So...
CBS just unveiled their 2010 fall TV schedule at their "upfront" presentation in NY this morning. It's a risky schedule, with lots of changes. CBS is kind of known as the old folks network, something they have been working hard to change, so this is an interesting move because old folks don't usually like it when they can no longer figure out what night their favorite program is on.
Oh, and they are cancelling a whole heap of shows, which old folks don't like, either. Here's the list: The New Adventures of Old Christine, Ghost Whisperer, Gary Unmarried, Accidentally on Purpose, Cold Case, Miami Medical, Numb3rs. I guess CBS didn't have room for them with their hot new schedule. Too bad there wasn't a way for them to save money on making new shows that, let's be honest, will probably fail, and combine some of these just cancelled shows to create some new super-hybrid-hits. Think about it. The New Adventures of Gary Unmarried? I mean, aren't The New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried basically the same show about newly divorced parents trying to retain custody of their kids, while navigating the dating world again, only one is with a man in the lead role and one is with a woman? Why not make it a show where we combine the two lead roles into one... so it'd be about a hermaphrodite trying to raise his/her kids, while looking for love in all the wrong places? Heck, you can still use Jay Mohr as the lead. Or how about Cold Whisperer, about a girl with a remarkable gift for understanding diseases, who is hired to help nurse an injured detective back to health following a tragic allergic reaction. Ghost Medical, anyone? I'd certainly watch a bunch of dead people trying to operate on the living.
On the returning side, CBS is moving Big Bang Theory from Mondays to Thursdays to try a little comedy out that night. Survivor then moves a day up to Wednesday nights. Perhaps most interesting is CSI: Miami moving to Sunday nights, to be replaced by the new version of Hawaii 5-0 on Mondays. Hawaii 5-0 is the hottest CBS drama pilot right now. I like the casting, but I hate that it's another remake.
Other new shows worth noting are Mike and Molly, another one from the guy who made Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory, only this time it's more of a love story. There's also The Defenders, which has a terrible cast (Jim Belushi and Jerry O'Connell as "colorful" Vegas defense attorneys.) God that already sounds annoying. Blue Bloods is a Tom Selleck vehicle being put out to pasture on Friday nights. Hmmm... Friday seems to be heating up for scripted shows this year...
Oh, and last but not least is $#*! My Dad Says. That title is already a set-back. FYI, this is the show where William Shatner plays an eccentric father (big stretch) who says crazy stuff about his kid, who then tweets about it. They say the pilot turned out funny, but I haven't seen it yet.
Well, that's it for CBS. Anyone still awake?
Showing posts with label fall 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fall 2010. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
The ABC Upfront
So...
Today was ABC's (or the Alphabet's, as it is sometimes called in the entertainment industry) 2010 upfront. Of the big networks ABC has the best shows on right now hands down. They do pretty well in the ratings, too. ;) I don't see that trend changing based on their schedule for next season, which (despite the huge loss of LOST) looks pretty solid.
First, here's a rundown of ABC's just cancelled shows:
Flashforward. It started out with a catchy concept and then by episode two just lost it's way - the kiss of death for a serialized show. The pilot, about what happens when everyone on earth blacks out for over two minutes and sees their future 6 months from now, ends with a mysterious figure revealed to have actually, gasp!, not blacked out during the blackout. And when do they follow up on that cool idea... the very next episode you say?? Nope. And I honestly don't know because I gave up watching five loooooong episodes into the series. Instead, in the 5 preceeding episodes we are treated to some Nazi (of course, this is Hollywood, after all) prison visit and a boring family plotline about a wife who may or may not cheat on her husband in the future. Also, one of the main characters "flash forward's" is of himself sitting on the toilet. Awesome! Hey, writers, I know that sounds funny, but doesn't that sort of limit the story possibilities with his character? Given that the show has just been axed, I guess the answer is yes.
Scrubs was also cancelled. Deja vu? And so was Better Off Ted - a semi-funny show that didn't stand out enough and got lost in the shuffle. Brothers and Sisters should have been cancelled, but instead received a reduced episode order. Instead of the usually 22 episode, it will get something like 13... and then probably fade out in time for next year's upfronts.
Returning:
We have the usual suspects (Desperate Housewives, a bunch of reality shows geared toward desperate housewives, and Grey's Anatomy.) There's a also Castle and breakout comedy hit that put ABC comedy back on the map - Modern Family. Left with no other choice it seems, ABC brought back V. I'm guessing it won't last long; ever since they put Scott Rosenbaum as show runner it's dragging its feet. It wants so bad to be Battlestar Galactica in terms of moral complexity, but everyone watching just wants it to be more like the fun action adventure that the original was. Also, the good guys never do anything to advance the story!
