Update: USA Network’s Twitter feeds are confirming the dates/times below.
The latest info from USA Network paints an interesting schedule where USA Network apparently looks to compete with The Jay Leno Show with scripted programming as often as possible by having White Collar, Burn Notice and Psych all air at 10pm on different nights, with White Collar on Tuesdays (beginning January 19), Psych on Wednesdays (beginning January 27) and Burn Notice on Thursdays (beginning January 21).
Earlier in the month The Futon Critic reported that its sources had confirmed that White Collar would be paired with Burn Notice on Thursdays. I posted The Futon Critic’s version. The Futon Critic apparently heard directly from USA Network PR that what it was reporting hadn’t been confirmed, but TFC stuck with its sources.
I heard from the folks who run Internet outreach for USA Network. They’re very nice folks, and the ones who supply all the awesome prizes for our “guess the ratings” contests featuring USA Network shows. They told me that the info was wrong and should be pulled down from our site.
I protested that I was only carrying the TFC info. He protested back that the info was wrong. I was stubborn. Now it looks like I shouldn’t have been so stubborn!
The Futon Critic is now linking to advanced listings from USA Network that paint a different schedule than TFC originally reported earlier. Of course those advanced listings are subject to change and there is almost two months between now and then. See update above, USA Network has officially announced the dates,
Though I can see the benefits of trying to couple White Collar with Burn Notice (to the benefit of improved exposure for White Collar), I also like Burn Notice’s chances at 10pm on Thursdays better than 9pm during the regular broadcast television season. I think the bumping Burn Notice to 9pm and pairing it with something else at 10pm (as it did with Royal Pains) makes more sense in the summer.
Why Psych beginning at 27 Jan. instead of the previous week like the others 2?
shame was looking forward to the pairing of burn notice and white collar
Looks like USA is trying to test out some new nights for originals. Pretty soon USA will programming at least six nights a week.
Only real worry I have is the Winter Olympics which will be live in that 10pm hour in February. That will effect the USA shows big time.
Pretty funny that USA is going to take a pipe to the knee of the Jay Leno Show, considering that USA is an NBCU network.
So much for synergy at NBCU.
cant wait for a new White Coller toinght i think USA is great network and its prove to be a great network cant what to see what there next show will be
Collar*
Whenever the Comcast takeover happens, I wouldn’t be surprised if USA execs get the NBC execs’ jobs.
Milton, perhaps you should have been paying more attention to who’s been running the businesses for the last several years.
Jeff Zucker has been the boss of the head of USA for his four years as CEO of NBCU. And it’s rumored he will run the new entity that will come out of the Comcast deal.
And Jeff Gaspin, who, since July, runs all of NBCU’s broadcast and cable (and TV studio) businesses (and works for Zucker) previously ran just NBCU’s cable businesses (including USA).
Your comment seems to be another one of the many in the “the Comcast deal will change everything” wishful thinking meme.
The most interesting thing to me is that Psych is moving to Wednesday at 10pm/9central. That’s the same time TNT airs Leverage and FX airs Damages. Wednesdays will be a very busy night for me.
Surprising about some of the changes as Psych has been on Fridays for so long and also this is the first time it has aired without a lead in, White Collar is doing well at the moment but Tuesday seem an odd day for it, Burn Notice at 10pm is interesting as did well at 9pm and against The Mentalist would dent its audience slightly.
Wonder what happening to Fridays and Sundays? I bet Law & Order CI is moving to Friday and In Plain Sight is remaining on Sundays.
It does seem pretty odd that they would change Psych’s day when it’s been on Friday for 3.5 years. I’m a bet worked about how it’s going to do, both without it’s lead in and on a different day.
Here’s some more wishful thinking. What if NBC folds USA into itself. Perhaps they could replace Jay Leno with these shows. Are the ratings better? I’m sure they would get better on NBC.
Heh heh heh, if only the world worked like that.
Well this works better for me. I’m already watching/DVRing Supernatural and Fringe at 9:00 on Thursdays, so I was going to have to DVR one of the reruns of Burn Notice. Now I can watch all three when they are shown. Putting Psych against Leverage will mean DVRing one and viewing the other and I’m going to have to deal with BN vs Mentalist, but this still makes watching all my shows easier, so I’m happy.
