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Friday, May
23, 2003 by
MELANIE MCFARLAND
Call
it the "Lizzie
McGuire" effect. The Disney Channel's dream tween has
so many fans that other cable channels are shoring up their
programming.
Not that Lizzie cares, since "The Lizzie McGuire
Movie" signaled the end of her series' production -- although there
are five new episodes in the can. But Hillary Duff's exit means all
those 8- to 14-year-old fans are available for the taking. That's part
of the reason The N, Noggin's evening programming block, and ABC
Family are premiering new shows this weekend.
Technically, since ABC Family is under the
Disney corporate umbrella,
it's not so much making a run as trying to share.
Smart, since the tween crowd can be hard to pin
down. Many TV outlets are pining for their attention these days, eager
to tap into the demographic's estimated $10 billion worth of spending
power.
Making a tween- or teen-targeted series into a
phenomenon can be tough. That's why, like most of television, a lot of
the new programs are based on hits that have gone before. Discovery
Channel, for instance, created children's versions of its most popular
adult shows, such as "Junkyard Wars" and the recently premiered
"Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls," for the Discovery Kids digital cable
tier and NBC's Saturday morning block.
Just
as "Lizzie McGuire" resembles Nickelodeon's long-gone "Clarissa
Explains It All," ABC Family's new show "Switched!,"
starting at 4:30pm Monday, bears a pale resemblance to The N's
"A Walk in Your Shoes."
But "Switched!"
isn't nearly as daring. ABC Family's show takes two teens from
different parts of the U.S. and has them switch lives for a few days.
The first episode has a small-town Pennsylvania girl trade up with a
similar-looking young woman from Portland, Ore.
Big deal. Compare that to a recent episode of "A
Walk in Your Shoes" that challenged a 16-year-old from North Carolina
to trade places with a teenager living in Amman, Jordan. No contest.
Another ABC Family premiere, "The
Brendan Leonard Show," bows Monday at 5:30pm.
It elevates the host's cable access program to national exposure, much
in the way E! made Michael Essany the star of a reality show
about his cable access show.
"Brendan
Leonard" looks like most other basement cable access
shows -- which is to say, it's not very good -- although one
reminiscent of "Jackass."
One of the reasons ABC Family's tween courtship is
going to be a struggle -- on top of its ongoing battle for attention
in the first place -- is because
Disney, MTV and
Nickelodeon already successfully cater to that demographic. Noggin is
Nick's smaller sibling and, as a result, it airs many of the classic
tween series that already enjoyed success on Nick and MTV, in addition
to the popular "Degrassi: The Next Generation."
The N also is growing its lineup, starting this
evening at 8 p.m. with two hours of "Out There," a fish-out-of-water
series that tosses a Connecticut boy into Australian culture when his
father is busted for money laundering. The hourlong "Out There" will
then air Friday nights at 9.
And right after ABC Family's new shows premiere
Monday evening, flip over to The N for the premiere of the weeknight
show "GirlStuff/BoyStuff" at 6 p.m., described as an animated
"Friends" for tweens. Against this stuff, ABC Family's drive into the
teen/tween realm looks mighty lame.
But with nearly 20 million viewers and so much
disposable income to vie for, it's safe to say that even if its first
attempts flop, ABC Family won't be deterred.
Encourage your preteens to avert their eyes, though.
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