August 11th, 2009 6:35 pm

Fall 2009 Preview

The American fall TV season is almost upon us. So here is a preview of the upcoming season and the shows to watch out for.

The season will kick-off with The CW’s sophomore drama ‘90210’. You might remember that ‘90210’ premiered to The CW’s biggest numbers in history (4.65M, A18-49: 2.6/7) but those viewers abandoned it in droves with the finale only mustering a little more than half that audience (2.49M, A18-49: 1.3/3). This is a make or break season for the remake and if it continues to shed viewers it will not only damage The CW’s brand but will have a detrimental effect on the heavily promoted freshman drama ‘Melrose Place’ 2.0. The CW is pinning their hopes on ‘Melrose Place’ and their other fall freshman ‘The Vampire Diaries’, which was inexplicably added to their Thursday line-up at the expense of The CW’s highest rating drama ‘Smallville,’ which has now been bumped to Fridays. If both ‘Melrose’ and ‘Vampire’ fail, it may well be the final year for the struggling network as CBS and WB cannot continue to run a network at a loss in this sort of climate. Elsewhere, Tuesdays will be a little dull with procedurals occupying CBS and reality on ABC, NBC and Fox. However, recently the alphabet made a late change noticing a chance to pounce in that timeslot, by pushing mid season sci-fi drama ‘V’ forward for a November 3 start.

The following night sees the fall premiere of summer reality show, ‘So You Think You Can Dance.’  Fox’s decision to air a second cycle of ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ was quite bizarre, the show captures a solid but not spectacular audience during the summer and who’s to say airing it twice a year won’t damage the franchise? Fall has always been the achilles heel for the News Corp. Network and no doubt ‘Dance’ will improve on past year offerings, but will viewers return for future seasons? The decision to move ‘Dance’ to fall was to provide some lead-in support for freshman drama ‘Glee,’ which squandered its ‘Idol’ lead in when Fox aired a sample episode behind one of Idol’s final 2009 episodes, in the ended it averaged only 9.62M, A18-49: 4.4/11.

The aforementioned ‘The Vampire Diaries’ has its series premiere on Thursday, September 10 and it will be partnered with The CW’s other sci-fi drama ‘Supernatural’. The CW greenlighting ‘Diaries’ was no surprise as they wanted to capitalise on the ‘Twilight’ and ‘True Blood’ hype. Even though ‘Diaries’ has generated a lot of negative press, initial sampling will be large but the million dollar question is how long will the audience give it? The following Thursday sees the return of JJ Abram’s latest demo hit ‘Fringe’. ‘Fringe’ will have its work cut out going up against heavyweights, ‘CSI’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ which both return on September 24. ‘Fringe’s’ departure from a solid lead in indicates the confidence Fox has in the sophomore drama, however in comparison to Abram’s previous projects, ‘Fringe’ focuses less on mythology and more on individual episodes which should make it easier to follow but less intriguing to the dedicated fans. Another huge Thursday development is the movement of last year’s freshman hit ‘The Mentalist’ to 10/9c following CSI. CBS is grooming it as the next CSI, which I might add has lost a lot of steam since the departure of William Petersen, however the timeslot is somewhat of a bogey one for CBS as nothing has remained there for more than one year.

Thursdays also see the return of ‘Survivor’ for its 19th season, the 6th season of the Office, the 2nd season of ‘Parks and Recreation’ and the debut of critical darling ‘Community’ which all premiere on September 17. For those waiting for ’30 Rock’ it returns on October 15. The biggest premiere to Thursdays is ‘Flash Forward’, which is being promoted by ABC as the new ‘Lost.’  ‘Flash Forward’ looks to be the biggest show to come out of the states since ‘Lost’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’ and it comes with a lot of buzz. Just recently, the directors noted, they will need at least three seasons to complete the arc they have planned. In a nutshell, ‘Flash Forward’ follows the life of an FBI agent who investigates the reason for a mysterious event, which sees everyone blackout for two minutes and seventeen seconds, travelling six months into the future.

The following two Mondays see the return of ‘WTF’ (No, not What The Beep, but Watch This Fall) drama ‘Gossip Girl’ and veteran ‘One Tree Hill’. This fall, Dawn has decided to do a switcheroo with the two, moving her baby ‘Gossip’ to a higher household viewing time and avoiding direction competition with ‘House’. The aforementioned ‘House’ and the trouble ridden ‘Heroes’ both return with two hour premieres on September 21. It has been quite a steep fall for ‘Heroes’, if Kring can’t stop the bleeding, this might be the end of the one season wonder. The following Monday sees NBC launch their new high-octane medical drama ‘Trauma,’ a number of photos/clips for this show have being doing the rounds on the internet, so expect a large initial sampling. ‘Lie to Me’ will occupate the post ‘House’ slot as Fox tries to groom this as a replacement for ‘House’. Over at CBS, ‘How I Met Your Mother’ has been moved to 8/7c providing some lead in support for the dead on arrival ‘Accidently on Purpose’. ‘Two and a Half Men’ remains, but ‘The Big Bang Theory’ moves to the post ‘Men’ slot. ‘Bang’ was trialled in the slot late last year or early this year and maintained close to 100% retention, so look for ‘Bang’ to reach series highs again.

Wednesdays will be interesting for a number of reasons, ABC has a completely new line up with critical darlings ‘Modern Family’ and ‘Cougar Town’ occupying the key 9/8c and 9:30/8:30c timeslots. ‘Cougar Town’ follows Jules (Courtney Cox), a recently divorced single mother exploring honest truths about dating and aging in our beauty and youth obsessed culture, while ‘Modern Family’ explores the complications that come with being in a family in this day and age. The entrees ‘Hank’ and ‘The Middle’ debut the following week. ‘Eastwick’ a cross between ‘Valentine’ and ‘Sex and the City’ also debuts in the same week as ‘Modern Family’ and ‘Cougar Town’, but things don’t look good for the romantic drama.