Maybe good news in the long run. Its better for USA to air 10pm during more weekdays then just 9 and 10 on Thurs, Fri and Sun. Expansion seems like a smart idea.
The Comcast leaks have always confirmed that Zucker would keep his job. They’ve also always failed to confirm just how long they intend to keep him. Big business conglomeration between publicly traded entities always carries political type maneuvering. In other words, don’t scare the stockholders by declaring radical change before the deal is finalized.
Additionally, Comcast has also stated repeatedly that Zucker would be reporting directly to one of its own people. The name escapes my memory, but it’s an easy Google search if you need it.
I’ll agree on this though, as long as Zucker is in the mix, it’d be foolish to think that NBC will automatically start programming for ratings instead of margins.
I wonder how much of this is USA testing the waters on expanding their original programming schedule and moving closer to a full week long schedule. By my count come the end of January USA will have oringal content Monday-Thursday at 10PM, with WWE Raw also in the 9PM hour on Monday nights. Its not hard to imagine them having an additional drama (maybe Royal Pains if not something new) to slot into the Friday slot by midseason 2011 in fact they could easily do it for Summer 2010.
Monday – WWE Raw
Tuesday – White Collar
Wednesday – Psych
Thursday – Burn Notice
Friday – Royal Pains
That seems like a pretty big cable line-up to me. You can there pair up new dramas with Royal Pains and Burn Notice on Friday and Thursday at least if White Collar and Psych aren’t strong enough to move to 9PM.
EDIT – Plus I suppose with the retooling of In Plain Sight and Criminal Intent taking into account USA could opt to delay their returns until the full summer schedule kicks in, which would allow them to run a full two-hour prime time schedule Monday – Friday if they debut two new dramas as well.
so is psych moving to wednesday, cause that would be great only a half hour of nothing to watch on wednesday (7:30 mt)
Don’t know how I got along without a DVR to record 2 shows at the same time. White Collar is my favorite new show and that is saying a lot since I also love Vampire Diaries. Looking forward to Burn Notice also.
@ Jon: “…also, this is the first time [Psych] has aired without a lead in.”
It won’t have an original show as its lead in, but isn’t Wednesday the night that USA typically runs a large (3 hour?) NCIS block? I’m pretty sure at least one of the Wednesday airings of NCIS tends to make the cable top 25 regularly, so if they keep the NCIS airings on Wednesday before Psych it might get a pretty good lead in from that.
I know a lot of people are going to focus on Leno as a factor in this move, but I think this could be more a move against TNT. For the last few years USA and TNT have avoided airing originals against each other. USA had Sunday, Thursday and Friday; TNT had Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Since TNT’s stronger shows air at 9, that leaves the 10 pm slot more vulnerable.
I’m glad they bumped up BN to 10pm because now it won’t clash with Fringe!
so does this mean that White Collar will have a winter/spring season unlike Royal Pains which is also new this year? Cause IPS won’t be back until spring and RP until summer as is usual with 1st season shows on USA…….
Wise and expected. NBC proper gets cheaper at 10, and the missing viewers go to the dual revenue cable shows – NBC Uni’s probable plan from the beginning. Again, Fox’s 10pm hour has been… FX, for the last seven years, and it works for them.
I like the individual scheduling too – Burn Notice can probably net big budget movie advertising (the real goal of all Thursday scheduling), and (without knowing the ABC scheduling yet), White Collar offers a sorta-police procedural on the one night CBS doesn’t air one at 10, while Psych gets the weakest of the CSIs (and probably offers a fluffy counterpoint to FX’s Damages*).
*How USA & FX fare directly against each other is the real question we should be asking. I could see FX’s Archer’s dude-programming suffering vs. Burn, for instance.
I’m glad Burn Notice is going back to it’s original time slot on Thurs. at 10 p.m. it was a welcome show for me following CSI on CBS after they moves Without A Trace and I was fed up of ER. Thursday is the only night I’m home to watch any TV so I’m happy with this new set up.
I’ll watch Psych whatever bight it’s on. I just hope White Collar can make it on Tuesdays. It hasn’t been on too long, but I’ve already grown quite attached to it.
I think Royal Pains and Burn Notice are a great pair and worked over the summer and I say if it ain’t broke don’t fix it