TV Talk: Broadcast networks announce fall schedules

Stability is the strategy most broadcast networks are using for fall, adding just a few new shows and keeping their prime-time lineups largely intact.

ABC

Aside from “Big Sky” moving to 10 p.m. Thursday and “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” joining “Supermarket Sweep” on Sunday, ABC’s prime-time schedule will look largely familiar with just two new additions:

“Queens” (10 p.m. Tuesday, WTAE-TV): Basically the dramatic version of “Girls5eva” as four women in their 40s reunite their ‘90s-era hip hop group.

“The Wonder Years” (8:30 p.m. Wednesday): Reboot of the ‘80s classic set in the 1960s this time focused on a Black middle-class family in Alabama. Don Cheadle narrates.

ABC canceled “American Housewife, “Call Your Mother,” “For Life,” “Mixed-ish” and “Rebel.” “Black-ish” returns at midseason for its eighth and final season.

CBS

CBS made the most schedule changes, moving long-running hit “NCIS” from Tuesday to 9 p.m. Monday after “The Neighborhood” and “Bob (Hearts) Abishola” and leading into the new “NCIS: Hawai’i.”

Tuesday becomes a destination for “FBI,” “FBI: International” and “FBI: Most Wanted.” “Bull” moves to 10 p.m. Thursday and “S.W.A.T.” will lead off Friday.

Midseason show “Smallwood,” starring Pete Holmes as real-life pro bowler Tom Smallwood, marks Mt. Lebanon native David Hollanders first half-hour comedy that hell executive produce.

New fall series will be:

“NCIS: Hawai’i” (10 p.m. Monday, KDKA-TV): Vanessa Lachey stars in the latest “NCIS” spin-off.

“FBI: International” (9 p.m. Tuesday): “FBI” spin-off set in Prague with the FBI’s International Fly Team.

“CSI: Vegas” (10 p.m. Wednesday): Original “CSI” stars William Petersen, Jorja Fox and Wallace Langham will be joined by newcomers in this sequel series.

“Ghosts” (9 p.m. Thursday): A freelance journalist (Rose McIver) and a chef (Utkarsh Ambudkar) convert a country estate into a bed and breakfast only to find it haunted. Written and executive produced by Joe Wiseman and Altoona native Joe Port.

CBS canceled “All Rise,” “MacGyver,” “Mom,” “NCIS: New Orleans” and “The Unicorn.”

CBS’s “Evil” (entering season two) and “SEAL Team” (going into season five) will move from linear TV on CBS to streaming service Paramount+. Trade outlets report negotiations are ongoing for “Clarice” to also move to Paramount+ (it won’t be back on CBS).

Fox

Fox, in its last year of Thursday night NFL games, adds two new one-hour dramas and one reality competition to its fall schedule:

“The Big Leap” (9 p.m. Monday, WPGH-TV): Scott Foley stars as the producer of a reality dance competition series.

“Our Kind of People” (9 p.m. Tuesday): A drama about a wealthy Black community on Martha’s Vineyard starring Morris Chestnut (“The Resident”) and Yaya DaCosta (“Chicago Fire).

“Alter Ego” (9 p.m. Wednesday): Singing competition.

Fox canceled “Bless the Harts,” “The Moodys” and “Prodigal Son.”

NBC

NBC’s fall schedule is most notable for its lack of any comedies (the network will air all of the final season of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” after the Olympics in late summer). Comedies (three returning, two new) will return in early 2022.

NBC will hold the final, 18-episode season of partially Pittsburgh-set “This is Us” until early 2022 so episodes can air in as uninterrupted a manner as possible.

“The Voice” will only have one cycle (in the fall) during the 2021-22 TV season.

NBC will add three new dramas this fall:

“Ordinary Joe” (10 p.m. Monday): James Wolk stars as a man who faces a decision with three options at his college graduation. The series tracks what happens to Joe in each of three parallel timelines.

“La Brea” (9 p.m. Tuesday): Basically an update of “Land of the Lost” as a sinkhole opens in Los Angeles, pulling hundreds of people into a primeval land.

“Law & Order: For the Defense” (8 p.m. Thursday): The franchise expands to look at cases from the point of view of a criminal defense firm.

NBC has yet to make a decision on the fates of “Debris,” “Ellen’s Game of Games,” “Good Girls,” “Manifest” and “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.”

The CW

The CW already renewed most of its current lineup and will announce its fall schedule next week.

To make room for new series, The CW will expand its primetime scheduled to include 8-10 p.m. on Saturday for the first time in the network’s history when it launches its new season on Oct. 2. (The network will return 3-4 p.m. weekday afternoons to its affiliates.)

Canceled/revived/reunited

“The Ellen Degeneres Show” will end its run after 19 years in daytime in May 2022.

The unscripted “Friends” cast reunion, which once upon a time would have just been a sweeps month episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” debuts as an over-hyped streaming special on HBO Max May 27.

HBO Max will revive “Project Greenlight” as an all-women movie-making competition with Issa Rae (“Insecure”) producing.

Channel surfing

Murrysville native Jason Kilar, the 50-year-old WarnerMedia CEO, may be the odd man out with the surprise news this week that WarnerMedia will merge with Discovery Networks. The merger will create a mega-media company that will be headed by Discovery’s David Zaslav, who was non-committal on Kilar’s role running WarnerMedia going forward and hours later The New York Times reported Kilar may be negotiating his exit. … Amazon’s “A League of Their Own” series, filming in Western Pennsylvania July-October, seeks adult female and male athletes ages 19-45 who have knowledge and experience playing baseball or softball to portray 1940s baseball players. Apply at movieextraspittsburgh.com. … HBO Max with ads will debut June 1 for $10 per month (ad-free version costs $15 per month). It does not​ include access to new Warner Bros. movies. Those will only be on ad-free HBO Max. … Thirty former Quibi shows, including “Reno 911!,” are now available for free streaming on Roku devices and at RokuChannel.com. … For May’s Mental Health Month, WQED-TV will air “Orchestrating Change” (4 p.m. Sunday) which previously aired in August on WQED’s World Channel and features an orchestra composed of musicians living with mental illness, including music director and Squirrel Hill native Ronald Braunstein. … WQED debuts its latest program on the regions career trends with “Future Jobs: Starting Over” (8 p.m. May 27).