Upfronts 2008: CBS and ABC

So, this is the week in Hollywood when the networks traditionally present their “upfronts,” introducing their fall TV schedules. As always, it’s a mixture of good news and bad news.

CBS:

The worst of the bad news so far comes from CBS’ fall schedule. CBS has canceled “Moonlight,” because it apparently didn’t keep enough of the lead in audience from ““Ghost Whisperer.” Sounds reasonable enough, except for the fact that “Moonlight” has won its time slot consistently since returning post-writers’ strike. I know the show withstood a lot of criticism (some valid) for lack of originality, but it was well-acted, and didn’t suffer from the tedious will-they-or-won’t-they story pacing you normally see on television. I’m going to miss it terribly.

I’d be really furious at CBS, but I’m in a forgiving mood since they did renew “How I Met Your Mother” for a third season. Every year, the show’s fate seems to be up in the air, because apparently one of the execs at CBS doesn’t find it funny. Which I’m guessing means they’ve never watched it. This is the only traditional, laugh-track sitcom I still watch, and I’m thrilled to have it back for another year.

The sad thing is, other than the renewal of “Numb3rs,” which was kind of a given, that’s all I really care about on CBS. The rest of their schedule sounds just deadly boring, with the possible exception of “The Amazing Race,” which I may watch, if the contestants are more likable than last year.

ABC:

ABC seems to be in the best shape of any of the networks so far, since its fall schedule seems to have the fewest new shows. Unfortunately, that also means not a lot of new things to be excited about. But that’s fine — I’m excited enough to have “Pushing Daisies,” “Samantha Who?” and “Lost” back for next year.

Plus, ABC has provided me with some of the best TV news so far for next year: as Zach Braff confirmed this week on his blog, the worst-kept secret in network TV is true — “Scrubs” will move to ABC this fall, after being canceled on NBC. The seventh season was somewhat unsatisfying, being cut short due to the writers’ strike. Fortunately, we can look forward to having the show’s continuing storylines wrapped up properly in its eighth season. For more details on how crappily NBC treated “Scrubs,” why the season finale wasn’t supposed to be, and what we can expect next season, check out Michael Ausiello’s interview with “Scrubs” executive producer Bill Lawrence here.

Overall, I wish I were more excited. Maybe I will be tomorrow when I take a closer look at The CW and Fox.