TV

Fall Preview 2014: NBC

Fall Preview: NBC

Last year was a startlingly successful year for the peacock – the network somehow inexplicably ended up number one in demo and pulled off the coup of all holiday coups getting 20 million viewers to see it’s holiday musical special of The Sound of Music. While the schedule itself didn’t change much, we do see some shakeups in even NBC’s lineup, a little interesting for network that’s trying to build off last years success.

Sundays for NBC in the fall are way simpler than any other network: it’s football, football, and more football. NBC’s Sunday Night Football starts with a Thursday debut on September 4^th with the Seahawks and Packers facing off leading into their time slot debut on the 7^th with the Colts and Broncos.

Mondays also remain completely unchanged for NBC from last year with both The Voice and The Blacklist returning back to back on Mondays starting September 22^nd. The voice sees yet another judging rotation, with Gwen Stefani and Pharrell Williams joining the show’s central Adam Levine and Blake Shelton bromance. NBC further protects The Blacklist, by running State of Affairs (11/17) between the seasons of The Voice. This combination was one of the key planks of the peacock’s schedule last year and they wisely want to to keep the same foundation this year after seeing Revolution and Go On both die horrible deaths after being separated from The Voice.

Tuesdays kick off with the second day of The Voice, which along with Fox’s Utopia function as the only multi day shows on the air this fall. The 9pm hour is filled with comedy, with the debuting Marry Me, and returning About A Boy (both premiere on 10/14). Rounding out the night is the returning Chicago Fire (9/23), which has held down that Tuesday at 10 slot over the last three years.

Wednesdays remain crime night at NBC, (probably due to the relative lack of crime dramas on the other networks that night), and we see the returning Dick Wolf double header of Law and Order: SVU, and Chicago PD. Opening up the night, however, is the debuting The Mysteries of Laura starring Debra Messing as a detective who also has to deal with twin boys and a divorce. All of the Wednesday series begin on 9/24.

We do start to see some structural changes on thursdays for the peacock as the thirty year vaunted Must See TV comedy block is officially dead, with Parks and Recreation finishing out and Community kicked to the Yahoo! Screen curb. NBC’s plan for Thursdays this fall actually looks suspiciously like it’s Tuesdays. Moving into the 8 o’clock hour? The Biggest Loser (debuting 9/11). NBC’s favorite drama, Parenthood, then returns to schedule on Septmeber 25th, occupying out the 10pm hour. We do still get a 9pm comedy hour that is built with 2 new shows: Bad Judge,starring Kate Walsh and whose premise I shouldn’t need to spell out, and A to Z, a romantic comedy starring Cristin Miloti (best known as the eventual mother of How I Met Your Mother).

Fridays bring the return of NBC’s horror block. With Dracula kicked to the curb, and the always amazing Hannibal taking a snooze til mid-season, we get the returning Grimm at 9, followed up by Constantine at 10, making for a stellar year for DC’s licensing (this, the Batman universe for Gotham, and The Flash were all picked up this year). Both return just in time for Halloween on 10/24, reflecting a similar strategy to what NBC did last year. Dateline rounds out the night at 8. Saturdays are typically a non factor for the peacock outside of SNL, so expect the usual mix of reruns and top flight Notre Dame football games in the primetime hours.

Tomorrow we finish up our Fall Preview 2014 with a look at the CW and some returns to the cable landscape!

Fall Preview 2014: ABC

by Michael Tyminski

Fall Preview: ABC

Last year, ABC’s went through a big shuffle, blowing up Tuesdays in the hope of capitalizing on Disney’s Marvel movie universe. This time around, ABC keeps a very similar lineup only switching up some new shows while generally standing pat.

Sundays feature the usual cocktail of dramas for ABC, with Once Upon A Time, Resurrection, and Revenge (all return 9/28) returning to their regular slots of 8 and 9 and 10pm respectively. Mondays also feature their usual lineup of Dancing With The Stars (9/15) leading into Castle (9/29). While Dancing with the Stars received a cut in hours last year, the show maintains it’s 2 hour slot this year, preventing any further time related clawbacks for the veteran series.

Tuesdays, which was the alphabet’s trouble spot last year, still maintains the seemingly hodgepodge scheduling ABC gave it last year, but a slight shuffle makes the lineup start to make a little more sense. The night is still built around tentpole show Agents of SHIELD, which moves to 9 pm (9/23), allowing for both the lead in and lead out effect of last year’s most hyped show to positively affect the remainder of the night. The night begins with two new comedies in Selfie and Manhattan Love Story (both debut 9/30), and in a positive development, ABC finally stops pairing non-family comedies with Modern Family. Following Agents in the ABC’s Tuesday 10pm death slot (which killed three series last year) is Forever (9/22 – time slot premiere 9/23), a show that melds crime procedural, medical procedural, and vampires.

