Fall Schedules: ABC

That A stands for Ambitious as ABC revealed a fall schedule complete with nine spanking new series (five of them scripted hours), plans for another to share a timeslot with an established hit, and a key timeslot change that will probably be the boldest, best scheduling move by any network this year. (Full press release here.)

Good move: Grey's Anatomy. Thursdays. 9 pm. After speculation for what seemed like the entire season that the network would move its biggest gun to Monday nights, ABC decided instead to stake a claim on arguably TV's most important night (and a night they haven't been a player on for years). Unless CBS does something unexpected it appears that Grey's will face off next season with TV's other most successful scripted hour: CSI. It's possible the competition will cause a dent in ratings for both series, but as previous seasons' Friends/Survior and ER/Without a Trace battles have demonstrated there is room on Thursdays for two massive hits. (This move also puts extra pressure on NBC to move its new series Studio 60 out of the 9 pm Thursday crossfire. If the show wasn't dead in the water before....)

Bad move: In a baffling renewal that echoes the mistake of bringing back John Stamos' Jake in Progress last season ABC will stick with the poorly performing What About Brian on Mondays at 10. The network seems to be taking its time in developing a strategy for post-football-era Monday nights, sticking with modest reality shows and a scripted hour that's already failed to entice viewers. Maybe it was a point of pride, because if ABC had cancelled Brian it would've meant death for every single show introduced this season.

Also, an abundance of new series is going to mean big headaches in marketing and promotion, but considering none of this season's new offerings caught on that move was necessary...ABC needs to start building on its blocks ASAP (or else they become a network whose most popular show is hosted by Howie Mandel).

I’m looking forward to…: ABC has had the best crop of pilots for two seasons running but hopefully this year's batch will be closer to the 2004-05 group than last year's (which were generally better pilots than they were series). I’m really looking forward to checking out all of these but the one I want to see first is Six Degrees which has a strong cast (Hope Davis, Campbell Scott, Erika Christensen) and pedigree (producer J.J. Abrams, director Rodrigo Garcia) and gets the plum post-Grey’s slot on Thursday.

…but not: Well I’m looking forward to almost all of ABC’s pilots. I just can’t see Big Day—which follows the events of a single wedding day for an entire season—turning out all that good. In fact one of the more worrisome aspects of most of ABC’s pilots are the "high concepts." There’s a thriller where Taye Diggs wakes up on the same day every episode to try to solve a complex murder case (Day Break, which will occupy Lost's timeslot starting later this year), another conspiracy thriller where two young men are framed as terrorists by a friend (Traveler), a comedy series involving a season long attempt to rob Mick Jagger (Let’s Rob…), a drama following nine strangers united by a bank robbery (The Nine), etc. etc. Maybe it’s about time American television adapted the British model of short seasons and limited runs where these high concepts aren’t stretched beyond their natural lifespans.

What they didn’t pick up: Even with fifteen new series orders there was still quite a bit that ABC rejected, including comedy vehicles for Patricia Heaton, Bonnie Hunt, Kim Cattrall (costarring with Buffy’s Anthony Stewart Head for producer Elton John), Heather Locklear and Alicia Silverstone. Dramas that didn’t make the cut include two more conspiracy thrillers (one with David James Elliott and another with Jesse Bradford) and series with such actors as Dylan McDermott, Kelli Williams, Marcia Gay Harden, Bryan Greenberg, Angie Harmon and Peter Facinelli.

Say goodbye to: Almost everything introduced this season including: Invasion, Freddie, Crumbs, The Evidence, Night Stalker, In Justice, Hot Properties, Emily’s Reasons Why Not, the once promising Commander-in-Chief and the too-good-for-network-TV Sons and Daughters. Also Hope & Faith, Rodney, Jake in Progress, Less Than Perfect… pretty much the only thing leaving ABC’s schedule with some dignity is Alias.