Global’s mid-season schedule features a veritable cornucopia of changes with the net hoping that it can continue the growth it experienced at the end of 2004. The mid-season lineup features some of the most desirable properties of the year, including the Superbowl and the season premieres of The Apprentice III and Survivor: Palau. But the schedule also features some new, untested series and some big ratings pushes on highly contested nights.

Sunday night’s two-hour, commercial-free broadcast of 24 was a huge hit for Global. In Toronto, 24 beat its competition head-to-head for each half hour and scored its highest premiere ratings to date for the 18-49 demo. Needless to say, buyers and planners who have invested heavily in Desperate Housewives are looking forward to next week when 24 airs in its usual Monday 8 p.m. time-slot as it did last night.

Sunday’s outing may have been the highest-rated 24 premiere to date, but media buyers are being realistic about its expected performance. Theresa Treutler, SVP media director for Doner Canada, suggests that while the show will certainly be in the top 20, the lack of a strong lead-in and the serial nature of the drama/thriller may warrant a second look. Even Global estimates the show will draw an average 5 rating (compared with the 7.1 it drew on Sunday night), but the show will no doubt benefit from Fox’s plan of airing new episodes every week until May.

Committed, a New York City-based comedy picked up from NBC, made its debut last week. The show did a good job of holding onto its numbers from its lead-in, Joey, and Global expects the show to draw an average 6 rating. Treutler contends that the most intriguing prospect of Committed will be its pricing. While largely dependent upon Global’s performance in the coming weeks, it should be interesting to see how high ad rates will climb for a show that gains most of its audience as a result of auxiliary performers.

Those familiar with Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane are eagerly anticipating the arrival of his new show American Dad in early February. Expected to draw big numbers in the male 18-25 demo, the show will benefit from its placement in Global’s Sunday night lineup which features The Simpsons and Arrested Development. Treutler also mentioned that the cult success of the Family Guy DVD (over a million sold) and its reruns on Teletoon and TBS may boost the buzz surrounding the show closer to its air date. Of particular relevance to that point was Fox’s late summer Family Guy marathon which was outdrawn by only one program…the Olympics.

Additionally, Treutler points out several hot props on the horizon. She feels that Apprentice III will do well adding that its strong lead-in, high volume of promos and concept change (‘book’ smarts vs. ‘street’ smarts) should equal a winning combination. And while Survivor: Palau doesn’t air until the end of February, Treutler thinks that advertisers might consider the possibility of viewers being turned off by the nature of the show in the wake of the tsunami tragedy. Though not likely to spell the end of reality television, it is likely to raise caution flags with some audiences.

Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Model Search, which had its debut last Wednesday, is sure to continue to draw its strong male audience on Wednesday nights (it pulled in just over a 3 rating with men according to Nielsen’s U.S. ratings) and Wickedly Perfect (as mentioned in our Dec. 16 issue) will play off the hoopla surrounding the Martha Stewart fiasco as the new reality show tries to find the next lifestyle television host. Mark Burnett and Sylvester Stallone have teamed up for the boxing reality show The Contender airing Mondays starting Feb. 21, and Numb3rs, the Ridley Scott-produced FBI drama joins Global’s Friday night lineup after its premiere Sunday, Jan. 23. Also of note is Global National‘s move from five days a week to seven with a new weekend edition, and Steven Bochco’s new cop drama Blind Justice which begins in March.

For a full listing of Global’s new lineup check out: http://www.canada.com/globaltv/index.html