THE FRIDAY FIVE | Coming this summer, part one

It’s going to be a long, hot summer. And while there’s plenty to do outdoors, that infernal box is still serving up worthwhile programming, though it can be a little harder to find during these months. Here are a handful of highlights from the next few weeks.

UPFRONTS 2009 | Night-by-night: Friday

Friday is such a low-rated night, some networks don’t care whether anyone watches what they broadcast. Fox makes no secret of this, but ABC pretends that it’s not backdoor-cancelling Ugly Betty with this move.

BB11 | Summer schedule announced

The Futon Critic reports that season 11 of CBS’s summer stalwart Big Brother kicks off Thursday, July 9 at 8p/7c. The other two weekly installments will air Sundays at 8p/7c and Tuesdays at 9p/8c. The announcement includes a few other summer shuffles, mostly of returning series migrating to their new fall time slots.

UPFRONTS 2009 | Night-by-night: Thursday

Thursday is TV’s holy grail, mostly because Hollywood has to sell those blockbusters. And every few years, everyone brings their A-game to try to shake up the night. This is one of those years.

UPFRONTS 2009 | Night-by-night: Wednesday

Wednesday is a mix of networks trying new things or sticking to things that have been known to work. CBS and Fox are probably the first camp, though Glee will have to prove itself. The CW is straddling both strategies. NBC is mixing the old and new, and ABC totally scrapped the night and started fresh.

UPFRONTS 2009 | Night-by-night: Tuesday

Two-hour drama series (and TV movies of the week) were common on schedules in the ’70s and ’80s. These days, scripted series are too expensive for such sprawl. Two-hour reality series are the new order of the day, as we see on Tuesday nights.

UPFRONTS 2009 | Night-by-night: Monday

Monday is a very competitive night for the networks, who plan to stick with tried-and-true series on the night.

UPFRONTS 2009 | Night-by-night: Sunday

As noted in last week’s Friday Five, one of the hallmarks of this upfront season was stabilty. Sunday is a prime example in which very little of the night’s scheduling landscape changed at all. The CW has given up programming the night, not that this change will make any difference to anyone.

UPFRONTS 2009 | Night-by-night: Saturday

Saturdays have fallen far since their glory days as home to some of TV’s most beloved sitcoms. These days, most networks have basically given up, dumping drama repeats and the once-ubiquitous Dateline here.

Happy Memorial Day!

I’ll be on vacation this week; I hope everyone else enjoys their holiday as well. Fear not, though. The Manifesto will be auto-posting a night-by-night fall schedule analysis while I’m gone. Enjoy, and I’ll see you back here in a week!