It's the most wonderful time of the TV year: the broadcast networks trout out their planned schedules for the upcoming season, in the hopes of selling as much ad time as possible. NBC and Fox go today, ABC tomorrow, CBS Wednesday, and The CW on Thursday. Let's start with the Peacock.
What's Cancelled? Nothing surprising, really, and mostly things that have already been cancelled. Most notable shows not coming back include Parks and Rec, Parenthood (both planned endings), State of Affairs, The Sing-Off, Allegiance, and Constantine.
The New Lineup. Here's what's on tap for the fall:
Monday: The Voice for two hours, with Blindspot moving in at 10. This new drama sees a woman wake up in Times Square not knowing who she is or how she got there. She's also only covered by a set of intricate tattoos, one of which is the name of a FBI agent. Working together, they realize that her tats are related to crimes, and that solving them will help the woman get back her identity and apparently expose some sort of international conspiracy. If it's done well it might not be bad, but I'm sensing this as every international conspiracy show of the last decade with a Blacklist overlay.
Tuesday: begins with The Voice, and then moves to new drama Heartbreaker, about a heart surgeon whose professional brilliance in a male-dominated field may only be matched by a "racy" personal life. This is the latest attempt to find a Grey's Anatomy for a younger set, I'm guessing.
The day wraps with what might be the most interesting new show of the year, Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris. It's a return to the variety show, promising music, comedy, stunts, audience participation, and various giveaways. I'll admit to being intrigued.
Wednesday: No changes here, with The Mysteries of Laura (so much for a repeat win in the Ted Marshall Open) followed by Law & Order: SVU and then Chicago PD.
Thursday: Starts with the reboot of Heroes, which still seems like a bad idea. That's followed by The Blacklist, and then The Player, which stars Wesley Snipes as a special ops guy turned Las Vegas security pro who is tasked to stop major crimes by a shadowy group of millionaires. This may also help Snipes finally learn the truth about the death of his wife, because working for a shadowy group of millionaires to stop major crimes isn't enough. I just hope Snipes gets his withholding correct this time around.
Friday: The one relocated show is Undateable, which kicks off the evening, followed by People are Talking, in which to diverse couples who live next door to each other talk about life, love and... sorry, I fell asleep in the middle of the synopsis. Marc-Paul Gosselaar stars, for those of you still upset about Saved by the Bell not getting the reboot treatment.
Grimm and Dateline round out the evening.
Saturday: Dateline followed by vintage SNL repeats.
Sunday: Football scores, followed by football game.
Midseason?
Chicago Fire comes back in November in place of NPH's show, and there are a variety of unscripted programs (Celebrity Apprentice, The Biggest Loser, etc.) that aren't on the schedule but will likely fill some cracks. As far as new scripted shows go, we have:
* The reboot of Coach, where Hayden Fox comes out of retirement to help his son, who is the head football coach at an Ivy League school where the eggheads don't know sports.
* Hot & Bothered, a sitcom set behind the scenes of a telenovela. Eva Longoria stars.
* Crowded, about empty nesters who suddenly have children and parents living with them. The description calls this setting "timely," which is probably true if we're measuring in geologic time.
* Superstore, a big box workplace comedy starring America Ferrara and Ben Feldman. This is closer to timely, NBC, especially if the leads started working their after losing their jobs in the Great Recession.
* You, Me and the End of the World, an apocalyptic comedy about a group of misfits whose lives intersect in the shadow of an impending collision between the Earth and a comet. Stars Rob Lowe, Jenna Fischer and Megan Mullaly.
*Chicago Med, another Chicago Fire spinoff. Looking forward to next year's Chicago Sanitation.
* Game of Silence, which strikes me as Revenge combined with I Know What you Did Last Summer, when a secret shared by a group of high school friends comes to light 25 years later.
* Shades of Blue, about a crooked cop (Jennifer Lopez!) who has to turn on her fellow crooked cops when she gets pinched by the FBI.
Also, we're getting a live version of The Wiz this season.
Thoughts?
First thought is that after years of giving NBC crap about turnover, they've done a nice job of developing some shows with staying power. Quick second thought is that they've only got one hour of traditional sitcoms for the fall, and it's on Friday. Must See Thursday is well and truly dead.
There's not much among the new shows that really piques my interest, other than the variety show, and that's less about content than format. But I also think the new shows are OK, not so derivative to be obvious about who they're ripping off but not so original to potentially be off-putting (though People are Talking sounds dreadful). So good work, I guess?
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