreement for not one, but two new seasons of the crtitically acclaimed series 24, this comes amid talk that NBC had been trying to steal 24 from Fox during a licensing dispute between Fox and 24's producers...

-Word is finally starting to leak out from CBS about what will and won't be renewed, as it appears likely that Still Standing, Yes Dear, and Numbers will be renewed...

-Listen Up and Judging Amy are on the bubble and may or may not be renewed despite the fact that both shows draw fairly high ratings...

-It's looking more and more likely that Joan of Arcadia will get the axe from CBS, as the show's ratings have tanked in the past year and CBS does not normally tolerate sharp ratings decreases...

UPDATE at 5:59 PM:
-The big news from ABC is that almost every show in the line-up is getting a new night or time, including Lost, Alias, Boston Legal, George Lopez, Super Nanny, Wife Swap, The Bachelor, and According to Jim... many of the changes seem nice individually, but the question remains whether viewers will be confused by the fact that the vast majority of shows on the network have a new night or time, with Sunday being the only unchanged night...

-Other than the Sunday night line-up and newsmagazines 20/20 and Primetime Live, there is only one show on the entire ABC line-up that will be back next year on the same exact night and time, and that is Hope & Faith in the Fridays at 9:00 PM timeslot...

-Lost will stay on Wednesdays but will be moved from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM, which ABC hopes will push the show's already huge ratings over the top even more, but it's also a very big risk because the second half of the season will be going head to head with the Wednesday American Idol shows...

-Alias is being moved to Thursdays at 8:00 PM with new episodes starting this fall in a move that appears on the surface to be "taking on the big powerhouses of NBC and CBS on Thursdays," but is in fact a concession of defeat from ABC after Alias' ratings tanked over the course of the past season...

-Boston Legal, which had been airing on Sundays at 10:00 PM after Desperate Housewives until Grey's Anatomy debuted, will not be getting its old timeslot back, as it's being moved to Tuesdays at 10:00 PM...

-The George Lopez Show has been officially renewed, despite the fact that its ratings were no better than its timeslot neighbor My Wife & Kids, which got cancelled... Lopez will be moving from its current Tuesday timeslot to the old Lost timeslot on Wednesdays at 8:00 PM...

-ABC officially renews Wife Swap and will air the show during the football season at 8:00 PM before Monday Night Football on the East Coast, and at 10:00 PM after Monday Night Football on the West Coast, this is the same timeslot in which Mark Cuban's The Benefactor failed so miserably last season...

-Super Nanny gets renewed by ABC and given the new timeslot of Fridays at 8:00 PM, this marks the second time ABC has re-launched and then abandoned its "TGIF" all-comedy line-up on Fridays...

-Even According to Jim is getting a new timeslot, as it moves from Tuesdays at 9:00 PM to Tuesdays at 8:00 PM, while Rodney has been officially renewed and will follow According to Jim on Tuesday nights at 8:30 PM... ABC is throwing Jim and Rodney under the bus with the belief that they will manage to hold up in the ratings despite the fact that they will be going head to head with the American Idol juggernaut starting in early 2006...

UPDATE at 6:23 PM:
-The big announcement from The WB's upfront presentation is that the network is going against the big networks head-on by moving Smallville and Everwood to Thursday nights... while Everwood's ratings will surely be crushed in the Thursdays at 9:00 PM timeslot, Smallville won't necessarily see drastic ratings decreases in the Thursdays at 8:00 PM timeslot because of the overrated and relatively weak competition it will have in that timeslot (Joey, Will & Grace, Alias)...

-The WB has officially cancelled Jack & Bobby, Steve Harvey's Big Time Challenge, Grounded for Life, The Mountain, and Drew Carey's Green Screen... Jack & Bobby and Steve Harvey were both considered borderline shows, and neither of them made the cut...

-One Tree Hill and Charmed have both been renewed despite mediocre ratings... Charmed will stay in the Sundays at 8:00 PM timeslot, while One Tree Hill will be moved to Wednesdays at 8:00 PM...

