TVSquad

Brad told you a couple of weeks ago about the new shows on The CW this fall. The network put aside Sunday nights in order to have Media Rights Capital program the night as it pleased, as an experiment. Now, the lineup that MRC has come up with has been released. The network has put all four shows into production immediately (no pilots) so they'll be ready for fall. The shows will run from 7pm to 10pm. Note: sorry Moonlight fans, your show didn't make it.

Actually, NBC already had its upfront over a month ago. This is a "spotlight event," a Part 2, if you will (a walk-thru set up at 30 Rock for advertisers and the media), but they did make some interesting announcements today.

This biggest announcement (though hardly a surprise at this point) was that Jimmy Fallon will take over on Late Night when Conan O'Brien takes over for Jay Leno. This will happen next year.

Here are some of the other announcements made at today's even and a recap of the new shows and the shows that have been canceled. And in this post, I promise not to fail you, rainbow chicken.

NBC is trying to get a head start on all of the other networks by unveiling their new fall schedule not in the traditional month of May but six weeks earlier.

The network has announced that instead of unveiling their 2008-09 schedule in May, when all of the networks give their upfront presentations, they're going to do it a press conference next week. The press conference will be held at Rockefeller Plaza and will be headed by NBC chairman Ben Silverman and Universal Media Studios chairman Marc Graboff.

We cover the network upfronts (that week in may when ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX unveil their new shows) pretty extensively here at TV Squad. But that's a May tradition that might have seen its last days.

NBC head Jeff Zucker says that because of the writers strike, NBC might not do an upfront at all this year. They certainly won't do a big presentation at Radio City Music Hall, though they will still use that time to "sell the inventory." In fact, Zucker says that the upfronts might be a thing of the past even if there wasn't a writers strike going on.

Another fall, another new fall season. Not all of the new shows can survive, of course, and it usually takes a few weeks to figure out what shows are in trouble of being canceled (or, as they say in network-speak, "on hiatus"). We'd like to see new shows get more time to catch on, but thems the breaks. One show has already been pulled from the schedule, FOX's Nashville, but what about other new shows?

Out of the dozens and dozens of shows that go to pilot every season, we only see a handful. Some of them vanish forever and some might end up online in one way or another.

Below is a list of ten shows that didn't make the fall schedule on the networks this year. Some of them might show up midseason, but most won't. And just for a little added fun, I've included three shows that are completely made up. Can you tell which ones they are? I'll answer in the comments later tonight (and don't go looking online for the answer; that's no fun). The shows are listed after the jump. Some of them sound crazy, but hey, if you told me two years ago that those Geico cavemen commercials would be a series...

• Two guys play the Beverly Hills, 90210 theme on one guitar.
• More talk about a merger between CBS and CNN.
• This fall's new shows can teach you a lot about life.
• The season is over, so why not catch up on some reading?
• Star airbrushes Jennifer Aniston.
• Rate the season at AOL Television's Best and Worst poll.
• Mo Rocca hangs out with Former President Bill Clinton.

The new fall season isn't etched in stone yet. The networks could still make some changes, especially when it comes to time slots. But also to the casts that were in the pilots for the new shows.

Case in point, Moonlight. The new CBS vampire private eye show is already looking for a new leading lady to play opposite Alex O'Loughlin. Shannon Lucio was his romantic partner in the pilot, but they're getting rid of her and looking for someone else for the role. Lucio was formerly on The O.C.

Moonlight will air on Friday nights at 9 this fall, after the renewed Ghost Whisperer.

Entertainment Weekly's Dalton Ross gives his list for the best and worst pilots he's seen, and he doesn't really like Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. In fact, he calls it "underwhelming," and he's amazed by the "awfulness" of Amanda Peet.

In other observations, he calls Twenty Good Years "excruciating," Ugly Betty "mindless fun," and The Nine "the best new show."

I don't know, I really liked Studio 60's pilot. Do I think it's at West Wing or Sports Night level yet? No, of course not, it's just a pilot. But it's very good, and with Sorkin behind it and the great cast, I have really high hopes for it.

Matthew Gilbert has an interesting article in The Boston Globe, about the new season of shows and how TV shows are now more complicated than ever (but that's a good thing). Not just returning shows like 24 and Lost, but new complex series like DayBreak, Kidnapped, and Vanished.

One page that the print edition of the Globe has that the web site doesn't (at least I couldn't find it) is Gilbert's grades for all the new shows. Quick summary: he thinks the best new shows are The Nine, Studio 60, Heroes, Six Degrees, Smith, The Knights of Prosperity, and Justice. The worst are Happy Hour, Twenty Good Years, and Help Me Help You.

Mysterious billboards are beginning to pop up around Los Angeles. The one on the right says only "What Happened In There?" (as the Franklin Avenue blog points out, the second "e" is a backwards 9) and then gives the web site OnlyTheyKnow.com. Something for Lost or The Hanso Foundation?

Nope, but it's similar advertising, for ABC's new fall show The Nine, which TV Guide says is the best new show (Keith likes it alot too). The site gives a preview of the show and offers grainy security camera profiles of each character.

[via TV Tattle]

• "If you voted for me, I'm going to hug you." Who said it? George Bush, John O'Hurley, or Ace Young? The answer.
• Stephen King couldn't care less that Katie Couric is leaving The Today Show. He tells us what he watches in the morning.
  
• Gillian Flynn likes Dirty Jobs.
• 97% of this issue is taken up by a big Summer Movie Preview, but there's some TV stuff in here too: Ken Tucker absolutely hates the first season DVD set of American Dad (he gives it an F), and Gillian Flynn gives The Unit a B-; Whitney Pastorek compares the American Idol singers to the Nashville Star singers; Lou Ferrigno (yes, Lou Ferrigno) reviews Ghost Whisperer; and there's a handy chart to some new shows that are battling for a spot on the fall sked, including Andy Richter's new PI comedy, Andy Barker, P.I., and the superhero shows Ultra and Aquaman.