ShareThisBy DUSTY SAUNDERS
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
The networks always sail into troubled waters during October.
Most of the new series have premiered and are fighting for survival.
Program experts scurry around boardrooms rearranging schedules in an attempt to keep viewers from getting bored in their living rooms.
Here's a report on the latest network moves and results of new season programming:
_ "Smith," CBS' elaborate caper drama starring Ray Liotta and Virginia Madsen, has the unwanted distinction of being the first new series canceled.
While strong in high-tech production, the series, created by John Wells, was low in character development.
Liotta portrayed the head of a flashy criminal cadre that pulled off major heists.
The characters would then return to their normal lives.
In addition to the obvious story problems there was the title. Who's going to watch a show called "Smith"?
Reruns of the "CSI" franchise and "Criminal Minds" will be aired in the time period through October.
_" Kidnapped," NBC's intricate Wednesday-night drama, is dying in agonizing style.
While NBC is fulfilling its commitment of 13 episodes, the series has been moved to Saturday night, the unofficial burying ground of failed network shows.
Producers report scripts will be rewritten so that the kidnapping plot (involving a teenage boy from an upper- crust New York family) will be resolved.
Wednesday's time period will be filled by "Dateline," the network's news magazine, at least temporarily.
_ Executives of the new, struggling CW network have flip-flopped the entire Sunday and Monday schedules. "Everybody Loves Chris," "All of Us," "Girl Friends" and "America's Top Model" have moved to Monday night while "7th Heaven" and "Runaway" now make up the network's Sunday lineup.
_ Friday Night Lights, a consensus favorite among TV critics, had a disappointing audience premiere last Tuesday, drawing only slightly more than 7 million viewers.
Audiences were more interested in ABC's glitzy "Dancing With the Stars" than with the involving NBC drama about the importance of high school football in a Texas town.
_ ABC's "The Nine," another critical favorite, lost a good share of the strong audience lead-in provided last Wednesday by the third-season premiere of "Lost."
_ A TV ritual known as the Fox Lineup Shuffle will be in effect until after the World Series.
"Justice," Jerry Bruckheimer's offbeat courtroom drama, will move from Wednesday to Monday while "Vanished," which has been airing on Monday, will be banished to a Friday-night time period _ not good news for this serialized drama about the disappearance of the wife of a U.S. senator.
Look for other Fox changes after the final baseball pitch is thrown.
_ On the positive side of the networks' fall ledger, NBC's "Heroes" is the first new series to receive a pickup for a full season.
The network will air all 22 episodes of the Monday- night ensemble drama that chronicles the lives of ordinary people who discover they possess extraordinary abilities.
_ "Ugly Betty," ABC's gentle drama about a physically unattractive young woman working in the world of fashion, will be a keeper for the network.
The Thursday-night series has cut into CBS' "Survivor" audience.
