Scheduling Five-Spot, WE 11/7/10 - Off the Map, Skating with the Stars, Life Unexpected, The Chicago Code, Undercovers

And so begins this trial run of Five-Spots! For more, see my intro post earlier today, and tune back in the next couple days for the inaugural Opinion and Ratings Five-Spots. Here's your Scheduling Five-Spot for the week ending November 7, 2010:

ABC's Off the Map Scheduled at Wednesday 10/9c - Upfront week back in May had ABC's new Shonda Rhimes medical drama slated for Sunday 10/9c after Desperate Housewives; others thought it was eventually bound for Thursday to create a Shonda/Shonda/Shonda night after the quick flop of My Generation. Instead, the show heads to Wednesday, where it will spell the axed The Whole Truth. Seems fine, as the competition there isn't stout.

Skating with the Stars Cast Announced - OK, so cast announcements shouldn't get the "bad news" shade of blue, I guess. But man. I simply haven't heard of the people on the ABC midseason reality show. Probably the most recognizable name to me is Bethenny Frankel of Bravo's Real Housewives series. And I haven't even watched an episode of that!

Life Unexpected is Show Unextended - I admire some of the folks close to the CW series who insist that keeping the LUX order at 13 episodes doesn't mean cancellation... but it probably does. Pick a demo, any demo, and this show often called an old-school WB throwback is the net's weakest non-Friday show in it. (I only say non-Friday because it's a little better than Smallville in W18-34.) The move probably ensures I'll be watching to the end, if it's any consolation!

Fox's The Chicago Code Premieres Night After Fox's Super Bowl - So maybe it's not as good as premiering directly after the Super Bowl. (May do a post on that later.) But a heavily-promoted episode one night after is pretty good too. How I Met Your Mother's day-after ep hit a season-high 3.9 demo in 2007, and Chuck also hit a season-high 3.0 for a 3-D ep the day after the Bowl in 2009. The upcoming cop drama once known as 'Ride-Along' also got its name changed for the better.

NBC Cancels Undercovers - Only three fall big 4 newbies premiered lower than Undercovers' 2.1 demo, and it only got worse from there. I did an extensive post last week about the merits of centering a show's marketing around a producer's name, and Undercovers will go down as a strike against that. The axe fell just days after one of the leads said the show was abandoning its fiercely non-serial direction.

More Five-Spots can be found in the Index.