Fall Previews

Fall Preview: NBC

Last Year: It was the best of times for NBC (when it had The Voice and football), it was the worst of times for NBC (when it didn’t). While the peacock didn’t leave the basement, it gained a little bit of ground on it’s competitors. Unfortunately, the network’s new shows (especially on the comedy side) didn’t quite pan out as planned, so NBC was forced to fill a ton of holes on it’s schedule.

This Year: For the second straight year on NBC, we see a large number of new comedy options. Coming off of a year in which two of it’s flagship series (in 30 Rock and The Office) left the airwaves, NBC was really relying on some of it’s new shows to slip right in. So when NBC canceled every new comedy (and put Community on the bench in order to stabilize should one of it’s newer shows flop), we knew it was going to be a chaotic fall.

This is most seen in its’ Thursday comedy lineup. Parks and Recreation, the last holdout from last year, opens the night (starting 9/26). From there, we get three newcomers: Welcome to the Family (10/3), focused around two teenagers who find out they’re having a kid, and their families whom have to deal with the consequences, Sean Saves The World (10/3), a Sean Hayes vehicle, and NBC’s most hyped comedy option: The Michael J. Fox Show. The former “Must See” lineup is rounded out by network darling “Parenthood”.

Mondays and Tuesdays remain the purview of The Voice, and again the post-Voice slots go to shows that the network wishes to push, with newcomer The Blacklist and the returning Chicago Fire getting the Monday and Tuesday 10p.m. slots respectively. Leading into the results show on Tuesdays is the returning Biggest Loser, now in its’ 15^th season. All of the aforementioned shows start the week of September 23^rd.

Wednesday remains NBC’s big drama night, and unlike other networks, the Peacock tends to draw from a variety of genres for its’ dramas, putting long-running procedural Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (9/25), with sophomore drama Revolution (9/25) and debuting naval drama Ironsides (10/2). It should be interesting to see how Revolution fares, as last year it struggled without its’ Voice lead in and seems to be on a night where it doesn’t necessarily share the same audience as its’ lead-in.

We get an interesting mash-up of shows on Fridays this fall as well, with news-magazine Dateline flowing into NBC’s Friday night horror block of Grimm and newcomer Dracula. The block comes well after premiere week, debuting on 10/25. Personally, I am surprised to not see Hannibal mixed in there, as a Hannibal-Grimm-Dracula line up seems like a thriller fans murderer’s row (no pun intended).

Weekends on NBC are the domain of football, with the NFL taking the entirety of Sunday Nights for the fall and college sports slowly creeping into that Saturday slot. One interesting wrinkle is that the only show definitively programmed for Saturdays are reruns of SNL in the 10p.m. slot, a move that must be designed to get viewers to tune in after the cast overhauls of the last few seasons.

Tomorrow: It’s time to take a cursory glance at that other network, the CW.

Fall Preview: CBS

by Michael Tyminski

Last Year: Another year, another round of ratings dominance for the Tiffany network. First in viewers overall and a surprise first in the vaunted 18 to 49 demographic, the network sat pretty due to it’s strong veteran lineup of multi-camera sitcoms, venerable reality shows, and cop dramas…lots of cop dramas.

This Year: The last six months have unleashed a nasty truth for CBS: it’s show are aging as rapidly as its’ sterotypical audience is. As a result despite playing it relatively safe, it’s clear that CBS is starting to push towards developing new franchises to replace it’s large roster of 10+ year old series.

This is particularly true on the comedy front, where Monday night tentpole How I Met Your Mother is entering it’s ninth and final season and Thursday mainstay Two and a Half Men is entering it’s 11^th season, rarified air for a live action comedy (only a handful of series have lasted longer). Even The Big Bang Theory is entering its’ seventh season, a place where comedies start to run out of steam. As a result, CBS has split out it’s comedy lineup, adding an extra hour of comedy to Thursday nights in order to find some new shows to make the new landmarks over the next few years.

