ABC Restructures Prime-Time Lineup
According to Reuters news agency, the American Broadcasting Corporation has restructured its TV schedule for fall 2009 to spring 2010.
The announcement is widely considered to be the most dramatic by a network during this year's upfront, a period when networks set schedules and advertisers pay hundreds of millions of dollars for commercial time.
The announcement is the second out of the gate for the big fourABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox. On Monday, Fox announced its fall schedule, including three new shows, Glee, Human Target and Sons of Tuscon.
Among the 11 shows slated for ABC's lineup: Hank, a show starring Kelsey Grammer as an industry bigwig who loses his job, The Middle, a family drama, and the dramas Castle and The Forgotten.
Much of the buzz surrounds the new sci-fi series, Flash Forward, a collaboration between the producers of Lost and The Dark Knight. The series, which is slated to premiere this fall, is already being compared to the island time-traveling drama.
The move comes amid a slumping economy and dismal quarterly earnings by the industry. According to Ad Age, research firms estimate ad sales to be down 15 percent this year. In comparison, the networks took in $9.2 billion last year during the upfront period.