11 new series, fewer 'Lost' repeats on ABC ABC will unveil 11 new series to advertisers today as it seeks to rebuild its comedy lineup and expand its stable of hit dramas Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy and Lost.
Biggest change for viewers: Anatomy's move to a new night (possibly Thursday) so it can be used to launch a new series.
Lost fans will find fewer repeats interrupting its intricate mystery: Original episodes will be clustered in longer chunks after an October start. Housewives remains on Sundays at 9, and Dancing with the Stars gets its first fall berth but will also switch nights.
Yet none of the new scripted series introduced last fall will be back, including Commander in Chief, Invasion and Freddie. Hope & Faith is also a goner, leaving According to Jim and George Lopez as the network's only returning comedies.
Spring tryout What About Brian, from Lost producer J.J. Abrams, will return, and the Mission: Impossible III director has a third show in the lineup: Six Degrees, about interconnected lives of New Yorkers.
In contrast with past years, when the focus has been on fall schedules, ABC - like NBC - is unveiling most of next year's new shows at once, and will gradually sprinkle them over the course of the season.
ABC also needs more programming come September after the loss of Monday Night Football.
Dramas. In addition to Degrees, ABC has Brothers & Sisters, a family soap starring Ally McBeal's Calista Flockhart and Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under); Men in Trees, starring Anne Heche as a shrink who moves to Alaska, where she's surrounded by eligible men; The Traveler, a thriller about two grad students framed as terrorists in a national security emergency; Ugly Betty, about a homely girl hired at a fashion magazine; The Nine, about another group of strangers - freed bank-robbery hostages - from Without a Trace creator Hank Steinberg; and Day Break, an action thriller starring Taye Diggs as a cop on the lam who is framed for murder.
Comedies.Let's Rob ... stars Donal Logue as leader of a group of blue-collar guys who try to rob Mick Jagger, who will occasionally appear; Big Day, a series built entirely around a young couple's wedding day; Notes from the Underbelly, centering on expectant parents; In Case of Emergency, with four high school pals who unexpectedly reunite as each faces a crossroads; and Help Me Help You, starring Cheers' Ted Danson as a group-therapy shrink.
From:
Yahoo News
