It’s official: via Variety, The CW announces its full 2007/2008 Fall Schedule. It’s not overly risky, really, but it’s got some potential. What is the fate of your favourite shows like Supernatural, Veronica Mars, One Tree Hill or newcomers like Gossip Girl and Reaper? Read on to find out.
Filed under Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, Reaper, Supernatural, Television, The CW, Upfronts, Veronica Mars
Well, it’s officially the last manic day of the Network Upfronts, and yesterday pretty much brought all the news you’d expect from The CW, who presents at 10:30 EST. The upfront presentation will answer a few key questions, such as what the fate of Veronica Mars is. At this point, rumours place the network in a “wait and see” approach in regards to the FBI spinoff idea being floated, with them waiting until the June 15th deadline to pick up the show for creator Rob Thomas to finish a script for the concept.
The CW News Update (One Tree Hill to Midseason?)
Veronica Mars: Canceled?
Bubble Shows Update
Supernatural, One Tree Hill Renewed
The CW: Network Upfronts 2007/2007 Preview
Meanwhile, there is a bit of news at FOX, as The Hollywood Reporter brings word that law series Canterbury’s Law has a showrunner, so it will be finding the fall schedule, and K-Ville (Post-Katrina New Orleans cop show) might be finding its way into 24’s timeslot for the fall season. Final word from FOX will come at 4pm, or earlier, when their full schedule is revealed.
Filed under FOX, Television, The CW, Upfronts, Veronica Mars
[Edit: Written in the depths of the upfronts, this article serves as an attempt to specify CBS’s reasoning for canceling Jericho. In the end, their logic has some sound bases, and that’s really the purpose of this article. For more on the Save Jericho campaign that developed after this article was written, head here. – Myles]
So, out of all of the upfront decisions made over the past few days, the one which has brought forth the most anger has certainly been CBS’ long-rumoured decision to cancel apocalyptic drama Jericho. And, I feel the pain fans are feeling at this moment, considering the show ended of a cliffhanger. However, while I hate to rain on the parade of anger [Currently ongoing over at Your Entertainment Now], I feel the need to point out that Jericho’s failure is not just CBS’ fault, and chances are they won’t be reconsidering anytime soon.
I stopped watching Jericho early in the season when it was mind-numbingly boring, long before New Bern (Is that right? I’ve just been reading about it) and all of the drama that followed, and Hawkins finally kicking some ass. I stopped watching because the show wasn’t holding my interest. If the show had ended its first half in a decent state, I think the show had a chance…but it didn’t. It was back-loaded. The same thing happened to Lost, but it had two seasons of goodwill keeping people around…Jericho had none of that.
I talked at length earlier this year about Sci-Futility, a principle that science fiction and other “niche” genres have a potential audience smaller than your normal show. When shows like Heroes or Jericho premiere, they gain some casual attention, but other time these casuals will get distracted by the latest new reality show or crime procedural once the storyline slows down a little. It happened to Lost, and this spring it happened to Heroes…but it affected Jericho the most. The show saw a drop from a strong performance to a middling return barely worthy of mention amongst CBS’ other hits.
What happened to Jericho was that those people who were iffy on its quality in the first half of the year suddenly had a new option at 8pm: American Idol aired weeks of its Boys/Girls performances in the hour, and the result was Jericho getting its ass handed to it. CBS knew this, sure, but from a business perspective a good show should have been able to hold its audience. This might not be the case at other networks, like NBC, which held onto low-performing Friday Night Lights in the same time period. They’re in need of a hit, critical or otherwise, to keep up their prestige. CBS, meanwhile, it not lacking in hits.
When you have the ability to repeat an episode of CSI and get better ratings than an expensive new episode of Jericho, which would you choose from a business perspective. I honestly believe that the network would do just that, not even bother ordering pilots, if they weren’t also trying to change their image…or appear to wish to. In reality, I think CBS is content with raking in piles of dough with their crime procedurals and just experimenting for fun with dramas like Jericho.
It’s not a question of quality: I’m sure that CBS were impressed with the strong upward movement in the show’s storylines as they reached the end of the season. However, those Nielsen ratings are more important than that quality for a network that has so many high-performing shows. CBS could never justify to advertisers, or their shareholders, why they would keep around a low-performing drama when they had so many other, better, more buzz-worthy options.
