New Series Breakdown: CW

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The Fall TV Season presentations for all the new network shows take place this week with the fifth and final one announced today. Here's a full breakdown of which concepts have made the list over on The CW.

 

While the "Melrose Place" remake didn't work and the Mischa Barton-led "The Beautiful Life" proved an utter disaster that scored the first axing of the season, the smallest and newest of the networks managed to generate a solid hit for itself with "The Vampire Diaries" and a modest hit in "Life Unexpected" over these past twelve months.

 

The success was needed as its various dramas like "90210," "One Tree Hill," "Gossip Girl" and "Supernatural" saw dips, while the move of "Smallville" to Friday nights has almost halved its regular audience. Yet most of the shows have scored better reviews this past season and there's a sense that the network may finally be through its worst growing pains.

 

For this Fall, the network has gotten rid of repeats and is going with original programming each week night, causing some surprising shifts in their schedule. Monday and Tuesday nights have played some musical chairs and ended up in an entirely different configuration. "Supernatural" is moving to Friday nights, teamed up with old partner "Smallville" in its tenth and confirmed final season. Two new dramas have been scheduled - a sports drama and a spy action series, the latter to get the coveted post-Vampire Diaries slot. The reality series "Plain Jane" will also join the schedule in the Summer.

 

A few notable pilots didn't make the final cut and won't be seen. These include several dramas like the Thailand-shot Ridley & Tony Scott-produced "Nomads" about young backpackers who pick up income doing CIA secret missions on the side; "The Damn Thorpes" which follows a horse trainer who inherits a Wyoming ranch; and the Harvard medical school student drama "HMS".

 

Onto the new shows and they are:

 

 

Hellcats

(Sports Drama, Wednesdays 9pm)

A coming-of-age story about Marti Perkins, a young, pre-law student at Lancer University in Memphis, Tennessee. Marti is cool, hip and alt, but her world flips upside down, literally and figuratively, when she loses her scholarship, and realizes the only way she can stay in school is by reigniting her dormant teen gymnastic skills to win a place on Lancer's legendary cheerleading team, The Hellcats.

 

Against her every instinct, Marti goes for it and makes the squad, and is thrust into a world of camaraderie, backstabbing and the intersection of sports, backroom academia and big money. Marti's new roommate, Savannah Monroe, a petite, peppy Texan, is among the diverse cast of athletes, undergrads, family and friends, all set on the sprawling campus of a powerhouse college football program in the deep South.

 

Aly Michalka, Ashley Tisdale, Heather Hemmens, Robbie Jones, Matt Barr, Sharon Leal and Gail O'Grady. Kevin Murphy ("Desperate Housewives"), Tom Welling ("Smallville") and Allan Arkush ("Heroes," "Crossing Jordan") produce.

 

 

Nikita

(Spy Action/Drama, Thursdays 9pm)

When she was a deeply troubled teenager, Nikita was rescued from death row by a secret U.S. agency known only as Division, who faked her execution and told her she was being given a second chance to start a new life and serve her country. What they didn't tell her was that she was being trained as a spy and assassin.

 

Ultimately, Nikita was betrayed and her dreams shattered by the only people she thought she could trust. Now, after three years in hiding, Nikita is seeking retribution and making it clear to her former bosses that she will stop at nothing to expose and destroy their covert operation.

 

For the time being, however, Division continues to recruit and train other young people, erasing all evidence of their former lives and turning them into cold and efficient killers. One of these new recruits, Alex, is just beginning to understand what lies ahead for her and why the legendary Nikita made the desperate decision to run.

 

Maggie Q, Lyndsy Fonseca, Shane West, Aaron Stanford, Ashton Holmes, Tiffany Hines, Melinda Clarke and Xander Berkeley star. Craig Silverstein ("Bones," "K-Ville"), Danny Cannon ("CSI," "Chuck"), McG ("Supernatural," "Chuck," "Charlie's Angels"), and Peter Johnson ("Supernatural," "Chuck") produce.

 

The nightly The CW schedule will be as follows:

 

MONDAY

8pm: "90210"

9pm: "Gossip Girl"

 

TUESDAY

8pm: "One Tree Hill"

9pm: "Life Unexpected"

 

WEDNESDAY

8pm: "America's Next Top Model"

9pm: "Hellcats"

 

THURSDAY

8pm: "Vampire Diaries"

9pm: "Nikita"

 

FRIDAY

8pm: "Smallville"

9pm: "Supernatural"

 

Renewals include "90210," "America's Next Top Model," "Gossip Girl," "Life Unexpected," "One Tree Hill," "Smallville," "Supernatural, "Vampire Diaries."

 

Cancellations include "The Beautiful Life," "Blonde Charity Mafia," "Fly Girls," "High Society," "Melrose Place."