Latest in TV Scheduling

One of OWN’s two highest-rated series, Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes, is moving from Fridays to Sundays beginning March 27, where it will be paired with Oprah Presents Master Class. Behind the Scenes has been airing on Fridays with reality competition Your OWN Show, which recently wrapped its low-rated run. With M…

NBC just released the dates for the season finales of its series. The way some of them are floundering (The Event, Chuck, Outsourced, Perfect Couples), those may as well be series finales. Three of the network’s comedies, flagship The Office, Parks & Recreation and Community, will have hourlong closers.  Here is the…

Having just picked up four new scripted series, ABC Family is heading into the summer with its largest-ever slate of originals. With seven scripted series on tap — four new (dramas Switched at Birth, The Nine Lives of Chloe King, The Lying Game and comedy The Great State of Georgia) and three returning (dramas The Secr…

New year is here, and with it, the TV midseason. Here is a list of the major premiere dates on broadcast and cable. It includes season/series premieres and return dates for series with split seasons. Jan. 3 The Bachelor, ABC, season premiere Pretty Little Liars, ABC Family, winter season premiere Greek, ABC Family…

My colleague Michael Ausiello already scooped CBS’ biggest scheduling change this midseason: freshman cop family drama Blue Bloods will get a four-week trial run in the Wednesday 10 PM slot beginning Jan. 19, while the current occupant of the Wednesday 10 PM time period, freshman legal dramedy The Defenders, will…

EXCLUSIVE: CBS is about to find out how big a hit it has on its hands with Blue Bloods. I’m hearing the freshman Tom Selleck drama — which has been averaging a healthy 12.3 million viewers on Fridays at 10 PM — will get a four-week trial run on Wednesdays at 10 PM beginning Jan. 19. Fellow freshman series The Defen…

The CW today became the latest network to release its midseason schedule. With only one hole to fill, that of departing sophomore Life Unexpected which did not receive a back order, and one midseason series on deck, reality competition Shedding for the Wedding, the network is moving freshman drama Hellcats to LUX‘s…

This trend of comedies at 10 PM seems to be catching on quickly at the broadcast networks. Right after NBC announced that it will expand its 8-10 PM Thursday comedy block to 11 PM in midseason, ABC is doing the same with its Wednesday 8-10 PM comedy block. Beginning April 13, the network will air midseason comedy Happy…

ABC’s hourlong procedural Body of Proof starring Dana Delany will succeed Detroit 1-8-7 in the Tuesday 10 PM slot. In preparation for the move, the network last month gave the modestly rated freshman cop drama Detroit 1-8-7 a short, 5-episode back order. Body of Proof will premiere on March 29, following Detroit‘s…

Shonda Rhimes/Jenna Bans’ new ABC medical drama Off the Map will premiere Jan. 12 and will succeed the network’s recently cancelled new legal drama The Whole Truth in the Wednesday 10 PM time slot. ABC had originally planned to premiere Off the Map in the same time slot it once used to launch Grey’s Anatomy, Sundays…

I hear the order of ABC’s sophomore sci-fi drama V is being reduced from 13 to 10 episodes. ABC last week announced that V will return January 4 and will air in Dancing with the Stars‘ result show slot at 9 PM on Tuesdays, following fellow sci-fi drama No Ordinary Family. That gives V a 12-episode window until the…

All remaining freshman series on NBC got some good news today. Three, The Event, Law & Order: Los Angeles and Outsourced, have been picked up for the rest of the season with back-nine orders. A similar pickup for Chase is said to be pending, while I hear Undercovers is close to receiving an order for additional…