For those fans of Jericho who are upset about this, I really think that you need to think about this situation carefully. Jericho was never a good fit for CBS: look how many of you are quickly swearing off the network in the wake of this announcement. It’s a network of aging crime shows, one after the other, and the occasional spark of youth crowded out by the dead bodies puling up around it (The Ghost Whisperer, perhaps the closest the network has, has boobs, so that gives it appeal). The network was an odd place to find a post-apocalyptic drama, and as a result this was almost inevitable.
In the world of TV dramas in the 2006/2007 season, Jericho had everything working against it. It was a serial drama, so successful last year with Prison Break but shunned widely this year. It was on CBS, a network with incredibly high ratings standards, and where it didn’t really fit in. It was in a timeslot which would, at a point, conflict with American Idol. It had a three month hiatus in which Idol arrived and Jericho re-emerged into a hellish atmosphere. And, in the end, the casual fans who watched in the beginning didn’t stick around until the end. I don’t think we can blame just CBS for all of this, its scheduling. Other shows weathered the storm, and it didn’t.
So, saying goodbye to Jericho must be tough, but in the end CBS didn’t have a choice. Fan outrage or no fan outrage, Jericho failed to win itself a spot on the 2007/2007 schedule…fair and square.
Filed under Jericho, Television, Upfronts
It was inevtable: after weeks of high-octane drama and intense backstories, Lost has finally had what could be described as a slow episode. “Greatest Hits” followed the story of Jack and the rest of the castaways preparing for the arrival of The Others, which had its timetable moved up much to their chagrin. And, based greatly on its structure, the episode has officially done it: they’ve broken the streak of kickass episodes. Why? Well, since Charlie developed his own Top Five list, I figure I should only do the same. Thus, without further adieu…
Look, I liked Charlie better in this episode than I have in weeks, and I actually thought it was a strong arc for the character. His trip down memory lane was perhaps his least offensive set of flashbacks yet, and it added some needed depth to his character (although not enough to match up with drug addict Charlie which was much more compelling). The problem is that such an emotional arc required me to care…and I don’t. I don’t care if Charlie lives or dies, and although he becomes more important at episode’s end I just wasn’t getting the sense of loss the episode was asking of me.
Things smoothed over too quickly between Jack and everyone else, even though Sayid is clearly still at odds with him. There was a lack of drama in their proceedings outside of their rush to prepare for the Others’ arrival, and the result was a rather conflict-free scenarios. People seemed to accept the Juliet thing far too easily, and we never really got to see anyone’s emotional reaction to things. I would have even liked to see some romantic triangle stuff, as it would at the very least have been something more diverse and interesting compared to the rather dull series of characters we had paraded in front of us (It was nice to see Rose and Bernard back, though).
I’ve argued in the past that the first six episodes of this season were not a complete failure because they allowed us to understand and engage with the world of the Others. I believe that those episodes have allowed for the last series of episodes to be that much better, because we start to believe Ben and Juliet, specifically, as real characters. We’ve become as tangled up in their pasts as we have that of Jack or Sawyer or Locke, and I think that it’s been something fresh and interesting about them. While we’ve spent three seasons with Charlie, we’re just getting to know Juliet and Ben…and then we got nothing about them in this episode. We spent all of “The Man Behind the Curtain” learning titillating clues about who The Others are, and then we see them for only a minute the next episode. That’s a problem, and one that’s tough to ignore.
I put this here not because it was a negative part of the episode, but rather that it never really got a chance to be a part of the episode. I know that I personally was keeping in the back of my mind that Juliet had mentioned some sort of event taking place at the station found underwater down the beach, but it just seemed to take a backseat too much of the time to Charlie’s journey as opposed to his end goal. It was clearly the real jumping off point (Next week’s finale is titled “Through the Looking Glass”), and I couldn’t help but be impatient for them to return to it as I watched the rest of the episode. That resulted in even more annoyance with the above three problems, and further struggles to match the efforts of previous weeks.
We have no idea what happened to Locke. Terry O’Quinn took the episode off, apparently, and the result was just a brief scene of post-gunfire Ben to satisfy our curiosity as to what happened to our favourite character. Seriously, Lost, you can’t do this to me. The episode certainly set things up for the finale (“Beach goes boom!”, “Looking Glass = Occupied”), but what about Locke? I had admittedly forgotten about him by the time we first saw Ben mid-episode, which shows that the beginning of the episode wasn’t terrible by any means, but once I realized he was missing…I was pissed. I feel like I did back when we finally returned to the beach earlier this season after spending so much time with The Others. I felt like it was good to be back, but part of me longed for what I left behind. I guess you could say that, for me, the greatest hits have changed, and I want more of Locke, Ben, and the mysteriously un-aged Richard. And I want to know what the hell happened to Locke, damnit!
