TV Bulletin Board (March 21)
03/21/07 16:57
By ED BARK
***ABC is giving second seasons to three new series, with Men In Trees the surprise returnee.
Also officially picked up: Brothers & Sisters and, to no one's surprise, Ugly Betty.
Trees, starring Anne Heche as a bestselling book author transplanted to Alaska, currently ranks 64th in the season-to-date Nielsens with an average of 9 million viewers an episode. Brothers & Sisters, with Calista Flockhart and Sally Field heading the cast, is in 40th place with 11.4 million viewers.
Both series have been following ABC powerhouses. Desperate Housewives (No. 8 with 18.5 million viewers) precedes B&S and Men In Trees tagged after Grey's Anatomy (No. 5 with 19.8 million viewers) for a few months before giving way last week to the new October Road.
A big batch of veteran ABC series also is being counted in for the 2007-'08 season. They are: America's Funniest Home Videos, The Bachelor, Boston Legal, Dancing with the Stars, Desperate Housewives, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Grey's Anatomy, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Lost, Supernanny and Wife Swap.
Notably missing from the list are any conventional half-hour comedies.
***ABC has added boxing great and grill master George Foreman to its panel of judges for the second summer season of American Inventor, which returns on June 6.