Finally fulfilling the destiny set by past seasons of mediocre finalists, American Idol has finally produced its least interesting final pair in show history (replacing Taylor Hicks and Katherine McPhee in my book, YMMV).
Really, what is there to say about Scotty McCreery or Lauren Alaina that is even remotely interesting? Both are teenagers from the South who sing country music. Other than that, the only things I can tell you about the pair is that Scotty plays baseball and Lauren's mom has a hideous hairdo.
Can they sing? Sure. Are their performances interesting? No. The only real comments made about Scotty's performance is his preference for holding the microphone to the side of his face, while Lauren mostly seems challenged in finding the right outfit. If you told me right now I'd win a million dollars if I could name any one of the three songs each of them did this week, I'd lose. I only remember Lauren did "I Hope You Dance" because it was so obvious that I was surprised she'd not done it previously.
As much as this irritates me, recent history suggests we won't hear from the winner (or even the runner-up) much after the finale, so we've got that going for us.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Upfronts: The CW
And last but, well, least, The CW.
Returning Shows - No real surprises, other than Nikita getting renewed and moved to Friday. Other stuff has shifted by an hour but stayed on the same day. One Tree Hill returns in the spring for what seems to be its 28th season.
New Shows:
Monday - Gossip Girl moves up an hour and will be followed by Hart of Dixie, named to bring in all those tween pun enthusiasts. Rachel Bilson stars as a new doctor whose plans to become a surgeon fall through, so she takes a job with a doctor in Alabama. She gets down there only to learn that the guy who hired her died, but he left half his practice to her in his will. The other half goes to the town's other doctor, who doesn't like the competition. Turns out his daughter doesn't care for competition, either, as the young doctor finds an ally in the daughter's fiance.
Not sure if this is more Doc Hollywood or Sweet Home Alabama. Either way, this isn't the worst show the network is trotting out next season.
Tuesday - Sarah Michelle Gellar returns (well, sort of, as she was on The WB and UPN but not the merged network) in Ringer. Here she plays Bridget, a woman who is the sole witness to a professional hit. Fearing for her life, she runs and reconnects with her estranged twin sister, and when the sister mysteriously disappears, Bridget adopts her sister's persona - only to learn that her life is no bed of roses, either.
I suppose this could work, though I can't help but think of Lone Star with its one person/two lives set-up. Though I guess that's a nice low bar to clear as a measure of success.
Wednesday - Going back to the last comment I made about Hart of Dixie, this night features what looks like the clear loser of the new shows, H8R, and it's not just because its name is in textspeak. The premise of the show is that celebrities will meet some of their greatest detractors and work to turn them into fans (or at least have them stop being haters). I'm assuming the celebrities will be CW-type personalities that you've likely not heard of if you're over 23.
Mario Lopez hosts, probably wishing he could go back to Pet Star.
Thursday - Secret Circle brings us witches to follow vampires, which I guess makes a certain amount of sense. A girl loses her mother in a fire and is taken in by her grandmother. The girl learns that her new town (where her mom grew up) is actually inhabited by witches, and her return will allow them to form a new circle. As she discovers her powers, she learns that there are other forces at play in town, and that her mother's death may not have been accidental. Regardless of this mumbo jumbo, I suspect that as long as the teen boys on the show are sullen and shirtless, the show will do OK.
No new shows on Friday, and of course no programming at all on the weekend.
Two new shows for mid-season. The first is Re-Modeled, The CW's millionth attempt to launch another fashion-themed show to go with ANTM. Some fashion guy is working to pull smaller modeling agencies together so that they don't get screwed (by whom I don't know, the larger agencies?), and in the process the models themselves get greater control of their careers and health (through a mechanism not yet explained). Whatever.
The other show, The Frame, is some sort of Big Brother rip-off where pairs of contestants are put into some sort of restricted living space (the "frame") and only interact with other pairs remotely. The description says the contestants have "dynamic personalities," which to my mind sounds like they'll all be braying jackasses.
Returning Shows - No real surprises, other than Nikita getting renewed and moved to Friday. Other stuff has shifted by an hour but stayed on the same day. One Tree Hill returns in the spring for what seems to be its 28th season.
New Shows:
Monday - Gossip Girl moves up an hour and will be followed by Hart of Dixie, named to bring in all those tween pun enthusiasts. Rachel Bilson stars as a new doctor whose plans to become a surgeon fall through, so she takes a job with a doctor in Alabama. She gets down there only to learn that the guy who hired her died, but he left half his practice to her in his will. The other half goes to the town's other doctor, who doesn't like the competition. Turns out his daughter doesn't care for competition, either, as the young doctor finds an ally in the daughter's fiance.
Not sure if this is more Doc Hollywood or Sweet Home Alabama. Either way, this isn't the worst show the network is trotting out next season.
Tuesday - Sarah Michelle Gellar returns (well, sort of, as she was on The WB and UPN but not the merged network) in Ringer. Here she plays Bridget, a woman who is the sole witness to a professional hit. Fearing for her life, she runs and reconnects with her estranged twin sister, and when the sister mysteriously disappears, Bridget adopts her sister's persona - only to learn that her life is no bed of roses, either.
I suppose this could work, though I can't help but think of Lone Star with its one person/two lives set-up. Though I guess that's a nice low bar to clear as a measure of success.
Wednesday - Going back to the last comment I made about Hart of Dixie, this night features what looks like the clear loser of the new shows, H8R, and it's not just because its name is in textspeak. The premise of the show is that celebrities will meet some of their greatest detractors and work to turn them into fans (or at least have them stop being haters). I'm assuming the celebrities will be CW-type personalities that you've likely not heard of if you're over 23.
Mario Lopez hosts, probably wishing he could go back to Pet Star.
Thursday - Secret Circle brings us witches to follow vampires, which I guess makes a certain amount of sense. A girl loses her mother in a fire and is taken in by her grandmother. The girl learns that her new town (where her mom grew up) is actually inhabited by witches, and her return will allow them to form a new circle. As she discovers her powers, she learns that there are other forces at play in town, and that her mother's death may not have been accidental. Regardless of this mumbo jumbo, I suspect that as long as the teen boys on the show are sullen and shirtless, the show will do OK.
No new shows on Friday, and of course no programming at all on the weekend.
Two new shows for mid-season. The first is Re-Modeled, The CW's millionth attempt to launch another fashion-themed show to go with ANTM. Some fashion guy is working to pull smaller modeling agencies together so that they don't get screwed (by whom I don't know, the larger agencies?), and in the process the models themselves get greater control of their careers and health (through a mechanism not yet explained). Whatever.
The other show, The Frame, is some sort of Big Brother rip-off where pairs of contestants are put into some sort of restricted living space (the "frame") and only interact with other pairs remotely. The description says the contestants have "dynamic personalities," which to my mind sounds like they'll all be braying jackasses.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Upfronts: CBS
As has been the case the last couple of years, CBS is dealing from a position of strength, and isn't afraid to try things to make themselves stronger.
