ABC Does the Dozens

Seems to me that ABC is really gunning to win Wednesdays and Thursdays - Wednesdays with all new shows built around the "sure thing" hit Private Practice (plus Lost in the spring), and Thursdays with the already solid Betty-Grey's team followed by whatever "Big Shots" is. Friday night might do okay, too, with the well-liked Men in Trees (although losing the Grey's lead-in will hurt) and the always well-rated 20/20.

But is it just me, or is ABC basically forfeiting Monday and Tuesday nights. I guess I can understand the Monday night lineup as female-oriented counter-programming to Monday Night Football, but the two comedies on Tuesday look awful, and I can't imagine a Dancing with the Stars Results Show will be a strong lead-in to the highly underrated and underappreciated (yet very popular) Boston Legal.

James, is there a sense that ABC is only looking for solid Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, and letting the rest of its schedule fall apart in the hopes of gaining some consistent traction?

(By the way, count me in for Pushing Daisies....the premise is slightly weird, but the show sounds fantastic according to everyone I've read....then again, critics loved "The Nine", so...)

@Chaddogg:

Well, every network wants to win every night. But if you've got a lot of holes, you need to concentrate where you have the best chance, and if you succeed, build on that next year. If you try to do it all at once, you'll probably fail all at once. (That may explain, for instance, why NBC is not replacing even more of its schedule.)

I don't know that skedding Dancing with the Stars counts as forfeiting the two nights. However, although I am hardly a Boston Legal fan, I suppose you could make the case it may have made a better fit, say, on Wednesday. But honestly, what *would* have made a good lead-out from the Dancing results show? You'd need a show about a retired teacher who solves crimes with her sassy granddaughter and an angel or something.

Honestly, I like Men in Trees as a lead out for Dancing with the Stars. I think it'd be a better fit, at least.

Then again, I'd be pretty angry if ABC gave the guilty pleasure of Boston Legal the "death sentence" of scheduling it on Friday, so I don't suppose I know what my point is.

James, here is a good question though for a TV critic: why is winning Thursday night viewed as more "important" in some ways than Monday or Tuesday night? I mean, the coveted 18-30 age bracket (of which I'm still a member) tends to view Thursday nights as the start of the weekend/date night - wouldn't a network do better to focus on Sunday-Wednesday (when that age bracket is arguably watching TV) and relegate Thursday-Saturday to stuff aimed at an older (or even younger) audience (that is more likely to be home)? I've heard movie advertising has something to do with this, but I don't buy that - why is a movie ad on Thursday more powerful than one on Tuesday (particularly when the movie is already in theaters by Thursday)?

@ Chaddogg, re Thursday: More $$$. Movie/weekend advertising is a spur (a certain newsmagazine I know moved its publication date from Monday to Friday recently). But also IIRC Thursday is statistically the most-viewed night of TV of the week. So it's the bigger prize.

I've heard rumors that Caveman is dead in the water and being shopped around as I type this. Part of me hope this is true, only because they've already lost their luster on me.