Wednesdays are still ABC’s comedy wheelhouse and the lineup resembles what ABC should have gone with last year. The Middle and The Goldbergs hold the 8pm hour firm leading into Modern Family at 9. It’s another year, and another lead out for ABC’s most watched comedy, as the show melds into urban family comedy Blackish at 9:30. Nashville survives another year to round out the lineup at 10 (all shows debut 9/24). The thing I like about this lineup is ABC finally figured out that it should just keep it’s family centric comedies together. At no point was the audience for Modern Family, The Middle, and Surburgatory ever really going to go for a show like Super Fun Night, Happy Endings, or Don’t Trust the B.

Thursdays see a slight shuffle with Grey’s Anatomy moving to 8pm while Scandal finds it’s home in the 9pm slot. New show How to Get Away with Murder premieres at 10. This is a very strong lineup, if only because it effectively counterprograms against the newly enhanced Thursday Night Football menace (more on that tomorrow) by focusing on three shows that will likely skew heavily female (all shows debut 9/25).

Fridays bring the usual mix of Shark Tank, 20/20 (both return 9/26) and the return of Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing (10/3), while adding quirky comedy Cristela (10/10) to the mix. ABC has found a surprisingly high amount of success with this hodgepodge lineup over the last couple of seasons and there isn’t much of a reason to change it. Saturdays meanwhile are the domain of College Football, a recurring trend that one can expect to see across over all four networks.

Tomorrow: CBS’s fall lineup features some interesting moves. Keep following us at Manhattan Digest for more.

Trends from This Years Emmy Nominations

by Michael Tyminski

Source: Emmys.com

Earlier this morning, Emmy Nominations were announced, and as typical there are some insights and trends that can be gleaned from the International Television Academy’s nominations for this year’s award show, being held on August 25th a Monday for the first time ever.

The Academy finally watched a big four comedy that wasn’t Modern Family: It’s been a rough few years for the big four networks in terms of nominations at the Emmys. However, the one consistent beacon of hope for the big four has been ABC’s Modern Family. It’s taken four straight best comedy awards and held half of the best supporting actor field last year. More often than not, it, The Big Bang Theory, and the token Amy Poehler best actress nomination are all the networks have seen on the comedy side of the ledger.This year, however, it seems like the networks have picked up a smidge of ground on the comedy side. In addition to the above, shows as diverse as Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Mike and Molly, and even Mom managed to score nominations from the academy.

Conversely, the only network dramas that even remotely register are The Good Wife and Scandal: Another year, and on the drama side, it feels like another set of the same nominations (except for Homeland disappearing from the ledger). The nominations are the same stew of Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, and House of Cards. The networks continue to generally be locked out outside of the acting categories, and even then the nominees only come from Scandal and The Good Wife (the latter of which typically needs nominations like this to stay on the air).

Netflix held it’s gains from last year: Last year, the big story was Netflix’s breakthrough, as the web streaming service scored nominations for season four of Arrested Development and House of Cards. This year, we once again see the voters loving House of Cards, with the show picking up multiple nominations. While there was no new Arrested Development this year, the voters found room in their hearts for Orange is the New Black and even Derek scored a nomination for best actor in a comedy (Ricky Gervais).

The Academy needs to figure out what to do with anthology and limited series: The academy showed remarkable inconsistency with how it placed it’s anthology dramas in this years awards nominations. The most egregious example? American Horror Story, which while different stories is in it’s third season was placed in the outstanding miniseries category, while True Detective, which is slated to operate the exact same way is placed in the best drama category. With limited series (shows designed to be one season and done or one season and a total revamp) on the rise, it’s essential that shows like American Horror Story, True Detective, and Fargo are all being considered in the same category.

It’s the usual suspects for variety and reality: If you follow the Emmy nomination process, all of the variety program nominations should come as no surprise (I believe Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Real Time w/Bill Maher, and Saturday Night Live were all nominated last year). This is a similar case in the reality category where smart money usually calls on The Amazing Race to win until the TV academy thinks of something new to automatically check off in this box.

The 66^th Annual Prime Time Emmy Awards are Monday August 25^th (in order to avoid a conflict with NBC’s football contract AND the considerably less prestigious MTV Movie Awards) at 8 Eastern on NBC. Keep checking Manhattan Digest for more news and coverage of this event.

