Move over, "Judge Judy." There's a new snappish adjudicator coming to daytime TV.

This fall HLN prime-time star Nancy Grace hosts a new daytime court show, "Swift Justice With Nancy Grace," beginning Monday (5 and 5:30 p.m., WPGH).

In a teleconference with reporters last week, Ms. Grace was quick to portray the show as something other than just another daytime TV court series.

"I grew up in a big old courtroom similar to the one you'd see in 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' and some had no air conditioning, so I couldn't understand what they meant by a more futuristic thing," she said. "It looks like nothing else I've seen on television. A giant monitor turns into an electronic witness stand."

Ms. Grace stands behind a Lucite desk on the "Swift Justice" set, which looks more like the set of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" or "Jeopardy!" than it does "The People's Court."

"It looks nothing like a pretend courtroom with fake robes and gavel and a fake sheriff or anything like that," she said.

"Swift Justice" promises to beam in testimony from polygraph, DNA and blood spatter experts when the cases call for it. Ms. Grace, who once worked as a prosecutor, will serve as judge, jury, prosecutor and defense attorney as she metes out her swift justice. She says that despite her past job as a prosecutor, sometimes she sides with defendants.

"I don't think I'm biased," she said. "I think I look for the truth in every situation, and wherever that may fall, so be it. I call it like I see it."

As with most TV court shows, the program itself will pay whatever damages Ms. Grace imposes but litigants do sign an agreement that they will abide by her decisions.

Ms. Grace said before taping an episode she often has a notion of which way she'll rule, based on evidence she reviews in advance, but about 35 percent of the time she changes her ruling based on what she hears from the litigants. She said cases often take longer than the 30 minutes allotted for on "Swift Justice," although episodes are edited to fit TV's time constraints.

And she's not afraid of an ambiguous outcome: "At the end of many cases, I'll say, 'You're all lying, nobody gets anything, go home, it's over.' "

Ms. Grace said "Swift Justice" will be a lighter show than her crime-heavy HLN program. An upcoming episode of "Swift Justice" deals with a hoarding case.

"If there hadn't been a child, who is now an adult, involved, that would have been laughable," Ms. Grace said. "You look at them and see a well-groomed, well-dressed, articulate, married couple ... but when I read the book [of the case] I couldn't imagine it. The whole place, you waded through it. I didn't see any paths when I saw pictures on our big, giant monitor. There were vultures in the front yard. I have photos of vultures! I was like, 'Lady, there are vultures in your front yard!' They still didn't realize they had a problem."

Ms. Grace said she's well aware of the snarling parodies of her that have popped up on TV shows from "Saturday Night Live" to "Boston Legal," and she says the shows get it "pretty much right."

"Like every caricature, it's taking the funniest, worst features and exaggerating them, but, yeah, I don't think they're that far off," she said before professing her love for the late "Boston Legal." "That was one of my favorite shows. I DVRed it and was always trying to watch it. I'm a huge fan of 'Boston Legal' and [William] Shatner. I haven't missed a single 'Star Trek' yet."

As for other daytime courtroom shows, she's also willing to show "Judge Judy" some love.

"My family and my father, especially, is a huge devotee of Judge Judy," Ms. Grace said. "Our whole family likes her."

Aside from "Swift Justice," other series in syndication on WPGH include reruns of "The New Adventures of Old Christine" (4 a.m. weekdays, 5 and 5:30 p.m. Saturday), "That '70s Show" (midnight weekdays, already premiered) and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (2 a.m. weekdays, already premiered).

(Unless otherwise noted, shows premiere Monday.)

"Judge Jeanine Pirro" shifts from 11 am. weekdays on WPMY to noon and 3 a.m. weekdays on WPGH (Sept. 20).

The big daytime change in KD Country will be the end of "As the World Turns" on Sept. 17 and the debut of CBS's new chatfest, "The Talk," at 2 p.m. weekdays on Oct. 18.

Syndicated reruns of "Criminal Minds" (12:05 a.m. Sunday) and "NUMB3RS" (1:05 a.m. Sunday) will also air.

"Family Feud" with new host Steve Harvey found a new home this week on Channel 19, airing weekdays at 2 and 2:30 p.m.

"Real Housewives" reruns will air weekdays at 4 p.m. (Sept. 20), and "How I Met Your Mother" enters syndication with episodes slated for 7 and 7:30 p.m. weekdays and 6 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays. Other syndicated reruns include "The Closer" (6 p.m. Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays starting Sept. 18), "Criminal Minds" (7 p.m. Saturdays starting Sept. 18), "NUMB3RS" (11 p.m. Sundays starting Sept. 19) and "True Hollywood Story" (1 a.m. Saturdays, 1 a.m. Sundays starting Sept. 25).

"Mystery Hunters" (noon Saturdays) gets imported from Discovery Kids.

In prime time, My Network TV goes the syndicated route with mostly reruns, including "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (8 and 9 p.m. Mondays), "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader" (8 p.m. Tuesdays), "Don't Forget the Lyrics" (new episodes at 9 p.m. Tuesdays starting Sept. 20), "Burn Notice" (8 and 9 p.m. Wednesdays), "Without a Trace" (8 and 9 p.m. Thursdays) and "Monk" (8 and 9 p.m. Fridays).