Returning Shows - no major surprises for cancellations, unless you consider keeping all three CSI shows a surprise.
The surprises come with a couple of show moves. CSI leaves its long-time Thursday time slot and moves to Wednesday, echoing the move Survivor made last year. It's a smart move, as it takes on the equally venerable Law & Order: SVU and new drama Revenge, which seems like a fight it can win.
The bigger move, I think, is The Good Wife shifting over to Sunday at 9, a clear challenge to Desperate Housewives, which may not be up to the fight. Neither will compete with football - assuming it returns - but this move puts CBS in the better position as the alternative choice to football and as to the prime network to watch in the spring.
Finally, Rules of Engagement will kick of Saturday nights, which is kind of astounding given the dearth of original scripted programming on Saturdays (it will, in fact, be the only scripted show with original programming on Saturdays). This does not bode well for them.
New Shows -
Monday - 2 Broke Girls is the new filler between How I Met Your Mother and the now Kutcherfied Two and a Half Men. It follows two young women who work at a Brooklyn diner as a means to fund their planned cupcake shop. Sounds innocuous enough, and I'm glad it's not another relationship comedy. Points for casting Garrett Morris as the diner's cashier, too.
Tuesday - While I was hoping for NCIS: Omaha to complete the trifecta, the two existing shows get Unforgettable as their 10 pm partner. It stars Poppy Montgomery as a former cop with hyperthymesia - she literally remembers everything that has happened in her life. Except for the details around her sister's still-unsolved murder, which seems like a bad place to be fuzzy. Not sure if this will be better than the usual homicide cop drama, but I do pray that they cast Marilu Henner as Montgomery's mom.
Wednesday - no new shows
Thursday - How to Be A Gentleman get the post-Big Bang Theory slot. It's about a newspaper etiquette columnist who, when pressed by his editor to make his column more relevant, hires a recent reacquaintance to be his coach in all things current (there's a "gentle man/manly man" quip in the press release that makes me wonder how this didn't wind up on ABC). I'd probably watch this more the supporting cast, which includes Dave Foley as the editor and Mary Lynn Rajskub as the main character's sister.
The coveted 9 pm slot goes to Person of Interest, which is intriguing. Jim Caviezel plays a CIA agent (presumed dead) who is hired by a computer billionaire (Michael Emerson) to stop crimes before they happen, pairing the CIA agent's covert skills with the billionaire's pattern recognition software that can identify someone about to commit a crime. So I guess this is kind of like Minority Report: The Series?
Recent Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson rounds out the cast a NYPD detective who crosses paths with the crime fighters. Throw in production credits for JJ Abrams, Bryan Burk and Memento story writer Jonathan Nolan, and you'd think that this show has the pedigree to be the breakout show of the season. Let's just hope it doesn't go all Six Degrees on us.
Friday - A Gifted Man now starts the night. A surgeon, the "gifted man" of the title, is jolted out of his high-powered (and highly lucrative) lifestyle when he starts seeing the apparent ghost of his dead ex-wife. She gets him to start helping out the free clinic where she worked, with the expected results. Jennifer Ehle plays the ghost, while Julie Benz shows up as the surgeon's sister. A little to Touched by a Doctor for my taste.
Saturday and Sunday - no new shows
Not Yet Scheduled - The 2-2 follows a half-dozen NYPD rookies as they learn on the job. Leelee Sobieski and Adam Goldberg are the most notable names in this show that counts Robert De Niro as an executive producer.
Returning Shows - no major surprises for cancellations, unless you consider keeping all three CSI shows a surprise.
The surprises come with a couple of show moves. CSI leaves its long-time Thursday time slot and moves to Wednesday, echoing the move Survivor made last year. It's a smart move, as it takes on the equally venerable Law & Order: SVU and new drama Revenge, which seems like a fight it can win.
The bigger move, I think, is The Good Wife shifting over to Sunday at 9, a clear challenge to Desperate Housewives, which may not be up to the fight. Neither will compete with football - assuming it returns - but this move puts CBS in the better position as the alternative choice to football and as to the prime network to watch in the spring.
Finally, Rules of Engagement will kick of Saturday nights, which is kind of astounding given the dearth of original scripted programming on Saturdays (it will, in fact, be the only scripted show with original programming on Saturdays). This does not bode well for them.
New Shows -
Monday - 2 Broke Girls is the new filler between How I Met Your Mother and the now Kutcherfied Two and a Half Men. It follows two young women who work at a Brooklyn diner as a means to fund their planned cupcake shop. Sounds innocuous enough, and I'm glad it's not another relationship comedy. Points for casting Garrett Morris as the diner's cashier, too.
Tuesday - While I was hoping for NCIS: Omaha to complete the trifecta, the two existing shows get Unforgettable as their 10 pm partner. It stars Poppy Montgomery as a former cop with hyperthymesia - she literally remembers everything that has happened in her life. Except for the details around her sister's still-unsolved murder, which seems like a bad place to be fuzzy. Not sure if this will be better than the usual homicide cop drama, but I do pray that they cast Marilu Henner as Montgomery's mom.
Wednesday - no new shows
Thursday - How to Be A Gentleman get the post-Big Bang Theory slot. It's about a newspaper etiquette columnist who, when pressed by his editor to make his column more relevant, hires a recent reacquaintance to be his coach in all things current (there's a "gentle man/manly man" quip in the press release that makes me wonder how this didn't wind up on ABC). I'd probably watch this more the supporting cast, which includes Dave Foley as the editor and Mary Lynn Rajskub as the main character's sister.
The coveted 9 pm slot goes to Person of Interest, which is intriguing. Jim Caviezel plays a CIA agent (presumed dead) who is hired by a computer billionaire (Michael Emerson) to stop crimes before they happen, pairing the CIA agent's covert skills with the billionaire's pattern recognition software that can identify someone about to commit a crime. So I guess this is kind of like Minority Report: The Series?
Recent Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson rounds out the cast a NYPD detective who crosses paths with the crime fighters. Throw in production credits for JJ Abrams, Bryan Burk and Memento story writer Jonathan Nolan, and you'd think that this show has the pedigree to be the breakout show of the season. Let's just hope it doesn't go all Six Degrees on us.
Friday - A Gifted Man now starts the night. A surgeon, the "gifted man" of the title, is jolted out of his high-powered (and highly lucrative) lifestyle when he starts seeing the apparent ghost of his dead ex-wife. She gets him to start helping out the free clinic where she worked, with the expected results. Jennifer Ehle plays the ghost, while Julie Benz shows up as the surgeon's sister. A little to Touched by a Doctor for my taste.
Saturday and Sunday - no new shows
Not Yet Scheduled - The 2-2 follows a half-dozen NYPD rookies as they learn on the job. Leelee Sobieski and Adam Goldberg are the most notable names in this show that counts Robert De Niro as an executive producer.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Upfronts: ABC
Here's what the Alphabet has in store for next season:
Retuning Shows: No major surprises, though Happy Endings getting renewed may be a small one. Then again, ABC usually finds one mid-season bubble show to bring back (think October Road, Better Off Ted, Notes from the Underbelly, or Eli Stone). On the down side, none of these got a second renewal. Save your money, Happy Endings cast and crew!
