Extending a novel experiment initiated this summer, ABC will continue running the USA Network series "Monk" on Thursday nights well into the new TV season--after the episodes play on cable--allowing ABC to delay the premiere of its special effects-laden project "Dinotopia" until Thanksgiving night.
The maneuver is a financial and scheduling boon to Walt Disney Co.-owned ABC, which faced the daunting prospect of introducing eight series this fall. Sources say the deal to rerun "Monk" costs the network about $300,000 per episode--a little more than one-fourth the average fee networks pay producers of new dramatic series.
Moreover, "Dinotopia" has been laboring to meet a targeted early-October premiere date because of the elaborate visual effects on the series, set in a world where dinosaurs and humans live side by side. Postponing the show until Thanksgiving--a night of high family viewing--also will let ABC offer new episodes in December, a period when competing programs such as "Friends" on General Electric Co.-owned NBC are in reruns.
"Monk," starring Tony Shalhoub as an obsessive-compulsive detective, provided ABC with a rare bright spot this summer. Four episodes shown against News Corp.-owned Fox's hit "American Idol" finished a solid second in that hour, averaging 8.3 million viewers--far more than had been watching it on USA, a unit of Vivendi Universal.
