ABC Fall Lineup

If you watch television you more then likely have seen the new Geico Insurance commercials with the "Cavemen". Well, ABC has just released their new show lineup, and the Cavemen are included.

The rest of the ABC lineup consists of some "old" favorites, new shows, and some shows that ABC is hoping will bank big ratings with a new spin on some old ideas.

The info released today about the new fall lineup is that ABC plans on 11 new shows. They are "Private Practice" which is the spin off of "Grey's Anatomy". "Pushing Daisies" is being added to the ABC Wednesday night lineup and is being billed as a forensic fairy tale. Also being added is a prime time soap opera named "Dirty Sexy Money" about a rich New York family.

ABC's new reality series comes from HARPO Productions (aka Oprah Winfrey) and is a contest in philanthropy. Some more of the new shows are titled "Big Shots" about hard partying friends and CEO's. "Cashmere Mafia" is being seen as the next "Sex in the City" dealing with 4 women juggling life and friendship in New York. "Eli Stone" is a lawyer in San Francisco that has a brain aneurysm and starts to have visions. James Patterson novels are being brought to life in "Women's Murder Club" the women in the club will work together to solve crimes. If you want to see men from different backgrounds get together each day for a ride to work, then the new show "Carpoolers" is for you. If you were a geek in school and were endless tortured by the perfect cheerleader then "Miss/Guided" may interest you this fall. Christina Applegate takes a stab at television yet again in "Sam I Am".

How will the lineup look in our TV Guides this fall? ABC has released the show positioning as:

MONDAYS

8PM - DANCING WITH THE STARS

9:30PM - SAM I AM (Christina Applegate)

10PM - THE BACHELOR

TUESDAYS

8PM - CAVEMEN

8:30 - CARPOOLERS

9PM - DANCING WITH THE STARS (results show)

10PM - BOSTON LEGAL

WEDNESDAYS

8PM - PUSHING DAISIES

9PM - PRIVATE PRACTICE (Grey's spin off)

10PM - DIRTY SEXY MONEY

THURSDAYS

8PM - UGLY BETTY

9PM - GREY'S ANATOMY

10PM - BIG SHOTS (Dylan McDermott, Christopher Titus, Joshua Malina and Michael Vartan)

FRIDAYS

8PM - MEN IN TREES

9PM - WOMEN'S MURDER CLUB

10PM - 20/20

SATURDAYS

8PM - COLLEGE FOOTBALL

SUNDAYS

7PM - AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS

8PM - EXTREME MAKEOVER (home edition)

9PM - DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES

10PM - BROTHERS AND SISTERS

As you can see there are some shows missing from the new lineup. ABC chose to cancel the following shows: "George Lopez," "Help Me Help You" and "Knights of Prosperity." The fate of "According to Jim" is still unknown. All that is known at this time is that "According to Jim" will not air in the fall lineup.

Here's my take. The spin off from "Grey's" titled "Private Practice" will most likely do well, if ABC can carry over the fan base from the original "Grey's Anatomy". "Pushing Daisies" will do well for a few episodes and then fall in ratings because there are so many top rated forensic shows coming over the air waves right now. "Dirty Sexy Money" seems to be too similar to the FX show of "The Riches" and will most likely not take off well. While the commercials with "Cavemen" were somewhat funny in the beginning ABC should have built a show around the Geico Gecko instead. The new reality series "Oprah's Big Give" will maybe last the season just for the HARPO Production name but reality is getting old quickly. The comedy show "Big Shots" is reminding me of a show on CBS called "How I Met Your Mother" which seems to do decent, it maybe a hit for ABC. In their hopes of being the next "Sex In The City" I think ABC will fall short with "Cashmere Mafia", trying to recreate but be different then "Sex" is pretty much impossible to do. "Eli Stone" could be interesting and do well, if it is scripted and cast properly. "Women's Murder Club" sounds to be getting fairly close to another forensic type show and I already mentioned my thoughts on that. The new comedy "Carpoolers" is not appealing in the least and sounds quite boring. "Miss/Guided" I think will do well in the age of "Ugly Betty" and the other type shows were the underdog finally somehow prevails. Christina Applegates next television debut seems a little dated and uninteresting in the aspect that her character was in a coma and comes to, only to find out she was a mean person before the coma.

I completely am guessing that half the new shows will not be around for another season or will not make it a whole season through due to poor ratings or poor casting. I hope that the shows do well, and that there is finally something entertaining to watch every night of the week. However, I seriously doubt it.

Best we can do I suppose is watch a few episodes of the shows that seem interesting and see how we as viewers feel after that. Happy Ratings to all the networks and good luck in sweeps season!