Schedule-wise, Cougar Town loses its Wednesday spot and moves to Tuesdays after Dancing With the Stars ends. Probably not what they wanted. Body of Proof also lands on Tuesdays, hoping to build on DWTS so it can survive without it later.
I'm fairly surprised that Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was moved from Sunday to Friday, as the Sunday group of shows seemed like a good family/female alternative to football on NBC. It also seems like an odd fit with Shark Tank, which follows.
New Shows:
Monday - No new shows.
Tuesday - the night opens with Last Man Standing, about a manly man (Tim Allen) who is the boss at work but is under the thumb of the gynocracy at home thanks to his wife (Nancy Travis) and three daughters. Then the wife goes back to work, gets promoted, and dad has to take on more parenting duties. To me, this sounds like they're just reshooting episodes of According to Jim or some crap like that. Pass.
The show that follows, Man Up, seems equally regurgitated. Three sensitive modern men apparently try to figure out how to be manly men like their dads, while at the same time try to keep the women folk happy. I am not sure how this is different than former ABC shows The Secret Lives of Men or Big Shots. Oh wait, it's not!
At midseason we'll also get Apartment 23, about a woman who moves to New York to work for a company whose boss gets busted for embezzelment shortly thereafter. She then gets a job at a coffee shop and moves in with another employee after they bond over scamming each other. And James van der Beek plays himself. As odd as this sounds, it still seems to be the best new show they'll have on Tuesdays.
Wednesday - Moving into the Wednesday block of sitcoms is Suburgatory, which sees a dad and his teenaged daughter move out of the city and move into a suburban neighborhood that is apparently straight out of The Stepford Wives. While I do like that the single parent in this case is a dad, I'm less crazy about returning to the suburban jungle trope.
That theme is expanded upon in the night's drama, Revenge. The lead character is a young woman newly moved into a town in the Hamptons... or newly moved in again, as the locals don't realize that, as a child, she lived in town until her family was destroyed. The woman blames certain residents for this, and so she's moved back to get, well, you know.
If you ever wanted to know how the Paul Young story line from Desperate Housewives would have worked out if Paul was a young woman, here you go.
Thursday - the night opens with the return of Charlie's Angels. 30 years after the show ended its first run on ABC and eight years after the last movie. This time around the Angels aren't overmatched police cadets, but rather women who have fallen afoul with the law (or military) but who have certain talents that are recognized by Charlie Townsend, who brings them together to solve crimes. The other change is that the new show is set in Miami, for what that's worth.
I suppose there is enough nostalgia factor for this to reach people, between the generations who watched the show and the more recent generations who saw the movies. Minka Kelly is probably the biggest name involved, which may also help bring in the youngsters. If it manages the lighter tone suggested in the press release this may be a good lead in for the returning shows.
Friday and Saturday - no new shows.
Sunday - gets two new shows. The new lead in for Desperate Housewives is Once Upon a Time, in which a young bail bondswoman is reunited with the son she gave up for adoption. He tells her that he believes she is the lost daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, and that the town he lives in is full of fairy tale characters who were sent into modern times, unaware of their past, by the evil queen. Got that?
As much as I want to dismiss this, the cast features some notable names: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, and Robert Carlyle. I suppose it also qualifies as being more family/female friendly. Interested to see how this goes, even if I don't plan on watching it.
Finally, if you're going to riff on Mad Men, you might as well do it in that show's time slot. That seems to be the thinking with Pan Am, a drama featuring pilots and stewardesses at the dawn of the jet age. I have similar concerns here as I do with The Playboy Club, that the show will be more about the '60s and less about the story.
On the plus side, with Mad Men not coming back until next March, Pan Am may fill a need for those of us jonesing for Don Draper and his cronies.
Not Yet Scheduled - on the drama side we have Good Christian Belles, which sounds like a TV version of Hope Floats - Texas woman who had it all loses it, and moves home to people who expected her to be the same person she was when she left. I really wish the show was using the name of the book it was based on - Good Christian Bitches. There's also Missing, starring Ashley Judd as a mom who goes to Europe to find her missing son, using the contacts developed by her dead husband, who was a CIA agent. Last but not least is The River, which sees the family and friends of a well-known TV naturalist go to the Amazon to find him after he disappears. Maybe he's with Ashley Judd's kid?
The lone sitcom left is Work It, where two "alpha males" (and what is up with all the manly men at ABC this season?) dress as women to land jobs as pharmaceutical reps. The press release calls it "smart, funny and relevant." What it does not call it is an updated version of Bosom Buddies. Somewhere, Peter Scolari calls his lawyer.
Retuning Shows: No major surprises, though Happy Endings getting renewed may be a small one. Then again, ABC usually finds one mid-season bubble show to bring back (think October Road, Better Off Ted, Notes from the Underbelly, or Eli Stone). On the down side, none of these got a second renewal. Save your money, Happy Endings cast and crew!
Schedule-wise, Cougar Town loses its Wednesday spot and moves to Tuesdays after Dancing With the Stars ends. Probably not what they wanted. Body of Proof also lands on Tuesdays, hoping to build on DWTS so it can survive without it later.
I'm fairly surprised that Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was moved from Sunday to Friday, as the Sunday group of shows seemed like a good family/female alternative to football on NBC. It also seems like an odd fit with Shark Tank, which follows.
New Shows:
Monday - No new shows.
Tuesday - the night opens with Last Man Standing, about a manly man (Tim Allen) who is the boss at work but is under the thumb of the gynocracy at home thanks to his wife (Nancy Travis) and three daughters. Then the wife goes back to work, gets promoted, and dad has to take on more parenting duties. To me, this sounds like they're just reshooting episodes of According to Jim or some crap like that. Pass.
The show that follows, Man Up, seems equally regurgitated. Three sensitive modern men apparently try to figure out how to be manly men like their dads, while at the same time try to keep the women folk happy. I am not sure how this is different than former ABC shows The Secret Lives of Men or Big Shots. Oh wait, it's not!
At midseason we'll also get Apartment 23, about a woman who moves to New York to work for a company whose boss gets busted for embezzelment shortly thereafter. She then gets a job at a coffee shop and moves in with another employee after they bond over scamming each other. And James van der Beek plays himself. As odd as this sounds, it still seems to be the best new show they'll have on Tuesdays.
Wednesday - Moving into the Wednesday block of sitcoms is Suburgatory, which sees a dad and his teenaged daughter move out of the city and move into a suburban neighborhood that is apparently straight out of The Stepford Wives. While I do like that the single parent in this case is a dad, I'm less crazy about returning to the suburban jungle trope.
That theme is expanded upon in the night's drama, Revenge. The lead character is a young woman newly moved into a town in the Hamptons... or newly moved in again, as the locals don't realize that, as a child, she lived in town until her family was destroyed. The woman blames certain residents for this, and so she's moved back to get, well, you know.
