Scheduling Five-Spot, WE 1/9/11 - Hawaii Five-0, "Combat Hospital," Mad Men, Spartacus: Blood and Sand, The Kennedys

Here's your Scheduling Five-Spot for the week ending January 9, 2011:

Hawaii Five-O to Air After AFC Championship Game - I did a post last week about some of the other shows that have gotten the fairly high profile "mini-Super Bowl" lead-ins over the last few years, and Hawaii Five-0's airing will come on January 23. Five-0 has been widely proclaimed a ratings disappointment, but it's still easily broadcast TV's strongest new drama

ABC picks up "Combat Hospital" - Last summer's broadcast schedule had a slew of low-budget and co-production scripted dramas. The only survivor into summer 2011 was Rookie Blue, a Canadian co-production that averaged a 1.56 demo and was easily the strongest of the bunch. ABC will go back to the Canadian co-production well with "Combat Hospital," which is about the thing in the title. The show is expected to be re-titled, as was Rookie Blue (long called Copper during its ABC development life).

Mad Men Will Return for Season Five - There's not a whole lot to be said other than what I just said; an AMC exec at the Television Critics Association press tour said the show would definitively return, but there's no idea at this point when it will be returning. It's no surprise at all for the three-time Emmy winner for best drama, but it's nice to have it officially confirmed.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand Coming Back - Also coming out of the TCA press tour was the news that Starz would be moving forward with a second season of Spartacus: Blood and Sand despite the cancer sidelining star Andy Whitfield. The first season began putting Starz on the ratings map, starting at a 0.3 A18-49 but building as high as a 0.6 for three of its last four episodes.

History Channel Cans The Kennedys - The planned eight-part miniseries on one of America's prominent political families will not be airing on History. Apparently there are political reasons behind that, but I won't get into that since I don't know for sure. Anyway, apparently there's a chance the completed miniseries starring Greg Kinnear and Katie Holmes will get picked up by Showtime.

More Five-Spots in the Index.