New shows:
No Ordinary Family. This is a live-action version of The Incredibles, with a great cast. I'll check it out for the cast, and hope it's not too much of a rip off. This is a show I actually would like to see explore a darker area than The Incredibles tackled.
Body of Proof stars Dana Delany as a medical examiner who gets involved with crimes. It's on Friday nights, which is usually considered the death slot, but CBS has had success there with both strong female lead shows (Medium and Ghost Whispered) and with crime procedurals (Numb3rs). Plus, Dana Delany's star is hotter than it's been in year's right now, so this could be a good time slot for it.
There's some more stuff coming mid-season, but since so much is subject to change I'll skip those shows for now. Anything not mentioned new show wise isn't, to me, worth talking about becuase I don't think it's going to stick around. Some of them even sound like "didn't that show already come out?"
That said, ABC does have a pretty good looking schedule for next fall. Basically, if you like ABC now you will like it next year.
Today was ABC's (or the Alphabet's, as it is sometimes called in the entertainment industry) 2010 upfront. Of the big networks ABC has the best shows on right now hands down. They do pretty well in the ratings, too. ;) I don't see that trend changing based on their schedule for next season, which (despite the huge loss of LOST) looks pretty solid.
First, here's a rundown of ABC's just cancelled shows:
Flashforward. It started out with a catchy concept and then by episode two just lost it's way - the kiss of death for a serialized show. The pilot, about what happens when everyone on earth blacks out for over two minutes and sees their future 6 months from now, ends with a mysterious figure revealed to have actually, gasp!, not blacked out during the blackout. And when do they follow up on that cool idea... the very next episode you say?? Nope. And I honestly don't know because I gave up watching five loooooong episodes into the series. Instead, in the 5 preceeding episodes we are treated to some Nazi (of course, this is Hollywood, after all) prison visit and a boring family plotline about a wife who may or may not cheat on her husband in the future. Also, one of the main characters "flash forward's" is of himself sitting on the toilet. Awesome! Hey, writers, I know that sounds funny, but doesn't that sort of limit the story possibilities with his character? Given that the show has just been axed, I guess the answer is yes.
Scrubs was also cancelled. Deja vu? And so was Better Off Ted - a semi-funny show that didn't stand out enough and got lost in the shuffle. Brothers and Sisters should have been cancelled, but instead received a reduced episode order. Instead of the usually 22 episode, it will get something like 13... and then probably fade out in time for next year's upfronts.
Returning:
We have the usual suspects (Desperate Housewives, a bunch of reality shows geared toward desperate housewives, and Grey's Anatomy.) There's a also Castle and breakout comedy hit that put ABC comedy back on the map - Modern Family. Left with no other choice it seems, ABC brought back V. I'm guessing it won't last long; ever since they put Scott Rosenbaum as show runner it's dragging its feet. It wants so bad to be Battlestar Galactica in terms of moral complexity, but everyone watching just wants it to be more like the fun action adventure that the original was. Also, the good guys never do anything to advance the story!
New shows:
No Ordinary Family. This is a live-action version of The Incredibles, with a great cast. I'll check it out for the cast, and hope it's not too much of a rip off. This is a show I actually would like to see explore a darker area than The Incredibles tackled.
Body of Proof stars Dana Delany as a medical examiner who gets involved with crimes. It's on Friday nights, which is usually considered the death slot, but CBS has had success there with both strong female lead shows (Medium and Ghost Whispered) and with crime procedurals (Numb3rs). Plus, Dana Delany's star is hotter than it's been in year's right now, so this could be a good time slot for it.
There's some more stuff coming mid-season, but since so much is subject to change I'll skip those shows for now. Anything not mentioned new show wise isn't, to me, worth talking about becuase I don't think it's going to stick around. Some of them even sound like "didn't that show already come out?"
That said, ABC does have a pretty good looking schedule for next fall. Basically, if you like ABC now you will like it next year.
Monday, May 17, 2010
The FOX upfront
So...
Part two of my upfront thoughts, this time on Fox. If you don't know what an upfront is, check out the previous post I did on NBC's.
First, the shows Fox canned:
There really isn't anything here except The Wanda Sykes Show.
