Opposites will attract teen crowd

ABC Family has set aside a three-hour block of afternoon programming with teenagers in mind, and a pair of new programs that premiered last week -- “The Brendan Leonard Show” and “Switched!” -- are being prompted as anchors of that 3 to 6 p.m. slot. And despite the fact that the two shows couldn’t be more different, they should flourish in that role.

“I’m Brendan Leonard and I’m reinventing the art of TV” is the way the deadpan host describes his 30-minute comedy grab bag (5:30 p.m. weekdays), and if that isn’t entirely accurate, it isn’t for lack of trying. Leonard is a 19-year-old college freshman who is already a show-biz veteran, having hosted essentially the same show for three years on a Chicago-area cable access channel. His aunt shopped around a tape of the program to the networks, and presto, ABC Family signed him up.

“It’s basically about me and my friends having a good time,” explains Leonard, and some of the time I had a good time too. Leonard is a rail-thin John Cusack look-alike whose snarky sense of humor intermittently comes through in the handful of videotaped skits that make up the show.

A bit on the versatility of spatulas had just the right twisted wit; a flat piece on spending spring break in the snow dragged on longer than an Illinois winter. That’s the show, hit and miss. Unless you’re in the targeted age group, that is. My 12-year-old was mesmerized and now believes he may have found the new Adam Sandler.

“Switched!” (4:30 p.m. weekdays) has simpler aspirations: to show teens what happens when two U.S. high-schoolers from different circumstances exchange places for a few days. It’s a terrific concept, if not original: The N (Noggin) cable channel’s “A Walk in Your Shoes” has the same setup, but it is also global in scope, as in the outstanding episode that swapped a teen from Jordan with a North Carolina high-schooler. The jarring Sept. 11-related give-and-take with the respective locals nearly erupted into fisticuffs.

“Switched!’s” idea of diverse backgrounds is more along the lines of having a big-city youth trade places with a small-town one, but the honesty of the subjects who must live with their counterpart’s family still makes for some pretty great TV. “I felt uncomfortable, but I tried to make the best of it,” said one Portland, Ore., girl who found herself in Moro, Ark., population 250. Her partner, meanwhile, was keeping a stiff upper lip in the Pacific Northwest. “Putting myself in difficult situations helps me learn about myself,” she reasoned.

In the end, most of the profiled teens agree on one thing: There’s no place like home.