Update: Rick Porter writes a nice article on “Body Politic” – the best pilot you won’t see this fall season. (Zap2it).

Turns out, the rumoured schedule is true! While I do want to see the CW pick itself back up and bring back the glory days of the WB, I know that it will not happen, especially under the reigns of the current exec team. With a combination of rehashing old material, extending shows beyond their natural end, picking up bad pilots and poor scheduling, the CW continues to shoot itself in the foot. Oh Dawn… you’re really running the network to the ground. As the famous Les Grossman once said “A nutless monkey can do your job!” 

The CW’s pickups for the 2009-10 season are “Melrose Place,” “The Vampire Diaries” and “The Beautiful Life”. Reports that they would land on the fall schedule have been floating around for several days. Unfortunately this is now official.

The new series will join returning shows — “Gossip Girl,” “One Tree Hill,” “90210,” “America’s Next Top Model,” “Smallville” and “Supernatural” — on The CW’s non-existant pared-down schedule, which will now run only on weeknights.

“Melrose Place” will pair with “90210” on Tuesday nights, re-creating the FOX Wednesday-night lineup from 1992-94. “The Beautiful Life,” a drama about models living in New York that stars Mischa Barton and Sara Paxton, will follow “America’s Next Top Model” on Wednesdays.

“Smallville”, will be moving from Thursday nights to Friday nights at 8 p.m. to make room for another newbie. The third new series, “The Vampire Diaries,” will take its place at 8 p.m. Thursdays, leading into “Supernatural.”

The CW also picked up one show for midseason — “Parental Discretion Advised” (what kind of crap title is that?). It was previously titled “Light Years” and “Life Unexpected” during pilot season. Those two titles seem to fit the show a lot better, but the change to a “bold” name will perhaps hide the fact that the show is rather bland. It stars Brittany Robertson as a teenager who tracks down her biological parents (Shiri Appleby and Kristoffer Polaha), who haven’t been close since the one-night stand that resulted in their daughter’s conception. This has quality TV written all over it!

Gone from the schedule are “The Game,” “Everybody Hates Chris,” “Privileged” and “Reaper.” ABC Studios is still shopping “Reaper” around for syndication, so we just might see the show back on the air in the near future. Maybe… on Sunday nights!

Word is, “Body Politic” turned out very well, but the show just didn’t fit the CW brand that Dawn and co. are developing. Apparently it is “too political” and Dawn doesn’t believe the CW viewers are into that kind of stuff. Yes, Dawn, you know your 5 viewers very well. While “Body Politic” may be still in contention for the midseason (since they’re looking for another scripted show for early next year), it is more likely that the CW will go after the still untitled Gossip Girl spinoff.  It’s not about changing the network for the better, it’s about building a brand that’s already failing. The CW is known to give up on quality shows over the past. In fact, they’ve also given up on shows that can potentially keep the network afloat (maybe even keeping their Sundays alive). Back when the CW first started, there was “Mercy Reef”, the Smallville spinoff that’s based on another DC character Aquaman. That could have developed a nice fanbase and provide an average of 3-4 million viewers per episode. It hit #1 on iTunes in downloads for a reason when the producers and The WB decided to sell the pilot for our viewing pleasure.

As for the pilot pickups, “Beautiful Life” fits very well with “America’s Next Top Model.” With Ashton Kutcher behind it (he’s the one that’s also known for a wide range of programming like Punk’d, Beauty and the Geek and True Beauty), don’t expect much out of this show. “Beautiful Life” does share a common theme with ANTM and it can definitely use the lead-in from the CW’s most watched show. Meanwhile “Vampire Diaries” is a nice pick-up, from a business standpoint. The CW is trying to cash in on the vampire craze (especially the Twilight series). The show’s promotional pictures look eerily similar to that certain vampire flick. “Vampire Diaries” does have Kevin Williamson (Dawson’s Creek) and Julie Plec (Kyle XY) behind it, so it has some hope for improvement. In The CW’s current mission to rehash FOX’s glory days from 15+ years ago – and failing at it -, we get to see another “Melrose Place.” If the current state of 90210 is any indication of what “Melrose Place” will be like, don’t expect it to be good and don’t expect it to draw that many viewers.

While pairing the newbies with the current shows that share a common theme is a good idea, the CW manages to screw things up in other areas. “Smallville” is currently their highest rated drama on the network (even though it is several seasons past its prime). Moving it to the Friday night death slot will not kill the show and many fans will follow it to the new timeslot. However, why would the CW use it to lead into a repeat of “America’s Next Top Model”? An established show like Smallville should be used to lead into something new to build an audience! Yes, a repeat of ANTM saves money, but building a new show with an audience can generate money in the long run – especially with advertising. Also, this could be Smallville’s final season (even though Tom Welling is signed on for 2 years). When it goes, the CW will have nothing to anchor the night. Hey, maybe they can give up programming on Fridays too!

The CW has a serious case of group think. If no one wants to create conflict in the boardroom, they just go along with the bad idea. Or perhaps everyone in there simply believes that their idea is a good idea… without realizing that it’s bad. Who knows what’s going on with the network? Perhaps they’re going the GM route. They’re just waiting for a bailout.

It’s time to play over/under once again. This time with revised numbers!

The CW average viewership: 1.8 million viewers

The CW abandons Friday nights: 1 year

The CW will just fold entirely: 2 years

Speculate away!

Here is the fall schedule for the CW 2009-2010 Season.

Monday
8 p.m.: Gossip Girl
9 p.m.: One Tree Hill

Tuesday
8 p.m.: 90210
9 p.m.: Melrose Place

Wednesday
8 p.m.: America’s Next Top Model
9 p.m.: The Beautiful Life

Thursday
8 p.m.: Vampire Diaries
9 p.m.: Supernatural

Friday
8 p.m.: Smallville
9 p.m.: America’s Next Top Model Encore

*New show
*Old show, new timeslot