If you ever wanted to know how the Paul Young story line from Desperate Housewives would have worked out if Paul was a young woman, here you go.
Thursday - the night opens with the return of Charlie's Angels. 30 years after the show ended its first run on ABC and eight years after the last movie. This time around the Angels aren't overmatched police cadets, but rather women who have fallen afoul with the law (or military) but who have certain talents that are recognized by Charlie Townsend, who brings them together to solve crimes. The other change is that the new show is set in Miami, for what that's worth.
I suppose there is enough nostalgia factor for this to reach people, between the generations who watched the show and the more recent generations who saw the movies. Minka Kelly is probably the biggest name involved, which may also help bring in the youngsters. If it manages the lighter tone suggested in the press release this may be a good lead in for the returning shows.
Friday and Saturday - no new shows.
Sunday - gets two new shows. The new lead in for Desperate Housewives is Once Upon a Time, in which a young bail bondswoman is reunited with the son she gave up for adoption. He tells her that he believes she is the lost daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, and that the town he lives in is full of fairy tale characters who were sent into modern times, unaware of their past, by the evil queen. Got that?
As much as I want to dismiss this, the cast features some notable names: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, and Robert Carlyle. I suppose it also qualifies as being more family/female friendly. Interested to see how this goes, even if I don't plan on watching it.
Finally, if you're going to riff on Mad Men, you might as well do it in that show's time slot. That seems to be the thinking with Pan Am, a drama featuring pilots and stewardesses at the dawn of the jet age. I have similar concerns here as I do with The Playboy Club, that the show will be more about the '60s and less about the story.
On the plus side, with Mad Men not coming back until next March, Pan Am may fill a need for those of us jonesing for Don Draper and his cronies.
Not Yet Scheduled - on the drama side we have Good Christian Belles, which sounds like a TV version of Hope Floats - Texas woman who had it all loses it, and moves home to people who expected her to be the same person she was when she left. I really wish the show was using the name of the book it was based on - Good Christian Bitches. There's also Missing, starring Ashley Judd as a mom who goes to Europe to find her missing son, using the contacts developed by her dead husband, who was a CIA agent. Last but not least is The River, which sees the family and friends of a well-known TV naturalist go to the Amazon to find him after he disappears. Maybe he's with Ashley Judd's kid?
The lone sitcom left is Work It, where two "alpha males" (and what is up with all the manly men at ABC this season?) dress as women to land jobs as pharmaceutical reps. The press release calls it "smart, funny and relevant." What it does not call it is an updated version of Bosom Buddies. Somewhere, Peter Scolari calls his lawyer.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Upfronts: Fox
And now for Fox:
Returning Shows: there doesn't appear to be any changes for returning Fox shows, and there are no surprises to add from the network's earlier cancellation announcement.
New Shows:
Monday - Originally slated to air sometime this season, Terra Nova will finally bow, leading in House (which is an interesting pairing, to say the least). It's a fairly low-concept show: in 2149, scientists find a way to send humans back 85 million years so they can colonize the planet and prevent the problems that are killing Earth in the show's present. If I had a dime for every show about that...
There was a fair amount of hype over the show last year (what with Steven Spielberg being one of the executive producers and the dinosaurs and whatnot), but the demands of the effects pushed the show back to September. Episodes are apparently running about $4 million a pop, so this could wind up being a very costly cancellation if it doesn't take.
But I imagine the show will do well, at least to start. I know I'll be watching to see how long it takes them to have someone eaten by a dinosaur.
Tuesday - brings us a show that sounds ridiculously derivative, New Girl (that's a working title, as I'm guessing they've run out of ways to name relationship comedies). A woman just off a break-up moves in with three guys, each of whom has some sort of personality quirkiness that will rub off on their new, hopelessly optimistic roomie.
But here's the catch: the main character is played by Zooey Deschanel, who generally does not suck. I have a hard time reconciling how she got drawn into a show that, on its face, doesn't sound that promising. Maybe the writing is terrific. Maybe the other cast members are as fresh and original as the press release says they are. Or maybe she just wants to get paid so she can make more indie films. I'm not that tempted to find out, though I do think tracking down the pilot may be in order just to see how this works.
Wednesday - wait, Simon Cowell has a new show? Why didn't anyone mention this?
OK, if you didn't know that Cowell was bringing The X Factor to the States, you've not been paying attention. Or leaving your house. Cowell is continuing his search for the world's best singing talent, but on this show it can include pre-teens, grandmothers, groups, and so on. Otherwise, there are auditions and call-backs and mentoring and so on. Paula Abdul emerges from the ashes of her own failed reality competition show to reunite with Cowell on the judging panel. Awkward moments ahoy!
Completing the night is the sitcom I Hate My Teenaged Daughter (also a working title, is this a Fox thing?). Two women raising daughters as single parents wind up giving their kids everything they didn't have as teens - money, freedom, etc. - and unwittingly create the mean girls they hated when they were teens.
Jamie Pressly stars as one of the moms, while Kevin Rahm plays one of the ex-husbands, which I think makes him the first person to play a hetero and gay parent at the same time on network TV. Even for that, I'm not interested.
Thursday - here we get the Bones spin-off The Finder, which sprang from a back-door pilot shown earlier this season (which, thanks to the amount of crap on my DVR, I've not seen yet). As you might guess from the title, The Finder is about an Iraqi war vet who can find almost anything. I should call him to find my house keys.
I do like Bones, so I'm willing to this this has promise.
Friday and Saturday - no new shows
Sunday - two new shows for Animation Domination. The first is Allen Gregory, which is about the world's most self-centered seven year old. After years of his father's full devotion, Allen Gregory goes from being homeschooled to attending the local elementary school, and thus has to learn to fit in. There's also his dad's life partner and an adopted sister to contend with.
Interesting vocal cast here - Jonah Hill voices Allen Gregory, while French Stewart voices his dad - and there's certainly more freedom with animation to take episodes in directions regular shows can't or don't go in - but I'm not fully convinced yet. Part of me thinks that Allen Gregory and his dad would be grating after a few weeks. So put this in the maybe column.
The other new show is Napoleon Dynamite, which picks up where the movie left off. The movie's cast is providing voices, which is a very good thing. Jared and Jerusha Hess have creator/executive producer credits, and hopefully they'll be pretty well involved, too. I don't know if Napoleon still has the following he did in 2005, but this may be worth a look.
Not Yet Scheduled - Fox has an interesting selection here with Touch, which stars Kiefer Sutherland as a dad who is trying to connect with his autistic son, whose interest in discarded cell phones leads to the discovery that he is communicating with the outside world - just through numbers. The son apparently sees the connections between random people and how their actions impact each other, and the numbers provide information on what he sees.
There is a potential for this to be a mess - Tim Kring is involved, and with his fingerprints on the overblown Revelations and Heroes you can see why there's room for concern - but it could also be an interesting look at how individuals interact with each other and with society at large. And maybe Sutherland will torture someone for old time's sake.
