Five more "Degrees"

ABC today said it will post the remaining produced episodes of the canceled drama Six Degrees on its Web site. The first unaired episode will be added to ABC.com on April 27, with a new episode added every Friday for four consecutive weeks, for a total of five.

At least the networks are starting to realize that viewers don't enjoy (or deserve) being left hanging by the cancellation of their favorite shows. Good for you ABC, you're the only one of the big three networks I don't feel like strangling right now.

ABC's turn to feel my wrath

Yes... all 12 readers will now giggle at my banter and then forget this show ever existed... some wrath that is. From Zap2It:

The return of Six Degrees proved to be a decidedly brief one.

The on-then-off-then-on-again ABC series appears to be off for good now after a brief return to the schedule yielded pitiable ratings. Its yanking is one of several scheduling moves the network made on Tuesday, including the movement of comedy Notes from the Underbelly to yet another time period.

The comedy about expectant parents will still premiere at 10 p.m. ET Thursday, following Grey's Anatomy. The following week, though, it will move to 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays, where it will (presumably) stay for the remainder of the season.

For those of you keeping score, that's the fourth place ABC has put Notes since last spring. It was initially paired with Big Day on Thursday nights, an idea that was scrapped when Ugly Betty moved there for the start of the season. Then it was set to premiere at 9:30 p.m. this Wednesday, but then FOX expanded the American Idol results show to an hour, so ABC moved it again.

The show's next stop was 10 p.m. Thursdays, where it will live for all of one week before settling at 8:30 Wednesdays. The reason for the latest move was October Road's decent performance (8.25 million viewers, 3.5 rating in adults 18-49) following a Grey's rerun last week. Encouraged by those numbers, ABC will keep October Road in the 10 p.m. spot until it wraps its brief, six-episode season April 26.

Six Degrees, meanwhile, drew next to no interest upon its return (a Friday-night timeslot didn't help either). After drawing a less-than-impressive 4.45 million viewers in its March 23 return, it plummeted to 3.1 million viewers last week. Repeats of Wife Swap will replace it for at least the next few weeks.

I was less than enthusiastic about the show's return anyway, as good as it was, and this isn't really a big surprise, as Fridays are basically a hospice care center for TV shows.

As for Underbelly, they're really just setting this thing up to fail. Which means it's probably the best new comedy since Arrested Development (that's right, 30 Rock, I'm talking to you).

NO, it has nothing to do with Kevin Bacon

If you read the blog at all, then you know how I feel about characters and how important they are to a show. Well, good news from ABC: Six Degrees will return with original episodes in a new time slot, 9 p.m. Fridays, after what is now a Grey's Anatomy rerun every week. That's, I believe, the same lead-in it had previously... when it didn't do wonderfully. The network said it will return March 23. The show is exec-produced by Lost/Alias genius J.J. Abrams.

The show focuses on how a group of people in New York City interact and affect each others' lives, whether knowingly or unknowingly -- among them the single mom whose husband, a journalist, was killed in Iraq (Hope Davis); the limo driver who's just started his own service but can't shake his past as a gang banger (Dorian Missick); and the brilliant photographer fresh off a bender (Campbell Scott) who's fighting his principles to work for an ad agency and fighting his ex-wife to see his son.

It's a show about personal demons and how these people are doing their damnedest to beat them. There's no explosions and there's only been one shooting -- it's not an action-filled show, but it's a TV drama that's not too mushy or skewed toward women (Men in Trees, Brothers & Sisters).

The network also announced the premiere of October Road, which will take over Men in Trees' time slot at 10 p.m. Thursdays starting March 15. According to the release, "October Road centers on the young, popular author, Nick Garrett, who is at a crossroads in his life. To get over his writer's block, he goes back to his hometown and must now face the family and friends he has avoided for the past ten years. Once back home on October Road, he quickly discovers that the circle of friends whose teenage lives he wrote about have trouble forgiving him for leaving them behind, and that his ex-girlfriend, Hannah Daniels, may have had his child."

If I got screener copies from the nets I'd give you more insight... but alas, I'm stuck with press releases.