Network wannabe the WB expands to a third night this fall and, in the process, adds five new shows, picks up one NBC castoff and moves three returning shows to new time slots.
The pseudo network will program a total of seven hours over three nights - Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays - with 10 sit-coms and two nighttime soaps.For the second year in a row, the WB has added a show canceled by another network. Last year, it was "Sister, Sister" from ABC. This year, it's "Brotherly Love," picked up the day after it was canceled by NBC.
(Ironically, earlier this year the WB picked up the show that aired after "Brotherly Love" on NBC last fall, "Minor Adjustments," but canceled the show this week.)
The new network's only returning hourlong show, "Savannah," moves to Mondays at 8 p.m. - presumably with the hope that viewers of Fox's "Melrose Place" at 7 p.m. will switch over to the WB at 8 o'clock.
The WB's six new shows - the first five of which are half-hour sitcoms - are:
The Jamie Fox Show (Wednesdays, 8:30 p.m.), headlined by the former "In Living Color" co-star, is set in a Hollywood hotel. Garrett Morris co-stars.
Life with Roger (Sundays, 8 p.m.) is a buddy comedy about two mismatched roommates.
Nick Freno, Licensed Teacher (Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m.) stars Mitch Mullany ("The Wayans Bros.") as a new teacher "who has as much kid in him as most of his students."
The Steve Harvey Show (Mondays, 7:30 p.m.) stars the stand-up comedian - whose sitcom "Me and the Boys" failed last year on ABC - as a hip, inner-city high school teacher.
Seventh Heaven (Sundays, 8 p.m.), the WB's only new hourlong drama, is a soap headlined by Stephen Collins and produced by Aaron Spelling, who has brought us everything from "Savannah" to "Dynasty" to "Melrose Place."
Among the shows dropped from the WB's prime-time schedule are "Minor Adjustments," "Simon," "First Time Out," "Cleghorne!" and "Pinky and the Brain" (which will remain on the Saturday daytime slate).
The WB is broadcast locally on KOOG-Ch. 30. Cable subscribers can also see WB programming on WGN - which broadcasts all of the shows one hour earlier than the schedule that accompanies this story.
*****
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
WB's fall schedule
New shows are listed in bold. Returning shows in new time slots are indicated by an asterisk(*).
SUNDAY
Kirk* 6 p.m.
Brotherly Love* 6:30 p.m.
7th Heaven 7 p.m.
Life with Roger 8 p.m.
Unhappily Ever After* 8:30 p.m.
MONDAY
The Parent 'Hood* 7 p.m.
Steve Harvey Show 7:30 p.m.
Savannah* 8 p.m.
WEDNESDAY
Sister, Sister 7 p.m.
Nick Freno 7:30 p.m.
The Wayans Bros.* 8 p.m.
Jamie Fox Show 8:30 p.m.