Returning Shows: there doesn't appear to be any changes for returning Fox shows, and there are no surprises to add from the network's earlier cancellation announcement.
New Shows:
Monday - Originally slated to air sometime this season, Terra Nova will finally bow, leading in House (which is an interesting pairing, to say the least). It's a fairly low-concept show: in 2149, scientists find a way to send humans back 85 million years so they can colonize the planet and prevent the problems that are killing Earth in the show's present. If I had a dime for every show about that...
There was a fair amount of hype over the show last year (what with Steven Spielberg being one of the executive producers and the dinosaurs and whatnot), but the demands of the effects pushed the show back to September. Episodes are apparently running about $4 million a pop, so this could wind up being a very costly cancellation if it doesn't take.
But I imagine the show will do well, at least to start. I know I'll be watching to see how long it takes them to have someone eaten by a dinosaur.
Tuesday - brings us a show that sounds ridiculously derivative, New Girl (that's a working title, as I'm guessing they've run out of ways to name relationship comedies). A woman just off a break-up moves in with three guys, each of whom has some sort of personality quirkiness that will rub off on their new, hopelessly optimistic roomie.
But here's the catch: the main character is played by Zooey Deschanel, who generally does not suck. I have a hard time reconciling how she got drawn into a show that, on its face, doesn't sound that promising. Maybe the writing is terrific. Maybe the other cast members are as fresh and original as the press release says they are. Or maybe she just wants to get paid so she can make more indie films. I'm not that tempted to find out, though I do think tracking down the pilot may be in order just to see how this works.
Wednesday - wait, Simon Cowell has a new show? Why didn't anyone mention this?
OK, if you didn't know that Cowell was bringing The X Factor to the States, you've not been paying attention. Or leaving your house. Cowell is continuing his search for the world's best singing talent, but on this show it can include pre-teens, grandmothers, groups, and so on. Otherwise, there are auditions and call-backs and mentoring and so on. Paula Abdul emerges from the ashes of her own failed reality competition show to reunite with Cowell on the judging panel. Awkward moments ahoy!
Completing the night is the sitcom I Hate My Teenaged Daughter (also a working title, is this a Fox thing?). Two women raising daughters as single parents wind up giving their kids everything they didn't have as teens - money, freedom, etc. - and unwittingly create the mean girls they hated when they were teens.
Jamie Pressly stars as one of the moms, while Kevin Rahm plays one of the ex-husbands, which I think makes him the first person to play a hetero and gay parent at the same time on network TV. Even for that, I'm not interested.
Thursday - here we get the Bones spin-off The Finder, which sprang from a back-door pilot shown earlier this season (which, thanks to the amount of crap on my DVR, I've not seen yet). As you might guess from the title, The Finder is about an Iraqi war vet who can find almost anything. I should call him to find my house keys.
I do like Bones, so I'm willing to this this has promise.
Friday and Saturday - no new shows
Sunday - two new shows for Animation Domination. The first is Allen Gregory, which is about the world's most self-centered seven year old. After years of his father's full devotion, Allen Gregory goes from being homeschooled to attending the local elementary school, and thus has to learn to fit in. There's also his dad's life partner and an adopted sister to contend with.
Interesting vocal cast here - Jonah Hill voices Allen Gregory, while French Stewart voices his dad - and there's certainly more freedom with animation to take episodes in directions regular shows can't or don't go in - but I'm not fully convinced yet. Part of me thinks that Allen Gregory and his dad would be grating after a few weeks. So put this in the maybe column.
The other new show is Napoleon Dynamite, which picks up where the movie left off. The movie's cast is providing voices, which is a very good thing. Jared and Jerusha Hess have creator/executive producer credits, and hopefully they'll be pretty well involved, too. I don't know if Napoleon still has the following he did in 2005, but this may be worth a look.
Not Yet Scheduled - Fox has an interesting selection here with Touch, which stars Kiefer Sutherland as a dad who is trying to connect with his autistic son, whose interest in discarded cell phones leads to the discovery that he is communicating with the outside world - just through numbers. The son apparently sees the connections between random people and how their actions impact each other, and the numbers provide information on what he sees.
There is a potential for this to be a mess - Tim Kring is involved, and with his fingerprints on the overblown Revelations and Heroes you can see why there's room for concern - but it could also be an interesting look at how individuals interact with each other and with society at large. And maybe Sutherland will torture someone for old time's sake.
Upfronts: NBC
Upfront season is upon us again, as the networks introduce next season's lineup to ad buyers, media, and us, the viewing public. First up, NBC, who really hopes you're in the mood for a song. Or a show you may have seen before if you watch PBS or lived in the UK.
Returning Shows - most notable among the changes to returning shows is that Chuck gets moved to Friday, apparently in an attempt to kill it once and for all. That or have its smallish fanbase seem larger given the lower expectations for Fridays.
Both The Sing-Off and The Voice will return, and both will anchor Mondays, the former in the fall and the latter in the spring.
Everything else appears to be coming back to its current time slot, or will return to fill in during the summer (or later as things get cancelled).
New Shows - as usual, we'll take this by night.
Monday - Both new shows here hope to ride someone else's zeitgeist. The fall brings us The Playboy Club, which is set in the early '60s at Chicago's Playboy Club (for those of you who don't know what that is, here's a primer. It's NBC's attempt to get in on the Mad Men gravy train (ironically, one episode of that show involved scenes at New York's club). Hopefully they remember to focus on characters and story rather than history, otherwise this becomes a series version of NBC's insipid The '60s miniseries.
Notable cast includes Amber Heard and Eddie Cibrian. Not a whole lot of wow factor, though Heard seems like a solid choice to play a Bunny.
In the spring we get Smash, which follows the creation and casting of a Broadway show based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. I know it's not set at a school, but I'm calling this a Glee rip-off based on the likely abundance of show-stopping numbers. Otherwise, why cast American Idol finalist Katherine McPhee?
The cast is interesting - Debra Messing plays a writer and Anjelica Huston a producer - and Stephen Spielberg was somehow involved in coming up with the concept. There better be plenty of jazz hands.
Tuesday - no new shows
Wednesday - NBC has a pair of new comedies to start the night, or I suppose we could go with "new" as both tread some common ground. Up All Night is supposed to be an new take on the work/life/baby balance. Lorne Michaels is one of the creators, and it has good leads with Christina Applegate and Will Arnett (and Maya Rudolph as Applegate's still single boss). So perhaps they can find some new wrinkles to this concept.
This is followed by Free Agents, an workplace/romance comedy based on a UK show. Hank Azaria stars as a divorced PR exec who falls into bed with a colleague who lost a finace. They try to straighten out their relationship while Azaria's friends (one played by Buffy alum Anthony Head) work to get him back on the dating scene. I suppose this is better than the bevy of "create three couples and put them in situations" approach to sitcoms we've seen of late, but how much better is an open question.
