Reality shows have already replaced the weak links in many TV lineups.
By Stephen Battaglio
New York Daily News

Some of your favorite prime-time shows are about to go on the endangered species list.

It’s pilot season in Hollywood, when network executives are working on new series for next season – some of which will replace those that haven’t been cutting it in the ratings.

Fewer shows are on the chopping block this year because reality programs have already replaced many of the weak links on the network schedules.

But there are still series at every network that will have their producers and actors waiting nervously by the phone when fall schedules are announced early next month.

For example, ABC has yet to decide whether to bring “The Practice” back for another season. The massive failure of the network’s other dramas this season may end up saving the legal series – even though it has been hammered in the ratings since moving from Sunday at 10 p.m. to Monday at 9 p.m.

“I’d pick it up and move it back to Sunday,” said one executive at a competing network.

“Dragnet” – which displaced “The Practice” on Sunday – also has a questionable future. After a strong opening, the cop drama revival starring Ed O’Neill has fallen behind NBC’s “Boomtown” in the time period.

The midseason comedy “My Big Fat Greek Life” hasn’t given CBS much to celebrate on Sunday at 8 p.m. Nor has its companion on the night, the aging Ted Danson comedy “Becker.” Both could be gone.

CBS executives had hoped their first-season Monday sitcom “Still Standing” would hold on to more of its “Everybody Loves Raymond” audience lead-in, but its return seems likely nevertheless.

Whether dramas “Hack,” “The District” and “The Agency” return depend on how much confidence CBS executives have in their new programs currently in development. The better the new shows, the less likely the three middling performers are to come back.

NBC’s “Ed” has been on the bubble the past two seasons, and this year is no different. The network will look at the show’s ratings in its new Friday time period, where it performed decently in its first week.

The network’s Sunday police drama “Boomtown” looked like a goner based on its ratings in the first half of the season. But since “The Practice” moved off that night, “Boomtown” has experienced a boom. It also won a prestigious Peabody Award last week.

“NBC does have a tendency to give dramas it likes time to build an audience,” said Steve Sternberg, an analyst for ad-buying firm Magna Global USA.

The network’s “Good Morning Miami” is not considered a slam dunk to return. But it has a chance since “A.U.S.A.” and “Hidden Hills” are certain to get the ax and NBC executives will already be working overtime to fill vacant comedy slots.

Fox could bring back one of its weak Friday dramas – “Fast Lane” or “John Doe” – but not both.

A second season for “Cedric the Entertainer Presents” is also questionable, especially since midseason sitcom “Wanda at Large” has shown promise on Wednesday.

As for Fox’s two new Sunday comedies, bet on “Oliver Beene” to return, but not “The Grubbs.”

WB still must decide whether to renew “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” spinoff “Angel,” which has a small but rabid and well-organized base of fans.

With “Buffy” not returning to UPN, there is a chance some characters from that show could move to “Angel,” which could make it more attractive to WB.

Comedies “What I Like About You” and “The Jamie Kennedy Experiment” are also maybes to return at this point.

At UPN, the latest incarnation of “The Twilight Zone” is a candidate to join Rod Serling in that big Nielsen race in the sky.

History has shown the best thing a fan can do to save a show is simply to watch it every week.

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(c) 2003, New York Daily News.

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Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

AP-NY-04-07-03 1124EDT

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