Fall Schedules: WB

With reduced viewership and greatly diminished buzz the WB is willing to try anything and their fall schedule features the biggest shake-ups so far this week. Almost every night will lose a signature show as the network tries to spread its wealth from two very strong nights (Mondays and Tuesdays) across the schedule.

7th Heaven kicks off Monday nights, as it has for the past forty years, but will now be followed by the WB's attempt at a procedural: a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced legal dramedy that teams Don Johnson with Jay Baruchel (the star on Fox's too short lived Undeclared and the mentally challenged Danger in Million Dollar Baby).

That displaces Everwood to Thursdays at 9. Its new lead in will be Smallville, which means the Superboy series will face off against Alias (a welcome relief after the unexpected Lost smackdown this season) and stalwart Survivor. It will be interesting to see how Fox shakes up its Thursday because The OC will be potentially the biggest direct competition for The WB on this night.

With Smallville off to Thursdays, One Tree Hill is all growns up and leading off Wednesday nights. The old Dawson's Creek timeslot should fit the teen soap pretty well, especially since ABC has moved Lost out of the hour. It's followed by Related, which looks like a remake of NBC's 90s drama Sisters with a slightly more WB-friendly cast. Ok counter programming for Lost I suppose, if it's good it could work. Laura San Giacomo was a lead in the pilot but is apparently being recast. Jennifer Esposito and Mean Girls' Lizzy Caplan remain.

In for Hill on Tuesdays is spooky drama Supernatural. The only reason this seems like a good match with lead-in Gilmore Girls is because of its star Jared Padalecki, who played Rory Gilmore's first boyfriend. At least, as of right now, it doesn't have any sci fi/thriller competition in the timeslot.

That's pretty much it, although Charmed is staying put on Sunday (with Sugar Ray's Mark McGrath joining the cast in part of his endless quest to have one of the weirdest careers in showbiz history) and the WB is putting a hour of Blue Collar Comedy into battle against Desperate Housewives, where it should do better than most things WB has tried there over the years. And the Friday line-up remains all comedies to which the only new edition is Twins which unites Melanie Griffith, Sara Gilbert, Perfect Strangers' cousin Larry and former Passions regular Molly Stanton. Hilarity no doubt ensues.

At midseason I might get the show I wanted to see, Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson's college drama The Bedford Diaries, and everyone else can watch Rebecca Romijn in the inane sounding Pepper Dennis. The only intriguing thing about that show is the possibility it could air Mondays at 9, against Jake in Progress on ABC.