ABC's remaining schedule is full of hurting
   
By Andrew Wallenstein

    It was NBC entertainment president Garth Ancier who said it best when he likened ABC's reliance on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" to heroin addiction. 
    ABC will overdose on the game show, it's just a question of how badly it will take its toll on the 2000-01 schedule.
    As the Big Six unveil their lineups during the upfront presentations this week, you can bet their biggest concern is where and how many times "Millionaire" will appear in primetime.
     For ABC, it's about avoiding overexhausting the franchise that catapulted the network atop the heap.
   Nielsen crunchers love drilling away at the base of the pedestal on which "Millionaire" currently rests: The game show's 18-49 yield dropped 26 percent from January to April, a recent episode was bested by NBC's "Frasier," etc. 
    But the fact of the matter is that "Millionaire" has earned every bit of hype lavished upon it, averaging over 28 million viewers per episode. 
   Rumors are rampant that "Millionaire" may be pressed into duty four nights a week. At the rate, why not just have Peter Jennings deliver the nightly news in a multiple-choice format?
    Elsewhere on the schedule--yes, ABC does have other shows--not even Regis Philbin can obscure the problems.

Monday: 
"Monday Night Football" is coming off its worst season ever, and the addition of former NBC honcho Don Ohlmeyer as executive producer won't really help. Try watching what Vince McMahon does with his new XFL football league Saturdays on NBC, and rip pages from his production playbook.

Tuesday:
     TV critics are probably holding a candlelight vigil for the return of "Sports Night" at 9:30 p.m., but that just won't happen, considering the series regularly loses a quarter of lead-in. How about that new Geena Davis sitcom instead? And if rumors of NBC or HBO picking up "Sports" come true, get some mustard for my hat.
    Word has it that Steven Bochco is actually asking ABC to purposely delay the debut of "NYPD Blue" to January, a decision he bitterly contested last season that ended up invigorating the series. Make his wish come true and let Monday standby "Once & Again" warm the slot in the meantime.

Wednesday:
    We all laughed when ABC made "Two Guys And A Girl" its anchor, but the joke was on the skeptics; the sitcom won the slot's 18-49 race over Fox's "Beverly Hills 90210." If ABC really wants Friday's reality series "Making the Band" to reach younger viewers, drop it on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.
      Just don't be surprised if both "Guys" and "Band" get Friday slots in a lame attempt to convince everyone that "T.G.I.F." isn't really dead.
   
Thursday: 
    Cut "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" back to its original 30 minutes and move it to Wednesday after "The Drew Carey Show" for a full hour of the sitcom's star. (Don't worry about moving "Spin City" to Friday; it's used to it.) Try counterprogramming NBC's comedy with a solid drama at 8 p.m., like the new Andre Braugher medical series.

Friday:
     Let's see. "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" moved to WB, "Boy Meets World" ended its run and the night's viewership is down 20 percent. Can we just declare "T.G.I.F." dead?
      Don't count on it.  Expect a slightly older-skewing mix of new and old sitcoms, but pray to your respective gods that won't include "The Hughleys," which would have died in its first season if it hadn't had "Home Improvement" as a lead-in. Speculation has the "Wonderful World of Disney" Sunday movie moving here, but that's unlikely.

Saturday:
    The movie block stopped the bleeding from last season, so it stays.

Sunday: On the slim chance "Disney" does decamp for Friday, watch "Millionaire" and "The Practice" slide back an hour to support a new drama at 10 p.m.

- Andrew Wallenstein is the TV critic for Media Life.

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