Next week will mark the busiest fall TV season opening week in years, with ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox all rolling out an aggressive schedule of season premieres and new shows. But this week, as the countdown to the 2010-11 TV season gets nearer to launch, there's STILL a lot going on...
Last week, CW jumped the gun (though not the shark) by premiering two new series, Hellcats and Nikita (starring Maggie Q, shown here), and presenting season premieres of two others, America's Next Top Model and The Vampire Diaries. Also last week, Fox presented the season premieres of two of television's most tenured prime-time series, COPS and America's Most Wanted.
Cable, which used to zag when the network zigged, no longer blinks when it comes to playing the fall TV version of chicken. Last week, FX premiered one new series (Terriers) and unveiled the season premiere of another (Sons of Anarchy). And Sunday night, while MTV mounted its annual Video Music Awards, AMC offered fresh episodes of both Mad Men and Rubicon, while HBO proudly presented season finales of True Blood, Hung and Entourage.
And now, the week BEFORE the fall season... and look what's up:
MONDAY, Sept. 13 -- CW continues its early rollout with season premieres of 90210 and Gossip Girls.
TUESDAY, Sept. 14 -- CW, again, this time with season premieres of One Tree Hill and Life Unexpected. And NBC, trying to get a head start, presents the second-season premiere of Parenthood.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 15 -- CBS jumps in a week early with Survivor: Nicaragua, featuring former NFL coach Jimmy Johnson and teams divided into old vs. young. (Guess which team HE'S on.) And speaking of jumping in early, NBC uses the night to offer a sneak preview of Outlaw, its new Jimmy Smits series.
THURSDAY, Sept. 16 -- NBC presents the newest edition of The Apprentice, this time a NON-celebrity edition. (And, on cable, FX presents season premieres of The League and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.)
FRIDAY, Sept. 17 -- NBC gives the premiere of Outlaw a same-week repeat, and on cable, HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher returns after a summer hiatus. Yet the biggest news on this day arrives prior to prime time: After 54 years, CBS's As the World Turns stops turning.
SUNDAY, Sept. 19 -- On an otherwise slow weekend comes the arrival of the best new series of the season: HBO's Boardwalk Empire.
And THEN the season starts, officially and almost frantically...