UPN has announced schedule changes, effective in November, that will affect six shows and four hours of programming.
That would be a big chunk of even a major network's lineup. But for UPN - which has only six hours of programming and nine shows in prime time - this amounts to a huge overhaul.The most notable change involves UPN's most notable show. Effective Wednesday, Nov. 5, "Star Trek: Voyager" swaps places with "The Sentinel" - "Voyager" slides up to 7 p.m. and "The Sentinel" slides back to 8 p.m.
It's a similar situation on Tuesdays, beginning Nov. 4, when "Moesha" advances a half-hour to 7 p.m. and "Clueless" drops back a half hour to 7:30 p.m.
UPN is still searching for something to fill the place of the canceled "Over the Top." For November, the pseudo-network will air reruns of the Monday-night sitcom "Malcolm & Eddie" at 8 p.m. while "Hitz" moves back from 8 to 8:30 p.m.
The moves were made by Tom Nunan, the newly hired executive vice president of entertainment for UPN. And, again, they point to the difficulties the network wannabe is having.
Nunan is moving his pieces around the board, but he doesn't have any winning plays to make. The fact that UPN can only come up with nine shows to fill 10 time slots is particularly telling - as is the fact that it will have a regularly scheduled rerun during the important November sweeps rating period.
The folks at local UPN affiliate KJZZ-Ch. 14 are still wishing that UPN would get its act together.
CASTING CALL: Here's your chance to get all dressed up, sit in a high school auditorium all day long and get paid nothing - all for the opportunity of being in the general proximity of stars and the off chance your face may show up on television for a fraction of a second.
"Touched by an Angel" is looking for 1,500 extras to fill the Ogden High School auditorium on Saturday, Oct. 25. Participants need to be there by 9 a.m.; women should be dressed in evening black; men should be dressed in dark suits, light shirts and ties.
You won't be paid, and you're expected to stick around the entire day.
The episode features the regular cast, Carol Burnett and her daughter, Carrie Hamilton, and Rita Moreno. The scene is set at a Broadway opening.
For more information, call 355-3191. Don't call Ogden High School.
GOOD NEWS: Three of the season's best new shows - and a holdover from last spring - have all gotten votes of confidence from their respective networks - orders for a full season's worth of episodes.
(That's 22 episodes, for those of you keeping track.)
At ABC, it's the Wednesday sitcom "Dharma & Greg" that got the pickup order. The show has improved the networks' Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. performance among young-adult viewers by 49 percent over last year.
At NBC, there's no surprise that "Veronica's Closet" - the highest-rated new show of the season - was renewed.
Additionally, NBC has also extended a full-season order to the Tuesday sitcom "Just Shoot Me." The show's ratings are more modest, but it is doing relatively well as the follow-up to "Frasier."
At Fox, the very good "Ally McBeal" also got a pickup order. The show's having been great, but it is doing 72 percent better among adults 18-49 than the programs Fox had in the time period last season.
The really amazing thing about this is that all four of these shows deserve their success. And that's not always the case in television.
Oh, and UPN has ordered nine additional episodes of the sitcom "Good News," bringing that up to 22 as well. That's not exactly good news, but it's not necessarily bad news - it's more along the lines of . . . who cares?
SEEKING "PREY": ABC has ordered television's first global-warming drama as a midseason replacement show. "Prey" is no in production in Los Angeles.
The premise behind the show holds that global warming has triggered an "evolutionary event productin a new species of man, some of who are capable of unspeakable evil - specifically, the eradication of the human race."
And, of course, the good guys - led by a young bio-anthropologist (Debra Messing of "Ned and Stacey") are out to stop them.
The series, which also stars Adam Storke ("The Stand"), Vincent Ventresca ("Boston Common"), Larry Drake ("L.A. Law") and Frankie R. Faison, will premiere when ABC decides to cancel one of its other hourlong shows.