by Gary Levin, USA TODAY
ABC plans an all-new Tuesday schedule built around Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a top prospect for fall that's one of a large crop of eight new series premiering on the third-place network.
Also due are a new drama on Sunday, a Once Upon a Time spinoff on Thursday and two new comedies surrounding Modern Family.
Among returning shows, only alien sitcom The Neighbors is moving; it will be paired with Tim Allen's Last Man Standing on Fridays.
"We're leaving intact our top shows," says ABC Entertainment chief Paul Lee, who calls the new schedule "a combination of stability and out-and-out ambition." The Tuesday makeover mirrors a similar one on Wednesdays in 2009, when The Middle and Modern Family became the spine of an all-new two-hour comedy block, though the network has yet to find lasting companions for those shows.
And it also spells the end of Dancing With the Stars' results show, Amid sagging ratings, both weekly Dancing episodes will be combined into a single two-hour Monday installment that features both performances and results.
S.H.I.E.L.D., from Joss Whedon (The Avengers) stars Clark Gregg, reprising his Avengers role as Agent Phil Coulson, who gathers a group of superheroes. It marks the first ABC show from Marvel since parent Disney acquired the comics giant.
Other new fall shows:
Super Fun Night, starring Rebel Wilson (Pitch Perfect) as a young, newly promoted attorney whose Friday fun ritual with two pals is interrupted by her boss and a new boyfriend. Fun gets the plum post-Modern Family slot.
The Goldbergs, a Wonder Years-style 1980s period family sitcom starring Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Wendi McLendon-Covey (Bridesmaids).
Trophy Wife, with Malin Akerman (Watchmen) in the title role as the third wife of Pete (Bradley Whitford) who "inherits" three stepchildren and two ex-wives.
Back in the Game, a comedy about an ex-softball player (Maggie Lawson) dragged back into the game as a coach of misfits - including her son - when she moves in with her ex-athlete dad (James Caan).
Betrayal, a "limited-series" soap that combines infidelity, a murder mystery and lawyers, to follow Revenge on Sundays.
Lucky 7, a drama about Queens, N.Y., gas-station employees who win the lottery. Isiah Whitlock Jr. (The Wire) and Matt Long (Private Practice) star.
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, a spinoff of the Sunday fantasy series centered on the Alice in Wonderland story and set in Victorian England. The series will open Thursdays, long a troubled time slot for ABC.
The network will finish the season in third place among viewers, and fourth among its target audience of adults ages 18 to 49, though NBC's freefall has received far more attention. The network did some spring cleaning, sweeping Body of Proof, Happy Endings, Malibu Country and midseason series How to Live With Your Parents (for the Rest of Your Life), Family Tools and Red Widow off its schedule. They join previous rejects including Last Resort and Zero Hour, though freshmen The Neighbors and Nashville are returning.
ABC's fall schedule (all times ET/PT). New shows in bold, new time slots in italics:
Monday: 8, Dancing with the Stars; 10, Castle
Tuesday: 8, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; 9, The Goldbergs; 9:30, Trophy Wife; 10, Lucky 7.
Wednesday: 8, The Middle; 8:30, Back in the Game; 9, Modern Family; 9:30, Super Fun Night; 10, Nashville.
Thursday: 8, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland; 9, Grey's Anatomy; 10, Scandal.
Friday: 8, Last Man Standing; 8:30, The Neighbors; 9, Shark Tank; 10, 20/20.
Saturday: 8, Saturday Night College Football.
Sunday: 7, America's Funniest Home Videos; 8, Once Upon a Time; 9, Revenge; 10, Betrayal.
Source: CourierPost
It's an 8pm show? That's going to be limiting...
ABC plans an all-new Tuesday schedule built around Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a top prospect for fall that's one of a large crop of eight new series premiering on the third-place network.
Also due are a new drama on Sunday, a Once Upon a Time spinoff on Thursday and two new comedies surrounding Modern Family.
Among returning shows, only alien sitcom The Neighbors is moving; it will be paired with Tim Allen's Last Man Standing on Fridays.
"We're leaving intact our top shows," says ABC Entertainment chief Paul Lee, who calls the new schedule "a combination of stability and out-and-out ambition." The Tuesday makeover mirrors a similar one on Wednesdays in 2009, when The Middle and Modern Family became the spine of an all-new two-hour comedy block, though the network has yet to find lasting companions for those shows.
And it also spells the end of Dancing With the Stars' results show, Amid sagging ratings, both weekly Dancing episodes will be combined into a single two-hour Monday installment that features both performances and results.
S.H.I.E.L.D., from Joss Whedon (The Avengers) stars Clark Gregg, reprising his Avengers role as Agent Phil Coulson, who gathers a group of superheroes. It marks the first ABC show from Marvel since parent Disney acquired the comics giant.
Other new fall shows:
Super Fun Night, starring Rebel Wilson (Pitch Perfect) as a young, newly promoted attorney whose Friday fun ritual with two pals is interrupted by her boss and a new boyfriend. Fun gets the plum post-Modern Family slot.
The Goldbergs, a Wonder Years-style 1980s period family sitcom starring Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Wendi McLendon-Covey (Bridesmaids).
Trophy Wife, with Malin Akerman (Watchmen) in the title role as the third wife of Pete (Bradley Whitford) who "inherits" three stepchildren and two ex-wives.
Back in the Game, a comedy about an ex-softball player (Maggie Lawson) dragged back into the game as a coach of misfits - including her son - when she moves in with her ex-athlete dad (James Caan).
Betrayal, a "limited-series" soap that combines infidelity, a murder mystery and lawyers, to follow Revenge on Sundays.
Lucky 7, a drama about Queens, N.Y., gas-station employees who win the lottery. Isiah Whitlock Jr. (The Wire) and Matt Long (Private Practice) star.
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, a spinoff of the Sunday fantasy series centered on the Alice in Wonderland story and set in Victorian England. The series will open Thursdays, long a troubled time slot for ABC.
The network will finish the season in third place among viewers, and fourth among its target audience of adults ages 18 to 49, though NBC's freefall has received far more attention. The network did some spring cleaning, sweeping Body of Proof, Happy Endings, Malibu Country and midseason series How to Live With Your Parents (for the Rest of Your Life), Family Tools and Red Widow off its schedule. They join previous rejects including Last Resort and Zero Hour, though freshmen The Neighbors and Nashville are returning.
ABC's fall schedule (all times ET/PT). New shows in bold, new time slots in italics:
Monday: 8, Dancing with the Stars; 10, Castle
Tuesday: 8, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; 9, The Goldbergs; 9:30, Trophy Wife; 10, Lucky 7.
Wednesday: 8, The Middle; 8:30, Back in the Game; 9, Modern Family; 9:30, Super Fun Night; 10, Nashville.
Thursday: 8, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland; 9, Grey's Anatomy; 10, Scandal.
Friday: 8, Last Man Standing; 8:30, The Neighbors; 9, Shark Tank; 10, 20/20.
Saturday: 8, Saturday Night College Football.
Sunday: 7, America's Funniest Home Videos; 8, Once Upon a Time; 9, Revenge; 10, Betrayal.
Source: CourierPost
It's an 8pm show? That's going to be limiting...
