If you were looking to The CW to lead the way in television revolution, forget it. The 2009 fall season motto is “more of the same, whether you want it or not.” Nowhere is this more evidenced than the return to the 1992 primetime lineup of 90210 and Melrose Place. The names and faces may have changed, but it’s still the same vapid conflama nearly 20 years warmed over.

Speaking of vapid, Gossip Girl and America’s Next Top Model marshal on, despite cast turmoil and tabloid conspiracies. They even get a new playmate in The Beautiful Life, an Ashton Kutcher produced drama about young male and female models thrust into the harsh world of fashion. Can you smell a cross-promotion with Bruno? I thought you could.

If you like things that go bump in the night, the network pairs fan favorite Supernatural with Twilight-lite in the form of Vampire Diaries. Those still reeling from the loss of CBS’ Moonlight and Joss Whedon’s Angel will find solace here. Of course, this means moving Smallville to the graveyard shift on Friday’s at 8p, which is the same as hospice for series waiting to die.

Finally, stalwart teen-turned-adult drama One Tree Hill — whose writing team includes former DVD Verdict staffer Terry Coli — looks to be on its last legs, jettisoning lead Chad Michael Murray for Season 7. But rest assured the network will nurture another similar series to take its place.

To summarize: The sitcoms are gone. Weekend programming is no more. And quirky new series like Reaper have been put to death. Long live The CW drama queens.

Riding high from this past season, CBS is doing very little to mess with the magic they have going. Like ABC, they aren’t planning a split season, so what you see is what you get… until ratings prove otherwise.

Monday’s comedy block remains in tact, with Big Bang Theory moving into the 9:30p slot, showing confidence in their rising star, while offering Sheldon and the boys an opportunity to become a bit more naughty. Dumping Worst Week and Rules of Engagement, a new player surfaces at 8:30p in the form of Accidentally on Purpose. The Jenna Elfman driven sitcom focuses on a San Francisco film critic who “accidentally” finds herself with child and all the comedy that ensues. Extras Ashley Jensen co-stars.

Tuesday remains heavily procedural with Mark Harmon’s NCIS, paired with its Chris O’Donnell / LL Cool J spinoff NCIS: Los Angeles, and followed by yet another legal-themed vehicle for ER’s Julianna Marguiles. This time, she’s a politician’s Good Wife who revives her career as a successful defense attorney.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday remain virtually untouched from 2008, with returning fan favorite The Mentalist taking over for the failed Eleventh Hour, and NBC’s castoff Medium filling in the Friday spot vacated by the dismal Ex-List.

Saturday warms two hours worth of leftovers, repeating hour-longs people might have missed during the week — a cheap but odd choice, given that so many shows are now available On Demand and online. And Sunday jettisons The Unit, moving Cold Case an hour later to make room for Three Rivers, a new medical drama about organ transplant patients.

It’s a tame, but solid schedule for the 35-85 age group. Then again, that’s what CBS has long been known for.

Of the major network schedules released thus far, ABC has hired the biggest cleaning team. While not playing their winter schedule hand just yet, ABC has unveiled no less than 8 new series for the fall, half of which are sitcoms. Who said the format was dead? Hank is a new vehicle for Kelsey Grammar, a Wall Street power broker who loses his job and is forced to return to his small town family. The Middle stars Patricia Heaton, Grammar’s most recent co-star, as the matriarch of a dysfunctional midwest family. Married with Children’s Ed O’Neill returns to primetime with Modern Family, a mockumentary which follows the lives of three suburban couples — traditional, multiethnic, and gay. Finally, Scrubs showrunner Bill Lawrence brings Courtney Cox center stage for Cougar Town, focusing on a newly single 40 year mom of a teenage son. The title has double meaning, in that the Cougar is also the high school mascot.

Fan favorites Castle and Private Practice have made the cut, holding onto their current time slots. But Ugly Betty has been given a slow death, moved to Friday night between Super Nanny and 20/20. Unless the diehards turn out in force, this one is not likely to make it to midseason. Better Off Ted and Scrubs both return for shorter seasons, with Scrubs to undergo a yet to be fully explained restructuring in format and cast lineup.

On to the new stuff. Producer Mark Burnett continues to play both sides of the pond, adapting the BBC’s reality series Dragon’s Den for ABC as The Shark Tank. Contestants pitch new business venture ideas to a team of investors and only the strongest survive. Jerry Bruckheimer gets another hour-long drama on the tube with The Forgotten, in which a team of quirky detectives work to solve cases involving unidentified victims. The real head-scratcher is that they already had The Unusuals and canceled it in favor of just another variation on a theme.

The undiscovered gem in this lineup is Eastwick, as series based on the John Updike’s Witches of Eastwick which was turned into a cult classic film starring Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Rebecca Romjin and Lindsay Price headline the new show, directed by the darkly inventive David Nutter (Supernatural, X-Files, Millennium).

The longshot here is Flash Forward, ABC’s attempt to hook Lost’s core audience before it disperses. The sci-fi series created by David Goyer (Batman Begins) and Brannon Braga (Star Trek franchise), explores the fallout of a global event in which the entire world’s population blacks out for 2 minutes, leaving millions dead in its wake and survivors with a disturbing glimpse into their own future.

ABC will be more willing to share their winter plans, once the fall starts to shake out, but rest assured the finale season of Lost will be the headlining act.

Source: Variety.com

Fox announces its Fall and Winter schedules today, with not a great deal of change from 2008. Fans of JJ Abrams’ Fringe and Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse will be happy to see their shows return for sophomore seasons. Seth MacFarlane increases his grip on Sunday nights with the introduction of Family Guy spinoff The Cleveland Show. The only other new entry is the sitcom Brothers, starring former NY Giants’ defensive end and current Fox commentator Michael Strahan. The show’s 13 episode run centers on Strahan’s relationship with his wheelchair bound brother (Daryl Chill Mitchell, Ed) and their mother (CCH Pounder, The Shield). Fox is bustin’ a big move on Tuesday’s by making So You Think You Can Dance? their companion to American Idol, which will return for its ninth season in January, with or without Simon Cowell.

Speaking of the winter, Fox opens up the schedule a bit with the introduction of three midseason replacements. Human Target revives the old DC Comics character with Watchmen’s Jackie Earle Haley and Pushing Daisies‘ Chi McBride fronting the action. Reaper’s Tyler Labine fronts the family comedy Sons of Tucson, in which three brothers hire a small-time hustler to play their dad, while their real father is in jail. And finally West Wing’s Richard Schiff headlines the paranormal drama Past Lives which follows a group of investigators who utilize their client’s past lives to help solve cases.

When other networks are cleaning house for increasing costs and low ratings, it’s nice to see Fox standing beside some of their fan favorites.

Source: Variety.com