CW Unveils New Monday Night Rotation

CW announces new Monday rotation and scores high Monday ratings.

The CW certainly wasn’t experiencing a case of the Mondays earlier this week. The network saw its most watched Monday of the season this year with 2.67 million viewers (coming from the overnight ratings, not including the Live+7 DVR ratings, which would only increase the numbers). The pairing of veteran drama One Tree Hill with cult sensation Gossip Girl also matched the CW’s season best in adults 18-49 (1.3/3) and women 18-49 (1.9/5) for the night, according to Live+Same Day Nielsen ratings for Monday, November 9th.

The Sophia Bush directed episode of One Tree Hill climbed to a season high in total viewers (2.67 mil) and women 18-49 (1.9/5). One Tree Hill gained over last week by 13% in the women 18-34 demo, 13% in adults 18-34, 18% in women 18-49, 19% in adults 18-49 and 15% in total viewers.

After a strong lead-in from One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl also saw week-to-week improvement. The episode, which was at the center of much controversy from the pitchfork wielding Parents Television Council with its as-advertised threesome saw a 26% improvement in women 18-34 (2.9/7), 29% in adults 18-34 (1.8/5), 30% in adults 18-49 (1.3/3), 19% in women 18-49 (1.9/4) and 20% in total viewers (2.37 mil) versus the previous week.  Gossip Girl delivered its second best adults 18-49 rating of the season (second to the season premiere), and matched its best adults 18-34 and women 18-34 ratings in 6 weeks (since 9/28/09). Editor’s note: Creatively, this was one of the best Gossip Girl episodes of the season, and the buzz about the show’s first threesome certainly didn’t hurt its numbers. Sorry P.T.C., you know what they say — Living in sin is the new thing…

Coming off of its highest rated Monday of the season, the CW announced today that it will air all-original episodes of three series Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill and new drama Life UneXpected on Monday nights from mid-January through May 2010. That means no repeats! The three series will air on a revolving schedule. The Shiry Appleby-led Life UneXpected will debut on Monday, January 18th at 9pm following the return of original episodes of veteran drama One Tree Hill at 8pm. On March 8th, Life Unexpected will take One Tree Hill’s timeslot at 8pm and Gossip Girl will return from its winter hiatus at 9pm ET. On April 19th, after Life UneXpected’s initial 13-episode run is complete, the Monday night schedule will return to One Tree Hill at 8pm and Gossip Girl at 9pm for the remainder of the season.

Life UneXpected centers around the story of 15-year-old Lux (Britt Robertson, Swingtown), who has decided to emancipate herself after a lifetime of foster family round robin. In her quest to become emancipated, Lux discovers her birth parents, Nate “Baze” Bazile (Kristoffer Polaha, Mad Men) and Cate Cassidy (Shiri Appleby, Roswell). When a judge grants temporary joint custody to Baze and Cate, they agree to try to give Lux the family she deserves. But is it too little too late? Dawson’s Creek’s Kerr Smith also stars.

The Monday midseason rotation will be as follows:

Can Gossip Girl handle another lengthy midseason break? It’ll be interesting to see how the show creatively responds to such a long hiatus. It certainly is wise of the CW to put new series Life UneXpected on the network’s strongest night, but you have to wonder why the CW has such trouble filling only 10 hours of original primetime programming each week.

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