New shows (plus NCIS and CSI!) in ALL CAPS.
Here are the previous editions: 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013
MONDAY
| 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | 10:30 | |
| ABC | Dancing with the Stars | Castle | ||||
| CBS | Big Bang Theory 2 Broke Girls | Mom | SCORPION | NCIS: Los Angeles | ||
| NBC | The Voice | The Blacklist STATE OF AFFAIRS | ||||
| Fox | GOTHAM | Sleepy Hollow | local | |||
| CW | The Originals | JANE THE VIRGIN | local | |||
8:00: Gotham will be good drama counter-programming, but it should still be a bit worried about having to duel with The Big Bang Theory. Ideally, the network would hold off till November to launch Gotham (seems very unlikely) or start it a week or two before the beginning of the regular season.
9:00: From the end of Friends in 2004 all the way through Two and a Half Men's move to Thursday in 2012, this hour pretty consistently housed the #1 comedy hour on television. But with CBS' surprising pull-out, there's suddenly nothing there in that department. Will anyone try to capitalize? ABC tried several comedies at 9:30 after Dancing in the past, and that looks like an even better strategy now (especially given the conservative choice at 10:00). I'm also not sold on Scorpion as a show worth blowing up a comedy hour for, so maybe even CBS could get back in later in the season, combining Mike and Molly with whatever needs to be shuffled around to put The Odd Couple after Big Bang on Thursday.
10:00: ABC and CBS both probably feel better about having medium-priority veterans here now that The Blacklist will be sticking around for awhile. But ABC should still be looking at this as an opportunity going forward.
TUESDAY
| 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | 10:30 | |
| ABC | SELFIE | MANHATTAN LOVE STORY | Agents of SHIELD | FOREVER | ||
| CBS | NCIS | NCIS: NEW ORLEANS | Person of Interest | |||
| NBC | The Voice | MARRY ME | About a Boy | Chicago Fire | ||
| Fox | UTOPIA | New Girl | The Mindy Project | local | ||
| CW | THE FLASH | Supernatural | local | |||
8:00: Since they don't have something like Suburgatory in reserve, ABC is probably going to have to blow this comedy hour up completely if it doesn't work. Shifting Agents of SHIELD back to 8/7c and launching something like The Whispers at 9/8c would've seemed like a viable plan, but without a reliable 10/9c show (like Castle), the network could still have a lot of trouble even in that scenario.
9:00: Both of the new shows here are pretty high-stakes. CBS would be thrilled if the new NCIS can do ratings reminiscent of the long-time previous occupant Los Angeles. And NBC really needs Marry Me to be something better than previous comedy lead-outs like Go On and About a Boy. (My heart says yes, but my head is skeptical.)
10:00: Both shows technically have genre ties, but Forever just doesn't feel like something that is gonna connect with Agents of SHIELD viewers. I still wonder if this wasn't a last-minute change after NBC kept The Blacklist put...
WEDNESDAY
| 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | 10:30 | |
| ABC | The Middle | The Goldbergs | Modern Family | BLACK-ISH | Nashville | |
| CBS | Survivor | Criminal Minds | STALKER | |||
| NBC | THE MYSTERIES OF LAURA | Law and Order: SVU | Chicago PD | |||
| Fox | Hell's Kitchen | RED BAND SOCIETY | local | |||
| CW | Arrow | The 100 | local | |||
8:00: If The Mysteries of Laura bombs, it certainly won't be able to blame the competition. Drama counter-programming looks like a very nice idea here in theory. But Laura doesn't particularly appear to have the goods to capitalize. Something like Constantine may have been the best bet to attract attention here, but DC Comics may have nixed that showdown with Arrow.
9:00: Once again, new shows Black-ish and Red Band Society look like sensible alternatives to the procedurals on other networks. It's up to the shows themselves to capitalize.
10:00: Chicago PD earned its renewal, but it's still one of NBC's weaker returnees. Coupled with ABC defaulting to a mega-conservative approach here due to the 22-episode Nashville renewal, that presents what seems like a huge opportunity for Stalker. Based on lead-in and competition dynamics, it seems like one of the fall's best newbie bets.
THURSDAY
| 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | 10:30 | |
| ABC | Grey's Anatomy | Scandal | HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER | |||
| CBS | The Big Bang Theory | The Millers | Two and a Half Men | THE MCCARTHYS | Elementary | |
| NBC | The Biggest Loser | BAD JUDGE | A TO Z | Parenthood | ||
| Fox | Bones | GRACEPOINT | local | |||
| CW | The Vampire Diaries | Reign | local | |||
8:00: Aside from Sunday 10/9c, this is the only hour without a new show scheduled for the whole fall. And yet, three networks are moving returnees here. How Grey's Anatomy holds up is most interesting to watch, but whether The Biggest Loser can gain any traction on NBC's worst night of the week is of importance as well.
9:00: If Scandal's move to 9/8c disappoints, that's gonna be all on Scandal. Period. This is a pretty favorable slate of competitors. Even if the new comedies manage to overachieve, they're largely targeting different audiences.
10:00: Same goes for How to Get Away with Murder. It at least has some established drama competitors, but both are toward the bottom of their respective networks' renewed slates.
FRIDAY
| 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | 10:30 | |
| ABC | Last Man Standing | CRISTELA | Shark Tank | 20/20 | ||
| CBS | The Amazing Race | Hawaii Five-0 | Blue Bloods | |||
| NBC | Dateline | Grimm | CONSTANTINE | |||
| Fox | MasterChef Junior | UTOPIA | local | |||
| CW | Whose Line Is It Anyway? | America's Next Top Model | local | |||
8:00: Not that it's much of a surprise, but ABC's comedies are again the only scripted options in the whole hour. Still, The Amazing Race and MasterChef Junior are family viewing options, so ABC's success is not quite a given.
9:00: Pretty boring hour with lots of incumbents returning. And Fox's second Utopia night reportedly won't last for very long, so we could end up with Fox reprising last year's occupant (a regularly-scheduled repeat) in short order as well.
10:00: The 0.8/0.9ish deliveries from Dracula and Hannibal won't cut it here. Constantine needs to make improvement, and the opportunity should be there; its target audience probably won't be that interested in either of the competitors.
SUNDAY
| 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | 10:30 | |
| ABC | Once Upon a Time | Resurrection | Revenge | |||
| CBS | MADAM SECRETARY | The Good Wife | CSI | |||
| NBC | Sunday Night Football | |||||
| Fox | The Simpsons | Brooklyn Nine-Nine | Family Guy | MULANEY | local | |
8:00: Not sure it's possible to make something like Madam Secretary into a viable adults 18-49 draw, but I'm fairly convinced this (with NFL overrun help) is pretty much the only scheduling that will give it a reasonable shot. Guess you could kinda say the same thing about Brooklyn Nine-Nine...
9:00: Resurrection is the biggest returnee wild card of the fall, to the point that it's practically a new show. Will it keep most of its late spring audience or pull a The Following?
10:00: I'm doubtful that CSI will ultimately make any real improvement on The Mentalist, but then Hawaii Five-0 exceeded expectations in its own downgrade. If anything can hold up surprisingly well in this kind of spot, it's an old CBS procedural.
