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Television--- With all of the TV network's fall schedules having been officially unveiled, the top questions have now become, "Which of the cancelled series have episodes that never aired, which shows are going to be burned off this summer, which shows are never going to see the light of the day again, and which shows are returning this summer?" This post will answer all of those questions on a network-by-network basis.

ABC
-The Bachelorette is one of the few series whose status has legitimately not been decided yet. ABC said at its upfront presentation earlier this week that it believes the reason for The Bachelor's slipping ratings is that the show is over-exposed with three cycles of the show in any given TV season. In an attempt to revitalize the struggling franchise, ABC will be cutting back to a "one or two cycles per year" format. ABC's decision on The Bachelorette's future will likely depend on how The Bachelor fares in the ratings when it returns to the schedule in January 2006.

If The Bachelor's ratings go back up to where they used to be, ABC could order new seasons of both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. If The Bachelor still draws low ratings even with the "freshness" of only one cycle per year, it's likely that ABC would cancel both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. It hasn't helped the long-term viewership of either show that 90% of the couples who "end up together" at the end of each season actually break up shortly thereafter.

-It was considered so likely that the little-watched sitcom Jake in Progress would be cancelled by ABC that the series' star, John Stamos, was already in negotiations to join the cast of NBC's ER next season as a doctor. Those plans are off now that Jake in Progress has gotten a surprising renewal.

-Blind Justice was cancelled with eleven of its thirteen episodes having aired, and ABC does plan to air the remaining two episodes. Those episodes will air in the Tuesdays at 10:00 PM timeslot on May 31 and June 7, before the show leaves the airwaves for good.

-The non-home edition of Extreme Makeover has one previously unaired episode, which ABC plans to air on Thursday, June 30 at 9:00 PM. ABC would not rule out the possibility of bringing the show back from time to time as a special, but it definitely won't be airing as a regular series anymore.

-Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: How'd They Do That? is scheduled to air the final episode of its fifteen-episode order this coming Monday, May 23. The American public seems to be very interested in seeing home makeovers, as evidenced by the monster ratings for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, but the public did not seem to be interested in seeing the answer to the question, "How'd They Do That?"

-Four episodes of the cancelled ABC comedy Complete Savages have never aired, and ABC plans to air those episodes in the Fridays at 8:30 PM timeslot starting next Friday, May 27.

-The freshman drama Eyes was put on hiatus before May sweeps began, with only five of the show's thirteen episodes ever having aired. ABC may or may not burn off the series' eight remaining episodes over the summer.

-ABC's failed teen drama Life As We Know was put on hiatus way back in January, with two of its episodes having never aired. Those two episodes are unlikely to ever air on ABC, but the complete series will be released in DVD form on August 23 for the approximately four people who were fans of the show...

-ABC only aired five of the six episodes that were produced for Life of Luxury's second season, and there are no plans to broadcast the remaining episode.

NBC
-A second season of The Biggest Loser is listed on the NBC fall schedule that was released this week, but the show is actually scheduled as a summer series that runs into the fall. The season premiere is scheduled for August 9, and the season finale is scheduled for late September or early October. The Biggest Loser will be airing in the Tuesdays at 8:00 PM timeslot, and it's rumored that once the show's season is over in that timeslot, Fear Factor could take its place on the schedule. As of right now, there is no officially scheduled return date for Fear Factor; it is simply listed as a "midseason replacement show" on NBC's schedule.

-The reality series Average Joe is returning to NBC's line-up, but only as a summer series and only with a six-episode season. The season premiere is scheduled for Tuesday, June 28 at 8:00 PM.

-Thirteen episodes of Law & Order: Trial by Jury were produced, but NBC decided to make the 12th episode the season finale. This decision was apparently made because the 13th episode had a cliffhanger ending that would make viewers want to tune in next season, and since there isn't going to be a next season for this series, NBC decided not to air the episode at all.

-Revelations was planned as a six-part mini-series on NBC, not a regular series. All six episodes of the show aired, and NBC has no plans to turn it into a regular series.

-The failed Heather Locklear drama LAX has been cancelled by NBC, but the show did air all thirteen of its episodes before it was pulled from the schedule.

-NBC pulled the freshman drama Hawaii from the schedule last October with seven of the series' eight episodes having aired. There are no plans to air the last remaining episode.

-NBC aired eleven original episodes of the animated comedy Father of the Pride before pulling the show from the schedule last December due to very poor ratings. The remaining two unaired episodes of the series are very unlikely to ever see the light of day.

