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Fewer new series, more retreads in CBS, ABC fall lineups

13.05.2008 17:09 Arts - Source: cbc.ca

Scrubs executive producer Bill Lawrence, left, with stars Christa Miller and Zach Braff won a Peabody Award last June. The show is moving to ABC. (Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press)

As the big U.S. networks unveiled their fall seasons on Tuesday, the effects of the 100-day writers strike were evident in that fewer new series were introduced alongside many retreads of ideas tried overseas.

ABC added just two new series to its fall schedule, while CBS is premiering four dramas and two comedies.

Blaming a lack of time to write and develop pilots for new series, ABC has come up only with Life on Mars, a drama about a police detective transported back to 1973 and game show Opportunity Knocks, in which families have to answer questions about each other.

Life on Mars, being developed by David Kelley, the producer behind Boston Legal and Boston Public, is a remake of a BBC time-travel series developed last year.

ABC is also picking up the comedy Scrubs, previously on NBC, for mid-season, saying it will give the series a consistent time slot to allow it to build an audience.

ABC had eight new series last fall, and has more than 17 in development for mid-season.

But entertainment president Stephen McPherson said the strike has delayed writing and creating pilots for new series and he is not comfortable committing to new shows that haven't been tried.

"If you needed a ton of development for the fall schedule, the strike would have been a really bad bet," he said. "You'd have to rush it or put stuff on before you knew what it was."

Instead some of last year's new series, including Eli Stone, Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money, will continue into the fall on ABC.

CBS is not releasing its lineup until Wednesday, but a Hollywood executive said it has committed to six new series, among them Eleventh Hour, based on a British miniseries.

Being developed by Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer behind the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation franchise, it is about a science professor who helps to track down evildoers.

Other new series planned for CBS:

The Ex List, a comedy about a woman who contacts all of her former boyfriends after a prophet tells her she has already met the man she's going to marry.
The Mentalist, a drama about a "celebrity psychic" played by Simon Baker, who works with police to solve crimes.
Harper's Island, a murder mystery set among old friends who meet for a wedding on an island off Seattle.
Worst Week of My Life, about the frantic week before a young couple is to wed.
An unnamed comedy starring Ed Yeager as a recently divorced man coping with his new life.

CBS has dispensed with pilot episodes on many of the series, as they are based on series that have been successful elsewhere.

The Ex List first screened in Israel and both Eleventh Hour and Worst Week of My Life are from British TV.

Viewership is down dramatically on all U.S. networks, in part because long-running series were in hiatus mid-season.

With advertisers less ready to commit to TV, the U.S. networks have reduced spending on lavish parties and opted for more low-key rollouts of the TV year.

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