Thursday - returns 2/3 of last season's comedy block, and wisely puts them back in a 8-10 framework. 30 Rock doesn't return until the spring, and in its place we get Whitney, which follows a happily unmarried couple that's trying to keep the spark alive while all their friends get hitched. Meh. The Whitney in this case is Whitney Cummings, who will also have a show she co-created on CBS this fall. When was the last time one person got cancelled on two networks in the same season?
The new drama at 10 is Prime Suspect, which may sound familiar to you as it's an American version of the much-lauded British series that starred Helen Mirren. The unenviable task of following in Mirren's shoes goes to Maria Bello. I have no idea why this seems like a good time to do this, other than the thought that if we could bring Parenthood back then anything less old is fair game.
I'm also not sure who the target audience is. People who watched the original may not want to see a remake (or at least I don't), and if you didn't watch the original I'm not sure what specifically would interest you in the remake. Heck, NBC may be better off rerunning the original.
Friday - Combine Buffy, murder police shows, and fairy tales and what do you get? You get Grimm, in which the lead, a homicide detective, learns he is actually a member of a family dedicated to protecting humans from supernatural creatures. I do not look forward to the episode where the lead pistol-whips an uncooperative naiad.
Duh, I should have seen the Buffy connection earlier, as this show is coming from one of that show's writers, David Greenwalt. Still, don't care.
Saturday - no new shows
Sunday - the spring brings us The Firm, which is in fact based on the John Grisham book of the same name. Rather than being a straight retelling, we pick 10 years after Mitch McDeere brought down the Memphis law firm for mobsters where he worked. Apparently things get a little boring after 10 years in the witness protection program, as Mitch and his family leave it to live in the open. And guess what? The mob is still a little ticked at him!
The only interest I have in this show is in learning why Mitch thought this would be a good idea.
Not Yet Scheduled - for sitcoms we have Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea, based on Chelsea Handler's book of the same name (but starring Laura Prepon, with Handler playing an older sister), Best Friends Forever, where a newly-divorced woman moves in with her best friend, to the detriment of the friend's live-in boyfriend (WARNING: all of the actors have been in previously-cancelled mid-season romantic sitcoms), and Bent, where a lawyer/divorced mom falls for the shiftless handyman she hired to fix her new downsized house (starring Amanda Peet, who is clearly paying the price for some sort of karmic offense).
There are also three new unscripted shows: Betty White's Off Their Rockers (Punk'd, but with senior citizens pranking youngsters), a Brian Williams news magazine show and Fashion Star, which reads like Project Runway if you allowed any designers - clothes, jewelry, bags, whatever - to compete.
I'm 0 for 6 here. Well done, Peacock.
Returning Shows - most notable among the changes to returning shows is that Chuck gets moved to Friday, apparently in an attempt to kill it once and for all. That or have its smallish fanbase seem larger given the lower expectations for Fridays.
Both The Sing-Off and The Voice will return, and both will anchor Mondays, the former in the fall and the latter in the spring.
Everything else appears to be coming back to its current time slot, or will return to fill in during the summer (or later as things get cancelled).
New Shows - as usual, we'll take this by night.
Monday - Both new shows here hope to ride someone else's zeitgeist. The fall brings us The Playboy Club, which is set in the early '60s at Chicago's Playboy Club (for those of you who don't know what that is, here's a primer. It's NBC's attempt to get in on the Mad Men gravy train (ironically, one episode of that show involved scenes at New York's club). Hopefully they remember to focus on characters and story rather than history, otherwise this becomes a series version of NBC's insipid The '60s miniseries.
Notable cast includes Amber Heard and Eddie Cibrian. Not a whole lot of wow factor, though Heard seems like a solid choice to play a Bunny.
In the spring we get Smash, which follows the creation and casting of a Broadway show based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. I know it's not set at a school, but I'm calling this a Glee rip-off based on the likely abundance of show-stopping numbers. Otherwise, why cast American Idol finalist Katherine McPhee?
The cast is interesting - Debra Messing plays a writer and Anjelica Huston a producer - and Stephen Spielberg was somehow involved in coming up with the concept. There better be plenty of jazz hands.
Tuesday - no new shows
Wednesday - NBC has a pair of new comedies to start the night, or I suppose we could go with "new" as both tread some common ground. Up All Night is supposed to be an new take on the work/life/baby balance. Lorne Michaels is one of the creators, and it has good leads with Christina Applegate and Will Arnett (and Maya Rudolph as Applegate's still single boss). So perhaps they can find some new wrinkles to this concept.
This is followed by Free Agents, an workplace/romance comedy based on a UK show. Hank Azaria stars as a divorced PR exec who falls into bed with a colleague who lost a finace. They try to straighten out their relationship while Azaria's friends (one played by Buffy alum Anthony Head) work to get him back on the dating scene. I suppose this is better than the bevy of "create three couples and put them in situations" approach to sitcoms we've seen of late, but how much better is an open question.
Thursday - returns 2/3 of last season's comedy block, and wisely puts them back in a 8-10 framework. 30 Rock doesn't return until the spring, and in its place we get Whitney, which follows a happily unmarried couple that's trying to keep the spark alive while all their friends get hitched. Meh. The Whitney in this case is Whitney Cummings, who will also have a show she co-created on CBS this fall. When was the last time one person got cancelled on two networks in the same season?
The new drama at 10 is Prime Suspect, which may sound familiar to you as it's an American version of the much-lauded British series that starred Helen Mirren. The unenviable task of following in Mirren's shoes goes to Maria Bello. I have no idea why this seems like a good time to do this, other than the thought that if we could bring Parenthood back then anything less old is fair game.
I'm also not sure who the target audience is. People who watched the original may not want to see a remake (or at least I don't), and if you didn't watch the original I'm not sure what specifically would interest you in the remake. Heck, NBC may be better off rerunning the original.
Friday - Combine Buffy, murder police shows, and fairy tales and what do you get? You get Grimm, in which the lead, a homicide detective, learns he is actually a member of a family dedicated to protecting humans from supernatural creatures. I do not look forward to the episode where the lead pistol-whips an uncooperative naiad.
Duh, I should have seen the Buffy connection earlier, as this show is coming from one of that show's writers, David Greenwalt. Still, don't care.
Saturday - no new shows
Sunday - the spring brings us The Firm, which is in fact based on the John Grisham book of the same name. Rather than being a straight retelling, we pick 10 years after Mitch McDeere brought down the Memphis law firm for mobsters where he worked. Apparently things get a little boring after 10 years in the witness protection program, as Mitch and his family leave it to live in the open. And guess what? The mob is still a little ticked at him!
The only interest I have in this show is in learning why Mitch thought this would be a good idea.
Not Yet Scheduled - for sitcoms we have Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea, based on Chelsea Handler's book of the same name (but starring Laura Prepon, with Handler playing an older sister), Best Friends Forever, where a newly-divorced woman moves in with her best friend, to the detriment of the friend's live-in boyfriend (WARNING: all of the actors have been in previously-cancelled mid-season romantic sitcoms), and Bent, where a lawyer/divorced mom falls for the shiftless handyman she hired to fix her new downsized house (starring Amanda Peet, who is clearly paying the price for some sort of karmic offense).
