Geeks are in; 'Everwood' out

Yes, the WB is replacing the made-in-Utah family drama "Everwood" with a second run of "Beauty and the Geek" come January.

But, no, this really isn't bad news.

Well, except for the fact that one of the most annoying people ever to participate in a so-called "reality" show will be back on TV.

"Everwood" hasn't exactly been burning up the airwaves since the WB moved it from Mondays to Thursdays this fall — and moved it smack up against the most-watched show on TV, "CSI." But it has been holding its own and doing much better than the network did in the Thursday-at-8 p.m. time slot last season. Which is exactly what the network asked the show to do.

Just to remind you, WB Entertainment president David Janollari told TV critics before the season began that he didn't expect "Everwood" to do as well on Thursdays as it did on Mondays, what with the increased competition. "Do they have to perform at exactly the same levels? No," he said. "We're looking for ratings growth on the night."

Which they've gotten. And I intend to remind him of that at every opportunity.

Frankly, unless some cataclysm occurs in the ratings, I'd be utterly shocked if "Everwood" isn't renewed by the network for next season. But we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves on that one.

The eight-week layoff doesn't mean we'll see fewer episodes of "Everwood" this season, it just means we'll see fewer repeats. The WB made a similar scheduling move last year, which didn't hurt the show's chances of renewal.

I can't say that it didn't hurt the ratings. A two-month hiatus means that even loyal viewers of a show get out of the habit of watching it. And they may not be paying attention when it does reappear.

On the other hand, the layoff does mean that "Everwood" won't be going up against NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics in February. And, even when the Olympics doesn't get fantastic ratings, it does tend to mow down pretty much everything in its path.

And there are worse reality shows than "Beauty and the Geek," which was a rather warm-hearted show the first time around — the beauties and the geeks learned something about each other and about themselves along the way.