Heavy helping of new sitcoms

fall television

Combined dispatches

LOS ANGELES

The major networks revealed what their fall schedules will look like last week, adding plenty of new comedies and a few dramas, while subtracting some shows that were on the bubble. Here’s a look at what to expect.

FOX

Fox added three new comedies and two dramas to its slate for the 2012-13 season — including “The Office” alum Mindy Kaling’s new laffer and the Kevin Bacon-led thriller “The Following” — and in the process moves “Glee” and “Touch” to new nights.

“The Mindy Project,” which stars Kaling as an OBGYN, will help beef up the network’s Tuesday comedy block along with new ensemble comedy “Ben and Kate.” The duo will join “New Girl” and “Raising Hope,” which means “Glee” is moving to Thursday nights — creating a musical block, with “The X Factor” as its lead-in.

And the Kiefer Suther-land-helmed drama “Touch” makes the move from Thursdays to Fridays, serving as a lead-in to fellow sci-fi drama “Fringe.” Will the series find the magic numbers in its new slot or will its ratings continue to decline? The show averaged 8.37 million its first season, with a 2.49 in the 18-49 demo. It’ll find itself up against NBC comedies “Community” and “Whitney.”

Meanwhile, new series “The Mob Doctor” inherits the medical drama space once occupied by “House” on Mondays.

For those looking to lessen their degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon, you’ll have to wait until midseason, when “The Following,” from “The Vampire Diaries” executive producer Kevin Williamson makes its debut; Bacon stars as a former FBI detective on the hunt for a serial killer and his posse of followers. Also, making its debut midseason is the new comedy “The Goodwin Games,” which centers on three siblings poised to inherit a large fortune — if they pass a series of unique challenges.

NBC

NBC evidently believes laughter is the best medicine: The struggling network will have a strong dose of comedy on four nights in its fall lineup plus the Season 3 return of “The Voice.”

Keeping its Thursday sitcom block essentially intact with existing series, NBC will push the low-rated comedies “Community” and “Whitney” to Fridays and open up Tuesdays and Wednesdays for new sitcoms such as “Go On,” “Animal Practice” and “Guys With Kids.”

Nearly one-quarter of NBC’s fall prime-time schedule will consist of sitcoms; last fall, the figure was just 14 percent.

Also on the schedule: the Monday one-hour series “Revolution,” the new sci-fi drama from producer J.J. Abrams, and, for Wednesday, “Chicago Fire,” from “Law & Order” mastermind Dick Wolf.

As expected, NBC confirmed that the singing contest “The Voice” will open in fall for the first time, on Mondays and Tuesdays, setting up a likely confrontation with Simon Cowell’s “The X Factor” on Fox.

In choosing the comedies, NBC executives seemed to be shooting for shows with broad appeal to educated, upwardly mobile young adults.

“Guys With Kids” is about thirtysomething men struggling with fatherhood. “The New Normal,” co-created by Ryan Murphy of “Glee” fame, is about a gay couple and the female surrogate who helped them have a child. “Animal Practice” is about the love life of a young veterinarian. And “Go On” finds former “Friends” star Matthew Perry as a sportscaster.

The new dramas “Do No Harm,” “Infamous” and “Hannibal” will be held for midseason.

The network will also bring back the Broadway-themed “Smash,” its most-watched drama, for a spring re-launch with a new executive producer.

Despite low ratings, the newsmagazine “Rock Center With Brian Williams” will return in the fall, now in the plum time slot of 10 p.m. Thursday — a spot once occupied by the hit drama “ER.”

Among the shows not making the cut is “Harry’s Law,” which executives said drew a “very old” audience that advertisers did not like. Another victim is “Awake,” a critically acclaimed drama that never managed to find an audience.

ABC

ABC is doubling down on nighttime soaps in its bid to get out of third place.

The network of “Revenge” and “Scandal” announced that it will add new shows such as “666 Park Avenue,” about the machinations at an upscale and possibly haunted New York apartment building, and “Nashville,” centering on the scheming among country-music stars and Nashville politicians.

Starring Rachael Taylor, “666” will premiere on Sunday nights at 10 p.m., following “Revenge,” which is moving from Wednesdays to a coveted Sunday slot in an effort to build an evening of soapy drama on the competitive night.

