ABC has announced its 2009-10 schedule. Compared to 2008 it has lots more new shows, far more new show time, and slightly less unscripted show time. ABC is going with a lineup of entirely new shows on Wednesday night but is keeping Saturday and Sunday nights unchanged. They're putting a presumably cheap scripted show (Ugly Betty) on Friday nights.
Here is a look at its Fall 2009 Schedule vs. its Fall 2008 Schedule by the Numbers.
New Shows
2009 (8 shows, 6 hours): Shark Tank (1 hour), The Forgotten (1 hour), Hank (1/2 hour), The Middle (1/2 hour), Modern Family (1/2 hour), Cougar Town (1/2 hour), Eastwick (1 hour), Flash Forward (1 hour)
2008 (2 shows, 2 hours): Opportunity Knocks (1 hour), Life on Mars (1 hour)
Unscripted Shows
2009 (11 hours): Dancing with the Stars + Results (3 hours), Shark Tank (1 hour), Supernanny (1 hour), 20/20 (1 hour), Saturday Night College Football (3 hours), America's Funniest Home Videos (1 hour), Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (1 hour).
2008 (11.5 hours): Dancing with the Stars + Results (2.5 hours), Opportunity Knocks (1 hour), Wife Swap (1 hour), Supernanny (1 hour), 20/20 (1 hour), Saturday Night College Football (3 hours), America's Funniest Home Videos (1 hour), Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (1 hour).
My Ratings Forecast
Monday looks to be a net positive with an extra half hour of DWTS. Tuesday about even. Wednesday looks to be a net negative, potentially large. Thursday's a net positive (vs. Fall 2008). Friday about even. Saturday and Sunday even. Overall, it looks to me like status quo vs. Fall 2008 unless Wednesday night surprises substantially either to the upside or the downside.
For information on other broadcast TV Fall 2009 schedules click here.
| Day/Time | 2008 | 2009 |
| Monday | ||
| 8-9:30p | Dancing with the Stars | Dancing with the Stars (8-10p) |
| 9:30-10p | Samantha Who? | |
| 10-11p | Boston Legal | Castle |
| Tuesday | ||
| 8-9p | Opportunity Knocks | Shark Tank |
| 9-10p | Dancing with the Stars Results | Dancing with the Stars Results |
| 10-11p | Eli Stone | The Forgotten |
| Wednesday | ||
| 8-8:30p | Pushing Daisies (8-9p) | Hank |
| 8:30-9p | The Middle | |
| 9-9:30p | Private Practice (9-10p) | Modern Family |
| 9:30-10p | Cougar Town | |
| 10-11p | Dirty Sexy Money | Eastwick |
| Thursday | ||
| 8-9p | Ugly Betty | Flash Forward |
| 9-10p | Grey’s Anatomy | Grey’s Anatomy |
| 10-11p | Life on Mars | Private Practice |
| Friday | ||
| 8-9p | Wife Swap | Supernanny |
| 9-10p | Supernanny | Ugly Betty |
| 10-11p | 20/20 | 20/20 |
| Saturday | ||
| 8-11p | Saturday Night College Football | Saturday Night College Football |
| Sunday | ||
| 7-8p | America’s Funniest Home Videos | America’s Funniest Home Videos |
| 8-9p | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition |
| 9-10p | Desperate Housewives | Desperate Housewives |
| 10-11p | Brothers & Sisters | Brothers & Sisters |
Shows in BOLD are/were new, shows in italics are unscripted, 2008 shows in strikethrough did not return.
The shows scheduled to premiere in mid-season or later are: The Bachelor, Scrubs, and Better Off Ted. The Deep End, Wife Swap and V were in ABC's announcement, but had no date/time attached.
It's not worth the time to compare mid-season schedules. Changes are almost certain between now and January.
I don’t see Wednesday being net negative. It should at worse be even, unless the comedies are practically invisible, which is possible considering spring.
I only see good news on thursdays nights. I think ABC would become the number one network in this night!
All nights will be below 2008 average in my opinion, except thursday!
Hmm when i saw that Ugly Betty was on fridays i thought season 5 would 100% be the last… but i think if the ratings stay the same as they are now 6.5m viewers / 1.9 in the demo then it might be safe! If its cheap enough!!