The landscape for Fridays has completely changed; networks are finally getting aggressive with their programming. There is less reality from the other three networks which might finally give CBS’ combo of Ghost Whisperer, Cold Case and Numb3rs some headaches. Fox kicks off with a comedy hour with waiting to be cancelled ‘’Til Death’ and ‘Brothers’ followed by the ever improving and surprise renewal ‘Dollhouse’ which all premiere on September 25. The CW veteran ‘Smallville’ has been yanked to Thursdays along with the ever fading ‘Ugly Betty’.

Nothing much has changed on Sundays, with ABC’s ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ‘Brothers and Sisters’ starting on September 27. Fox has shuffled their line up knocking out the every reliable – ‘King of the Hill’, for Seth McFarland’s new, albeit belated project ‘The Cleveland Show’. ‘The Simpsons’, ‘Family Guy’ and ‘American Dad’ all return for their 21st, 8th and 5th season respectively. ‘The Cleveland Show’s’ pilot has been leaked for a while and it doesn’t look too different to ‘Family Guy’ or ‘American Dad’.

Finally, the biggest news this fall is Jay Leno moving to primetime, which begins daily from September 14, 10/9c. All eyes will be on the ratings for ‘The Jay Leno Show,’ but NBC isn’t expecting much, as long as it remains profitable, NBC will be satisfied. Jay Leno recently said he doesn’t expect his show to beat first run CSI, but hopes to push CSI repeats to the limit. The format of the show is: Leno will begin with a 10 second opening sequence which leads into a monologue. He will have at least one special guest a night and music will come from multiple acts. Jaywalking and newspaper headlines will be held until the end of the show to give News affiliates a strong lead in. Leno also gave us a snippet of the ‘Green Car Challenge’ where you can see, as Leno puts it, “who is faster, Shaquille O’Neal or Cameron Diaz.” There will be pre-recorded segments from D.L Hughley and Rachel Harris.As always, this is will be an interesting fall, with networks trying something different.

I hope everyone enjoys the fall TV season and wish for everyone’s favourite TV show to survive.

Premiere Dates

• ‘90210’ 2nd Season Premiere September 8
• ‘Melrose Place’ Series Premiere September 8
• ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ Fall Premiere September 9
• ‘Glee’ Series Premiere September 9
• ‘The Vampire Diaries’ Series Premiere September 10
• ‘Supernatural’ 5th Season Premiere September 10
• ‘One Tree Hill’ 7th Season Premiere September 14
• ‘Gossip Girl’ 3rd Season Premiere September 14
• ‘The Jay Leno Show’ Series Premiere September 14
• ‘The Beautiful Life’ Series Premiere September 16
• ‘Bones’ 5th Season Premiere September 17
• ‘Survivor’ 19th Season Premiere September 17
• ‘Parks and Recreation’ 2nd Season Premiere September 17
• ‘Fringe’ 2nd Season Premiere September 17
• ‘The Office’ 6th Season Premiere September 17
• ‘Community’ Series Premiere September 17
• ‘Heroes’ 4th Season Premiere September 21
• ‘House’ 6th Season Premiere September 21
• ‘How I Met Your Mother’ 5th Season Premiere September 21
• ‘Accidently on Purpose’ Series Premiere September 21
• ‘Two and a Half Men’ 7th Season Premiere September 21
• ‘The Big Bang Theory’ 3rd Season Premiere September 21
• ‘Castle’ 2nd Season Premiere September 21
• ‘CSI: Miami’ 8th Season Premiere September 21
• ‘NCIS’ 7th Season Premiere September 22
• ‘The Goode Wife’ Series Premiere September 22
• ‘The Forgotten Series’ Premiere September 22
• ‘Mercy’ Series Premiere September 23
• ‘Criminal Minds’ 5th Season Premiere September 23
• ‘Modern Family’ Series Premiere September 23
• ‘Cougar Town’ Series Premiere September 23
• ‘Eastwick’ Series Premiere September 23
• ‘Flash Forward’ Series Premiere September 24
• ‘The Mentalist’ 2nd Season Premiere September 24
• ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ 6th Season Premiere September 24
• ‘Brothers’ Series Premiere September 25
• ‘Smallville’ 9th Season Premiere September 25
• ‘Dollhouse’ 2nd Season Premiere September 25
• ‘The Amazing Race’ 15th Season Premiere September 27
• ‘The Simpsons’ 21st Season Premiere September 27
• ‘The Cleveland Show’ Series Premiere September 27
• ‘Desperate Housewives’ 6th Season Premiere September 27
• ‘Brothers and Sisters’ 4th Season Premiere September 27
• ‘Family Guy’ 8th Season Premiere September 27
• ‘American Dad’ 5th Season Premiere September 27
• ‘Lie to Me’ 2nd Season Premiere September 28
• ‘Trauma’ Series Premiere September 28
• ‘Hank’ Series Premiere September 30
• ‘The Middle’ Series Premiere September 30
• ‘Private Practice’ 3rd Season Premiere October 1
• ‘Ugly Betty’ 4th Season Premiere October 9
• ‘30 Rock’ 4th Season Premiere October 15
• ‘V’ Series Premiere November 3
• Cable Premiere Dates
• ‘Dexter’ 4th Season Premiere September 27
• ‘Californication’ 3rd Season Premiere September 27
• ‘Stargate Universe’ Series Premiere October 2
• ‘Sanctuary’ 2nd Season Premiere October 9