ABC is again enlisting the services of “Monk,” this time to see if the defective detective can solve some of the network’s Saturday-night ratings problem.
The show’s second season, which premiered on USA last summer, will air in ABC’s 9 p.m. spot Jan. 17, replacing the departed “L.A. Dragnet.” Fresh episodes will return to USA the night before that.
“Monk” stars Tony Shalhoub–who won an Emmy for the role this year–as a brilliant detective who was forced to resign from the San Francisco police after developing obsessive-compulsive disorder after his wife’s murder. He now consults with the department while keeping his neuroses barely in check.
The series became something of a pioneer two summers ago when ABC acquired rerun rights. It was one of the first series to flow from cable to a broadcast network, not the other way around. NBC has duplicated the strategy with Court TV’s “Forensic Files” in 2002 and the hit “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” on NBC-owned Bravo.
———-
Edited by Cara DiPasquale ([email protected]) and alBerto Trevino ([email protected])