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ABC moves Underbelly out of Idol's path

by Anna Johns, posted Mar 29th 2007 7:12PM

notes from the underbellyABC is cowering in fear. Ok, all of the networks are (rightfully) cowering in fear from the ratings behemoth that is American Idol. This time it's the new comedy, Notes From the Underbelly, that is being shifted to stay out of Ryan Seacrest's path.

The comedy, about a couple expecting a baby and dodging crazy advice from friends and family, has been moved from Wednesdays at 9:30 pm to Thursdays at 10 pm after Grey's Anatomy. The move is in response to Idol's announcement this week that it will expand its results shows to one hour, starting April 11th. Now, Notes From the Underbelly will premiere with back-to-back episodes on April 12th instead of April 11th.

Giving a comedy the 10 pm time slot, even if its lead-in is Grey's Anatomy, is a terrible idea. From the promos, it does not look like a prime time show. Let's face it: ten o'clock is the hour for sex and violence. Underbelly looks like it belongs in the 8 o'clock hour (or not on television at all, if you ask Joel).

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Sonny

I've seen portions of "Notes From The Underbelly." TVSquad is right: it isn't funny at all. In fact it's painful to watch. No wonder ABC wouldn't want to put it up against Idol. Even with this year's boring contestants, Idol is a thousand times more entertaining than yet another second-rate, forgettable sitcom.

March 31 2007 at 2:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joel

Heh. The pilots for The Nine and Studio 60 *were* pretty good. That's all we had to go on at the time we did those reviews. Who knew that the shows would stumble so badly right after those pilots aired?

March 30 2007 at 11:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jeff N.

Dumb idea to move a 30 minute comedy show to 10PM.
But the ABC programmers have not exactly wowed anyone with their great decisions in the past years.

March 30 2007 at 12:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jeff N.

I thought The Nine was very well done. To each their own. You know after awhile I have begun to hate Idol because it seems to limit the choices you have to watch instead of that Sanjayafest.

March 30 2007 at 12:42 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David

Joel thinks that Studio 60 was great so if he said this was bad than maybe it will be amazing!

March 30 2007 at 12:04 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David

Promos? This show comes out in 2 weeks and I have never heard of it.

March 30 2007 at 12:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Curt

I think it's funny reading back all the praise this site gave the crapfest that was The Nine.

March 29 2007 at 11:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tammy

Will we ever get a new episode of Men In Trees?

March 29 2007 at 8:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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