15 Maj 2000
By John Consoli
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The WB will bring back its ratings-challenged teen dramas Roswell and Felicity next fall and will introduce
one family drama and three new comedy half-hours for the 2000-2001 season. Three of the four new shows come from WB sibling
Warner Bros. Television. Also being added to the schedule is the claymation series The PJs, which aired on Fox
during the 1998-99 season. The WB will officially announce its new schedule on Tuesday.
The network's new drama is Gilmore Girls, from Warner Bros., about a 32-year-old single mother and her 16-year-old daughter. Gilmore, which will air on Thursdays at 8 p.m. leading into Charmed, is one of the shows that went into development as a result of the "family-friendly programming" initiative started up last year by a group of major network TV advertisers. The WB's three new comedies for next fall are Grosse Pointe, Nikki and Hype. Grosse Pointe is from ATG and Darren Star, creator of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Sex in the City. Nikki is another in-house product from Warner, produced by Bruce Helford (Drew Carey). It stars Nikki Cox as a newlywed who wants to be a Las Vegas showgirl. The Warner-produced Hype is a sketch-comedy half-hour along the lines of In Living Color. The WB will leave its current Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday prime-time lineups intact for next season. Roswell, which was struggling on Wednesdays at 9, last month was moved to the same time on Mondays, following the hit 7th Heaven. Since the shift, Roswell has retained more 7th Heaven viewers than any other show tried in that time slot this season. Felicity, which had struggled on Sunday nights at 8 this season, also was shifted several weeks ago, to Wednesdays at 9, following Dawson's Creek. Felicity's numbers also have improved, actually building on the audience from Dawson's among some demos. The WB is committed to making Felicity succeed. The network has a new scheduling strategy for the two-year-old drama, with plans to air 12 consecutive new episodes from the start of the season, rather than disrupting continuity by airing repeats in between fresh installments. In midseason, Felicity will go on hiatus, and the network will air another drama in its time slot. Then Felicity will return with 12 more consecutive episodes to close out the season. The WB is talking with the show's producers, Imagine Television and Disney, about seeking a deal to air repeats of the first 12 Felicity episodes on a cable network while the show is on midseason hiatus, and to rerun the other 12 episodes in the summer. WB president Jamie Kellner said the decision to air consecutive episodes of Felicity without repeats was spurred by the success of HBO's The Sopranos and this season's NYPD Blue on ABC, which both used the strategy and scored big with viewers. Going into last weekend, WB execs were still unsure whether to continue the network's ethnic comedy block on Friday nights or move it to Sunday nights. One tentative lineup had Friday being led off by The PJs at 8, followed by current Friday residents The Jamie Foxx Show, The Steve Harvey Show and For Your Love. Sunday night would open with Popular at 7, followed by Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and Grosse Point, Nikki and Hype. Another scenario had Sabrina airing Friday at 8, followed by Grosse Point and Popular. Jamie Foxx would air on Sunday at 7, followed by For Your Love, Steve Harvey, The PJs, Nikki and Hype. A dilemma for WB execs is that the ethnic comedies have performed well on Friday night, and moving them might disrupt their momentum. For Your Love recently earned a season ratings high for any Friday WB show in households and women 18-34 and 18-49. Friday night has been one of the few bright spots for the WB this season. After several years of steady ratings growth, the network's household viewership has tumbled 18 percent so far this season, to an average 2.7. One factor: The network lost its prime-time clearance on cable superstation WGN last October, costing more distribution than the WB anticipated. "We assumed our other stations would make up that viewership, but that didn't happen," Kellner said. The network's teen-angst dramas also lost some steam this season, although the new Angel has teamed well with Buffy, the Vampire Slayer on Tuesday. Kellner said viewers who lobbied the network to renew Roswell and Felicity had an impact. The WB chief said that many of the e-mails he received were "very articulate" and showed how "passionate" viewers are about the two shows. "Our belief is our patience in these shows will be rewarded," Kellner said. "Let the other networks flip their schedules to react to [ABC's Who Wants to Be a] Millionaire." Gilmore Girls, with a target of women 12-49, will aim for a slightly older audience than other WB dramas, which skew toward females 12-25 or 12-34. Susanne Daniels, WB president of programming, said Gilmore is very much like 7th Heaven and will promote "solid, appreciable values." Daniels said adding comedies to the schedule was "a major priority," noting that the network increased its license fees and went after "name" showrunners to accomplish its goal. Daniels described Hype as In Style magazine-meets-Saturday Night Live, with comedy sketches on "what people are talking about, and having fun with it." |