More About 2010-2011 Fall Preview Specials

The start of the 2010-2011 television season is only weeks away and if you haven’t been seeing plenty of promotional spots for “hot” new shows, you’re not watching television this summer. NBC seems to be focusing on The Event and The Chase while CBS appears to be favoring $#*! My Dad Says. Personally, I’m most looking forward to ABC’s No Ordinary Family, which is also getting a heavy promotional push.

I wrote about “The NBC Primetime Preview Show” a few weeks ago and at the time it was the only fall preview special I was aware of. As of today, however, all of the networks with the exception of FOX have announced plans for fall preview specials, although only CBS will be airing its special during prime time. NBC, The CW and ABC will make their specials available to individual affiliates, so check your local listings. NBC and The CW already have their specials online as well. Thanks to frequent commenter DuMont for some of the following information.

  • NBC – “The NBC Primetime Preview Show” is available for viewing online and has been/will be broadcast on individual affiliates over the next few weeks — not to mention a variety of cable channels. Read the official press release at the futon critic. No network prime time airing has been announced.

  • The CW – The “2010 CW Fall Preview Special,” hosted by Kristoffer Polaha and Robert Buckley, can be watched online at The CW’s website and will be shown on local affiliates during the next few weeks. No network prime time airing has announced.

  • CBS – The “CBS Fall Preview” will be broadcast by CBS on Monday, September 6th, 2010 from 8:30-9PM with Jerry O’Connell and Jim Belushi as hosts. The special will also be available On Demand through a variety of cable providers while individual affiliates will have the opportunity to repeat the special and make it available on their websites. It may also be made available online. Read the whole press release at the futon critic.

  • ABC – The network will have two “ABC 2010 Red Carpet Premiere Event” specials this year, one focusing on new and returning sitcoms (“Laugh ON”) and another spotlighting the network’s new dramas (“No Ordinary Dramas”). They will both be broadcast on individual stations and might also be made available online. No network prime time airings have been announced but ABC will air them from 5-6PM on Sunday, September 19th.

  • FOX – The “FOX Fall Preview Special” will air on individual stations; no network prime time airing is likely but it may be made available online.

For the record, if anyone is wondering why I write about current fall preview specials here at Television Obscurities, I admit that while the programming isn’t obscure the concept of a fall preview special has fallen out of a favor to such an extent that even though the networks still produce them, not many people actually know they exist.


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8 Replies to “More About 2010-2011 Fall Preview Specials”

  1. I am perplexed at the seeming indifference that network schedulers assign to fall preview specials, especially given that they don’t rate that badly.

    The networks have so much riding upon launching their new shows, and yet most networks leave their fall specials, presenting their best and brightest hopes for the fall season, to local affiliate schedulers, who tend to push them into deadzone timeslots (Saturday at 7:30 pm is popular, as is late afternoon or late late night). I would never allow my prime merchandise to be marketed to so haphazardly.

    I’m pretty sure FOX will come in with a fall preview special, likely distributed to affiliates in the week before premiere week, or perhaps aired at 7:00 or 7:30 pm as part of the Animation Domination toon block. FOX has a lot riding on their fall launches, and I for one would love to see the FOX fall special hosted by Miss Keri Russell and Mr. Will Arnett, who are featured in those witty interplays in the 30-second bumpers for ‘Running Wilde’. Or perhaps the stars of ‘The Good Guys’, a surprisingly addictive series that needs to relaunch itself this fall when it moves over to Fridays.

    And kudos to CBS for airing their special in primetime, and doing a crossover to ‘The Defenders’ along the lines of past ‘CBS Fall Preview’ crossovers to ‘How I Met Your Mother’ or ‘Two and a Half Men’. Some of the most memorable fall preview specials are those where there was a crossover to an existing popular series (‘Get Smart’, ‘Batman’, ‘Love Boat’, ‘Murder She Wrote’).

  2. Locally (in New York), WNBC was supposed to present the “NBC Primetime Preview Show” this past Saturday at 7:30pm- but the station pre-empted their regular schedule {through 10pm} so they could present a N.Y. Giants exhibition football game. However, NY NONSTOP, NBC’s local cable channel, was supposed to carry whatever Channel 4 postponed that night [the “Preview Show”, NBC’s “PERSONS UNKNOWN”, and “LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT”]. But what did I see at 7:30? “LX-TV FIRST LOOK” (a “trendy” local magazine show, and an overused staple of that channel and WNBC-TV)! The listings INSISTED it was going to be the “Preview Show”….I was double-crossed!! Obviously, NBC doesn’t care if their fall preview is scheduled or not on NY NONSTOP or WNBC- just as long as their “bread and butter” programs appear. And what does that tell you about how concerned they are about their fall schedule if nobody sees the preview?

