'Ed,' 'Miss Match' are both Trumped
Network chieftain Jeff Zucker has announced that the reality series "The Apprentice" will join his schedule in January. Produced by Mark Burnett ("Survivor," "The Restaurant"), the show will pit 16 contestants against each other in the business world as they vie to win a one-year, six-figure contract to work for Trump's organization. And The Donald himself will deliver the bad news to the contestant who's eliminated each week.
Yeah, the thought of Trump starring in a weekly series is sort of sickening . . . but, on the other hand, there's nobody better at the reality-show genre than Burnett.
Following a 90-minute premiere on Thursday, Jan. 8, "The Apprentice" moves to Wednesdays at 7 p.m. on Jan. 14. Which will bump "Ed" out of that time slot.
And "Ed" will be exiled back to Fridays at 8 p.m., where it performed quite poorly last season. Which is unfortunate, because "Ed" has been much improved this season.
The current occupant of the Friday-at-8 p.m. time slot, "Miss Match," will disappear for a couple of months. The plan is for "Ed" to wrap up a shortened season at the end of February, at which point "Miss Match" will return with new episodes.
SEARCHING FOR STARS: On the heels of a big November sweeps win, CBS doesn't have a whole lot of holes to plug in its schedule — but there was the quick failure of "The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire."
In place of that drama from David E. Kelley, CBS has moved "48 Hours Investigates" to Wednesdays at 9 p.m., beginning tonight. And as of Jan. 17, Arsenio Hall and "Star Search" will return to fill the Saturday-at-7 p.m. time slot previously occupied by the newsmagazine.
By the way, CBS has confirmed that it is indeed moving toward adding a third "CSI" series to its schedule next fall. No word on where this one will be set ("CSI" is in Las Vegas and the first spinoff is "CSI Miami"), but we're told the field has been narrowed to four "big cities."
And don't be surprised if NBC adds a fourth "Law & Order," too.
STAYING "TRU": Somewhat surprisingly, Fox has renewed its Thursday time-traveling drama "Tru Calling" through the end of the season.
Not that it's not a pretty good show. But the ratings have not been good. Which isn't at all surprising, given that it's competing with "Survivor" and "Friends."
Fox programmers apparently figure they can't do much better in that tough time slot with anything else. And they're probably right.
"FRIENDS" COINCIDENCE NO. 1: John Bennett Perry guest stars as a United States senator in this week's episode of "Threat Matrix" (Thursday, 7 p.m., ABC/Ch. 4) — which means he'll be directly competing with his son, Matthew Perry, one of the stars of "Friends" (Thursday, 7 p.m., Ch. 5).
Well, "Friends" is a repeat this week anyway.
"FRIENDS" COINCIDENCE NO. 2: Aisha Tyler, who recently concluded a recurring role (as the paleontologist involved with both Joey and Ross) on "Friends," has signed on to star in a sitcom pilot for CBS.
The untitled show will be executive produced by "Friends" star Lisa Kudrow, among others.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com
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