Returning:
Pretty much everything, even Lie to Me and Human Target. Lie to Me is surprising in that it is back for the fall, and I don't see it sticking around too long past that... especially since the showrunner just left to do a new series for Fox (more on that in a minute). Lie to Me is a weird sell to begin with -- a man can tell whether people are lying and calls them out on it?? Human Target is a show that had some potential. I liked the Die Hard vibe to it and the concept of putting the lead in a different "cool" location each week, from a mountain top sanctuary to a foreign embassy to an out of control train, but it was too male skewed and needed a strong female on the team to break up the testosterone and give the boys a female voice to bounce off. There's word that someone from Chuck is coming over to help co-run the show, so there maybe be a chance of this happening. Or it could just screw the show up royally and make it too cheesy and inter-connected the way Chuck got. Still, it is a stand-alone, episode of the week type show with relatively no mythology, so should be easy to fix up and still attract viewers in it's sophomore season.
Now for Fox's new shows:
Lonestar. It's described as another Dallas. Doesn't excite me, so I have nothing to say there.
The Good Guys. Why is this an hour? Sometimes it just seems like they stretch it out to fill time. Still, the casting is enough for me to check out the comedy in hopes of a good buddy cop comedy. Bradley Whitford plays the burnt out loose-cannon, while Colin Hanks plays his rookie, by-the-book partner.
Running Wilde stars Will Arnett as a jerk trying to win back his childhood sweetheart. Now, Arnett is funny, no doubt about it, but he's a bit like Kramer from Seinfeld in that I wonder if he can hold a show on his own. And will this concept get old? Futher, will people tune in to see Will Arnett each week (other than his tiny, yet devoted following)? Time will tell.
That's about it for Fox. There schedule isn't very exciting to me. The real interest will be in the Spring when we see how American Idol fares without Simon Cowell (I'm guessing further decline unless they can get a huge presence to give them an initial ratings bump) and to see how X-Factor does with Cowell. X-factor is like Idol but with bands, not just individuals, competing.
Part two of my upfront thoughts, this time on Fox. If you don't know what an upfront is, check out the previous post I did on NBC's.
First, the shows Fox canned:
There really isn't anything here except The Wanda Sykes Show.
Returning:
Pretty much everything, even Lie to Me and Human Target. Lie to Me is surprising in that it is back for the fall, and I don't see it sticking around too long past that... especially since the showrunner just left to do a new series for Fox (more on that in a minute). Lie to Me is a weird sell to begin with -- a man can tell whether people are lying and calls them out on it?? Human Target is a show that had some potential. I liked the Die Hard vibe to it and the concept of putting the lead in a different "cool" location each week, from a mountain top sanctuary to a foreign embassy to an out of control train, but it was too male skewed and needed a strong female on the team to break up the testosterone and give the boys a female voice to bounce off. There's word that someone from Chuck is coming over to help co-run the show, so there maybe be a chance of this happening. Or it could just screw the show up royally and make it too cheesy and inter-connected the way Chuck got. Still, it is a stand-alone, episode of the week type show with relatively no mythology, so should be easy to fix up and still attract viewers in it's sophomore season.
Now for Fox's new shows:
Lonestar. It's described as another Dallas. Doesn't excite me, so I have nothing to say there.
The Good Guys. Why is this an hour? Sometimes it just seems like they stretch it out to fill time. Still, the casting is enough for me to check out the comedy in hopes of a good buddy cop comedy. Bradley Whitford plays the burnt out loose-cannon, while Colin Hanks plays his rookie, by-the-book partner.
Running Wilde stars Will Arnett as a jerk trying to win back his childhood sweetheart. Now, Arnett is funny, no doubt about it, but he's a bit like Kramer from Seinfeld in that I wonder if he can hold a show on his own. And will this concept get old? Futher, will people tune in to see Will Arnett each week (other than his tiny, yet devoted following)? Time will tell.
That's about it for Fox. There schedule isn't very exciting to me. The real interest will be in the Spring when we see how American Idol fares without Simon Cowell (I'm guessing further decline unless they can get a huge presence to give them an initial ratings bump) and to see how X-Factor does with Cowell. X-factor is like Idol but with bands, not just individuals, competing.
The NBC upfront
So...
NBC and Fox both announced their fall 2010 television schedules today. A lot of shows were cancelled, a lot of shows are actually coming back, and a lot of new shows were picked up. For those who don't know every year the big 5 networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and The CW) get together and hold a big event for the press and advertisers and let them know what their schedules for the next year of TV will look like. It's called the "Upfronts" and it's where viewers generally get to find out if there favorite show isn't coming back or if that "cool new idea" (did you hear about the one with time travel and dinosaurs from Steven Spielberg?) is going to go from pilot to series.
