The CW has less work to do at this time of year than the other networks, since it programs just ten hours a week and its ratings expectations are minimal. Still, the CBS/Warner Brothers hybrid had a little fall schedule news to make Thursday. With Smallville ending its run, Hellcats canceled after one season, One Tree Hill alive but being held back till midseason, and the Wednesday spot alongside America’s Next Top Model in flux as usual, there is room for a surprising amount of novelty in the 2011-12 CW schedule.

Monday: Gossip Girl is showing its age, but remains at 8 p.m. for a fifth season. The new Hart of Dixie has the sort of casting that you really only see on the CW: Rachel Bilson as a doctor. Her character is lured to a small town on the Gulf coast, where all sorts of fish-out-of-water scenarios will no doubt play out for her.

Tuesday: In news that broke early Thursday, it turns out 90210 is still on the air. It’s moving to a new night at 8 p.m., and will be followed by Ringer, which was originally a CBS pilot but has been farmed out to the CW. Sarah Michelle Gellar, the star of the most famous mini-network series ever, plays a woman who witnesses a murder and decides to disguise herself as her own twin sister, before realizing her new identity has its own set of issues.

Wednesday: At 8 p.m. is the new H8R (my soul died a little just typing that title), a reality series hosted by Mario Lopez in which celebrities will meet up with the civilians who hate them. So what happens if the one I really, really hate is Mario Lopez? Top Model, which was shifted to 9 halfway through its most recent cycle to get it away from American Idol, will stay in that slot going forward.

Thursday: The Vampire Diaries is now the CW’s keynote show, and it will lead off at 8 p.m. Following at 9 is another show from Kevin Williamson, with a concept that ought to fit with its lead-in: The Secret Circle. Britt Robertson, who impressed in Life Unexpected, plays a teenager who goes to live with her grandmother after her mom dies in a fire, and learns that her new home is filled with occult mysteries.

Friday: Nikita was a bubble show on Thursdays, but its move to Friday isn’t quite the death sentence it might be on another network, since it has a loyal audience that will surely follow. And it makes sense to pair Nikita with Supernatural at 9 p.m., since these are the closest things the CW has to male-skewing shows.

In addition to One Tree Hill, which has survival capabilities that a cockroach would envy (and is about as useful), the CW has its usual reality offerings for midseason. The Frame is a variation on Big Brother in which teams of two are forced to live in a small room, and will occasionally engage in competitions. Re-modeled follows the attempt of a man named Paul Fisher to consolidate small local modeling agencies into one big agency. So it’s as if Top Model was moved to CNBC? Um … OK. Shedding for the Wedding won’t be back, even though its ratings weren’t half-bad by CW standards.

Tags: 2011-12 schedule, 90210, cw, h8r, hart of dixie, mario lopez, one tree hill, re-modeled, ringer, sarah michelle gellar, the frame, the secret circle