Scheduling skirmishes and casting coups make for a very competitive season

PASADENA, Calif. - It is the scheduling equivalent of the Friday Night Smackdown . . . on a Thursday night . . . with double-talking network executives instead of posturing professional wrestlers (although, wardrobe choices and general physique aside, there is really very little difference between them).

In one corner, the reigning champeen, the unstoppable, indefatigable, spinoff-spawning (and, let’s not forget, Canadian co-produced) ratings heavyweight, CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, the number-one most-watched weekly television series in North America, which it has been from the moment it first hit the air back in the fall of 2000.

And, in the other corner, the scrappy young contender, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, the two-year-old upstart doctor soap with its gorgeously, dryly angsty young cast, stepping out from the protective shadow of its Sunday-night lead-in, Desperate Housewives, to take on the big guns and body-bags of a CSI-dominated Thursday night.

The battle between Gruesome Grissom and Dr. McDreamy is just the first - and most hotly anticipated - clash in this season’s War of the Returning Network Series, fighting to retain, regain or claim dominance in the face of an impending flood of shiny new shows.

NBC was the first to blink in this particular scheduling stare-down - which was to be a three-way war with the timeslot competition of Aaron Sorkin’s much talked-about SNL gloss, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

(Leaving Fox and the new CW combo channel to counter with the young stuff, relying on, respectively, The O.C. and Supernatural - with the old WB’s other cute-boy fantasy, Smallville, as lead-in - to keep them in the game.)

But NBC folded, scurrying off in retreat to the relative safety of Monday nights, bumping Medium (temporarily, we trust, despite the network’s apparent issues with Patricia Arquette’s weight), and jamming the mindless Deal or No Deal into the gap.

“You’ve got to be practical,” shrugs NBC president Kevin Reilly. “And going against two juggernauts was just not going to be a healthy environment for any new show, no matter how much we believed in it.

“It was a war zone.”

Of the two remaining combatants, it is the slightly-favoured incumbent, CSI, that has disingenuously played the underdog.

“CSI has always been underestimated, from Day One, by everyone but the fans,” affirms actress Marg Helgenberger, one of the show’s front-line soldiers.

“I remember when we first started off, and we really started gaining steam, that we were referred to as ‘the little engine that could.’ And then, all of a sudden, we were this ‘monster.’ And now we’re back to being the underdog. Go figure.”

And yet, the Grey’s Anatomy move is perceived - at least, by CSI insiders - as less a threat than a challenge.

“With all due respect to Grey’s Anatomy,” Helgenberger adds, “I think that ABC moving that show opposite us was the biggest motivator we could have had. We’re all excited about it. It’s like, ‘Hey, we don’t want to relinquish the throne that easily.’ You know what I mean?”

“We’re up for the challenge,” agrees her network boss, CBS exec Nina Tassler, the one who actually started this whole ‘underdog’ thing rolling in the first place.

“It’s going to be an interesting, competitive hour of television,” she allows. “But, as we know from the past, two big hit shows or more can occupy the same time period.

“I can’t predict what’s going to happen. It’s going to be a fight . . . and we do expect to get dinged. Grey’s is a very good show.”

“I heard Nina was playing the rope-a-dope,” cracked ABC’s Stephen McPherson. “I mean, it’s kind of funny. You know, CSI and CBS have dominated that night (for so long) . . . I think they are the champions, without question.

“We’re coming on with a strong contender, and just hope to do some business there.”

But counter-scheduling is just one of many weapons in this war, which is being fought simultaneously on many other fronts.

Two more of the hottest returning shows, Desperate Housewives and Lost, are both struggling back from a creative decline in their sophomore seasons, which they both not only concede, but hope to combat by forcing/encouraging their respective creators, Marc Cherry and J.J. Abrams, to return to a more hands-on role this year.

Housewives will also be adding several new characters, including Dougray “Moses” Scott as a new love interest for Susan, Rachel G. Fox as Tom Scavo’s daughter, and Josh Henderson as Edie’s delinquent nephew.

Lost, which also lost fans by padding out last season with endless reruns, will address that issue by running six initial episodes, taking 13 weeks off, then running the rest of the season consecutively.

The new Taye Diggs “Groundhog Day” time-loop cop thriller, Day Break, will fill the intervening gap.

And Lost will also be beefing up with new blood, bumping Henry Ian Cusik and Michael Emmerson to regular status, and adding Rodrigo Santoro, Kiele Sanchez and Elizabeth Mitchell to the castaway cast.

Just like the schedule shuffle, the casting change-up is a classic chess move in the annual network ratings campaigns.

Hence, Bones will be getting a new boss, (Canadian Tamara Taylor), as will Close To Home’s Jennifer Finnegan (yet another fellow Canadian, JAG’s David James Elliott); Law & Order will get an infusion of estrogen (Alanza De La Garza on the law side, Milena Govich on order); and House will introduce, in a multi-episode story arc, a police detective nemesis for the good doctor (he makes friends so easily), in the person of TV hospital veteran (St. Elsewhere) David Morse.

Grey’s Anatomy, hedging its bet, will be adding America’s original African-American TV nurse, Diahann Carroll, in an as-yet undisclosed regular role.