NBC have Southland which has about 4m viewers now
FOX have Dollhouse whch has about 3m viewers
CBS i HOPE will have Medium which will probs have about 9m
CW = does it really matter!
So if ABC can come 2nd in the demo i dont really see a problem!
women’s morder club did well better and then they kill the show moving to toher day. i don’t think ugky betty surpass the 6 million mark. and the demo i think is doing worst than supernanny, maybe 1.5.
I think Tuesday will at least be even. In order not to be, the two new shows will have to fail worse than the two old ones, which did really awful.
Except for Private Practice I feel the same way about wednesdays.
DWTS should lose some viewers, maybe one million, and maybe more in tuesday against i think a mentalist in better shape
Flash forward seems like a weird pairing. A Sci-Fi show that early in the night and paired with really girly drama shows. If anything I can see it and PP switching slots. If they did V, LOST and FF in the midseason together on one night, that could be epic.
I’m interested to see how Wednesday pans out for ABC, an all-new shows line-up is a pretty big gamble for them. I agree with Julia in that I don’t think it’ll be a big negative for them but then again with ABC’s batting average as of late it could very well be I suppose.
The Thursday night line-up looks very strong to me but I might revise that when I see what CBS does with Thursdays next season.
I don’t even want to predict Wed. night. It’s such a wild card. If Eastwick is any good, though, or maybe if it isn’t, it has a fighting chance. Could get the female audience, considering its competition.
I actually think that Flash Forward and Private Practice would be better if they were switched. Flash Forward would go against Smallville and Bones which I think have similar audiences.
^ Yes, because ABC has to be afraid of Smallville
Two years ago ABC went with an all new Wednsday line-up and we all know how that turned out.
A 2 hour comedy block with two single-camera shows will not work. Besides Malcolm in the Middle, no single-camera comedy have been successful out side of NBC.
According to link below, Wife Swap still returns in 2009-2010, just not in the schedule yet..
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/05/19/abc-2009-10-schedule-announced/18992
Yudhi, good catch, my bad on the Wife Swap strikethru text. Fixed.
I have a strong feeling ABC’s 2 hour comedy block will do terribly, especially the ones airing at 9. Those 2 will (probably) be quickly axed, and ABC will likely keep Hank and The Middle at 8. Theres no way all 4 comedies will get full seasons and if anything ABC will keep the ones at 8 in order to heavy comeptition against CBS’s comdies. Flash Forward looks liek it could do well, and Eastwick will likely fail, do to either bad lead in or the fact that ABC cant launch a successful drama at 10 on wednesdays.
The only strong nights they have are Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays, and even then they aren’t living up to their potential.
If it’s true that bot Katherine Heigl and T.R Knight are exiting Grey’s Anatomy, then i believe that’s going to have a big effect on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’s’ ratings. You guys might not think this is a big deal, but the exits of William Peterson off of ‘CSI’ and Nicollete Sheridan off of ‘Desperate Housewives’ has caused a ratings decline. If Grey’s loses two of it’s biggest stars (Heigl in particular who is the biggest name), don’t expect ratings gold here.
Jimmy is hitting below the belt here.
Sam, DH’s ratings were declining long before Nicolette’s death. The CSI case, however, is quite obvious.
I agree with Sam – if KH leaves Greys, the loss of both Izzie and George, could be disasterous – but saying that I think KH will be staying. She is their biggest star and despite the media wars, ABC will want to hang onto her. Greys went downhill after Burke and Addison left. They won’t want to lose Izzie also.
Private Practice finally starts a season where it should be at 10pm – for those suggesting it could be swapped with Flash Forward, there’s no way PP is an 8pm show ! I think next season PP is likely to overtake B&S in the ratings (the only reason PP’s average is down this season is due to the crap Wednesday night sandwich between the two dead shows for the first-half of the season).
Ugly Betty goes to Friday to die. Wonder if ABC will just prolong it for syndication purposes ?
Well you know there’s a hope for Ugly Betty if Eastwick, The Forgotten and Flash Forward flops Ugly Betty could took the timeslot.
I don’t want Ugly Betty to be like Prison Break dying at friday nights and they were hits in 2006-2007 season.