The CW has shared its fall premiere dates, which includes the series premieres of Walker Independence and The Winchesters. The season begins with the season three premiere of DC’s Stargirl August 31, followed by an episode of Wellington Paranormal. 

New legal drama Family Law debuts Sunday, October 2, followed by the fourth season premiere of Coroner. 

Season three of drama Kung Fu begins Wednesday, October 5, and season three of Walker debuts October 6. The latter is followed by the series premiere of prequel Walker Independence. 

The IHeartRadio Music Festival is on Friday and Saturday, October 7 and 8. 

Season five of All American premieres Monday, October 10. It is followed by the season two premiere of All American: Homecoming. 

New supernatural drama The Winchesters, a spinoff of Supernatural, begins Tuesday, October 11, followed by the series premiere of Professionals. 

Season nine of Penn & Teller: Fool Us airs Friday, October 14, followed by season 11 of Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Criss Angel’s Magic With the Stars begins Saturday, October 22, followed by season three of World’s Funniest Animals. ■

ABC shared its 2020-2021 programming slate, which includes 19 returning shows and two straight-to-series orders from its pilots, drama Big Sky and comedy Call Your Mother. 

Big Sky comes from David E. Kelley, who will be showrunner. It sees private detectives search for two sisters who have been kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway in Montana. Based on the series of books by C.J. Box, Big Sky is executive produced by Kelley, Ross Fineman, Matthew Gross, Paul McGuigan and Box. It is produced by A+E Studios in association with 20th Century Fox Television. 

RELATED: CBS Shares 2020-21 Schedule

From Kari Lizer, Call Your Mother follows an empty-nester who wonders how she ended up alone while her children live their best lives thousands of miles away. She reinserts herself into their lives, and her kids realize they might actually need Mom more than they thought. Call Your Mother is produced by Sony Pictures Television & ABC Studios. Kyra Sedgwick stars.

“At a time when we are physically apart and shared experiences matter more than ever, these shows will build on the strategy that has made us No. 1 this season — bringing people together, creating cultural moments, and making content that entertains and inspires across generations and demographics,” said Karey Burke, president, ABC Entertainment. “Our top priority now is to work with our studio partners to ensure a safe return to production so that we can build on the strong momentum of a winning lineup with measured bets on new series that will invigorate our air and continue to deliver the quality programming that our viewers have come to expect and love.”

RELATED: Fox Wins Season Race in Viewers 18-49, CBS Wins Total Viewers

ABC noted it finished first among the broadcast networks in 2019-2020, excluding sports programming, in viewers 18-49.

ABC will also air game show Supermarket Sweep, hosted by Leslie Jones.

Returning shows are American Housewife, The Bachelor, Black-ish, The Conners, Dancing with the Stars, The Goldbergs, A Million Little Things, Mixed-ish, The Rookie, Shark Tank, Stumptown, 20/20 and Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

Schooled, Bless this Mess, Single Parents, Emergence and Kids Say the Darndest Things will not have new seasons. ABC will decide the fate of The Baker and the Beauty and For Life at a later date. 

New York -- Although concerns remain about deflating inventory pricing and disrupting the way TV buying and selling has been conducted over the decades, programmatic sales are becoming more ingrained in the industry's fiber, taking its place at the table during Madison Avenue’s annual negotiating rite of spring.

Todd Gordon, executive vice president, U.S. director of the Magna Global division of Mediabrands, speaking here during the opening keynote of NewBay Media’s conference Advanced Advertising: Profiting From a Targeted Audience on Wednesday afternoon, said clients and networks don’t necessarily construe programmatic per se as being part of the upfront. Nonetheless, he said “we’re having discussions with top players" interested in more-targeted, granular, tech-driven information.

“That’s all part of the conversations being done for the upfront for sure,” he said, noting that The Walt Disney Co. and its ABC broadcast network were aggressively open to such targeting considerations during the 2013-14 upfront media bazaar.

Erica Schmidt, executive vice president, managing director of Cadreen U.S., a technology division of Mediabrands, who also weighed in during the keynote discussion that was facilitated by B&C business editor Jon Lafayette, said that during her 10 years working in London, European publishers were fearful that pricing would decline in the face of automated selling practices.

She said they needed convincing and reassurance that there might be short-term losses, but the publishers came to realize that programmatic assisted them in assessing the true value of their inventory bases.

Schmidt said there have been some similar concerns with the TV equation. However, she said that programmatic plans not only can extend reach and GRPs, but can have an “impact on bottom line results by driving sales. You know how many boxed are shipped off the shelves via this new TV paradigm.”

Gordon said that traditional TV remains the most effective way to get most of the reach clients need. Still, when a media plan reaches the end of that curve, dollars spent programmatically can afford more incremental reach than traditional TV means.

Given data sourcing, programmatic action has occurred with national networks. But Gordon, responding to an audience member’s query about how the platform would play for national spot buys, said Manga is looking how to "harness" in-market consumption data together. "It’s harder to grab hold of, but we’re spending a lot of time thinking about it.”

In Gordon's view, local cable avails are being “undervalued.” The inventory should get better pricing, he said, noting that the technology can enable more buys and drive incremental sales and efficiencies