In other parts of the day, "Wendy Williams" moves to 2 a.m. weekdays, "Better," a lifestyle show based on the magazine Better Homes and Gardens, airs at 10 a.m.; followed by "Don't Forget the Lyrics" at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. (Sept. 20); "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" at 11:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. (Sept. 20), "Judge Alex" at noon and "Scrubs" at 12:30 p.m. Afternoons, "Judge Karen's Court" takes over at 3 and 3:30 p.m. (Sept. 20)

Reruns of prime-time shows on Channel 22 will include "My Wife & Kids" (4:30 a.m. weekdays), "Friends" (10 p.m. weekdays), "New Adventures of Old Christine" (10:30 p.m. weekdays), "Entourage" (midnight weekdays; 11:30 p.m. Sundays), "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (12:30 a.m. weekdays, midnight Sundays), "House of Payne" (3 a.m. weekdays).

On weekends, "Mad About Money" airs at 7 a.m. Saturdays, "American Dad" will air at 10 and 10:30 p.m. Saturdays starting Sept. 25, "That '70s Show" airs at 7 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays starting Sept. 26, and "Bones" will air at 8 p.m. Sundays, starting Sept. 26.

No big changes are planned for Channel 11's daytime schedule, although WPXI will make a few weekend additions, including reruns of "Brothers & Sisters" (12 a.m. Mondays, Sept. 20) and "Stargate" (1:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 19).

Other new series include "Whacked Out Videos" (2 a.m. Mondays, Sept. 20), featuring Internet videos, and "My Destination TV" (3:35 a.m. Mondays, Oct. 10), about luxury travel.

First-run syndicated TV shows such as "Swift Justice" are acquired by TV stations or station groups rather than airing as part of a network feed. The most successful and famous syndicated daytime series, "The Oprah Winfrey Show," begins its final season Monday at 4 p.m. on Channel 4.

Even though the series won't end until a year from now, chatter about the show's swan song will begin, including a trip next Wednesday back to Williamson, W.Va., where Oprah hosted a town hall episode on AIDS in November 1987. Next Friday she'll announce her 64th book club selection.

Oprah's favorite interior designer, Nate Berkus, gets his own series but definitely not an Oprah-style time slot. Channel 4 will air "The Nate Berkus Show" at 2:05 a.m. weekdays.

Last month at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., Mr. Berkus said his talk show, taped in front of a studio audience in New York, will be multi-topic.

"It's going to have a lot to do with design because that's one of my great passions," he said. "We'll cover many different stories of regular people facing challenges I think I can help them with."

One way he'll do that is using a gadget he calls a design wall, which he said uses 3-D gaming technology to display an image of a room that Mr. Berkus can remake using his fingers by dragging old furniture out of the displayed room and putting new pieces in.

"It's like my design brain on a touch screen," he said. "It shows people how they can make changes in their home spaces. I can even shrink the molding. It's pretty exciting."

Martha Stewart's daytime talk show makes the move from syndication to cable next week with the debut of "The Martha Stewart Show" at 10 a.m. weekdays on Hallmark Channel.

WTAE's new chief meteorologist, Mike Harvey, begins at the station next week.

Channel 4 news director Alex Bongiorno said Mr. Harvey will offer forecasts at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. She said Stephen Cropper will likely share 5 p.m. weekdays duties with Mr. Harvey but probably not until Erin Kienzle returns from maternity leave later this fall.

Mr. Harvey arrives in Pittsburgh from WTKR-TV in Norfolk, Va.

Chelsea Handler hosts MTV's "Video Music Awards" at 9 p.m. Sunday. ... HBO has renewed "Hung" for a third season. ... TNT's "Memphis Beat" will be back on the beat for a second season. ... Season two of A&E's "Steven Seagal Lawman" kicks off on Oct. 6. ... As rumored, Fox confirmed late last week that Kara DioGuardi will not return to "American Idol" as a judge for the show's next season that begins in January. ... Dennis Miller's first HBO special in four years, "Dennis Miller: The Big Speech," will premiere Nov. 19. ... Fox has renewed "MasterChef" for a second season. ... Amy Poehler hosts the season premiere of NBC's "Saturday Night Live" Sept. 25 with musical guest Katy Perry. ... CNN's new 8 p.m. series, hosted by former New York governor Eliot Spitzer and conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, will debut Oct. 4 with the title "Parker Spitzer." ... MTV will launch a new studio-based, live weekday show called "The Seven" on Sept. 27 at 5 p.m. ... Cornerstone TeleVision's WPCB will bring back the series "His Place," which last aired on the channel in 2004. New episodes will air at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday beginning Oct. 12.

Respected veteran TV reporter Jon Greiner, whose contract was not renewed earlier this year by WTAE-TV, will show up occasionally on KDKA-TV as a freelance reporter beginning later this month.

Fans of solid reporting may hope it leads to a more permanent position for Mr. Greiner in the future. If nothing else, it's a relief to see a Pittsburgh TV station recognize the value of experience.

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