TV’s Fall Programming Lineup: Is This Their Final Answer?

The year of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” has clearly left a mark on the coming television season, if not the giant crater writers and producers have feared since ABC’s Regis Philbin-guided comet crashed into the prime-time landscape.

Granted, ABC will expand the quiz show to four hours in the fall, and the number of traditional sitcoms and dramas scheduled by the six broadcast networks has experienced a marginal decline.

Yet “Millionaire” remains the sole survivor in its genre, as a wave of hastily assembled imitators--NBC’s “Twenty One,” Fox’s “Greed” and CBS’ “Winning Lines”--were left on the sidelines.

Moreover, some of the hours sacrificed to “Millionaire” and unconventional programming alternatives--including wrestling’s “WWF Smackdown!” and plans for a made-for-TV football league, the XFL, under the World Wrestling Federation’s aegis--came at the expense of other low-cost formats that previously occupied prime-time slots, including so-called reality series and news magazines.

As it stands, prime-time news programs will be sliced from a dozen hours to nine, with the elder networks scheduling three apiece.

The one group of writers who can breathe easier might be TV critics, who won’t have to spend as much time this summer watching new series that historically have a less than one-in-four chance of seeing their sophomore year.

All told, the broadcast networks will introduce 32 prime-time series in the fall, split evenly between comedies and dramas. That represents a departure from last fall, when the six networks--reacting to a glut of sitcoms--scheduled 22 new dramatic series and just 14 comedies, bringing more balance to their prime-time rosters.

Comebacks and Series Featuring Film Stars

In terms of programming trends, luring feature-film stars to prime time remains seductive, which explains “Geena” (Geena Davis’ first TV role since the mid-1980s sitcom “Sara”), “Madigan Men” (starring Gabriel Byrne) and “The Bette Show,” a CBS comedy casting Bette Midler as herself.

Comebacks by recognizable TV personalities also continue to be irresistible, underscored by Craig T. Nelson in “The District”; John Goodman in “Don’t Ask”; Andre Braugher in “Gideon’s Crossing”; Christine Baranski in “Welcome to New York”; “Wings” alumni Steven Weber and Tim Daly in the former’s NBC sitcom and as the new Dr. Richard Kimble in CBS’ revival of “The Fugitive,” respectively; and Michael Richards as a bumbling detective in a comedy NBC ordered but will overhaul before allowing it to see the light of day.

In television, however, the real stars are often the writer-producers, and next season appears to be no exception. Fox hopes David E. Kelley can duplicate the success of “Ally McBeal” with his new series about teachers, “Boston Public,” which will lead into that established hit. Darren Star, meanwhile, has parlayed his well-regarded HBO comedy “Sex and the City” into two new series: Fox’s Wall Street drama “The $treet” and the WB sitcom “Grosse Pointe.”

“Law & Order’s” Dick Wolf is behind “Deadline,” featuring another movie actor, Oliver Platt, as an investigative journalist. Aaron Spelling is also back in familiar territory with “Titans,” a “Dynasty”-type soap set in “Beverly Hills, 90210’s” old ZIP Code, only this time on NBC.

Big-screen filmmakers possess considerable allure in TV circles as well, even though many have acted as sort of absentee landlords on the programs that bear their names.

In unveiling its lineup to advertisers, Fox proudly announced a project from “Jurassic Park” and “ER” creator Michael Crichton that lacked a title or premise the network could discuss. The network did say “Titanic” director James Cameron is staunchly committed to “Dark Angel,” a new sci-fi drama starring Jessica Alba as a genetically engineered superhuman living in a police state.

Cameron demonstrated his involvement, calling to take exception to figures published regarding the two-hour prototype that will launch the show. Contradicting a report in The Times, the director and his partner on the show, producer Charles Eglee, maintain the cost actually came in slightly below the targeted $10 million budget--still a huge sum for a made-for-TV production.

“We set out to prove a point, that we can work within certain parameters,” Cameron said, adding, “Two hours in my world as a feature filmmaker costs you $100 million.”

With “Millionaire” occupying so much real estate, ABC will begin the season with just four new programs, inspiring CBS Television President Leslie Moonves to not-so-subtly suggest the prime-time ratings leader has “banked their future on a single show.”

The other networks have been more aggressive, encouraged by this year’s “The West Wing” and “Judging Amy” that new dramas can indeed find an audience and heartened to see programs such as “ER” and “Law & Order” stay compelling and fresh to viewers in their later seasons. NBC clearly thought so, renewing both through at least 2004.

“The obvious point to be made is that you can successfully reinvigorate long-running shows with casting and good storytelling,” said Warner Bros. Television President Peter Roth. “There is no reason that a hit franchise should go off the air and peter out.”

Even modestly rated shows have become harder to kill off, due in part to the less-demanding ratings standards of the emerging networks. The WB has grabbed “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and “The PJs” from ABC and Fox, while ABC’s “The Hughleys” shifts to UPN.

Despite a diminished number of new shows, the networks still risk confusing viewers. Twenty programs migrate to new time periods, which doesn’t take into account such oddities as scheduling Cameron’s “Dark Angel” opposite “Angel,” the WB’s brooding vampire show.

The arrival of new and returning programs, meanwhile, will likely be staggered, in what could be one of the most jumbled fall campaigns since a Writers Guild of America strike delayed the TV season in 1988.

New TV Season Won’t Begin Until October

The official start has already been postponed until October because NBC will air the Olympic Games in September. After that comes the Major League Baseball playoffs and election season, with coverage of presidential and vice presidential debates sure to cause preemptions. By the time that’s over, programmers will be rolling out big movies, miniseries and specials for the November rating sweeps, creating an inhospitable climate to introduce new series.

Of course, gradually premiering shows may not be such a bad thing for viewers or the networks; indeed, several series making their debut this year in January or later wound up being renewed, including “Malcolm in the Middle,” “Titus,” “City of Angels” and “Daddio.” As Fox Television Group Chairman Sandy Grushow put it, throwing all new programs on at the same time “is not a strategy; it’s stupidity.”

As for subplots to the coming season, two might be titled “All in the Family” and “Family Feud.”

At CBS’ presentation, Tyne Daly said she is enjoying her role on “Judging Amy” so much she encouraged brother Tim to join her at the network as star of “The Fugitive.”

By contrast, the Sheen clan will be somewhat conflicted in the fall. Charlie joins the cast of ABC’s “Spin City,” replacing Michael J. Fox, putting him directly opposite his father, Martin, who plays the president on NBC’s White House drama “The West Wing.”