THE UPFRONTS: THE CW'S SOPHOMORE YEAR

This is the week of "Upfronts", one of the Holy Weeks of O'Bligation in Televisiology, when each day a network steps up to the plate to announce its plans for the coming season - which shows stay, which are goners, and which pilots got picked up to be offered in sacrifice to the Powers That Be (Nielsen families).

For its sophomore year of existence, The CW's biggest news story about the 2007 fall season was about what was missing: 'Veronica Mars'. It looks like the show is basically toe-tagged, but the rumor is that the CW will wait until the middle of June to make it official. However, all of the writers have started taking new jobs, as have most of the the cast members. (Not that it would have made much of a difference - the rumor also stated that 'Veronica Mars' would have shifted its focus to several years into the future, when she would have become an FBI agent.)

First off, let's see wassup for the returning shows on the CW:

Everybody Hates Chris; America's Next Top Model; The Game; Girlfriends; Smallville; Supernatural; One Tree Hill (mid-season); Pussycat Dolls: The Search for the Next Doll; WWE SmackDown!

Yawn.

I enjoy 'Smallville', but as my focus in on the main Toobworld, I really can't be investing my time in some alternate universe Superman/Clark Kent. The "real" one lived on Earth Prime-Time back in the 1950s and died in the early 1960s.

'Supernatural' is located in the main Toobworld and is an edgy spookfest, combining the best of 'The X-Files', 'Kolchak: The Night Stalker', and 'Route 66'. But I only watch that one when I know in advance that the episode will be integral to some aspect of my televisiology research - like Norse gods or famous serial killers, etc.

I'm glad 'Everybody Hates Chris' gets a third season, but I just don't get the opportunity to watch it. I'm hanging out with the 'HIMYM' crowd over on CBS. But at least Chris Rock will start appearing on the show now - he'll be the guidance counselor at young Chris' school.

'GirlFriends' and 'The Game' have made a few links, if not actual crossovers, with other shows or bits of TV trivia so that I can push them off my radar. As for 'One Tree Hill'.... I don't care if it has a crossover with both 'Lost' and 'Heroes' and 'Doctor Who' all in the same very special episode, I ain't watching!

Well, okay, maybe for that one example.....

These are the shows saying "Ciao" at the CW:

All of Us; Gilmore Girls; Reba; Runaway; Seventh Heaven; Veronica Mars

No big surprises here, even counting 'Veronica'. 'Runaway' was run off the road ages ago; 'Seventh Heaven' knew the end was coming and planned for it - hell, they had a year's saving grace. 'Gilmore Girls' may have been on the bubble right up until the end, but at least their last episode had the feel of a finale. And I don't think the CW ever really wanted to carry 'Reba' over from the old WB anyway.

So here are the new kids on the sked:

Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants; Hidden Palms (Premieres on May 30th); Aliens in America; Gossip Girl; Reaper; Life is Wild; Online Nation (formerly Viewsers); CW Now; Farmer Takes a Wife

Not much for us in regards to televisiology. Most of those are reality shows and so we discount and discard them. Good thing too - I'm getting a carpal flare-up!

'Aliens In America' is a comedy about an unpopular 16 year old kid in Wisconsin whose social status becomes even more ostracized when a 16 year old Pakistani Muslim moves in as an exchange student.

It sounds promising; should be a good companion piece with 'Chris'. No chance for a crossover of course - over twenty years separate the two shows on the Toobworld timeline. But maybe they could go with a League of Themselves connection when a special speaker comes to their school to hit the audience over the head with a message of tolerance.

'Reaper' - Looks like the Devil has himself a new bounty hunter to replace Ezekiel Stone from 'Brimstone'. Just from that alone, I'm thinking I could fudge a connection between the two shows and an IDD compadre of mine, Listener Mara, once gave me the goods on how to connect 'Brimstone' to 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer'. So it's all good in the realm of the bad.

'Gossip Girl': Television sucks another outside source into its great maw with this adaptation of some book series. An anonymous blogger (with the voice of Kristen Bell - didn't take her long to land a new gig post-'Veronica Mars') relates the stories of the rich upper-class kids who attend the best of the best in private schools here in Manhattan.

I don't know why this is always so, but people like to watch that kind of character. 'Dallas', 'The Young & The Restless'.... Not that it's a guaranteed lock, but it probably will grab the teen girl demographic at least.

Had this been on ABC, it might have been nice for some of these kids to go on a school field trip to Mode on 'Ugly Betty'. Hopefully one of those private schools will have a name which we've heard before in some other show.....

'Life is Wild' for a NYC veterinarian who moves his second wife and 'Brady Bunch' blend of kids to a South African game reserve run by his father-in-law.

Bet he can't get far enough away from their past lives - as in ex-spouses.

My wish-craft? Somehow I can link this to 'Daktari'!

So here's the sked for the CW's fall primetime:

MONDAY
8:00-8:30 PM "Everybody Hates Chris"
8:30-9:00 PM "Aliens in America" (New Series)
9:00-9:30 PM "Girlfriends"
9:30-10:00 PM "The Game"

TUESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM "Beauty and the Geek"
9:00-10:00 PM "Reaper" (New Series)

WEDNESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM "America's Next Top Model"
9:00-10:00 PM "Gossip Girl" (New Series)

THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 PM "Smallville"
9:00-10:00 PM "Supernatural"

FRIDAY
8:00-10:00 PM "Friday Night Smackdown!"

SATURDAY
::crickets chirp:

SUNDAY
7:00-7:30 PM "Online Nation" (New Series)
7:30-8:00 PM "CW Now" (New Series)
8:00-9:00 PM "Life is Wild" (New Series)
9:00-10:00 PM "America's Next Top Model" (Encore)

BCnU!
The Toby OB