Next week, Lost heads “Through the Looking Glass” for its two-hour finale. What will we learn about Jack that we haven’t learned already? Can the finale regain its momentum heading towards an apparently show-changing end? And who exactly are the people guarding the Looking Glass? We’ll find out at 9pm EST next week, when Lost has its third season finale.
For a recap of the episode’s major moments, click on the link below.
Filed under ABC, Lost, Television
Well, it looks like there’s some more news on The CW front…and it’s a different schedule altogether. Head to Variety for all the details, but for now here’s the RUMOURED schedule.
– Mondays will remain Comedy Night (Which is a mistake against CBS’ similar lineup, and when you consider that they’re owned by the same people it makes even less sense, but whatever) with Everybody Loves Chris, Aliens in America, Girlfriends and The Game.
– Tuesdays will open with Beauty and the Geek and segue into new dramedy Reaper in the spot currently occupied by Veronica Mars
– Wednesday will feature the expected lineup: American’s Next Top Model and Gossip Girl
– Thursday stays the same, with Supernatural sticking onto its tough slot now facing CSI, Grey’s Anatomy AND The Office, with its Smallville lead-in.
– Friday is Smackdown! and Sunday features Wild at Heart as well as ANTM reruns.
– Where’s One Tree Hill, you ask? Well, it’s apparently being held for midseason so it can air 22 uninterrupted episodes like Lost and 24.
EDIT: Final details are out, via Variety:
“Meanwhile, with “One Tree Hill” on the bench, net said show will be dramatically retooled and set four years into the future — after the characters have already graduated from college — when it returns in midseason. Net will post online diaries on its website in the fall to fill viewers in on what happened to the show’s characters during those missing years.”
The fate of Veronica Mars remains uncertain, but with Beauty & the Geek in on Tuesdays there’s certainly a slot open for the show should it return alongside One Tree Hill in the new year.
Filed under Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, Reaper, Supernatural, Television, The CW, Upfronts, Veronica Mars
Looking for some clips of the upcoming new shows? The networks have their own streaming video areas (NBC Fall Preview, ABC Fall Preview) where you can check out The Bionic Woman or Cavemen, but YouTube is both much more accessible and, honestly, much faster. As a result, here’s some YouTube links for NBC’s pilots, all in one place. I’ll try to grab what I can as they come up, and hopefully ABC’s will join them in time.
The Bionic Woman (Wednesdays at 9)
Filed under ABC, Cavemen, NBC, Television, The Bionic Woman, Upfronts
CBS has gone with what, for them, likely seems to be a rather risky lineup (Variety). However, the thing for CBS is that their idea of taking a risk is taking two Tylenol instead of one: it’s just a little dangerous, but there’s still no chance of anything negative happening.
CBS launches with a lineup which, despite new entries, seems awfully familiar. It is still anchored by three CSIs, it’s still got a large assortment of procedural crime dramas, and it still has a dose of reality where it counts. It is for this reason that any risk they take is really not risky at all: as soon as one of their new shows fails, they’ll just plop in a CSI rerun and wait until the next series is ready to go. This is the way CBS operates.
Cane – A Latin-American family, led by Jimmy Smits, enters into the alcohol business. It still sounds a lot like ABC’s Brothers & Sisters in Latino form, but with Smits at the helm the show carries gravitas. It’s not a huge risk for CBS at all, except that they’ve had trouble with such shows in the past. It’s a serial drama, and the network has nothing but procedurals at the moment (No, seriously, look at the lineup if you think I’m lying. Every single returning drama is a procedural drama.) Still, they’ve got to start being successful with serials at some point, and Cane has a shot.
Timeslot: 10pm on Tuesdays
Competition: Tough, with Boston Legal and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit to contend with.
Swingtown – A drama about the swinging lives of various romantic couplings, it’s both raunchier and less procedural than anything else in CBS’ lineup. This is an attempt to get a Desperate Housewives-style hit for the network, and I don’t think it will prove successful. The show has potential, but it just seems to be trying too hard to be THAT show. You know, the one the Parents’ groups get all uppity about. As a result, I worry about it becoming self-conscious, and losing any creative edge it perhaps had.
Timeslot: Held Until Midseason
Competition: We don’t know yet, but I don’t think it bodes well for the drama. It could be asked to slot in early should Cane falter in its tough slot, and that’s asking the drama to rush itself…and that would be disastrous for this particular show.