Amongst the new shows we do see include Mom (9/23) a new Chuck Lorre vehicle starring Anna Faris as a single Mom, We Are Men (9/30) which is about a man whom is left at the altar and gets advice from some older divorced men in his new apartment The Millers (9/26) starring Will Arnett as a divorced reporter (noticing a trend?), and The Crazy Ones (9/26) a workplace vehicle that stars Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar. The new Thursday shows will be sandwiched between Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men, We are Men is stuck between CBS’s two Monday tentpoles and Mom gets the benefit of fellow Lorre show 2 Broke Girls as a lead in.

In terms of drama and reality, CBS stays the course. I’m used to seeing the inevitable plugs for 60 Minutes, Amazing Race,The Good Wife, and The Mentalist, during football games, and CBS will get another year out of those same plugs. Person of Interest (9/24) got shuffled off to Tuesdays, where it will be paired with both NCIS franchises. Survivor (9/18) keeps its 8p.m. Wednesday slot leading into Criminal Minds and CSI (both debut 9/25).

Fridays on CBS have much more of a graveyard feel than the other networks this year, as while the other networks (most notably NBC with its’ fantasy block and ABC with its Shark Tank/TGIF lite lineup) have tried to put niche programming on Friday, we see CBS’s weakest procedurals on this night with Hawaii Five-O and Blue Bloods, alongside glorified PR project and de-facto fill in show Undercover Boss at 8 on Fridays. CBS doesn’t particularly program Saturdays during the fall, a recurring trend we’ll find on all four major networks due to college football.

Tomorrow: We look into the FOX network and see what they did to try to stop the bleeding from their recent ratings skid.

Fall Preview: ABC

by Michael Tyminski

Last Season: Last season we saw some viewer erosion for the Alphabet, finishing fourth in the coveted 18-49 demographic and third overall in ratings. Additionally, the network seemed to strike out on multiple fronts, with many of its’ new dramas getting quick leashes, while it’s two more adult comedy offerings (including critical darling Happy Endings) got the ax. The ratings erosion even affected ABC’s centerpiece series Dancing with the Stars, which is starting to show it’s age.

This season: It seems like ABC is generally staying the course wherever possible, with it’s strong focus on female and family-friendly television. What this means is that the network tended to stay the course most nights, with the exception of it’s Tuesday night lineup.

Speaking of it’s Tuesday night lineup, it starts with some cross-marketing and what in my humble opinion is the most hyped new show of the season: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The show, which clearly falls into Disney’s cross-promotion wheelhouse, follows the smaller happenings of the Marvel Universe and is leaned to not only provide a backdrop to the greater Marvel movieverse, but also is the clear tentpole show of the night. It is followed up by an hour of new sitcoms in The Goldbergs and Trophy Wife and the drama Lucky 7. All of those shows debut on September 24th.

This new Tuesday lineup exists due to reduction of long-time ratings bulwark Dancing with the Stars (9/16) from two nights to one. It continues to occupy two hours on Monday night followed by detective show Castle (9/23).

From there, we see much of the same with the rest of ABC’s lineup. Wednesdays and Fridays remain family comedy nights, with the return of Wednesday night juggernaut Modern Family (9/25) and 8 p.m tentpole The Middle (9/25). However, the next week we see ABC’s only attempt to break from the dom-com heavy comedy lineup with the Rebel Wilson vehicle Super Fun Night (10/2). Music drama Nashville closes out the Wednesday lineup.

Sunday and Thursday, meanwhile remain as ABC’s nights for it’s soapy, gossipy dramas. The Sunday lineup remains relatively untouched, with last years combo of Once Upon a Time, and Revenge being joined by Betrayal starting on September 29^th. Similarly Thursday nights are the domain of veteran medical drama Grey’s Anatomy (9/19), which is flanked this year by political soap Scandal (9/26) and spin-off Once Upon A Time in Wonderland (10/3).

Finally, Saturdays in the fall are typically occupied by college football on ABC, so there isn’t particularly much to comment on there.

Tomorrow: Tomorrow we take a look at ratings’ leader CBS to see what new tricks the Tiffany network has up its’ sleeve for this year.

Fall Previews

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