It’s Upfronts time for the Big Four (and a half)

This week, the big four networks (and the one netlet) will be announcing their new season schedules at the traditional New York Upfronts. The upfronts are a series of presentations designed to pull in advertising sponsors for the various TV shows but over the years it’s turned into a full-fledged media frenzy with the gossip mags and the fans getting in on the action. 

This year, however, the circus that is the upfronts will be smaller in scale and lacking in the usual star power (much to the chagrin of fans who use this opportunity to sneak a peek at their favorite stars.)  Thanks to the writers’ strike, there are fewer pilots to preview and less money in the ad budgets for wining and dining.  Still, it makes for an exciting week as fans wait for the definitive answer on bubble shows such as Moonlight and new shows like Dollhouse.

NBC has the stage today.  ABC and The CW take tomorrow with CBS on Wednesday and Fox on Thursday.

And already the announcements have begun to trickle in.  Here are the scifi highlights.

— Fox has pulled the plug on New Amsterdam. 

— Sarah Connor Chronicles was given a second season pick-up but only for 13 episodes so far.

— Fringe was picked up for the fall by Fox but Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse looks like it’s going in a mid-season slot.

— Fox is also looking at a Shaun Cassidy produced Dr. Jekyll series which has a forensic detective with a criminal alter ego (source: Televisionary).

— Haunted house tale, The Oaks wasn’t picked up.

— CBS has picked up Jerry Bruckheimer’s The Eleventh Hour which sounds a lot like Fringe, which sounds a lot like X-Files.

— CBS has also picked Simon Baker’s The Mentalist about a psychic who solves crimes.  David Nutter directed the pilot so it has to be a hit.

— Lastly, there’s the potentially horror-esque Harper’s Island on CBS, about a group of friends who are terrorized when they gather on an island for a wedding.  Sounds like a throw back to those one-season serialized shows such as Vanished and Kidnapped which did so well a couple of seasons ago. . . (not.)

And that’s all the news for the moment. Stay tuned to SFUniverse for more from the upfronts all the rest of this week.

CR: Jill Greenberg/FOX