Looking Ahead To Summer TV

by Michael Tyminski

We’ve just hit the tail end of the traditional September to May TV season, which means we’ve hit the unofficial start of summer TV season. Now while the greater populace tends to be out and about more (it’s nice, the kids are off from school, and if you live by water, evening is the only time you don’t have to overpay to park at the beach) – there’s still a ton of stuff on the tube to get you through those occasional rainy nights. I figured i’d take this brief pause in the TV schedule to take a quick survey of what to expect this summer:

Limited Run Series: The newest trend in TV, the return of one-and-done (in theory) shows, many of the best examples of the form are running through the summer. This includes FOX’s 24: Live Another Day, CBS’s Under The Dome (which I guess can’t be called limited anymore since it got a second 13-episode run), and FX’s Fargo. In terms of drama options, these are all fairly safe bets and definitely a notch above 90 percent of what you’re going to find on the dial.

The Prestige Networks Run Year Round: There isn’t much in terms of break time for either HBO or Showtime. Both networks have some fairly large ticket shows to get you through the summer including True Blood, The Newsroom, Penny Dreadful and Ray Donovan. While these shows might not be your niche (especially if you’re a fan of CBS style procedurals), there’s a pretty broad range of tastes being catered to on premium cable.

Reality! Reality! Reality!: For the last decade, summer has truly been the domain of the reality show. Remarkably cheap, relatively easy to film, and usually able to score passable ratings for a decade or more, reality tends to proliferate the spots in the schedule where networks don’t want to have to spend money. This summer we have a very wide net of options including Big Brother, Last Comic Standing, America’s Got Talent, Masterchef. New to the party are FOX’s Hotel Hell and a show that’s bound to make me regurgitate violently (more on that next week) I Want to Marry “Harry”.

Dead Shows Walking: The summer is also a great time for the big four to burn off contractually obligated remaining episodes of shows that were pulled from the schedule (because of flailing ratings and dubious quality) months earlier. Last year, this battle of who could care less was signified by the Saturday night dueling between Zero Hour and Cult, two of 2013’s worst shows. With ABC running through the Tuesday at 10 pm slot like it was water, and Fox committed to burning off Enlisted (a show that got a Firefly-esque raw deal) I’m sure we’ll find some of 2013-14’s flops hanging around on Saturday nights.

If all else fails, just watch Netflix and Hulu: Aside from new Orange is the New Black, when you have a ton of seasons of pretty much any TV show at your fingertips, Netflix and Hulu are an oasis of quality at a point in time when their tends to be a little less on the air.

Next time: Thursday night I’ll be checking out Fox’s Gang Related – the sort of show that oddly wasn’t paired with 24: Live Another Day despite having very similar feels based on their respective trailers.

The Short Form: The 86th Academy Awards

by Michael Tyminski

Best Actor winner Matthew McConaughey and Camilla Alves (Source: ABC)

Welcome to the Short Form. The Short Form gives you all the angles on last night’s awards show so you can watch The Walking Dead with your Sunday night instead. Tonight is the 86th Academy Awards, the Super Bowl of awards shows. Ellen DeGeneres took the hosting reigns this year from the controversial Seth McFarlane, which should guarantee a different tone on Hollywood’s biggest night.

Ellen’s Hosting Job: Ellen seemed a touch jittery during her opening monologue, but in spite of that, she delivered a sharp monologue that managed to throw a touch of farce with the usual celebrity zings (including a particularly pointed one directed at Liza Minelli in which she mistook Minelli for an impersonator (ending on the quip “nice job sir”). The monologue was a welcome reprieve from Seth McFarlane’s rambling set pieces last year, clocking in at a brief eight minutes.

Ellen also played traffic cop considerably more than what we’ve seen in other shows, often personally introducing most of the presenters and hanging out in the audience more than we’ve tended to see with recent awards shows. I definitely like the move towards shorter interstitial pieces, as it always feels off when we only see the host once or twice throughout the show. That being said, many of the audience segments were flat out weird, asking about ordering pizza or taking selfies.

