ABC Has 'Eyes' On 'New York' Timeslot

Buoyed by its newfound success during the first hours of primetime on Wednesday nights this season, ABC has announced it's going to try and extend its ratings dominance to the 10:00pm period as well - by launching a new crime show that will compete heads-on with CSI: New York and Law & Order.

In a press release available at the Futon Critic, ABC said it will debut the one-hour drama series Eyes on the 13th of April. The show will star Tim Daly as Harlan Judd, the owner of a high-tech company that discreetly takes care of the problems of powerful clients that don't want the police to meddle in their business. The investigators at Judd Risk Management will take a much more fast-and-loose approach to the law than their ocunterparts on CSI and Law & Order, as their primary goal is to prevail in a world of unsteady alliances and uncertain loyalties, and not to follow the law as strictly as possible.

Eyes will be replacing Wife Swap, which by April will have come to the end of its first season. That show did fairly well in the ratings, but wasn't a real match with ABC's other Wednesday shows, the dramas Lost and Alias. Those shows have been performing very strongly in their respective timeslots, and ABC is now hoping to carry on that succes into the 10:00pm timeslot.

ABC may have a good shot at success at 10:00pm. While CSI: New York has been a success since its debut at the start of the season, it hasn't been a runaway hit like the other two CSI shows. Meanwhile, Law & Order is off dramatically from the viewership levels it attained several years ago. This relative weakness may be an opportunity for ABC, although it may also turn out to be the case that the network will simply be unable to successfully launch a third crime show in an already overcrowded timeslot.

More information on Eyes can be found in the original press release at the Futon Critic. Thanks go out to Al Forno for this!

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