Here's a few words on both the cancelled shows, the returning shows, and the new shows for Fox and NBC:
First NBC, who is looking to rebrand their image after having been in the ratings dump ever since Friends left the air (yes, it's really been that long). They've tried every which way to fix it, and this year they are going back to more scripted programming. They bid on the "hottest" scripts, i.e. the most expensive, and are promising a bold, new look for themselves. But when you are digging through garbage, it's not easy to make a diamond from a lump of coal -- especially with some of the nitwits they have in their development department. A prime example is the show Heroes, which had some pretty cool episodes in the first season when the characters were crossing paths so much, until about the middle of that season when things started to go down hill. Now there's a show that had a lot of potential, but bad writing and bad notes showed how you can take a hit show and totally flush it down the drain.
The show Chuck is coming back. Yay? For some reason it has a small, but loyal following. I watched it the first season and thought it was a B-. Fun, escapist, but a little forced. The second year it started with a whimper and then became completely unrealistic, with everyone who ever knew Chuck coming out of the cold as a spy, just like him, from his ex-girlfriend, to his ex-best friend, to even his dad! Come on!! Bringing it back for yet another season is a little like spinning the tires. It's probably not going to get any lower in the ratings, but in it's fourth season there's little chance it can get better ratings wise, especially when it is leading off Monday nights and not, say, following a hit show. Risky move having two brand new shows following it to boot.
Law and Order is done (cricket, cricket), but Law and Order: SVU will be back, as will "LOLA" a.k.a. Law and Order: Los Angeles - which is just like the original, now cancelled Law and Order, but with sunshine and movie stars.
The Office is back for another year (finally, a ray of hope!). What's that... Steve Carrel says this is his last year? Scratch the hope... Now, of course, NBC is already planning on continuing the show without him, but let me be clear, there is no The Office without Steve Carrel. Maybe a few years ago, but it's been on for like 7 years and the other characters just aren't dynamic enough to hold the show. Bringing on a new lead feels lame to me after this much time, as if they are trying too hard to keep it going (a la Scrubs) and we all know Jim and Pam, the other big characters on the comedy, are super boring these days. So no Carrel, no The Office.
It's counterpart, Parks and Recreations, is returning, as well. Finally finding it's voice in the second season, and with some good cross promotion scheduled for this summer, what does NBC do... pushes it back to the spring. Now, this seems like a hair-brained idea, and it is, but I'm willing to bet NBC did this because they think one of their new Thursday night comedies is going to fail and they want Parks and Rec around to replace it.
Speaking of new comedies, we have Outsourced, a good idea naturally stolen from somewhere else. This time idea is spun fron a movie, and like the original source, the TV show is about an American who is shipped to a call center in India and all the cultural misunderstandings that ensue. Has potential, but then again so did Heroes back in the day. I'm also nervous that this show will try to be too goofy with the call center being for a company that sells "bacon wallets."
Love Bites. With a mostly rotating cast, i.e. new faces each week (always a hard sell) and from someone that worked on Sex and the City (naturally). So far it reminds me of that show NBC already tried with Alicia Silverstone a few years ago. And like that show, it's an hour "dramedy" that really should only be a 1/2 hour.
Drama wise we have Chase, which at first glance sounds like a decent diversion on Monday's from Jerry Bruckheimer. It's described by the network as "a fast-paced drama that drops viewers smack into the middle of a game of cat-and-mouse as a team of U.S. marshals hunts down America's most dangerous fugitives." The main character is a cowgirl "boot-wearing deputy whose sharp mind and unique Texas upbringing help her track down the violent criminals on the run." Sounds like something already on TNT or USA with the Marshals and tough, female detective angle, but we'll see. Also troubling, it's up against CSI: Miami, which attracts the same crowd.
We also have the ultra-hush hush Event, about a guy who uncovers a... wait for it... "government conspiracy". ABC messed around with this territory a few years ago. Maybe NBC will have better luck.
And, finally, the new J.J. Abrams married spys drama Undercovers, which is essentially just "True Lies" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" except they cast an African-American man and woman in the lead roles to throw off the scent. It's "created" by the guy who created "October Road," also a childhood buddy of J.J.s, and if the guy who made October Road can't make this show work, well, darn it, I don't know who can. I guess it depends how much J.J. is involved (he's got a few movies to direct, after all) and how good he is, because, honestly, J.J. has had a few stinkers himself.
That's it for NBC. I'll come back later with the second half of this post on Fox.
NBC and Fox both announced their fall 2010 television schedules today. A lot of shows were cancelled, a lot of shows are actually coming back, and a lot of new shows were picked up. For those who don't know every year the big 5 networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and The CW) get together and hold a big event for the press and advertisers and let them know what their schedules for the next year of TV will look like. It's called the "Upfronts" and it's where viewers generally get to find out if there favorite show isn't coming back or if that "cool new idea" (did you hear about the one with time travel and dinosaurs from Steven Spielberg?) is going to go from pilot to series.
