The CW would officially like to invite you to the early ’90s: The network revealed its fall 2009 schedule this morning and, as was reported yesterday, it paired its highly anticipated Melrose Place reboot with 90210 for a Tuesday evening one-two punch of sudsers set in LA. The original shows shared Wednesday night when Melrose Place launched after Beverly Hills, 90210 on Fox in July 1992.
“Tuesday night gives us a perfect match with 90210 and Melrose Place,” Dawn Ostroff, the network’s president of entertainment said in a press release. At The CW’s presentation to advertisers in NYC, Ostroff added that there will likely be some character crossover between the two Tuesday night soaps.
But while The CW is loving the ’90s, apparently the ’80s are, like, so over: The throwback Gossip Girl spin-off, Lily, which aired a backdoor pilot set in the glamorous decade earlier this month, was not picked-up. Ostroff told reporters, however, that the spin-off could be a possibility for midseason. “We’d love to find a place for it,” she said.
In addition to Melrose, The CW greenlit two other new dramas: The Mischa Barton and Elle Macpherson-led The Beautiful Life, about models living in NYC, and Vampire Diaries, a Twilight-like drama riding the wave of vampire mania in Hollywood right now. Very fittingly, The Beautiful Life takes the post-America’s Next Top Model spot that was unsuccessfully filled by Stylista last fall and 13: Fear is Real this spring. Top Model is The CW’s top-rated show (pulling in 3.9 million viewers this spring), so The Beautiful Life, which is produced by Ashton Kutcher, has a beautiful opportunity to use that lead-in to its advantage.
Meanwhile, in a surprising scheduling move, Vampire Diaries is set to lead The CW’s Thursday night, followed by Supernatural, which means that former companion show Smallville will be bumped over to the network’s anemic Friday night and paired with a repeat of America’s Next Top Model. Reacting to rumors about the upcomign season being Smallville’s last, Ostroff added: “It’s not necessarily the last season. We hope it’s not.” Former Friday night occupants Everybody Hates Chris and The Game were unsurprisingly canceled, making The CW the only broadcast network that has given up on comedies. Ostroff reminded the press that The CW “decided to stop developing comedies a few years ago.” And she added: “Maybe at some point in the future we’ll make a go of it again.”
Monday nights remain the same, with Gossip Girl leading into One Tree Hill. Reaper and Privileged, which looked like they might have a chance at a second season, were officially canceled. Meanwhile, Parental Discretion, a drama about a teenager who’s spent her life in foster care but is now determined to meet her biological parents, was also announced for a to-be-determined midseason launch.
THE CW FALL 2009 SCHEDULE
MONDAY
8-9 p.m.: Gossip Girl
9-10 p.m.: One Tree Hill
TUESDAY
8-9 p.m.: 90210
9-10 p.m.: Melrose Place
WEDNESDAY
8-9 p.m.: America’s Next Top Model
9-10 p.m.: The Beautiful Life
THURSDAY
8-9 p.m.: Vampire Diaries
9-10 p.m.: Supernatural
FRIDAY
8-9 p.m.: Smallville
9-10 p.m.: America’s Next Top Model repeat
SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Local affiliate programming
More TV Upfront news:
TBS announces venture into animation, late-night talk with George Lopez
TNT hypes summer slate, with Jada Pinkett Smith and Dylan McDermott
CBS announces fall schedule: ‘The Mentalist’ jumps to Thursdays
Jay Leno on his naysayers: ‘trash talking is a part of the competition’
ABC announces fall schedule, ‘Ugly Betty’ moves to Fridays
Ken Tucker’s ‘Instant TV reviews’ of ABC’s new fall shows
NBC announces fall schedule: ‘Chuck’ stays, ‘Southland’ moves to Fridays
Ausiello Exclusive: ‘Without a Trace,’ ‘Privileged,’ canceled, ‘Gossip’ spin-off DOA
Breaking: ‘Earl, ‘Unit’ axed, ‘Medium’ moving to CBS
Fox announces fall schedule, acknowledges Whedon fans
Ken Tucker’s ‘Instant TV reviews’ of Fox’s new fall shows
The Ausiello Files, for the latest renewals and cancellations
Ausiello’s Fall TV cheat sheet
Comments (1-30) of 107 Add your comment
Why couldnt they make the gossip girl spinoff an midseason series, because gossip girl always leaves for a few weeks
They cancelled The Game & Everybody hates Chris? Oh well no reason for me to watch the CW ANYanymore!! I can believe the revised 90210 & now Melrose Place( which will star a dead girl) but the #1 & 2 show in African American households gets the boot! So long CW its been nice knowing ya!!!
They cancelled The Game & Everybody hates Chris? Oh well no reason for me to watch the CW ANYanymore!! I can believe the revised 90210 & now Melrose Place( which will star a dead girl) but the #1 & 2 show in African American households gets the boot! So long CW its been nice knowing ya!!!
Tasha, next time use your spell check and hit the enter once! However I do agree wit your comments. I wont be watching the CW anymore either. No real shows of substance left.