“Sunday night will be a battle between good and evil from 8 all the way to 11,” Paul Lee, president of ABC Entertainment, told reporters in a conference call, alluding also to the first show of that bloc, the fairy-tale-themed “Once Upon a Time.” “Nashville” will air in “Revenge’s” old slot on Wednesdays at 10 p.m.

It will debut its more male-oriented new hourlong drama, Shawn Ryan’s military-themed “Last Resort,” earlier in the evening at 8 p.m.

Overall, the network, which this season will finish ahead of only NBC in the ratings race among the four major networks, picked up 10 new shows, including a host of new comedies.

Among them is “Neighbors,” a show from “Crazy, Stupid, Love” screenwriter Dan Fogelman about what happens when a couple moves into a new home and realizes some of the other homeowners are aliens

CBS

Coming off a season in which it finished first in viewers and made gains in all key demographics, CBS unveiled a fall schedule that features just four new shows but does take some risks by relocating a couple of established hits.

In something of a surprise, CBS is moving its freshman comedy “Two Broke Girls” from its 8:30 p.m. Monday time slot to a half-hour later at 9 p.m., which has been the longtime home of “Two and a Half Men.”

That shows an incredible amount of confidence in “Two Broke Girls” and an acknowledgement that there is more upside in that program than there is in the aging “Two and a Half Men,” which is moving to Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. Although “Two and a Half Men” survived the replacement of Charlie Sheen with Ashton Kutcher, its ratings dipped this season after a strong start.

CBS will launch three new dramas and one comedy this fall. The comedy, “Partners,” is from “Will and Grace” creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick and is about two best friends and business partners who see their relationship change when one becomes engaged. CBS has scheduled it on Mondays at 8:30 p.m. between “How I Met Your Mother” and “Two Broke Girls.”

On the drama front, CBS’ big bet is “Elementary” a modern-day take on Sherlock Holmes starring Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu. It will air on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. Dennis Quaid is also making his TV debut in “Vegas,” about legendary Las Vegas Sheriff Ralph Lamb. The network’s third drama is “Made in Jersey,” about a working-class lawyer who tries to fit into a stuffy Manhattan law firm.

CBS is also reducing its reliance on the “CSI” franchise. Gone is “CSI Miami” starring David Caruso, but the original “CSI” and “CSI New York” remain.

THE CW

The CW will undergo major alterations come fall.

In a bid to turn around a year of disappointing ratings, the network’s schedule is getting heavily revised with changes coming to every slot except one: Thursdays at 8 p.m., where its hit series “The Vampire Diaries” brings in impressive numbers for the young network.

The CW also announced that it will be sitting out the traditional fall season launch period and delaying its series premieres until October — helping to avoid the big four networks’ September premieres and the conflicts bound to arise with the presidential debates. Two of its five new dramas will get a midseason premiere.

The network canceled two of its dramas: witch soap “The Secret Circle” and “Ringer,” which marked the return of Sarah Michelle Gellar post-“Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

The network’s reshuffling will begin on Mondays, with “Gossip Girl’s” abbreviated final season moving an hour later to 9 p.m., with “90210” as its lead-in. When its swan song is complete, it will get a fashionable replacement in January with “The Carrie Diaries,” a prequel centered on the protagonist of “Sex and the City.”

Tuesdays will get the medical treatment, with the sophomore return of “Hart of Dixie” and the premiere of the Mamie Gummer-led series “Emily Owens, M.D.” (formerly “First Cut”).

Meanwhile, following a ratings decline this spring, long-running franchise “America’s Next Top Model” is strutting down to Fridays, where it will be paired with returning drama “Nikita.”

Previous Friday player “Supernatural” moves to Wednesdays, where it will follow the DC comics adaptation “Arrow,” a dark telling of the Green Arrow action tale. And the fantasy crime procedural, “Beauty and the Beast,” has been given the plum 9 p.m. spot on Thursdays following “The Vampire Diaries.”

Joining “Carrie Diaries” in midseason is thriller “Cult,” which hasn’t been given a time slot yet.

Material from The Los Angeles Times was used in this story.