Is this the Grammys, because the music is the best part of this show!: On a night where everything felt a little off tempo, we got some killer musical performances that were a real bright spot for the show. Whether it was the spectacle driven performance of Pharell’s “Happy” or the intimate performances by Karen O and U2, this year’s ceremony has stepped up it’s game in its’ musical segments. Idina Menzel also shined with her performance of Frozen’s “Let It Go”, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd (including best song competitor Bono). This strength extended outside of the best music nominees, with Pink stepping up her game in tribute to Judy Garland. The one exception of the rule came at the worst possible time: Bette Midler’s punchless performance of “Wind Beneath My Wings” after a particularly brutal memoriam segment that showed how death hit all aspects of the movie world whether you preferred Peter O’ Toole, Harold Ramis, Philip Seymour Hoffman or even Paul Walker.

The pacing felt weird, especially in hour one: In a night with numerous teleprompter issues, it often felt like Ellen in particular was rushed, while presenters and speeches were given more room to breathe (the orchestra was extremely passive this time out). Furthering this is the fact that most of the early awards were often presented in twos or threes at a time. There were also an alarmingly high number of video packages, which felt unnecessary due to lack of heavy stage changes throughout the show. The end result was a long show (the show went three and a half hours) that often felt too deliberate in some parts and incredibly rushed in others.

Big Winners and bigger snubs: Gravity, American Hustle, and 12 Years a Slave received most of the best picture hype, and the academy had two clear favorites. Gravity cleaned house with 7 awards (particularly on the technical side), picking up best cinematography, best director (somewhere NBC is incredibly glad they can use this in advertising for Believe) best film editing, both sound awards and the best visual effects. Frozen managed to bat 1.000, picking up a couple of awards for best animated feature and best original song (for “Let It Go”), while The Great Gatsby picked up a pair of stylistic awards courtesy of Baz Luhrmann’s decadent vision. Cate Blanchett was one of the few to defeat Gravity in a category tonight for her work in Blue Jasmine, while Dallas Buyer’s Club picked up not only expected wins for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor (Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto respectively). The big winner of the night was 12 Years A Slave, which not only picked up the big prize, but awards for best adapted screenplay and best supporting actress.

In terms of movies that were ultimately snubbed are the years two most similar films, as American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street both got blanked, as did Captain Philips and Nebraska.

The red carpet front: I’ve been seeing a lot of green out on the red carpet, ranging from jade greens to darker hunter greens (like Idina

Menzel’s Vera Wang dress). The biggest star rocking this look out there is best actress nominee Sandra Bullock. The most divisive dress had to be Liza Minelli’s cobalt blue dress, which love it or hate, is a suitably spotlight stealing look for a suitably spotlight stealing star. In a rare occasion where I’m looking at men’s fashion, Pharrell’s shorts/Capri tux came off like a complete eyesore. On the other hand, both Cate Blanchett’s and Amy Adams’ dresses were incredibly classy affairs, and Matthew McConaughey’s white smoking jacket is pretty swank.

The night in speeches: The night started out with Jared Leto’s incredibly pretentious awards ceremony speech in which he managed to sneak in a plug for his band, as well as mentioning the civil war like situations in Ukraine and Venezuela. This was followed by an equally bizarre set up by Jim Carrey for an animation montage that included a random shot at Bruce Dern, prop glasses, and an LSD reference. We got an equally bizarre presentation moment later in the night with Kim Novak and Matthew McConaughey, where it looked like McConaughey wanted to go full Groucho, making it seem like he was trying ad-lib off a teleprompter (a delivery McConaughey would then follow for his best actor acceptance speech). After a tepid couple of hours, we got a bizarre speech from the co-writers of “Let It Go”, that involved quoting the birthday song and a scream of “Brooklyn!”

In terms of speeches I enjoyed, both documentary award recipients had quick and heartfelt speeches, with Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed discussing the subject of their film The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved my Life, while Darlene Love gave a rousing verse in the middle of the acceptance speech for 20 Feet to Stardom. Where Leto’s speech felt pretentious, Lupita Nyong’o’s best supporting actress speech was amazingly heartfelt and emotional (and the orchestra threw her a bone by playing her out with Willy Wonka).

Checking in at Mid-Season: Fox and NBC

by Michael Tyminski

Source: Wikipedia

After a quick glance over at Netflix for some new House of Cards, let’s resume our mid-season look at the state of TV. Today we’ll be examining Fox and NBC, and we’ll wrap this series up with some thoughts on other places around the dial later in the week.

Fox: In the last couple of years (and in an even more pronounced fashion this year), Fox has seemed to turn into NBC of the mid-2000’s: A network with a ton of critically acclaimed shows that no one really happens to be watching. This is a shame for a number of reasons, the most notable of which is that it seems to be putting out consistently better shows than the other major networks.

What’s Working: It’s been a strong season in terms of debuts for Fox. