05 December 2006

ABC moves Lost to 10pm

ABC is shoring up its Wednesday night line up this January in preparation for the return of Lost on February 7. The alphabet net will outfit the night with a comedy block starting January 3 with back-to-back episodes of veteran sitcoms According to Jim at 8pm, followed by two new shows, The Knights of Prosperity and In Case of Emergency. George Lopez returns January 24, bumping Jim back to 8pm.

This means when Lost returns, it will be in the 10pm slot (its third timeslot change in as many years), safely away from, it seems, FOX’s American Idol and even CBS’ Criminal Minds, which beat Lost a few times during its fall run. The move to 10 will also solve ABC’s other problem, which was the viewer fall-off from Lost’s lead-in, and there is hope, also, that by moving the show to the last hour of prime time it will also have a less competition, as it will air opposite CBS’ CSI: NY and NBC’s Medium.

The bad news for the two new comedies is that they will be left to fend for themselves against Criminal and Idol.
The new schedule also reflects the quiet departure of the Taye Diggs series Day Break. ABC made no mention what will happen to the series, which was originally planned to stay on through January. As of right now, the last episode of Day Break will air on December 27.

The Knights of Prosperity, whose premiere date was pushed back from October, stars Donal Logue (Grounded for Life) as a sad-sack janitor who organizes a group of very amateur thieves to rob the palatial apartment of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger (who has a cameo in the pilot). In Case of Emergency features David Arquette, Kelly Hu, Jonathan Silverman and Greg Germann as former high-school classmates whose lives didn't quite turn out as they planned.

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