I hate the CW they took off the only two urban comedies left….the only thing I will be watching is Supernatural….
Supernatural is only the best show ever on the CW!
The only reason I watch CW is for Supernatural. It’s the only good show on CW, in my opinion.
Thanks for canceling Reaper CW, now I can finally stop watching your channel altogether and skipping those lame promos during the commercials.
Why not put the Gossip Girl spin off at 9:00 on Monday and move One Tree Hill to Friday instead of a repeat. It’s as old and solid as Smallville. It could stand the move. I just hate seeing repeats programmed into a schedule. It’s just lazy.
Can’t wait for 90210 & Melrose Place Tuesdays!
I heard that Lily, Body Politic and another pilot which I can’t seem to remember right now are still midseason players??
I agree that maybe OTH should have moved to Fridays instead of Smallville…I’m not a fan of either show but it seems stupid to push your second Highest rated show on a friday?? Is CW purposely trying to be shut down??
I am excited abbout Vampire Diaries and Beautiful Life though! And of course GOSSIP GIRL!!!
I can’t believe they cancelled The Game…. This was a huge mistake. That show was the only reason I watched the CW. The network has officially lost me as a viewer.
really cw, you move your most sucessful show smallville to friday. Way to treat one of your top shows for eight years in it’s last season.
By moving Smallville to Friday, the CW shows that it no longer considers the show a strong contender. But it gives me something decent to watch on Fridays now.
Nope, not a single show I am interested in. CW will not be watched in my household for even a second. Someone needs to shoot this network and put it out of its misery.
The CW has also lost me as a viewer. Reaper was one of my favorite shows, and now that it is gone, I have no reason to watch..
Worst network President of Entertainment ever. The CW is a failure, and it seems that this woman is doing her best to run the network into the ground. Every time a good show finds its way onto this network she finds a way to cancel it.
Man CW has nothing but woman’s programming and Supernatural now hopefully Reaper gets picked up by another network or cable.
The CW is a network solely catered towards pre-teen and teenage girls
I can’t believe they canceled “The Game” That was my favorite show and the only reason why I watched CW in the first place. Seeing that they canceled this great show with a great cast. I will no longer be a CW Viewer. I was not entirely impressed with all the shows they have and consider 99% of them very boring. No offence but now that they got rid of the comedy shows on their station, There channel pretty much sucks. Its ashame that two good shows got cancelled. Me watching something like gossip girl or yet another modeling show like they dont have enough already? Please not for me thank you
this network is sunk when it comes to repeats, it has no backup, probably more crap reality shows. Smallville may do fine on Friday as the early slot may not have much for competition other than ghost whisperer. The second hour of non programming is cop out and shouldn’t be allowed as they already have blank slate for Sat, Sun.
Rumor has it that the company who produces Reaper is shopping it to cable networks for possible pickup, even if Labine is not in show anymore.
I’ll watch Smallville no matter when/where they air it. At least on Friday it doesn’t have to compete with Survivor and Bones. Smallville is a good show and deserves more respect from the CW though. They have the hottest male actor on television as the star, Tom Welling, and they should promote him every chance they get.
speculation about smallville moving to fridays has been circulating the past week so i’m not extremely suprised to see the news here. it will be very interesting to see how supernatural does on its own. the pairing of smallville and supernatural has been successful up to now on thursdays. i have a feeling that vampire diaries could die rather quickly which might find smallville back on thursdays before the season is over – but smallville could find success on fridays with less competition and fridays have been a juggernaut ratings wise for sci fi shows over on the sci fi network. i do find it weird though that going into its last season they would take such a chance by moving it this late in the game. why couldn’t vampire diaries been a mid season replacement instead of showing reruns?
I don’t know what they were thinking about Smallville on Fridays.
Here’s the thing. Their main demographic won’t be home on Fridays! Meaning their DVR numbers will sky-rocket (ala Dollhouse).
Not to mention its competition.
http://tvdonewright.com/2009-2010-season-preview/
Any Reaper fans? Although the CW is not picking up Reaper, we not giving up yet. Hollywood Reporter says ABC Studios is still trying to move the show into syndication or cable. We’re advocating all Reaper fans to write their CW affiliates. All links and info here: http://community.livejournal.com/reaperdmv/44208.html And don’t forget to contact ABC Studios and thank them for not giving up on Reaper.
Yes it’s ridiculous Reaper has been canceled by the CW.
But ABC hasn’t given up on it.
People are currently contacting their local station
http://www.cwtv.com/stations
And ABC
http://abc.go.com/site/contactus.html?lid=ABCCOMGlobalFooter&lpos=CONTACT
to support Reaper
http://reaperdmv.com/index.cgi?board=seasontwo&action=display&thread=197&page=5#6672
No Reaper? that’s outrageous! it was one of the smartest funniest shows on tv. it was unfortunate that it got no love from the network.
Actually, the Vampire Diaries sounds like a good fit for Supernatural, although both it and Smallville are supposedly going into their final seasons.
why the cw network could not move reaper to thursdays in front of supernatural is beyond me. clark kent will be retired from the daily planet and still it would not met its logical conclusion.