There are also three new unscripted shows: Betty White's Off Their Rockers (Punk'd, but with senior citizens pranking youngsters), a Brian Williams news magazine show and Fashion Star, which reads like Project Runway if you allowed any designers - clothes, jewelry, bags, whatever - to compete.
I'm 0 for 6 here. Well done, Peacock.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Bubble Popped
So we have some early cancellations:
ABC: Brothers & Sisters, Detroit 187, Mr. Sunshine, No Ordinary Family, Off the Map, V
No major surprises here, though I'm hoping we can at least get a V movie to wrap things up. I don't expect one.
Fox: The Chicago Code, Human Target, Lie to Me, Traffic Light
A little surprised that The Chicago Code didn't get another chance, but the ratings pretty much tell the story. A bad year for midwestern cop shows.
NBC: America's Next Great Restaurant, Chase, The Event, Law & Order: Los Angeles, Outsourced, Perfect Couples, School Pride
Good thing the network already announced that Chuck was coming back, otherwise it would have been a long weekend for that show's cadre of fans. I am surprised to not see Parenthood on the list. Perhaps it'll wind up on Thursday at 10, the quirky drama capper to all those quirky sitcoms.
ABC: Brothers & Sisters, Detroit 187, Mr. Sunshine, No Ordinary Family, Off the Map, V
No major surprises here, though I'm hoping we can at least get a V movie to wrap things up. I don't expect one.
Fox: The Chicago Code, Human Target, Lie to Me, Traffic Light
A little surprised that The Chicago Code didn't get another chance, but the ratings pretty much tell the story. A bad year for midwestern cop shows.
NBC: America's Next Great Restaurant, Chase, The Event, Law & Order: Los Angeles, Outsourced, Perfect Couples, School Pride
Good thing the network already announced that Chuck was coming back, otherwise it would have been a long weekend for that show's cadre of fans. I am surprised to not see Parenthood on the list. Perhaps it'll wind up on Thursday at 10, the quirky drama capper to all those quirky sitcoms.
On the Bubble: The CW
Last but not least, the network formerly known as The WB and UPN:
Saved: Hellcats, One Tree Hill
I'm on the fence with Hellcats, whose performance didn't set any records, but which the network may still see as being their chance to tap into the Glee crowd, just with backflips instead of singing. And One Tree Hill is established enough now that it would get chance to have a set final season.
Gone:: Nikita, Plain Jane, Shedding for the Wedding
Nikita never quite clicked, maybe because it's not obviously targeted for 12 year old girls. I can honestly say I've never heard of Plain Jane (apparently because it aired last summer), while Shedding for the Wedding had some incredibly low ratings, even by The CW standards. All toast.
Saved: Hellcats, One Tree Hill
I'm on the fence with Hellcats, whose performance didn't set any records, but which the network may still see as being their chance to tap into the Glee crowd, just with backflips instead of singing. And One Tree Hill is established enough now that it would get chance to have a set final season.
Gone:: Nikita, Plain Jane, Shedding for the Wedding
Nikita never quite clicked, maybe because it's not obviously targeted for 12 year old girls. I can honestly say I've never heard of Plain Jane (apparently because it aired last summer), while Shedding for the Wedding had some incredibly low ratings, even by The CW standards. All toast.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
On the Bubble: CBS
The Eye has a lot of shows still twisting in the wind, many of them familiar faces. Who makes the cut?
Saved: 48 Hours Mystery, 60 Minutes, Blue Bloods, Criminal Minds, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, The Good Wife, Hawaii 5-0, The Mentalist, Mike & Molly, NCIS: Los Angeles, Rules of Engagement
I think I'm most likely to miss here with one of the CSI spin-offs. There was talk of New York getting cut, but it's seen a bump thanks to the (Friday adjusted) success of Blue Bloods, so I'm now thinking that Miami is the more likely casualty if one does indeed get cut.
Gone: Bleep My Dad Says, Chaos, The Defenders, I Get That a Lot, Mad Love
Bleep My Dad Says is an interesting case, given how it went from significant buzz at this point last year to getting hustled off the schedule as soon as possible. Apparently you can't write a TV show 140 characters at a time.
I suppose there's a chance that The Defenders comes back, though the drop-off in viewers as the season went on, combined with the lack of performance on Fridays, make it a very slim chance. But that may be all a show set in Vegas needs.
Saved: 48 Hours Mystery, 60 Minutes, Blue Bloods, Criminal Minds, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, The Good Wife, Hawaii 5-0, The Mentalist, Mike & Molly, NCIS: Los Angeles, Rules of Engagement
I think I'm most likely to miss here with one of the CSI spin-offs. There was talk of New York getting cut, but it's seen a bump thanks to the (Friday adjusted) success of Blue Bloods, so I'm now thinking that Miami is the more likely casualty if one does indeed get cut.
Gone: Bleep My Dad Says, Chaos, The Defenders, I Get That a Lot, Mad Love
Bleep My Dad Says is an interesting case, given how it went from significant buzz at this point last year to getting hustled off the schedule as soon as possible. Apparently you can't write a TV show 140 characters at a time.
I suppose there's a chance that The Defenders comes back, though the drop-off in viewers as the season went on, combined with the lack of performance on Fridays, make it a very slim chance. But that may be all a show set in Vegas needs.
On the Bubble: ABC
ABC appears to have the most shows not yet renewed, so settle in.
Saved: 20/20, AFV, Body of Proof, Dancing With the Stars, Desperate Housewives, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Primetime, Saturday Night College Football, Secret Millionaire, Shark Tank
Lots of reality, not surprisingly, with some of these poised to take over for failed new shows. I don't think Body of Proof is strong enough to anchor a night, but it could work to complete a night (Wednesday or Sunday at 10, perhaps)?
I also half-expect to see special Sunday editions of Saturday Night College Football if the NFL owner's lockout drags into the season.
Gone: Better With You, Brothers & Sisters, Detroit 187, Happy Endings, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, Mr. Sunshine, No Ordinary Family, Off the Map, V, Wife Swap
As much as I think these will all go, ABC may surprise by keeping a couple of them. I could see them poaching one of the sitcoms to fill the one empty slot in the Wednesday lineup. Happy Endings seems more likely, as I think it'd be easier to keep a mid-season show (and it seems more in line with the family/relationship comedies than Mr. Sunshine).
The other obvious question is Brothers & Sisters, which I've put on here thanks to the revolving door for cast and producers alike. The current season finale could sub as a series finale, and the ratings jump it received may convince ABC to try to squeeze one more season out of it.
On a personal note, I'll be sad to see Detroit 187, as despite the awful name it wound up being a pretty good show. I'm more ambivalent about the potential loss of V. The season finale shook things up quite a bit, but I think it's too little too late.
