The quick-to-cancel executives at Fox didn't have many hearts to break in axing shows this week because they already had buried almost all of the new shows that debuted in the 2006-07 season ("Drive," "The Wedding Bells," "Vanished," "Justice," etc.). "The War at Home" and "The Winner" marked the only new, notable series to get the hook on the last day of the upfronts.

At The CW, "Veronica Mars" has solved her last case and "All of Us" will no longer be seen by any of us. The CW, the mutant love child of The WB and UPN, failed to measure up to the sum of its parts, achieving little success in its first season. Now The CW goes into year two without one-time hits "7th Heaven" or "Gilmore Girls," presenting new marketing challenges.

	Joe Viles, Fox Pittsburgh will be the backdrop for Patricia Heaton and Kelsey Grammer in "Back to You." Click photo for larger image.

At Fox, the goal is to show some signs of life before "American Idol" returns in January. That should be made easier by fewer interruptions from baseball (down from 26 nights to 14), which will allow the network to build a more consistent schedule.

Among the new series ordered is "Back to You," a previously announced Pittsburgh-set sitcom about newscasters starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton. Originally the show was set in Buffalo, but Fox Entertainment president Peter Liguori cast a deciding vote in favor of Pittsburgh. How come?

"One, I always liked Michael Chabon's book, 'Mysteries of Pittsburgh,'" Liguori said, "And two, I have a great dirty joke about Pittsburgh that I can't tell you, but it gives me another chance to tell that joke among my associates."

Okaaay. Would love to hear that joke but probably couldn't print it here.

With few traditional, multicamera sitcoms ordered by any of the networks for fall, "Back to You" may be television's next best hope for a revival of the comedy genre.

"Kelsey and Patti are broad comedic talent names," Liguori said. "It's almost, in an odd way, like bringing back a returning show."

"24," renewed for two more years, will return at midseason again, with producers promising major changes after viewer disappointment with the current installment.

"The network and [producers], none of us are happy about this year," Liguori said. "We heard what the loyal audience has said to us, and the good news is it has really fueled the show runners to be more daring with what they're gonna do next year."

Liguori would not say what those changes might entail.

Here's Fox's fall schedule, with new series in bold:

Sunday

7 p.m.: "The OT" (NFL post-game)
8 p.m.: "The Simpsons."
8:30 p.m.: "King of the Hill."
9 p.m.: "Family Guy."
9:30 p.m.: "American Dad."

Monday

8 p.m.: "Prison Break."
9 p.m.: "K-Ville" -- Two years after Hurricane Katrina, two cops (Anthony Anderson, Cole Hauser) patrol New Orleans as the city continues to rebuild. Tawny Cypress (the deceased Simone on "Heroes") also stars.

Tuesday

8 p.m.: "New Amsterdam" -- Filmmaker Lasse Hallstrom ("Cider House Rules") directed the pilot episode of this story of an immortal New York homicide detective (Nikolaj Coster Waldau) whose past and potential future is entwined with the founding of New York by Dutch colonists.
9 p.m.: "House."

Wednesday

8 p.m.: "Back to You" -- Forget about Peggy Finnegan and David Johnson. Or Sally Wiggin and Don Cannon. Or Ken Rice and Jennifer Antkowiak. In the "Back to You" universe, Chuck Darling (Kelsey Grammer) and Kelly Carr (Patricia Heaton) were the dominant TV news anchor team in Pittsburgh in the 1990s. Chuck left for a bigger market, but after an on-air meltdown that ends up on the Internet, he returns to rejoin Kelly, who is now a single mom.
8:30 p.m.: " 'Til Death"
9 p.m.: "Bones."

Thursday

8 p.m.: "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?"
9 p.m.: "Kitchen Nightmares" -- "Hell's Kitchen" chef Gordon Ramsay stars in another reality show. This time he hits the road to visit assorted restaurants in crisis, trying to whip the staffs into shape. Based on a similar British reality show Ramsay starred in.

Friday

8 p.m.: "The Search for the Next Great American Band" -- The producers of "American Idol" give the "Idol" treatment to bands as opposed to individual singers.
9 p.m.: "Nashville" -- The team behind MTV's "Laguna Beach" sets its sights on the capital of country music for this docu-soap about young people trying to make it in the country music business.