-7th Heaven is staying on Mondays at 8:00 PM and Gilmore Girls is staying on Tuesdays at 8:00 PM, both shows will used as strong lead-ins to launch new dramas in the 9:00 PM timeslot on Mondays and Tuesdays...

-What I Like About You, whose status was unknown as recently as yesterday, has been officially renewed by The WB and will be in the Fridays at 8:00 PM timeslot...

-As detailed yesterday on Ivan's Blog, WB executives settled a huge dispute with the producers of Reba at the last minute and were able to renew the series, which will continue to air Friday nights at 9:00 PM...

UPDATE at 6:40 PM:
-The WB has officially renewed Blue Collar TV, which has been a hit based on The WB's ratings standards, but the nework is throwing Blue Collar TV under the bus by moving it to the Sundays at 9:00 PM timeslot, where it will be head-to-head with the Desperate Housewives juggernaut...

-One might think that there's not much of a connection between Desperate Housewives viewership and a male-oriented show on The WB, but the now-cancelled Steve Harvey's ratings fell off dramatically as soon as the show starting going head-to-head with Desperate Housewives...

-A cancellation from The WB that was not mentioned before was The Starlet, which has also been officially cancelled...

-The status of Trading Spouses on Fox was still up the air as of yesterday, but now it is believed that Fox will announce on Thursday that it is renewing the series...

UPDATE at 7:06 PM:
-Summerland has also been cancelled by The WB and will burn off its five still-unaired episodes, ironically enough, this summer...

-Regarding Fear Factor, which has been renewed by NBC but is being held off from the fall schedule and is instead going to be used as a midseason replacement show, word is that when the show returns it will be moving from its current Monday night timeslot to Tuesdays at 9:00 PM after The Biggest Loser finishes its season in that timeslot, this would put the show head-to-head with American Idol...

-Life As We Know It has also been officially cancelled by ABC, although that has been long assumed, it's interesting because Life As We Know It was a drama in the Thursdays at 8:00 PM timeslot, and it failed miserably, so what does ABC do? It puts Alias in that timeslot starting this fall...

-Even though ABC has cancelled Extreme Makeover (non-Home Edition) as a regular series, it still reserves the right to air occasional Extreme Makeover specials in which people gets makeovers... the only version of the series that is a big hit is Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which will continue to air on Sundays at 8:00 PM...

-Regarding The Bachelor and its decreasing ratings, ABC said during its upfront presentation that it feels the show has aired too many seasons in too short of a time period (you think?), and that the network hopes to breathe new life into The Bachelor by only airing one or two cycles of the series per season...

UPDATE at 7:35 PM:
-The talk of the TV industry right now is that ABC has tinkered far too much with something that was not broken... the network just had its best season of ratings in many, many years, and it have responded by rolling out a 2005-2006 schedule that will see ONE non-Sunday TV show keep its same day and time... the network has literally changed almost its entire schedule, which could come back to bite it in the ass...

-With My Wife & Kids having been cancelled by ABC, tonight's season finale of the show will also be the series finale...

-More info leaking out of CBS prior to tomorrow's upfront presentation... It is looking more and more likely that Listen Up, Joan of Arcadia, and Judging Amy will all be cancelled at CBS' presentation tomorrow... Joan is considered almost a sure goner, and Listen Up and Judging Amy each probably have about a 40% chance of being renewed at this point...

-There is surprising talk that CBS might cancel 60 Minutes Wednesday due to its low ratings compared to 60 Minutes Sunday, and the credibility problems that last year's election-season report from Dan Rather gave the network...

-On-the-bubble drama NCIS (not to be confused with the CSI franchise, which it has nothing to do with) looks like it will be renewed, the show always draws strong overall ratings, but very poor ratings in the key 18-to-49 year-old demographic

-King of Queens appears to be safe and headed for a renewal, although it might be moved back to Monday nights because it has not performed well on Wednesday nights head-to-head with American Idol...

-The likely heir to the Everybody Loves Raymond throne in the Mondays at 9:00 PM timeslot is Two and a Half Men, which drew excellent ratings this past season that were almost as good as Raymond's ratings...

-More updates from the upfront presentations to come tomorrow...

Labels: Television (Non-MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 5:04 PM

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