• "'roswell' earned its place on the schedule"

As The WB's second most popular show behind the already renewed 7th Heaven, Charmed was always likely to get picked up for the 200/01 season. Roswell's fate, on the other hand, was in more doubt.

However, earlier reports that the network would renew only one more freshman series following Angel's earlier renewal proved unfounded with Roswell returning along with Popular and Jack & Jill.

Roswell has been given at least a further thirteen episodes, and the series will be continuing in the Monday 9pm slot which it has occupied in recent weeks, again following 7th Heaven. Charmed will be airing at 9pm on Thursdays, with the Buffy and Angel double on Tuesdays.

Although it found itself up against stiff competition on Wednesday nights (from Star Trek: Voyager on UPN and The West Wing on NBC), Roswell has certainly benefited from its shift to Mondays and has been pulling in some of The WB's best ratings in the 9pm since the network began. It currently ranks 125th for all shows, with an average 2.6/4 rating. Of The WB's other freshman shows, only Angel has produced better ratings than Roswell.

The WB's schedule was announced today by Susanne Daniels, President, Entertainment and Jordan Levin, Executive Vice President, Programming.

"Stability in scheduling is always something that you strive for and we have accomplished that this season by keeping every one of our anchor dramas in their season-ending timeslots," said Ms. Daniels. "Roswell and Felicity came into their own creatively and ratings-wise the last eight episodes of the year and they both earned their way onto the schedule. The Tabasco sauce, e-mail campaigns and demonstrations also got our attention."

Buffy is one of four WB series that will reach the 100 episode mark this season, making it one of seven series to have reached the magic figure in The WB's short history (this season will be its seventh). "We have believed from the beginning that a new network needs stability in its programmes from year to year, which advantages our audience, advertisers and studio suppliers," said Ms. Daniels. "Our schedule this season reflects our emphasis on stability. Not only with the four series that will reach 100 episodes, but all by returning to the schedule every one of our quality dramas." back to the top