Here, in alphabetical order - and without giving anything too essential away - are some of the other cast additions, schedule moves, plot portents and other major changes you can expect from some of your favourite returning shows:

24: With almost all of the CTU dead, and Kim Raver heading off to ABC’s The Nine, and Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack shanghaied on a slow boat to China . . . the inevitable additions to the cast this season include the returning Eric Balfour, Harold & Kumar’s Kal Penn and Ally McBeal’s Peter MacNicol, who will be doing double duty here and on the returning Num3ers. D.B. Woodside returns as Wayne Palmer, following his brother’s footsteps into the Oval Office, with Regina King as a previously unseen Palmer sister. British-born Carlo Rota (The Great Canadian Food Show) returns to play a pivotal role as Chloe’s brainbox ex.

7th Heaven: Rescued from WB afterlife by the hybrid CW, with Stephen Collins and Catherine Hicks returning full time, the kids dropping in and out, and Haylie Duff’s single-mom Sandie going off to seminary school.

Boston Legal: Michael J. Fox returns to close out his storyline, with fellow Canadian Tyler Labine (Invasion) joining the cast.

Cold Case: Moving to Sundays at 9, to see how it will fare opposite Sunday Night Football, America’s Next Top Model, Fox cartoons and a supposedly revived Housewives.

CSI: NY: Claire Forlani joins the cast as a new detective.

ER: There may be a problem with Abby’s baby; John Stamos returns.

Everybody Hates Chris: Moving to lead off the new CW’s new Sunday-night sitcom ghetto, with Jason Alexander and Whoopi Goldberg doing two episodes each as, respectively, Chris’s principal and new neighbour. Alexander will also guest-direct.

Ghost Whisperer: Aisha Taylor may not be as dead as we think (not that it makes much difference on this show). Camryn Manheim and Jay Mohr guest.

Gilmore Girls: Do we hear the pitter-patter of little feet? Will the parents be Lorelai and Christopher (again)? Rory and Logan (long distance)? Lane and Zach (newlywed)? Beyond that, the shotgun marriage of WB and UPN has made the Girls an irresistable lead-in combo with the chronically under-watched Veronica Mars - sadly, though, now opposite House. Even with shorter story arcs (three), Veronica at college and the Gilmores as lead-in, the cranky medic and his minions may prove tough to beat. Having Patty Hearst do a Mars guest shot probably won’t help much either.

My Name is Earl: Even more action even earlier Thursday night, as Earl moves into the former Friends slot at 8, to be followed at 8:30 by a rejuvenated The Office, which is adding Steve Carrell’s Daily Show pal Ed Helms to its cast, along with Rashida (daughter of Quincy) Jones and former Whose Liner Chip Esten.

NCIS: Michelle Lee (not the Knots Landing one) joins the cast.

New Adventures of Old Christine: Blair Underwood joins the cast as a new teacher at Richie’s school.

Nip/Tuck: A return to form after last season’s Carver digression, with a guest list that includes Catherine Deneuve, Jacqueline Bissett, Kathleen Turner, Brooke Shields, Larry Hagman, Rosie O’Donnell and Richard Chamberlain.

The O.C. Marissa’s still dead, Summer has become a campus activist at Brown, Seth has dropped out to work in a comics store and Ryan is out on his own and working nights. Willa Holland and Autumn Reeser get the bump to regular status.

One Tree Hill: Another old WB show resurrected from the dead by the new CW - which may also be what’s in store here for Craig Sheffer’s Keith.

Prison Break: As we have already seen, the boys are out on the lam - with Invasion’s William Fichtner now hot on their trail.

Rescue Me: Where there’s smoke . . . Three Oscar-winning actresses - Susan Sarandon, Marissa Tomei and Tatum O’Neal - and hockey great Phil Esposito start off the third season with a bang. And then there’s that controversial fourth-episode “rape” scene . . .

Scrubs: Currently off the schedule, but still in production and very excited about an all-musical episode planned for next spring featuring tunes by the Tony-winning composers of Avenue Q (including, apparently, an ode to a stool sample).

Smallville: Never say die in Superman’s home town. James Marsters’ Brainiac will rise again this season, and failed Aquaman Justin Hartley will dry off to play a young Green Arrow. Canadian Aaron Ashmore (brother of X-Man Shawn) is Jimmy Olsen.

Supernatural: There are rumours of the addition of a mother/daughter ghostbusting team - the daughter being of dateable age for either or both young Sam and Dean.

The Simpsons: The 18th season kicks off a week Sunday with a mob-themed episode featuring Joe Mantegna and Sopranos Michael Imperioli and Joe Pantoliano. The annual Halloween extravaganza features Dr. Phil, Fran Drescher and Richard Lewis. Also guesting: Kiefer Sutherland, Natalie Portman, the White Stripes, Eric Idle, Harry Hamlin, Jon Lovitz and authors Gore Vidal, Michael Chabon and Jonathan Franzen.

Weeds: Even more outrageous plot and character twists are promised - and the theme song sung each episode by a different artist, from Elvis Costello to Englebert Humperdink.

What About Brian?: A major overhaul this season, with an all-new writing staff headed up by Everwood’s Josh Reims. Raoul Bova is toast, but there will be three new characters, including a younger sister for Brian.

Without a Trace: Has sacrificed its Thursday timeslot to Jimmy Woods’ new Shark, which has bumped it to Sunday, where it will go toe-to-toe with ABC’s new, more female-friendly Brothers & Sisters.