There will be a lot less dancing on ABC come the fall. One less night, to be exact.
After 16 cycles, the older-skewing Dancing With the Stars is showing its age and eroding ratings. Solution: It’ll be on only Mondays next season. That frees up Tuesdays, and ABC is pouring on the new shows.
ABC will add 13 new series in the fall and midseason - five comedies, seven dramas and one reality competition.
How bad was it? Only two of last season’s 10 freshmen survived the cut. The network hopes to stem the 6.5 percent loss in overall ratings suffered this season.
Getting the ABC ax this season were Happy Endings; Don’t Trust the B in Apt 23; Red Widow; Last Resort; Zero Hour; Malibu Country; 666 Park Avenue; The Family Tools; Body of Proof; and How to Live With Your Parents for the Rest of Your Life.
In addition, Private Practice ended its long run.
All the weekly Dancing action - performances and results - will be condensed to two hours on Monday nights.
The network’s biggest hopes will be on Tuesdays with the addition of Joss Whedon’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and on Thursdays with a spinoff of Once Upon a Time. Here’s a quick look at ABC’s new shows.
Back in the Game. It’s about a single mom (Maggie Lawson, Psych) and her beer-guzzling, ex-jock, estranged dad (played by James Caan). He agrees to coach her misfit son and his band of misfit Little League friends.
Betrayal. This legal soap is about a photographer and her affair with a lawyer who winds up battling her prosecutor husband on opposite sides of a murder trial. The series stars Hanna Ware, Stuart Townsend, Henry Thomas and James Cromwell.
The Goldbergs. It’s back to the ’80s as a nerdy preteen (Sean Giambrone) puts his wacky family on videotape. George Segal is the grandfather.
Killer Women. Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Gallactica) portrays Molly Parker, Texas Ranger. She’s on an elite squad, divorcing her husband (Jeffrey Nordling) and starting an affair with a DEA agent (Marc Blucas). Let the drama begin.
Lucky 7. Seven gas station employees with assorted problems hit the jackpot in the lottery. What happens now? Steven Spielberg is one of the producers.
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. This is Marvel’s first television series and is set in the Marvel cinematic universe. It comes from executive producer Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Clark Gregg reprises his role of Agent Phil Coulson from Marvel’s films as he assembles a select group of agents from the worldwide law enforcement organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division). They save the world as we know it. Among those on board is Ming-Na Wen.
Mind Games. Steve Zahn and Christian Slater are brothers and partners in a unique agency committed to solving clients’ problems using the hard science of psychological manipulation. One is bipolar; the other a con man.
Mixology. One bar. One night. Ten single people. The entire season (or however many episodes before it’s canceled) takes place on one night at a trendy Manhattan bar where folks are looking for love, or a reasonable facsimile. Ryan Seacrest is among the five executive producers.
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. It’s Victorian England and the young and beautiful Alice (Sophie Lowe) tells a tale of a strange new land that exists on the other side of a rabbit hole. Doctors believe her crazy. John Lithgow plays the voice of the White Rabbit.
Resurrection. The people of Arcadia, Mo., are changed forever when their deceased loved ones start to return. Yikes. Omar Epps stars, along with Kurtwood Smith and Frances Fisher.
Super Fun Night. Bridesmaids breakout star Rebel Wilson is a junior lawyer who has gone out every Friday night with her two BFFs for the past 13 years. Now she wants to take the show on the road. Hilarity ensues.
Trophy Wife. Fetching Malin Akerman becomes the third wife of Bradley Whitford and inherits three stepchildren and wife No. 1, played by Marcia Gay Harden. Hilarity ensues.
The Quest. A reality adventure competition series featuring 12 contestants. Think of it as Lord of the Rings meets The Amazing Race set in the world of “Everealm” where “mythical creatures lurk in the woods, agents of darkness stir in the shadows, and mystical beings infiltrate the keep.” The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. E-mail: [email protected]
Weekend, Pages 34 on 05/23/2013