Fox
-After ordering a dozen new series in each of the last several summers, Fox is only going to be debuting four new series this summer, as it places more of an emphasis on a traditional fall line-up instead of a "year-round schedule." The Inside is a new drama that will be airing in the Wednesdays at 9:00 PM timeslot starting on June 8, and the other three debuting series for Fox this summer are all reality series. To briefly run down those shows, Hell's Kitchen will air in the Mondays at 9:00 PM timeslot starting on May 30, So You Think You Can Dance will air in the Wednesdays at 8:00 PM timeslot starting on July 20, and the Princes of Malibu (which only has a six-episode order) will be airing in the Sundays at 8:30 PM timeslot starting on July 10. Fox has scheduled all of its new reality series for the summer and has zero new reality series on its fall schedule.

-Renovate My Family will be returning to the Fox line-up as a summer series in the Thursdays at 9:00 PM timeslot starting on June 30.

-Five episodes of the Fox flop Jonny Zero remain unaired, but it was considered shocking that Fox kept airing the series for as long as it did (eight weeks), so the five unaired episodes are unlikely to ever see the light of day.

-Only eight of Point Pleasant's thirteen episodes ever aired, but it's considered unlikely that the other five episodes will ever air.

-Fox pulled Tru Calling from the schedule just one week before its scheduled series finale, leaving that final episode just floating out there in space. That could very well have been done intentionally to drum up DVD sales for the second season of the show. There is no scheduled release date at this point for the second season on DVD, but you better believe it's coming at some point.

-The controversial Fox reality series, "Who's Your Daddy?" was actually a regular series with six episodes produced, not a one-time special. It was just turned into a special and quickly cancelled because of the outrage over how tasteless it was, and also the fact that the one episode that did air wasn't able to draw a decent rating. With Fox pushing at the upfront presentations that all of its reality shows are going to be "advertiser-friendly," this is exactly the kind of trashy reality show that Fox is trying to avoid in the future. As a result, the chances are almost zero that the five remaining episodes of "Who's Your Daddy?" will ever air.

-Kelsey Grammer's The Sketch Show got a six-episode order from Fox, but only four episodes aired before Fox cancelled the show. The remaining two episodes are unlikely to ever be aired.

-Only five of Life on a Stick's thirteen episodes ever aired. The plan as recently as a few weeks ago was for the eight remaining episodes to be burned off in the Wednesdays at 8:30 PM timeslot starting on June 1, but now it appears that Fox has decided to simply air an extra half-hour of That 70's Show repeats in that timeslot over the summer. There are currently no plans to air the eight remaining episodes of Life on a Stick, but that could change between now and the end of the summer.

-Sixteen episodes of the failed reality show My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss were ordered and produced, but only eleven of them aired. The other five episodes will never be aired, but Fox did make those episodes available for download on its web site.

UPN and The WB
-All of UPN's cancelled series had all of their episodes aired before they were pulled from the schedule.

-Five episodes of the cancelled WB series Summerland remain unaired, and The WB plans to air those episodes in the Tuesdays at 9:00 PM timeslot starting on June 7.

-Drew Carey's first foray into network television since the cancellation of ABC's The Drew Carey Show did not go well. The WB ordered thirteen episodes of his new series, Drew Carey's Green Screen, but only five episodes aired before the show was pulled from the schedule. There are currently no plans to air the remaining eight episodes, but The WB could certainly burn them off over the summer if they wanted to fill some space.

CBS
-Seven episodes of the reality show The Will were produced for CBS, each of them one hour long, but the network decided at the last minute to have the first two episodes re-edited into a 90-minute season premiere. That 90-minute season premiere did so horribly in the ratings that CBS amazingly cancelled the series after just one episode. There are no plans to air the other five hours of the show.

-Center of the Universe, the freshman comedy starring John Goodman, was pulled ten episodes into its fifteen-episode run and was later officially cancelled, despite the fact that it was drawing decent ratings. There are currently no plans to air the remaining five episodes.

-One of the biggest flops of the season was the CBS drama Clubhouse. After getting hyped up by CBS at last year's upfront presentation, the show ended up getting pulled from the airwaves after only five episodes, and there are no plans to air the other six episodes that were produced. This fall's version of Clubhouse could very well be Ghost Whisperers starring Jennifer Love Hewitt.

-Another flop for CBS was the Rob Lowe drama Dr. Vegas, which was also pulled after five episodes. There is very little chance that the show's five unaired episodes will ever be broadcast.

-Another Viacom-owned network, Comedy Central, recently placed the "post-South Park timeslot" show Con on hiatus after six of its eight original episodes had aired. There is no word on when or if the remaining two episodes will air, but repeats of the show are continuing to air in latenight timeslots. This past week, Comedy Central plugged a repeat of Drawn Together into the Wednesdays at 10:30 PM timeslot where Con would normally air.

-The 2004-2005 TV season officially ends this coming Wednesday (May 25), so at some point after that I will have a "Season in Review and Look Ahead to Next Season" for each of the six broadcast networks.

Labels: Television (Non-MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 11:19 PM

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