Viva Laughlin – A musical-comedy-crime drama surroundinga man who wants to open a casino in Laughlin, Nevada. I don’t really know what to think about this one: it’s a bizarre coupling, and with Hugh Jackman as producer it is certainly a unique experience. I would have more faith in the series if likely jobless Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas was coming on as showrunner as rumoured, but that appears to be off the table. For me, the show needs to prove that its construct is a good one, and can’t just rely on being quirky to succeed. I think that’s a tough job for a show on a network where simple = successful.
Timeslot: 8pm on Sundays
Competition: Tough. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is never an easy show to beat, and it has to hope to compete with Sunday Night Football for its audience.
Moonlight – A vampire private investigator who, well, investigates supernatural happenings in a procedural fashion. The show is a likely companion for Ghost Whisperer on Fridays, and perhaps has the best chance of succeeding since it’s basically “Generic CBS Procedural + Vampires”. I think it will be a far cry from shows like Buffy or Angel which actually dealt with the true supernatural elements of their stories and created mythologies…Moonlight just wants to masquerade as such a drama to make it stand out within a crowd, which does little to interest me.
Timeslot: 9pm on Fridays
Competition: Weak. Moonlight has a good shot at continuing CBS’ dominance of the night with only ABC’s weak Girls Murder Club and NBC’s Las Vegas to worry about.
Big Bang Theory – A comedy from Two and a Half Men producer Chuck Lorre, this sitcom is…well, your tradition multi-camera sitcom about geeks and hot girls and blah. It’s depressing to see it getting the nod over more interesting single-camera fare, but the reality is that CBS is looking for its next King of Queens or Everybody Loves Raymond (Ratings wise), and they expect to find it here. However, this is a comedy about young people (Kaley Cuoco, 8 Simple Rules, stars), not about old people. This is a young person’s sitcom being expected to play the role of a middle aged one, and the result is likely to be another The Class: high expectations and decent results behind How I Met Your Mother
Timeslot: 8:30 on Mondays
Competition: Average. CBS’s comedies are successful counterprogramming, they’ll pull through just fine.
– The Amazing Race is officially off the fall schedule, as it will be held over until the new year and only air a single season this year. This is unsurprising, but troubling; I worry that if ratings are low for this one season they’ll pull the plug. I think that the show has plenty of gas left, but a lot of miles on the car. They can keep driving, they just need to slow down a little and everything will be okay. It’s like Speed. (Note: Everything can be like Speed. True Story). It will be indirectly replaced by a new reality show, Kid Nation, a new Lord of the Flies-esque story of kids taking over a ghost town revealed today (Variety). It will be airing on Wednesdays at 8pm
– The New Adventures of Old Christine, the 5th Wheel on the Monday comedy block, will be returning midseason.
– Shark and Without a Trace have switched spots, with the latter moving back to its old post-CSI slot and Shark spending some time on Sunday Nights against Brothers & Sisters.
It’s official: Jericho and Close to Home are no longer on the air. This was pretty well confirmed on Tuesday, but they’re definitely gone. Also gone is “The Class”…but no one notices.
For the full Fall Schedule, continue on.
Filed under How I Met Your Mother, Jericho, Reality TV, Shark, Survivor, Television, The Amazing Race, Upfronts
I think we all had our doubts: Gilmore Girls was a show that was left in tatters just a season ago, and it has spent the last 21 episodes picking up the pieces. And then, at the last moment, the series apparently had the rug pulled out from under it when an attempt to gain an 8th season fell apart. Expectations couldn’t help but be low: a show past its prime, on its last legs, throwing together what was supposed to be a season finale that was suddenly the end of the road for the entire series. The verdict is in: while it might not be the finale we wish we’d gotten in a perfect world, David S. Rosenthal has delivered an absolute best case scenario. “Bon Voyage” was a finale with style, grace, and an understanding of how these characters tick. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best we were going to get, and a proper sendoff for the girls Gilmore.
There were certain things which felt a little forced, such as Christiane Amanpour’s cameo in the cold open, however the rest of the episode was subtle and meaningful. Rory is sent into a tailspin when she’s offered an unbelievable opportunity working on the campaign trail of one Barack Obama, and Lorelai steps into ultimate “Mom” mode with lists, shampoo bottles (Mini, not big) and fanny packs. The entire episode, up until the very end, is spent with these two riffing off one another, neither discussing the fact that their last months together (A Rollercoaster excursion was planned) had turned into just two days. The irony of the situation, as it parallels our own disappointment at losing a future season and ending up with only two episodes, is not lost on the creators, nor its audience.
