Next Season - CW

Oh, CW. You conundrum.

Monday:

- 8pm: Gossip Girl. Sticking with it.

- 9pm: Lily (possibly titled Valley Girl, which works MUCH better IMHO). Don't make the mistake ABC did when spinning off Private Practice from Grey's Anatomy. Be more like Buffy and Angel. Program the spin-off after the original series from the get-go (even if, in this case, a popular character from the original isn't leaving to star in the spin-off). I haven't read the script, I haven't seen the backdoor pilot, but everyone expects this spin-off to be a go series.

Tuesday:

- 8pm: 90210. Deal with it being at 8pm. It hasn't performed much better at 9pm, away from Idol, unlike how Gossip Girl improved when moved to Mondays at 8pm. Use it as a lead-in.

- 9pm: Melrose Place. The obvious choice, I know. Again, script unread, sight unseen, but people expect it to be a go series. Putting the two remakes of old Fox series together isn't necessarily a stroke of genius, but it is a stroke of likeliness and obviousness.

Wednesday:

- 8pm: America's Next Top Model for two cycles, ANTM spin-off Operation Fabulous between cycles. I don't see OF as being strong enough to carry its own hour, and if it was tried at 9pm and failed, CW would be left with another season of using the post-ANTM timeslot for nothing but repeats of one of its drama series, diluting the ratings of the series' first run (seriously, 90210's actual numbers are so blurry for me because it has almost always had a next day rerun).

- 9pm: Vampire Diaries. I haven't done my review of this pilot, but despite my feelings that its oh-so been-there-done-that... one, the CW doesn't seem to really be against retreading old material, and two, I can see it working (despite it not being much more than a talkative version of Twilight). Without a connection to either Gossip Girl or 90210... I say put this in the post-ANTM marquis spot.

Thursday:

- 8pm: Final(?) season of Smallville.

- 9pm: Final(?) season of Supernatural (at least fans tell me that the showrunner has said he mapped out a five season story). Thursdays have worked this season for CW. As long as both components are coming back... don't mess with it.

Friday:

- 8pm: Final(?) season of One Tree Hill. I put this here because I do think the Gossip Girl spin-off will nab the post-GG timeslot, and because of what I'm going to suggest for Sundays.

- 9pm: The Body Politic. Another show I haven't reviewed, and it has the odds stacked against it, being a twenty-something-in-politics show. Hence... put it on after the twenty-something soap opera. The other option if The Beautiful Life (or, actually, a second season of Privileged, which has been rumored for Fridays), but I prefer twenty-somethings in politics over the modeling scripted series in part because I far prefer Minka Kelly to Mischa Barton.

Sunday - give it back to the affiliates. CW doesn't have the money to program more original dramas, and its not developing any comedies (and OF is the original reality show it's developing if I recall correctly... and it's quite possible I don't). If it keeps 7-10pm on Sundays, maybe move my Friday block to 8-10pm on Sundays preceded by a 7pm repeat (i.e. ANTM like in CW's premiere season)... but there are going to be regularly scheduled repeats somewhere on the CWs schedule if it needs to program Sundays... and I abhor regularly scheduled repeats. The movie block has done slightly better than the Jericho repeats, but well enough to warrant another season? I'm not sure.