ABC, WB Shake Up Lineups

ABC will revise its prime-time roster next season to include five new comedies and three dramas, seeking to provide more power with its sitcom blocks on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday nights.

Sources say part of the network’s strategy will involve moving “Home Improvement” from 9 p.m. Tuesdays to the earlier 8 p.m. slot against “Mad About You”--a face-off between two long-running comedies both presumed to be heading into their final year.

ABC is doubtless hoping for a better survival rate with its new series than last year, when the network scheduled 11 new programs in the fall and wound up canceling nine of them, while suffering a 9% decline in audience this season.

Both ABC and the WB network will announce their schedules today, with CBS, UPN and Fox to follow later this week as the networks unveil new programming for advertisers in New York.

The WB confirmed plans to make an aggressive scheduling move by pitting its popular teen drama “Dawson’s Creek” against Fox’s aging “Beverly Hills, 90210” in the fall at 8 p.m. Wednesdays.

Splitting up “Dawson’s Creek” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” will give the WB established shows to open both Tuesday and Wednesday nights. “Buffy” and “Dawson’s Creek” will be paired, respectively, with the new series “Felicity,” starring Keri Russell in what’s been called “Ally McBeal in college,” and “Charmed,” about a trio of witches.

ABC’s new comedies include comic D.L. Hughley in a show about a black family that moves into a white neighborhood; and “The Secret Life of Men,” about a quartet of divorced buddies who congregate at the golf course, starring Peter Gallagher and created by “The Golden Girls” and “Soap” writer Susan Harris.

The network has also ordered “Sports Night,” which offers a behind-the-scenes look at a “Sports-Center”-like program.

Unlike NBC, which loaded up on programs that the network is producing and owns, “Sports Night” is the only new show ABC scheduled for the fall that comes from Disney, the network’s parent company. The sports theme also offers another tie-in, since Disney’s holdings include a majority stake in ESPN, the all-sports network.

The network will seek to breathe life into its Friday “TGIF” comedies by adding a show starring twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen--who once helped anchor that programming block in “Full House”--and “Brother’s Keeper,” about two mismatched brothers raising a child. Those series will bookend “Boy Meets World” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.”

Riding a different sort of nostalgia wave, ABC will try a revival of “Fantasy Island” on Saturday nights, starring Malcolm MacDowell, along with the new drama “Cupid,” in which the title character descends from Mt. Olympus to play matchmaker on Earth.

The network’s other new dramatic program is “Vengeance Unlimited,” starring Michael Madsen as an “Equalizer”-type hero who seeks revenge for those who have been wronged.

As expected, ABC will also end the three-way logjam of competing Sunday movies by scheduling “20/20” and “The Practice” from 9 to 11 p.m. that night after “The Wonderful World of Disney.”

Returning programs include “Monday Night Football” (which will now kick off around 5:20 p.m. Pacific time), “NYPD Blue” (which has to replace departing co-star Jimmy Smits), “The Drew Carey Show,” “Spin City,” “Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”

Casualties from this season include “Nothing Sacred,” “Ellen,” “Something So Right” and “Teen Angel.”

Sources say ABC also decided not to renew “Soul Man,” the comedy starring Dan Aykroyd; however, there are discussions that would keep that show alive on the fledgling UPN network. In similar fashion, the WB is acquiring “For Your Love,” a comedy about three young couples that’s been running on NBC Tuesday nights.

“For Your Love” will join “The Wayans Bros.,” “The Jamie Foxx Show” and “The Steve Harvey Show” on Thursday nights, as the WB uses sitcoms starring African Americans to counter-program NBC’s “Must-See TV” lineup. Two other comedies with black leads, “Sister, Sister” and “Smart Guy,” move to Sundays.

The WB will run the family drama “7th Heaven” twice weekly, repeating episodes from the program’s first season Sundays (in part as a cost-saving maneuver) while playing fresh episodes Mondays leading into the new series “Hyperion,” which explores a sibling rivalry against a small-town backdrop.

A new comedy focusing on an Army unit will follow “Unhappily Ever After” at 9:30 p.m. Sundays, while the WB has axed its existing sitcoms “The Tom Show,” starring Tom Arnold; “Kelly Kelly,” Shelley Long’s comeback show; the Carol Leifer sitcom “Alright Already”; and “Nick Freno.”

Another current show, “The Parent ‘Hood,” starring Robert Townsend, didn’t make the lineup for September but will remain in production as a backup series.

While CBS is still finalizing its schedule, sources say Faith Ford will segue from “Murphy Brown,” where she played Corky Sherwood, to her own comedy that’s expected to follow “The Nanny” on Wednesday nights. Insiders also say the network will bring back a Tuesday night movie, airing after “JAG.”

Here’s the WB lineup for fall, with new shows in bold:

Sunday: “7th Heaven,” “Sister, Sister,” “Smart Guy,” “Unhappily Ever After,” “The Army Show.”

Monday: “7th Heaven,” “Hyperion.”

Tuesday: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Felicity.”

Wednesday: “Dawson’s Creek,” “Charmed.”

Thursday: “The Wayans Bros.,” “The Jamie Foxx Show,” “The Steve Harvey Show,” “For Your Love.”