Saved: 20/20, AFV, Body of Proof, Dancing With the Stars, Desperate Housewives, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Primetime, Saturday Night College Football, Secret Millionaire, Shark Tank
Lots of reality, not surprisingly, with some of these poised to take over for failed new shows. I don't think Body of Proof is strong enough to anchor a night, but it could work to complete a night (Wednesday or Sunday at 10, perhaps)?
I also half-expect to see special Sunday editions of Saturday Night College Football if the NFL owner's lockout drags into the season.
Gone: Better With You, Brothers & Sisters, Detroit 187, Happy Endings, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, Mr. Sunshine, No Ordinary Family, Off the Map, V, Wife Swap
As much as I think these will all go, ABC may surprise by keeping a couple of them. I could see them poaching one of the sitcoms to fill the one empty slot in the Wednesday lineup. Happy Endings seems more likely, as I think it'd be easier to keep a mid-season show (and it seems more in line with the family/relationship comedies than Mr. Sunshine).
The other obvious question is Brothers & Sisters, which I've put on here thanks to the revolving door for cast and producers alike. The current season finale could sub as a series finale, and the ratings jump it received may convince ABC to try to squeeze one more season out of it.
On a personal note, I'll be sad to see Detroit 187, as despite the awful name it wound up being a pretty good show. I'm more ambivalent about the potential loss of V. The season finale shook things up quite a bit, but I think it's too little too late.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
On the Bubble: Fox
And your bubble predictions for Fox:
Saved: America's Most Wanted, The Chicago Code, Cops, Kitchen Nightmares
I can't imagine a world where Fox doesn't show America's Most Wanted and Cops, so I'm saying they're both back. Kitchen Nightmares I could do without - it's a pale imitation of the BBC original - but Fox has hitched its wagon to Gordon Ramsey pretty firmly, and carrying this show will certainly help keep him happy and making Hell's Kitchen (and, I suppose, MasterChef).
The Chicago Code is kind of a wild card for me. It doesn't seem any more likely to make the cut than the other shows on the bubble, but as the newest show of the dramas on the bubble it gets a chance to prove itself where the others have tried and not succeeded.
Gone - Breaking In, Human Target, Lie to Me, Million Dollar Money Drop, Traffic Light
I would not be surprised to see Human Target and/or Lie to Me make the cut, though as I said before I think these shows have had a chance to build an audience but haven't done enough. The other shows seem more solid, though if Fox saw fit to keep Bob's Burgers and Mobbed why not take a chance with Breaking In? Or why not clear the decks of all of them?
Anyway, for having a short bubble list I do think Fox has one of the least predictable ones. They could bring back all of these shows and not surprise me. Well, except for Million Dollar Money Drop.
Saved: America's Most Wanted, The Chicago Code, Cops, Kitchen Nightmares
I can't imagine a world where Fox doesn't show America's Most Wanted and Cops, so I'm saying they're both back. Kitchen Nightmares I could do without - it's a pale imitation of the BBC original - but Fox has hitched its wagon to Gordon Ramsey pretty firmly, and carrying this show will certainly help keep him happy and making Hell's Kitchen (and, I suppose, MasterChef).
The Chicago Code is kind of a wild card for me. It doesn't seem any more likely to make the cut than the other shows on the bubble, but as the newest show of the dramas on the bubble it gets a chance to prove itself where the others have tried and not succeeded.
Gone - Breaking In, Human Target, Lie to Me, Million Dollar Money Drop, Traffic Light
I would not be surprised to see Human Target and/or Lie to Me make the cut, though as I said before I think these shows have had a chance to build an audience but haven't done enough. The other shows seem more solid, though if Fox saw fit to keep Bob's Burgers and Mobbed why not take a chance with Breaking In? Or why not clear the decks of all of them?
Anyway, for having a short bubble list I do think Fox has one of the least predictable ones. They could bring back all of these shows and not surprise me. Well, except for Million Dollar Money Drop.
On the Bubble: NBC
With upfronts coming next week, here's my guess as to what shows that are on the bubble will get saved and which will get the hook. This is based on this listing at The Futon Critic, with many thanks.
Saved: The Apprentice, Dateline NBC, Harry's Law, Law & Order: Los Angeles, Law & Order: SVU, Minute to Win It, Saturday Night Live
The reality pickups make some sense given the low cost to produce. The scripted show most likely to not actually get picked up is Law & Order: Los Angeles, whose mid-season reboot hasn't exactly led to an influx of new viewers.
Also, if I'm right, Harry's Law will be the only first year show to get renewed. That is not a feather in the network's cap.
Gone: America's Next Great Restaurant, Chase, Chuck, The Event, Outsourced, Parenthood, Perfect Couples, School Pride
The bar for keeping reality shows is lower than scripted shows, but the two reality shows here don't clear it. As far as the scripted stuff goes, I don't expect many of the shows on the list would be a surprise. I do expect the usual gnashing of teeth for Chuck, and it may just stave off cancellation given the lack of anything else to show. I wonder if we'll get a similar reaction for The Event, but as no one seems to know exactly what that show's about I doubt it. I do hope that its demise finally puts an end to the idea that you can put a show on ice for three or four months and have it succeed.
I'm expecting the loss of Outsourced and Perfect Couples to lead to the end of the three hour comedy experiment. I'd go with a lineup of Community, Parks and Rec, 30 Rock and The Office and a drama at 10.
Saved: The Apprentice, Dateline NBC, Harry's Law, Law & Order: Los Angeles, Law & Order: SVU, Minute to Win It, Saturday Night Live
The reality pickups make some sense given the low cost to produce. The scripted show most likely to not actually get picked up is Law & Order: Los Angeles, whose mid-season reboot hasn't exactly led to an influx of new viewers.
Also, if I'm right, Harry's Law will be the only first year show to get renewed. That is not a feather in the network's cap.
Gone: America's Next Great Restaurant, Chase, Chuck, The Event, Outsourced, Parenthood, Perfect Couples, School Pride
The bar for keeping reality shows is lower than scripted shows, but the two reality shows here don't clear it. As far as the scripted stuff goes, I don't expect many of the shows on the list would be a surprise. I do expect the usual gnashing of teeth for Chuck, and it may just stave off cancellation given the lack of anything else to show. I wonder if we'll get a similar reaction for The Event, but as no one seems to know exactly what that show's about I doubt it. I do hope that its demise finally puts an end to the idea that you can put a show on ice for three or four months and have it succeed.
I'm expecting the loss of Outsourced and Perfect Couples to lead to the end of the three hour comedy experiment. I'd go with a lineup of Community, Parks and Rec, 30 Rock and The Office and a drama at 10.
The Last Shall Be Last?
I was just looking over the schedule for next week's upfronts, and was surprised to see that The CW gets a day to itself. Granted, it's the morning of the last day (Thursday, I suppose to give everyone an extra half day to schmooze), but I find it odd that NBC and Fox have to double up on the first day. Then again, The CW might just pass NBC if they don't have Sunday Night Football to shore up their ratings, so perhaps a day to themselves is justified, even if it's just to announce that they're putting vampires on five nights a week.
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