TV Surveillance

As I have talked about in recent columns, the upfronts took place last week. Each of the big networks (well, and the CW, too) trotted all sorts of star power when they unveiled their schedules for the 2009-10 season.

There certainly were some surprises throughout the week, but instead of trying to punch it all into one column, I figured I’d evaluate each network on its own.

So for the next five weeks, one network’s schedule will be analyzed in hopes of determining what will succeed and what will fail come September. Alphabetical order seems easy, so ABC is up first.

New shows

By far the network with the most holes in its schedule, ABC tried to cure that problem with a massive amount of new programming, as 11 new shows will debut on the alphabet network sometime next season.

A huge block of those new programs all begin on the network’s overhauled Wednesday night, when a staggering five new shows will debut. ABC is obviously trying to rebuild its comedies, which has been an issue for a handful of years, and is attempting to do so with a two-hour block on Wednesdays.

At first glance, most of the comedies (“Hank,” “The Middle” and “Modern Family”) look pretty bland, but one, “Cougar Town” could be great based on the star (Courtney Cox Arquette) and the executive producer (Bill Lawrence of “Scrubs” fame). Wednesdays finish off with “Eastwick,” which is adapted from the John Updike novel “Witches of Eastwick” (there was also a film version starring Jack Nicholson). 

It’s a huge risk for ABC to redo a whole night, and it tried this with Wednesday just twoyears ago with “Pushing Daisies,” “Private Practice” and “Dirty Sexy Money,” and that failed miserably. 

The non-comedy shows coming from ABC look to have a bit more promise. “Flash Forward” is still buzzing, though putting it in front of “Grey’s Anatomy” on Thursday was a weird choice. The mid-seasoners “V” and “Happy Town”  have some intrigue surrounding them as well, especially the former, which is of course a re-imagining of the famous ’80s mini-series. “Happy Town” is going to attempt to be some sort of “Twin Peaks” riff, but because it’s coming from the writing team that created the horrendous “October Road” and took too long to get “Life on Mars” going, it is definitely hard to feel good about it at this point.  

Returning shows

ABC made some industry waves during upfronts by axing the thought-to-be-safe “Samantha Who?” which had struggled to find an audience this year after it did so well in its initial run. The show’s producers were negotiating with the network to trim costs by going to a traditional three-camera sitcom set-up, but those discussions fell through. Then the network decided to bring back “Scrubs,” which is turning into a different sort of show with most of the cast members now saying they might not return.  
The rest of ABC’s solid shows – “Grey’s,” “Practice,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Brothers and Sisters,” “Lost,” “Dancing With the Stars,” “Castle” and “Ugly Betty” – will all return. But while fans of the surging “Castle” are rightfully excited about its return and spot behind “Dancing,” “Betty” fans have to be furious that the show has been shipped to Friday after it was mistreated all this season. Chances are it won’t last beyond next year.

Final analysis

ABC’s schedule is certainly ambitious – it deserves credit for that. But by stuffing almost half of its new shows on Wednesday night, the network is taking a major risk, especially after it tried the same maneuver just two years ago and failed.

And interestingly, as a network positioned for older women, the shows that seem the most interesting – “V,” “Flash Forward” and “Happy Town” – don’t look to appeal to that demographic at all. However, this makes sense because no network should put all its eggs in one demo-bracket.

I like what ABC has done; it’s always taking more chances than most networks. Hopefully, the risks pay off for a change.