TVSquad

It was finally ABC's turn to unveil its winter schedule yesterday. There aren't many surprises in it except that Lost, as rumored, will now air on a new night and that Big Shots, who was benched last week, will get a fifth another chance. ABC's winter programming will also include the premieres of Cashmere Mafia, Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann, Eli Stone and Oprah's Big Give and the return of a few reality series, such as Supernanny and Wife Swap, to fill the void left when scripted series will have aired all their new episodes.

Even more series and season premieres rule Thursday...

• At 8, NBC has the one-hour season premiere of My Name Is Earl, then the one-hour season premiere of The Office and the season premiere of ER.
• ABC has the season premiere of Ugly Betty, then the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy and the series premiere of Big Shots.
• CBS has a new Survivor: China, followed by the season premieres of CSI and Without A Trace.
• There's a new Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader on FOX at 8, then a new Don't Forget The Lyrics.
• The CW has the season premiere of Smallville, then a repeat of the Reaper debut.
• At 9, PBS has a Political Forum with Republican candidates, hosted by Tavis Smiley.
• At 10, AMC has a new Mad Men.
• Food Network has a new Ace of Cakes at 10.
• FX has a new It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia at 10.
• Also at 10: Bravo has a new Tim Gunn's Guide To Style.
• At 11:30, STARZ has a repeat of the first episode of Richard Roeper's series STARZ Inside, focusing on "Fog City Mavericks" such as George Lucas, Clint Eastwood, and Francis Ford Coppola.

Check your local TV listings for more.

It turns out that Charisma Carpenter will not be on the celebrity version of NBC's The Apprentice, as reported last week. There goes one of the only reasons some of us would have tuned in for Trump's show.

Not to worry, Charisma will still grace a small screen near you doing what she does best since Angel got canceled: guest star. (It's a shame that she doesn't get a regular role on a TV series... or maybe the actress prefers doing guest starring and not be attached to any specific project?)

TV Guide announced earlier today that the actress best known for her role as Cordelia Chase will appear in one episode of FOX's Back to You and has landed a recurring role on ABC's Big Shots.

It seems like Rob Thomas is going through a mid-career crisis. After his series Veronica Mars was not renewed by the CW network back in May, Thomas has been floating around the television world looking for a new venture. Back in early July he was picked to head up the new ABC series Miss/Guided. However, two weeks later he left his position as executive producer and showrunner under the "creative differences" umbrella (I wonder if I could use that line when I leave my IT position).

Now, according to our dear, dear friend Michael Ausiello over at TV Guide, Thomas has joined Big Shots (another ABC show) as a consulting producer. He will be in good company this time around as the executive producers of the show, Danielle Stokdyk and Jennifer Gwartz, were former producers on Veronica Mars.

Ladies and gentleman, after poring over the material given to us during the network upfronts, viewing preview clips of all the new fall shows, and reading your opinions about it all, I have one thing to say about the upcoming 2007-2008 television season . . .

Meh.

This is one of the blandest fall seasons I have seen in a long time. Sure, there are a few shows that seem promising and mildly entertaining, but nothing that really popped out at me as a clear hit, nothing that got me excited. When I thought about it further I realized why that was: the new season is lacking hype, something that last season had a crapload of.