Entertainment

TV: Network brings in heavy-hitter 'Grey's Anatomy' to challenge 'CSI' on Thursdays in the fall

10:33 AM CDT on Wednesday, May 17, 2006

By ED BARK / The Dallas Morning News

Blood on the floor will be a certainty when prime time's hottest medical and crime shows collide in the fall.

ABC instigated the battle Tuesday by announcing it will move Grey's Anatomy from Sundays to Thursdays at 8 p.m., where CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation has dominated all comers for several seasons.

In the season-to-date ratings, CSI is averaging 25.2 million viewers a week to rank as TV's most-watched drama series. Grey's Anatomy, which has soared in the ratings since its explosive post-Super Bowl cliffhanger, is drawing 19.9 million viewers a week.

It's a different story among 18- to 49-year-olds, though. Grey's Anatomy has the edge with this advertiser-coveted group, averaging 11.5 million younger viewers compared with CSI's 10.8 million.

ABC's Sunday night replacement for Grey's is Brothers & Sisters, starring Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal) and Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under) as siblings in a fractious family.

The No. 2 network in both total viewers and 18- to 49-year-olds is adding nine new series in the fall. It's also turning Saturday nights over to college football, with a 12-game schedule set to kick off on Sept. 2.

Notable cancellations include Commander in Chief, which began the season as prime time's most-watched new drama series. ABC then fired the show's creator, hired and dropped a second executive producer and bewildered fans with a crazy-quilt scheduling pattern.

Not making the fall cut is A House Divided, whose pilot recently was filmed in Dallas with The Practice's Dylan McDermott starring.

ABC's Dancing With the Stars, last summer's surprise sensation, will lead off Tuesdays and Wednesdays before giving way in midseason to a new big-money game show and the return of George Lopez and According to Jim.

Brothers & Sisters (drama): Ms. Flockhart plays a Los Angeles TV pundit while Ms. Griffiths is a high-powered executive and mother of three. The cast also includes former thirtysomething star Patricia Wettig, who played the U.S. president on this season's last episode of Fox's Prison Break, which will shoot the upcoming season in Dallas.

The Nine (drama): That's the number of everyday people held hostage for 52 hours in a bank robbery gone wrong. They then emerge scared, scarred and bonded forever. Chi McBride (Boston Public), Tim Daly (Wings) and Scott Wolf (Party of Five) head the cast.

Men in Trees (drama): Loopy Anne Heche stars as a relationship coach whose personal life is, of course, messed up. Old-timer John Amos ( Good Times) is part of the ensemble cast. It's a creation of Jenny Bicks, former head writer on Sex and the City.

Six Degrees (drama): Busy bee J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias, What About Brian) weaves more complex story lines in this saga of six very different New Yorkers drawn together by a "mysterious web of coincidences." The largely unknown cast includes Jay Hernandez from the Friday Night Lights feature film.

Let's Rob ... (comedy): Donal Logue (Grounded for Life) heads a gang of misfit apprentice robbers who hatch an idea to burglarize Mick Jagger's superluxe Central Park West apartment. Mr. Jagger, a co-executive producer, is set to make cameo appearances.

Betty the Ugly (comedy): The even more evocatively named America Ferrera (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) stars as an "oversized square peg in the petite round hole" of the fashion industry. Or, if you prefer, she's a "slightly plump plain-Jane from Queens." Actress Salma Hayek is a co-executive producer.

Help Me Help You (comedy): Ted Danson gets back in the game as a group therapist who, of course, needs help. It sounds a lot like Judd Hirsch's old NBC series Dear John. In fact, one of that show's regulars, Jere Burns, is in this one, too. Also aboard: Jane Kaczmarek from Malcolm in the Middle.

Notes From the Underbelly (comedy): First-time parents-to-be Andrew and Lauren struggle to cope. Newcomers Peter Cambor and Jennifer Westfeldt star, with better known director Barry Sonnenfeld (Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events) working behind the scenes.

Big Day (comedy): A real-time look at the wedding day of Danny and Alice. Or as ABC describes it, "If 24 married Father of the Bride, their child would be Big Day." Starring are Marla Sokoloff (Desperate Housewives), Josh Cooke (Four Kings ) and Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me).

Did we mention that Grey's Anatomy is going to Thursdays?!

Say good night to Commander in Chief, Primetime Live, Alias, Hope & Faith, Invasion, Rodney, Freddie, Hot Properties, The Night Stalker, Crumbs, Miracle Workers, The Evidence, In Justice, Emily's Reasons Why Not, Jake in Progress and Sons & Daughters.

ABC had a lousy development year, renewing just two marginally rated first-year series for next season. What About Brian caps Monday nights, and American Inventor is scheduled for sometime later. Several announced new midseason series also will play a waiting game.

Shows on the bench include Day Break, starring Taye Diggs of UPN's critically praised Kevin Hill as a detective accused of killing an assistant DA. His search for the real killer is aided by a Groundhog Day motif in which he'll relive the same 24 hours over and over while accumulating clues.

E-mail ebark@dallasnews.com

•Over the Top: Catch Ed Bark's blog Wednesday morning after CBS announces its new schedule at GuideLive.com/overthetop