Amid strikes, networks plan a makeshift fall

As Hollywood’s mega-strike begins, viewers are wondering about the fall TV season.
There will be one, of course; there always is. But it will have lots of non-fiction – reality shows, game shows and such – plus more. There will be sports (especially football), Fox’s Sunday cartoons, a few foreign imports, some Disney movies … and, of course, reruns.
All of that became inevitable when the 160,000-member actors’ union joined the picket lines today (July 14). The 10,000-member writers’ union had been there since May 2.
Even if there’s a quick settlement – a possibility, at least, now that both unions are involved – it’s way too late to start a normal season. Here’s a look at what the broadcast networks have announced so far:
— ABC is the one network that never claimed it would have new scripted episodes this fall. Back in May, it announced a line-up that delayed all of them (“Grey’s Anatomy,” etc.) to mid-season.
Instead, it will revive “Wonderful World of Disney,” showing movies from 8-11 p.m. Sundays. That lets it scatter game shows to other nights, including “Celebrity Jeopardy,” “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune,” “Press Your Luck” and “$100,000 Pyramid.”
It is also retrieving “Dancing With the Stars,” which it will now share with the Disney+ streamer. And it will have two “Bachelor” spin-offs – “The Golden Bachelor” with older singles and “Bachelor in Paradise” with lusty young ones.
The news people will provide “20/20” and bring back the show “What Would You Do?” Also, the summertime “Judge Steve Harvey” will continue into the fall, leading into the lone scripted show – back-to-back reruns of two “Abbott Elementary” episodes.
— Fox didn’t even announce a schedule until recently. It simply listed lots of shows.
Now it has set a line-up that will look sort of normal on weekends – wrestling on Fridays, baseball or college football on Saturdays, pro football on Sunday afternoons, leading into a night of cartoons that were written far in advance. “The Simpsons,” “Bob’s Burgers” and “Family Guy” will be back, alongside the new “Krapopolis,” with others waiting.
The other four days, however, will be all games and reality. David Spade will host the new “Snake Oil” and Gordon Ramsay will have both “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Kitchen Nightmares.” Others are “The Masked Singer,” “Snake Oil,” “Name That Tune,” “I Can See Your Voice,” “Lego Masters” and “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.”
— NBC hasn’t announcedan alternate schedule, but it has key pieces to move around.
Sunday-night football is already a ratings leater, as is “The Voice.” The network also has some college football on Saturdays, plus “Dateline” on Fridays.
Waiting for mid-season were “Password” and variations on “Deal or No Deal” and “America’s Got Talent,” plus the Canadian drama “Transplant” and a 10-hour nature film from the BBC, “The Americas.” Some of those could be nudged into a fall schedule; so could a few shows that started filming early, including a 10-episode “Magnum P.I.” season.
— CBS had already taken one precaution, delaying the start of four of its summer reality shows until August. That lets them sprawl well into the fall season, where they could be joined by one new game show (Josh Duhamel’s “The Buddy Games”) and possibly another (Jaime Camil’s “Loteria Loca”).
Beyond that, the network had already planned to expand “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race” to 90 minutes, each, filling Wednesday’s prime time. It has ratings champion “60 Minutes,” plus “48 Hours,” college football Saturdays, pro football Sunday afternoons … and shows that tennd to rerun fairly well.
— The CW mini-network, under new ownership, had already been shedding most of its full-budget shows. Its lower-cost line also happens to avoid anything covered by the strike.
There are shows that have already aired overseas, including three Canadian comedies, two Canadian dramas and the sci-fi show “The Swarm.” There’s also the biblical show “The Chosen” (which has already started at 8 p.m. Sundaya), plus “Inside the NFL,” the dating show “FBoy Island” and some CW stand-bys – two magic shows, plus “World’s Funniest Animals” and “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”
— And with other scripted shows becoming scarce, viewers might turn to the well-crafted British transplants that PBS airs Sundays.
Mysteries fill the line-up now, with others returning this fall. “Unforgotten” and “Van der Valk” start on Sept. 3, with “World on Fire” and “Annika” on Oct.15. For later on, PBS has “Moonflower Murders” (a spin-off of the much-praised “Magpie Murders”) and non-mysteries, including “All Creatures Great and Small” and “Nolly,” a mini-series with Helena Bonham Carter as a controversial British soap star.