The 2013-2014 season for all major networks are looking pretty good. We already went into FOX’s schedule, but now we have the not only ABC’s schedule, but NBC, CBS, and The CW’s. Plenty of shows will be returning for new seasons and as expected, some shows are shooting for all new shows. New shows will be shown in bold.
We’ll start with ABC.
ABC
The major new show that will be debuting is Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D which makes sense as Disney holds the rights to Marvel and all things superhero usually pick up in popularity in the movies and television in the summer and fall. Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D will air Tuesdays at 8PM. On the subject of ABC Tuesdays, it looks to be all new shows for that day.
Also debuting is Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, a spinoff to their Once Upon a Time program and will be airing Thursdays at 8PM. For those of us tired of dance, song, and talent shows Dancing With the Stars will be on one night a week now. Mid-season shows for ABC include Killer Women, Suburgatory, Mind Games, Mixology, and Resurrection.
Have a look at the schedule.
Monday
8PM Dancing With the Stars
10PM Castle
Tuesday
8PM Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D
9PM The Goldbergs
9:30PM Trophy Wife
10PM Lucky 7
Wednesday
8PM The Middle
8:30PM Back in the Game
9PM Modern Family
9:30PM Super Fun Night
10PM Nashville
Thursday
8PM Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
9PM Grey’s Anatomy
10PM Scandal
Friday
8PM Last Man Standing
8:30PM The Neighbors
9PM Shark Tank
10PM 20/20
Sunday
8PM Once Upon a Time
9PM Revenge
10PM Betrayal
Related Story: Fox Announces 2013-2014 Schedule
NBC
Also announcing their programming schedule earlier this week, while ABC pretty much kept their schedule the same, NBC jostled things around. Revolution will move from Mondays at 10PM to Wednesday at 8PM and the new show Blacklist will take the previous slot. Chicago Fire leaves Wednesday and takes Parenthood’s original slot while that show ends the Thursday schedule. Grimm moves back to Friday at 9PM this fall. It will be in the company of new shows Dracula and Crossbones. The Michael J. Fox Show looks like an interesting addition, but who knows how that will pan out on NBC. It could be a one seasoner. Dracula also has my attention here.
Mid-season for Sundays look to be all new shows for NBC. New shows Chicago P.D, Undertable, and The Night Shift as well as returners Community and Celebrity Apprentice haven’t been given slots yet. There has been no decision on what to do with Hannibal although there are other networks interested in it should NBC drop it.
Monday
8PM The Voice
10PM Blacklist
Tuesday
8PM The Biggest Loser
8PM The Voice (mid-season)
9PM The Voice
9PM About a Boy (mid-season)
9:30PM The Family Guide (mid-season)
10PM Chicago Fire
Wednesday
8PM Revolution
9PM Law & Order: SVU
10PM Ironside
Thursday
8PM Parks and Recreation
8:30PM Welcome to the Family
9PM Sean Saves the World
9:30PM The Michael J. Fox Show
10PM Parenthood
Friday
8PM Dateline NBC
9PM Grimm
10PM Dracula
10PM Crossbones (mid-season)
Sunday
8PM American Dream Builders (mid-season)
9PM Believe (mid-season)
10PM Crisis (mid-season)
CBS
If you were expecting something to be done with the NCIS block on Tuesdays, shame on you. NBC’s not doing anything with it at all. Mondays will see some new additions in the comedies We Are Men and Mom as well as new dramas Hostages and Intelligence. The two dramas will end the Monday night block with Intelligence’s 13 episodes kicking off in February and Hostages’ 15 episodes running into January. With its Monday at 10PM slot gone, Hawaii Five-0 moves to Fridays at 9PM.
The other two shows are The Millers and The Crazy Ones which join the Thursday lineup. Besides that, expect a pretty familiar lineup overall. There are three shows yet to be assigned slots for the mid-season with Friends With Better Lives, Mike & Molly, and Reckless.
Monday
8PM How I Met Your Mother
8:30PM We Are Men
9PM 2 Broke Girls
9:30PM Mom
10PM Hostages/Intelligence
Tuesday
8PM NCIS
9PM NCIS: Los Angeles
10PM Person of Interest
Wednesday
8PM Survivor
9PM Criminal Minds
10PM CSI
Thursday
8PM The Big Bang Theory
8:30PM The Millers
9PM The Crazy Ones
9:30PM Two and a Half Men
10PM Elementary
Friday
8PM Undercover Boss
9PM Hawaii Five-0
10PM Blue Bloods
Sunday
8PM The Amazing Race
9PM The Good Wife
10PM The Mentalist
Related Story: USA Network Announces 2013-2014 Schedule, Sitcoms To Debut In 2014
The CW
The CW has typically had good shows, but with prime time that only runs for two hours. Personally I believe it’s down to some CW affiliates actually having local news. Not only that, but the bulk The CW is made up of syndication and paid programming at a certain time while the bigger networks tend to have talk shows to beef up the mornings, local and national news, late night talk shows, and late night news to carry over the early morning hours.
Anyway, as a result The CW never really seems to have an abundance of shows in the wings. There’s mostly good sci-fi/fantasy dramas and then everything else. Let’s get into The CW’s programming lineup for 2013-2014. Supernatural moves again from Wednesdays to Tuesday, but keeps its 9PM time slot. It will have company in The Originals. Arrow and The Vampire Diaries will assist in kicking off new series The Tomorrow People and Reign.
Hart of Dixie, The Carrie Diaries, and Beauty and the Beast will also be jostled around a bit. Yet to be scheduled for the mid-season are Star Crossed, Famous in 12, new program The 100, and the last of Nikita.
Monday
8PM Hart of Dixie
9PM Beauty and the Beast
Tuesday
8PM The Originals
9PM Supernatural
Wednesday
8PM Arrow
9PM The Tomorrow People
Thursday
8PM The Vampire Diaries
9PM Reign
Friday
8PM The Carrie Diaries
9PM America’s Next Top Model
Reflection on the Schedules
Of all the networks that have shown their new 2013-2014 lineups this week The CW interests me the most. I feel that in some ways it does the SyFy channel better than the actual modern SyFy channel. Also looking at The CW’s lineup, I feel that it should run with more of the old school Universal Action Pack block.
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The Universal Action Pack was a collection of programs that were produced by Universal back when The CW was FOX (in local markets) and later The WB in the early and mid-1990s (also at that time ABC was in the spot where FOX is now in some local markets, MyNetwork TV—then UPN—is where it’s always been). Anyway, the Action Pack typically put related shows and high rated shows on the same night with the top shows taking Friday night.
This meant that shows such as Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess were paired together to cap off Fridays and Sinbad and either Brisco County Jr. or Jack of All Trades were paired Sunday in the early evenings just to name two such pairings…Sinbad, Brisco County Jr., and Jack of All Trades weren’t particular superstar shows, but they were paired all the same.
This was later done with Buffy and Angel and the scheduling worked. Friday night was always capped off with a bang. Of course this is was roughly 20 years ago in big network broadcasting. That was a period where ABC and FOX were the main two networks that dueled with Saturday morning programming for kids—which I miss and wish they would go back to—and a network like MyNetwork and The CW had animation on in the morning before kids went to school—granted that there was at least an hour of programming you didn’t get to see as school started in the 8-ish.
Coming back to 2013, the schedules look pretty solid. ABC is playing it safe and not moving much around; NBC moved some shows around as did CBS. FOX added shows, but didn’t do much to their schedule. The CW—the most interesting of the four mentioned today—moved Supernatural, but that’s it.
What do you think of the new network lineups? Must see TV or thumbs down? What elements besides “Just good TV” would you like to see return to television?