Filed under Gilmore Girls, Television, The CW
Well, it looks like there’s some new word from The Hollywood Reporter about some bubble shows.
– Confirming earlier reports, The CW is renewing Smallville, Supernatural and One Tree Hill for next year to go along with their pilot pickups (Gossip Girl, Reaper, and Wild at Heart are now joined by comedy Aliens in America).
However, most interesting is that this basically fills the CW schedule…and yet there is still the fate of Veronica Mars to be decided. At this point, I don’t think the show has a chance. Chances are that the network will fill its programming gaps with reality television as opposed to ordering up Veronica’s FBI spinoff. The fate of the show looks bleaker than ever, although there’s always still a chance it could make it by the skin of its teeth.
– On the CBS side of things, the network has its pilots in place [See: Monday Night Update]. However, the big question now is the fate of its bubble shows and there’s been some movement.
A renewal looks good for Rules of Engagement, the David Spade-led sitcom which performed well after Two & a Half Men earlier this year. Things look somewhat worse for The New Adventures of Old Christine, but it’s expected to get at least a shortened midseason order. Nowhere to be found in Variety’s article, however, is How I Met Your Mother. HR goes all out to list the network’s returning dramas (The Unit, Shark, Ghost Whisperer, Criminal Minds), and the above comedies, but says nothing about the bubble comedy…or the beloved Jericho. This is not a good sign for either show, and they remain the big question marks heading into tomorrow.
EDIT: Well, there’s some final word from Variety…and it’s good news for How I Met Your Mother, and bad news for Jericho fans.
CBS has apparently nuked “Jericho,” dismissed “Class” and closed the book on “Close to Home.”
Net wasn’t commenting Tuesday, but several people familiar with the situation said none of the skeins has been given a series order for next season. “Close to Home” had been considered near dead for several months now, with “Class” on the longshot list, but there had been speculation that CBS would exercise some patience with “Jericho.”
Eye skeins getting better news this week include “How I Met Your Mother,” which has been picked up for a third season. Eye’s most buzzworthy laffer might seem to be a no-brainer for renewal, but CBS execs make producers sweat it out until the last minute.
So Jericho is canceled, while How I Met Your Mother lives to see another day.
– For those looking to see how each night of their broadcast is shaping up, Cornballer over at NeoGAF has been kind enough to point us in the direction of Metacritic.com (An Awesome Site for Reviews) and their extensive schedule which very plainly lays out what each night of primetime is going to look like. Head over there to take a look, and keep an eye on it as CBS, FOX and The CW get filled in over the next few days.
Filed under How I Met Your Mother, Jericho, One Tree Hill, Reaper, Supernatural, Television, The CW, Upfronts, Veronica Mars
Well, ABC’s schedule is official, and there’s not much in the way of changes for the network. In fact, to be honest, the schedule is downright boring.
Reminder: Cultural Learnings’ ABC Fall Preview Schedule
– Private Practice, the Grey’s Anatomy Spinoff, will be slotting in at 9pm on Wednesdays, the spot currently occupied by underperforming comedies. It will be sandwiched by two new shows: Bryan Fuller’s Pushing Daisies and Greg Berlanti’s Dirty Sexy Money. This means three new shows in a single night, which is a departure from the stability found in Lost (Which is now officially held back until February).
– Thursday’s only change is that Big Shots, a male-themed CEO drama, is inheriting the post-Grey’s spot. Why, exactly, this show has the spot over the female-themed Cashmere Mafia (Held until midseason) I don’t really know. I guess because Dylan McDermott and Michael Vartan bring sex appeal? Seems to be the only logic I can think of.
– Dancing with the Stars goes to an hour and a half full time on Mondays as Sam I Am, the Christina Applegate amnesia comedy, fills in between the reality show and The Bachelor at 10. The network’s other two comedies, Cavemen and Carpoolers, fit in at 8pm on Tuesday (Where no other comedies are, good choice), but then lead into an hour-long Dancing with the Stars results show. ABC, the show doesn’t deserve that much of your schedule, cut it to a half hour and slot in another comedy.
– The other new show, Women’s Murder Club, leads out of Men in Trees on Fridays as the latter moves to the opening slot at 8pm. It’s a tough one, against Ghost Whisperer, and we’ll see what momentum the show has after a shortened first season.
– Meanwhile, Notes from the Underbelly and October Road will be headed for midseason.
For the full schedule (It’s really this boring, I swear!), continue on.
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