Saturday

8 p.m.: "Cops."
8:30 p.m.: "Cops."
9 p.m.: "America's Most Wanted: America Strikes Back."
11 p.m.: "Mad TV."
Midnight: "Talk Show With Spike Feresten."

Midseason

"The Return of Jezebel James" -- Estranged sisters (Parker Posey, Lauren Ambrose) make an arrangement for one to carry the other's baby in this sitcom from "Gilmore Girls" creator Amy Sherman-Palladino.
"Canterbury's Law" -- A rebellious defense attorney (Julianna Margulies) is willing to bend the law to protect the wrongfully accused while she and her husband (Linus Roache) remain haunted by the disappearance of their young son.
"The Sarah Connor Chronicles" -- "The Terminator" franchise comes to TV in this series set after "T2: Judgment Day" as Sarah Connor (Lena Heady) and son John (Thomas Dekker, "Heroes") continue to fight against technologically advanced robots from the future.
"The Rules for Starting Over" -- A group of friends learn how difficult it is to start over in their 30s. Craig Bierko ("Boston Legal") and Rashida Jones ("The Office") star in this single-camera comedy from the Farrelly Brothers ("There's Something About Mary").
"Anchorwoman" -- An unscripted series about a TV station in a tiny Texas town that hires a former WWE star, Lauren Jones, to boost its ratings.

The CW schedule

Here's The CW's fall schedule, with new series in bold:

Sunday

7 p.m.: "CW Now" -- A new entertainment show about what's "hip, hot and happening right now" (a k a cheap programming for a time slot when hardly anyone is watching this network).
7:30 p.m.: "Online Nation" -- Call it "YouTube Theater." The CW culls the Net for user-generated online clips (a k a cheap programming for a time slot when hardly anyone is watching this network).
8 p.m. "Life Is Wild" -- Based on the BBC America show "Wild at Heart," this Americanized remake follows a family that moves from New York to South Africa to live on a game reserve. Brett Cullen and Judith Hoag play the parents. Expect to see many teenagers providing romantic entanglement stories.
9 p.m.: "America's Next Top Model" (rerun)

Monday

8 p.m.: "Everybody Hates Chris."
8:30 p.m.: "Aliens in America" -- A Pakistani Muslim foreign-exchange student comes to live with an American family in Wisconsin. Amy Pietz ("Caroline in the City") plays the mom.
9 p.m.: "Girlfriends."
9:30 p.m.: "The Game."

Tuesday

8 p.m.: "Beauty and the Geek."
9 p.m.: "Reaper" -- Sam (Bret Harrison, "The Loop") turns 21 and discovers his parents have sold his soul to the devil (Ray Wise, "Twin Peaks"), and now it's time to pay up. Sam becomes Satan's bounty hunter on Earth in this comedic drama.

Wednesday

8 p.m.: "America's Next Top Model"
9 p.m. "Gossip Girl" -- "The O.C." in New York City. Privileged teens get the dirt on their friends from a blog written by the super-secretive gossip girl (voiced by "Veronica Mars" star Kristen Bell) who details the tension between Serena (Blake Lively) and best friend Blair (Leighton Meester). Kelly Rutherford ("Homefront") plays Serena's mom.

Thursday

8 p.m.: "Smallville."
9 p.m.: "Supernatural."

Friday

8 p.m.: "Friday Night Smackdown!"

Midseason

Teen soap "One Tree Hill" returns at midseason (fast-forwarding its characters to life after college) along with "Pussycat Dolls Present" and reality show newcomers:

"Crowned the Mother of All Pageants" -- Carson Kressley ("Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"), Shanna Moakler ("Meet the Barkers") and Cynthia Garrett call the shots in this beauty competition among mother/daughter teams.
"Farmer Wants a Wife" -- One country boy will vie for love among 10 big-city women.

Channel surfing

West Alexander native Andrew Hunt, who now lives in Minneapolis, will be one of the contestants on Fox's moviemaking reality competition "On the Lot." More on the show in Sunday's TV Week. ... Changes to ABC's Tuesday night schedule next week bump the "Boston Legal" season finale to May 29. ... MTV's "Reunited: Real World Las Vegas" premieres at 10 p.m. May 30. ... Point Park University senior Heidi Dezayas of Verona will compete Tuesday on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" (1 p.m., WPXI).

TV Q&A

This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about "Friday Night Lights," "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and NFL Network switching tiers on Comcast. Read it online at post-gazette.com/tv.