UPN’s New Lineup Has Its Eye on Young Viewers

Emphasizing its commitment to targeting young audiences, UPN on Thursday unveiled a new logo, a new image campaign and its first new prime-time schedule since being taken over earlier this year by Viacom-owned CBS.

CBS President Leslie Moonves said UPN will target the 18-to-34-year-old viewing audience and will be a complement to CBS. Three of the four new series UPN unveiled are produced by CBS Productions.

“This network has had a great year of growth and is ready to turn it up,” he said.

Returning to UPN’s five-night schedule in the fall will be the hits “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Enterprise” and the “Smackdown” wrestling franchise. The veteran comedy “The Hughleys” was canceled, while “Roswell” and “Special Unit 2” already had been taken off the schedule.

The new comedies include “Half and Half,” a series about two African American half-sisters who grew up separately but now live in the same building. It stars Rachel True and Essence Atkins and will air Mondays at 9:30 p.m., joining the network’s other black-themed comedies: “The Parkers,” “One on One” and “Girlfriends.”

Scheduled for midseason is “Abby,” starring Sydney Tamiia Poitier as a TV producer who continues to live with her self-absorbed ex-boyfriend.

The new dramas for fall are an updated version of “The Twilight Zone,” with host Forest Whitaker, and “Haunted,” about a private investigator who is able to communicate with the dead. “The Twilight Zone” will air Wednesdays at 9 p.m. following “Enterprise,” while “Haunted” will air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. following “Buffy.”

“The Twilight Zone,” from Trilogy Entertainment Group and New Line Television, is the only new UPN series not produced by CBS Productions.

Here is UPN’s fall schedule (new shows in italic):

Monday: “The Parkers,” “One on One,” “Girlfriends,” “Half and Half.”

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

Wednesday: “Enterprise,” “The Twilight Zone.”

Thursday: “WWE Smackdown!”

Friday: Movie.