Here's a few words on both the cancelled shows, the returning shows, and the new shows for Fox and NBC:
First NBC, who is looking to rebrand their image after having been in the ratings dump ever since Friends left the air (yes, it's really been that long). They've tried every which way to fix it, and this year they are going back to more scripted programming. They bid on the "hottest" scripts, i.e. the most expensive, and are promising a bold, new look for themselves. But when you are digging through garbage, it's not easy to make a diamond from a lump of coal -- especially with some of the nitwits they have in their development department. A prime example is the show Heroes, which had some pretty cool episodes in the first season when the characters were crossing paths so much, until about the middle of that season when things started to go down hill. Now there's a show that had a lot of potential, but bad writing and bad notes showed how you can take a hit show and totally flush it down the drain.
The show Chuck is coming back. Yay? For some reason it has a small, but loyal following. I watched it the first season and thought it was a B-. Fun, escapist, but a little forced. The second year it started with a whimper and then became completely unrealistic, with everyone who ever knew Chuck coming out of the cold as a spy, just like him, from his ex-girlfriend, to his ex-best friend, to even his dad! Come on!! Bringing it back for yet another season is a little like spinning the tires. It's probably not going to get any lower in the ratings, but in it's fourth season there's little chance it can get better ratings wise, especially when it is leading off Monday nights and not, say, following a hit show. Risky move having two brand new shows following it to boot.
Law and Order is done (cricket, cricket), but Law and Order: SVU will be back, as will "LOLA" a.k.a. Law and Order: Los Angeles - which is just like the original, now cancelled Law and Order, but with sunshine and movie stars.
The Office is back for another year (finally, a ray of hope!). What's that... Steve Carrel says this is his last year? Scratch the hope... Now, of course, NBC is already planning on continuing the show without him, but let me be clear, there is no The Office without Steve Carrel. Maybe a few years ago, but it's been on for like 7 years and the other characters just aren't dynamic enough to hold the show. Bringing on a new lead feels lame to me after this much time, as if they are trying too hard to keep it going (a la Scrubs) and we all know Jim and Pam, the other big characters on the comedy, are super boring these days. So no Carrel, no The Office.
It's counterpart, Parks and Recreations, is returning, as well. Finally finding it's voice in the second season, and with some good cross promotion scheduled for this summer, what does NBC do... pushes it back to the spring. Now, this seems like a hair-brained idea, and it is, but I'm willing to bet NBC did this because they think one of their new Thursday night comedies is going to fail and they want Parks and Rec around to replace it.
Speaking of new comedies, we have Outsourced, a good idea naturally stolen from somewhere else. This time idea is spun fron a movie, and like the original source, the TV show is about an American who is shipped to a call center in India and all the cultural misunderstandings that ensue. Has potential, but then again so did Heroes back in the day. I'm also nervous that this show will try to be too goofy with the call center being for a company that sells "bacon wallets."
Love Bites. With a mostly rotating cast, i.e. new faces each week (always a hard sell) and from someone that worked on Sex and the City (naturally). So far it reminds me of that show NBC already tried with Alicia Silverstone a few years ago. And like that show, it's an hour "dramedy" that really should only be a 1/2 hour.
Drama wise we have Chase, which at first glance sounds like a decent diversion on Monday's from Jerry Bruckheimer. It's described by the network as "a fast-paced drama that drops viewers smack into the middle of a game of cat-and-mouse as a team of U.S. marshals hunts down America's most dangerous fugitives." The main character is a cowgirl "boot-wearing deputy whose sharp mind and unique Texas upbringing help her track down the violent criminals on the run." Sounds like something already on TNT or USA with the Marshals and tough, female detective angle, but we'll see. Also troubling, it's up against CSI: Miami, which attracts the same crowd.
We also have the ultra-hush hush Event, about a guy who uncovers a... wait for it... "government conspiracy". ABC messed around with this territory a few years ago. Maybe NBC will have better luck.
And, finally, the new J.J. Abrams married spys drama Undercovers, which is essentially just "True Lies" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" except they cast an African-American man and woman in the lead roles to throw off the scent. It's "created" by the guy who created "October Road," also a childhood buddy of J.J.s, and if the guy who made October Road can't make this show work, well, darn it, I don't know who can. I guess it depends how much J.J. is involved (he's got a few movies to direct, after all) and how good he is, because, honestly, J.J. has had a few stinkers himself.
That's it for NBC. I'll come back later with the second half of this post on Fox.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)