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Welcome to ShowbuzzDaily’s coverage of the upcoming TV schedules for the 2011/12 TV season! Above you see our guide to what to expect on Sunday nights this Fall: the numbers are our projected Adults 18-49 ratings for each show; the capitalized titles are the new shows; and italics are for shows changing their time slots. Here’s our analysis of what will really be going on behind the numbers:
We don’t expect a lot of changes on Sundays, where each network tends to program to a chosen demographic.
During the fall, CBS and FOX take very different approaches to their alternating football overruns from late afternoon games. CBS welcomes late start times for its shows, which makes for a domino effect throughout the evening; it more or less locks in viewers for the night unless they want to join other networks in progress, but doesn’t exactly encourage new visitors. To replace UNDERCOVER BOSS, their new companion piece to CSI MIAMI should be the cumbersomely titled THE REMEMBERER, which stars CBS favorite Poppy Montgomery as a cop whose secret weapon in fighting crime is her spectacular memory. The word is that it’s better than it sounds, which isn’t a giant challenge. The night should hold steady for the network.
FOX keeps its football overruns under control, rolling them into the post-football roundup THE OT and starting their animated shows on time. Their only change for the evening is the brief (6 episode) run of ALLEN GREGORY in the 8:30 slot, created by actor Jonah Hill. It should make little difference to their self-described “animation domination.”
ABC may, as rumored, find space during the season for a curtailed final season of BROTHERS & SISTERS, but their priority is to find a companion piece and possible successor to the aging DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES. We think they’ve found a hot prospect in GOOD CHRISTIAN BITCHES (which sadly will probably be retitled), from the writer of STEEL MAGNOLIAS and featuring a divorcee heroine who has to go back to her hometown of Dallas and live among the grown-up versions of the mean girls who once made her life hell. If there’s anything to the show, it’ll boost the network’s number in the slot.
If the NFL and its players don’t make a new deal by the end of summer, pray for NBC: SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL is so gigantically the highest rated show on the network that its removal could singlehandedly put the network in a ratings place so low that this past year would look like up to them.
Be sure to follow ShowbuzzDaily all through Upfront week: we’ll cover the actual network schedules as soon as they’re announced, with our own brand of instant expert analysis… and stay tuned for reviews of the shows you’ll be watching (or not) in the fall!
WANT MORE? Click on any link below to read predictions for another night:
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