  3. According to Pavan at sitcomsonline, ABC will give a national network run to their two fall preview specials (in addition to the local affiliate and ABC cable runs) on the eve of the launch of the new season, but it will occur as part of their Sunday afternoon schedule:

    Sunday, September 19, 2010:
    ———————————-
    5:00pm ET/4:00pm CT/3:00pm MT-PT ‘ABC 2010 Red Carpet Premiere Event: Laugh ON’ -> Highlighting the Comedy Wednesdays sitcom block.

    5:30pm ET/4:30pm CT/3:30pm MT-PT ‘ABC 2010 Red Carpet Premiere Event: No Ordinary Dramas’ -> Highlighting the new dramas coming to ABC this fall and mid-season.

  4. Well, I got “screwed” again!! This time, NBC’s ‘NY NONSTOP’ cable channel was scheduled to carry “LX-TV FIRST LOOK” at 7:30pm on August 28th, while WNBC-TV in New York was carrying another Giants pre-season football game locally, preempting whatever Channel 4 was supposed to carry from 7 to 10pm (including the final two episodes of NBC’s “PERSONS UNKNOWN”, which again appeared on ‘NY NONSTOP’). What did they show instead? “The NBC Primetime Preview Show”…just the opposite of last week!! AARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!! NEXT Saturday, however, Channel 4 is supposed to present the “Preview Show” at 7pm, right after “NBC NIGHTLY NEWS WITH LESTER HOLT”. We shall see…….

  5. FOX has released to its affiliates the ‘FOX Fall Preview Special’, featuring highlights of the new and returning network series. No word on host yet, but my affiliate has skedded the special three times in local dayparts, Sat.Sep.11 at 4:30 pm, Sun.Sep.12 at 12:30 am (following ‘Brothers’) and Sun.Sep.12 at 5:30 pm.

  6. Yet another fall preview special has popped up on the sked, ‘The CW4Kids Toonzai Friday Fall Preview!’, a special looking at the newly branded CW4Kids Saturday morning kidvid sked. This special is skedded across The CW Daytime network this coming Friday September 3rd at 4 pm followed by a network broadcast of ‘The CW Fall 2010 Preview’ show. Be sure to check local listings as The CW Daytime block varies across the country.

    I note that The CW is the only broadcast network putting forward a kidvid fall preview special this year. There used to be a time when the other seven broadcasters would all have ballyhooed kidvid specials on the September Fridays before their fall skeds debuted, but this year it’s only The CW which is actively marketing its fall kidvid:

    -> FOX pulled out of kidvid a few years back;
    -> MyNet never picked up the reins from the old UPNkids block;
    -> PAXkids was replaced by Qubo on ION, which airs its kidvid lineup on weekdays, and these programs get encored on Saturday mornings on NBC – neither ION nor NBC are running a fall preview for this years line-up, which looks to have modest changes.
    -> CBS has farmed out kidvid to CookieJar, but there is no fall preview coming up. I’m not even sure there’s a change to their line-up this fall.
    -> the ABCkids line-up is mostly programs carried over from the Disney cable network, and the only change I see for this fall is the dropping of the ‘Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’ franchise, and the network pulling back from four hours to three.
    -> I’m not sure what’s changing on PBSkids, but I don’t see any preview special coming up on the grids.

  7. Hey DuMont, thanx for the info, but where are you located, and who’s “your” affiliate? I live in-between NYC and Philly, so I can see FOX on Ch.29 or 5. Unfortunately, they both showed their special today before the baseball game, and of course I had NO idea it was scheduled for today! I know I checked days ago, as I scan the on-line channel guide a week beforehand, but they must have re-scheduled last minute, yes? Anyhoo, I hope its re-broadcast also-any idea when?

  8. The “CBS Fall Preview” broadcast last night did better than I expected; according to TVBytheNumbers it was watched by just over five million viewers with a 1.4/4 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic, improving on the repeat of How I Met Your Mother that aired before it. Last year’s CBS fall preview had only 3.5 million viewers, so that’s an improvement of sorts.

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