ABC Family picked up the rerun rights to "Everwood" some time ago, but it's now formally scheduled it. And this is especially important to fans given the unlikelihood that the later seasons will make it to DVD. (The sales of the first-season set were reportedly too disappointing to justify later releases.) Anyway, here's the "Everwood" announcement:

Dr. Andrew Brown has moved his family again, but this time to ABC Family.  Beginning Monday, October 2^nd (6:00 – 7:00 PM ET/PT) fans of the critically acclaimed series EVERWOOD can relive the drama, laughter and love … five days a week, beginning with the first season. 

In spite of the ambition in yesterday's post, the day got away from me. I had a story about SportsTime Ohio that ended up consuming part of the day and evening; it was after 8 p.m. before I had the information I needed to write. And while I was working on that, I was trying to track the two local contestants on "Deal or No Deal" to get something about them in today's paper. Since I was on the phone during the end of one player's journey, I ended up e-mailing an NBC publicist for the results, then wrote a brief item about it.

By which time it was well after 9, so the night's viewing was "Everwood" (on recorded delay) with the bride. I got through part of "Veronica Mars" after that, but it was late by then and sleep was demanded. Finished "Veronica" this morning.

So, some thoughts on recent viewing:

"Veronica Mars": Decent episode, although it was pretty clear that Thumper was in the stadium bathroom before the show revealed it. (At least, I think he was in the stadium. Some tricky editing there.) I continue to like the way Tina Majorino has become part of the show; she knows how to do both intelligence and vulnerability. And Steve Guttenberg is fun to watch, although I wonder if the writers are, in essence, playing to his weakness — making Woody transparently suspicious-looking because anything subtler is not going  happen with Guttenberg. Very much liked the way Jackie handled Wallace. And was there anything more loaded with tension than the scene of Veronica and Logan dancing? Talk about issues…

But probably the best thing about the episode is that I don't have to wait a week to watch another new one, since "Veronica" moves its new telecasts to Tuesday beginning tonight.

"The Sopranos": Sunday's episode was the first one this season I had to watch in regular time, since HBO sent out the first four for review before the season started. And I was watching it with friends as part of a regular "Sopranos" gathering, with the two previous weeks' episodes viewed before we got to the new one. My one beef: that Tony's spiritual awakening in the hospital seems to be over. I know, for some things he has no attention span, but the near-death experience after the shooting should have set him off on a more extended journey. But maybe I'm asking too much of Tony.

Vito in the leather bar was weirdly hilarious — loved the cap — and I'm really wondering how that will play out. The Johnny Sack scenes were touching; as calculating and cold as Johnny can be, we keep getting reminded that his love for Ginny (and, by extension, their family) is absolute — far deeper than what Tony feels for Carmela. So, of course, it had to become an issue of weakness.

Also liked the event-planner dialogue with AJ, a nice reference to the previous season and to AJ's overall aimlessness.

As for the bodyguard story, well, didn't you sense soon after seeing this guy that someone was going to pound him? (I suspected Christopher would get the chance to show the difference between bodybuilding and street fighting.) The show's deftness was in the way Tony ended up doing it.

"Everwood": I'm on and off in terms of watching the show, although I like it for the most part when I do. (I did cring on Monday night at the way mastectomies' aftermath were treated as loathsome scarring.) At its best, it reminds me a little of "Veronica Mars." The characters are allowed to be smart and articulate, but not in the fake-grownup way of "Dawson's Creek." And their emotions feel genuine. I also like that it's not a teen show, even though many of the characters are young.

Yesterday I was talking to Glenn Gordon Caron, the writer-producer behind "Moonlighting" and now "Medium," and he was explaining how "Medium" is really a show about married, settled grownups — something that can be a challenge for young TV writers to handle. He's right, too; "Medium" repeatedly sets up opportunities for melodrama, then dials it down to a reasoned discussion. "Everwood" often does the same thing, testing the characters but not making them cartoons. But that may also explain why The WB never seemed as enthusiastic about "Everwood" as it did about lighter and simpler shows.

"Gilmore Girls": Not sure about this one, especially with the return (again) of Jess in tonight's episode. Didn't buy for a minute Rory's getting back together with Logan — and was disappointed that Paris was shuffled off again in short order.  Am wondering when Lorelai is going to get off the pot and deal with Luke about his daughter. It's long past time.

I know Ace Young has a following, because I live with part of it. Getting home from my meeting late in "Idol's" telecast last night, I began telling her how things went. She cut me off. Ace was singing.

Weirdly enough, when I went through my recording of the men's performances this morning, Ace seemed to be the best of a not-great lot. Although there are a couple of other singers I like, you could see how Ace is well packaged for this show. In fact, I'm surprised he didn't open or close the telecast; that suggest that opener Patrick Hall and closer Taylor Hicks were a lot better in rehearsal than they were on the air.

Still, Ace ended up with a B on my card, since there was no one on the night who really wowed me, and a lot of the singers weren't interesting at all. I thought Hicks — my personal favorite going into the round of 24 — was all right but only gave him a B minus, since he doesn't seem to have figured out that an "Idol" contestant has to have at least one roof-shaking moment, especially at the end of the show. Also at B minus was rocker Chris Daughtry, who not only understands roof-shaking but knows exactly what kind of singer he is — and is good at it.

