The good news is that television's most important night has become its best night as well. The bad news is, this can't last.
These are “Shark”-infested waters, and not every show will be a survivor. It will be “deal” for some, “no deal” for others. It could get ugly, Betty.
For starters, ABC has moved “Grey's Anatomy” into the heart of the Thursday schedule, at 8 p.m. (KMBC-9), against “C.S.I.” on CBS (KCTV-5). (All times Central.) ABC is flanking “Grey's” with two of its most promising new shows in the hopes of growing a hit lineup overnight. It's a huge gamble, and you ask why ABC is taking it.
Blame the sponsor. This is the last night of TV before the weekend, and movie studios and other advertisers spend billions of dollars a year for commercials on Thursdays, more than any other night of the week.
ABC has been wanting a piece of that action for approximately, ohhhh, ever. “My So-Called Life” died on a Thursday night. So did “Nothing Sacred,” “Murder One” and just about everything else ABC tried on Thursdays going back to “Barney Miller.”
But with TV's hottest, soapiest show moving into the 8 p.m. time slot, ABC can't lose, right?
In case you've forgotten a single juicy storyline from last season, yet another “Grey's Anatomy” clip show will air at 7 tonight on KMBC-9, followed by the third season premiere at 8.
All that Peter Horton, the “Grey's” executive producer I spoke with this week, would say about Thursday's episode is that Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) will make her choice between Patrick “McDreamy” Dempsey and Chris “Guest Star” O'Donnell “pretty quickly.” No season-long sturm and drang for this show.
That's followed by “Six Degrees,” which ABC thinks will be a good fit with “Grey's” because the stars are young, smart and looking for love. The wonderful Hope Davis (“American Splendor”) and Campbell Scott head a group of six actors who begin as strangers in New York City. Then, as the title suggests, they'll slowly discover they can play the Kevin Bacon game with each other.
I liked “Six Degrees,” but production ran aground this summer, a producer left and Horton was brought in from the “Grey's” set to help show-doctor “Six Degrees” back to health.
“If you'd talked to me two weeks ago I'd have been very cautious about this show's prospects,” Horton said in an interview from New York. “But now it's really getting on its feet.”
Whereas “Grey's” is a “practical” show, he said “Six Degrees” is “ineffable, mysterious … it's about coincidences that may not be coincidences.” Just because something's ineffable, though, doesn't mean you can't cram a lot of s-e-x into it.
Thursdays will get even better next week with the debut of “Ugly Betty” at 7 on ABC. Based on a popular Spanish-language telenovela, this irresistible comedy revolves around a spunky, chunky girl (America Ferrera) whose, uh, unique fashion sense can't stop her from getting into the world of fashion journalism. When she strolls into Mode magazine wearing a blaring red poncho that reads, “Guadalajara,” the receptionist thinks she's part of a makeover shoot. “Are you the 'before'?” she asks Betty.
But our hero gets hired anyway because, it turns out, a garishly dressed brace-face is about the only girl that Daniel Meade (Eric Mabius), Mode's callow editor-in-chief, will keep his hands off of.
By the second episode, these two are forging an appealing alliance. Daniel, who got his job through nepotism, realizes he has an empire to run … and that Betty can help him run it. First, though, they must get past Daniel's rival at Mode, the deliciously villainous Wilhemina (Vanessa Williams).
An even bigger challenge might be staying on the ABC schedule. At 7 p.m., “Ugly Betty” is up against CBS's “Survivor,” which has found new life through racial diversity, and NBC's “My Name Is Earl,” which is officially overrated now that its creator Greg Garcia has won an Emmy. The trailer-trash humor of “Earl,” which Garcia lays on thick in tonight's season premiere (7 p.m., KSHB-41), is starting to wear thin.
After that comes “The Office” at 7:30, which isn't for the “Ugly Betty” crowd anyway, red-hot “Deal or No Deal” at 8 and “ER” at 9.
Meanwhile CBS, which has been cleaning up ever since moving “C.S.I.” to this night in 2001, is reloading at 9 p.m. with “Shark.” It stars James Woods as an insufferable, loudmouthed defense attorney who one day has a crisis of self-doubt. But then he switches sides and resumes being insufferable and loudmouthed, this time as a member of the prosecution.
I thought Woods might have been over the top in a scene or two, but when I showed one of those clips to my “Watch the Pilots with Aaron” audience earlier this month, they loved it. Shows you what I know. “Without a Trace,” by the way, isn't MIA. It moved to 9 p.m. Sundays on KCTV-5.
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