Bucky Covington knows his area of expertise, too, but was only a C plus for me. Also at C plus: Gedeon McKinney and Jose "Sway" Penala. Then I gave C's to Kevin Covais and Elliott Yamin, followed by a C minus for Will Makar and Patrick Hall, then  D's for Bobby Bennett and horrible crooner David Radford.

But in some cases, the difference between a C and D was almost a coin flip — Sway, for one, started out as a D in my notes before getting better, and Yamin saved himself from a terrible start. And there seemed to be a lot less polish in the men's performances overall than in the women's — Hall, Radford and Hicks were all remarkably lacking in choreography.

About "Everwood": The other day I posted some notes from my talk with Tom Amandes. You can find a full story for today's Beacon Journal, with quotes, at Tom Amandes.

Monday night the bride and I went out to Wadsworth for a dinner with the cancer support group there. Both my wife and I lost spouses to cancer, and we were glad to be part of a good cause. But we were mainly there to see "Everwood" star Tom Amandes and his wife, Nancy Everhard.

Nancy's mother, Martha, is a cancer survivor and founder of the group. Tom's mother is now fighting cancer, although he said the recent news is good. Tom and Nancy spoke about the way cancer touches everyone; Tom talked about how eerie it was to be playing a character whose wife was fighting cancer while dealing with his mother's illness, especially when he found himself waiting for his TV wife's test results on the same day that he was waiting for news about his mother. Tom and Nancy also described their participation in fund-raising bicycle trips for Lance Armstrong's foundation. It was a touching evening in many ways.

But it was also a time to ask Tom about "Everwood." The show has been off The WB's schedule for some time but is due back on March 27, a Monday, the night where the show had its greatest success. Still, it comes back with considerable uncertainty. The WB and UPN are merging in the fall into a single network, The CW, and there has been considerable speculation about which shows from the two existing networks will make it onto the one new one.

In a conversation after the dinner, Tom admitted that things had been tough for "Everwood" even before the merger announcement, that a top WB executive was not a fan of the show, and that "Everwood" was not served well by the network's moving it from Monday to Thursday. The show has a lot of dramatic developments coming up for the rest of this season, but the writers are working on a couple of versions of the season finale; they expect to know the show's fate before shooting the last episode and so are preparing a version if there will be another season, and a version if this is the end.

Talking to Tom also served as a reminder of the way a show's demise can affect the people on it. Tom and Nancy moved to Utah, where the show is shot. Their son Ben has been growing up there. Because they have to make a decision about Ben's school before they know what's going to happen to "Everwood," Tom said they're probably going to stay in Utah for at least another year, so as not to disrupt his education, no matter what happens with the show. In their talk to the group, Tom also noted that the show's cast has become very close because of the Utah location, binding them together in the way they might not have been in Hollywood, where the show-biz distractions are greater. And it was a former neighbor in Utah that led to their involvement with Armstrong's foundation.

If this is the end for "Everwood," many fans will lose one of their favorite shows. I regularly hear from readers during "Everwood's" long hiatuses, wanting to know when it will be back. After the dinner, fans in the audience asked to have pictures taken with Tom; others, including a couple of servers at the dinner, asked for autographs. Tom and Nancy are also good people.

I am not a constant viewer of the show (although my wife is), but I have seen it do serious, thoughtful work that should have a place somewhere on the TV schedule.

Here's an upcoming schedule for The WB, including plans for the return of "Everwood," a new night for "Supernatural" (paired with "Smallville," which sure feels like a scheduling move the UPN/WB-combined CW will want to make in the fall*) and some new shows.

The WB Network announced today that the star-studded one-hour romantic comedy PEPPER DENNIS will headline an exciting midseason lineup. PEPPER DENNIS will be joined by controversial midseason drama THE BEDFORD DIARIES and the highly anticipated return of acclaimed drama EVERWOOD. PEPPER DENNIS, which stars Rebecca Romijn as a television news reporter, will kick off on Tuesday, April 4 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET). The series, which also stars Josh Hopkins and Brooke Burns, will follow Tuesday-night hit comedy, GILMORE GIRLS, (8:00-9:00 p.m. ET). Regular encores of PEPPER DENNIS will air on Sundays (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET), beginning April 9.

THE BEDFORD DIARIES will debut on Wednesday, March 22 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET) as the lead-out to ONE TREE HILL, which returns with original episodes that same night. THE BEDFORD DIARIES stars Matthew Modine as the professor of a sex and the human condition seminar at a New York university, along with Milo Ventimiglia and Penn Badgley as two of his students.

EVERWOOD, starring Treat Williams, Gregory Smith and Emily Van Camp, returns with a two-hour episode on Monday, March 20 (8:00-10:00 p.m. ET). The family drama then returns to its original Monday time period, following 7TH HEAVEN, on March 27.

Replacing BEAUTY AND THE GEEK on Thursdays will be SUPERNATURAL, beginning March 16 (9:00-10:00_ p.m. ET). This move should advantage the first-year hit, pairing it with the compatible and über-successful SMALLVILLE (8:00-9:00 p.m. ET), which is enjoying its best season ever, both creatively and in the ratings.

(end announcement)

Of the new stuff, the only one I remember watching is "Pepper Dennis," which had a nice opening sequence and then fell to pieces. More on the other shows as their premiere dates get closer.

*At least, that's the Thursday lineup I proposed for The CW in my "If I Were King" post, below.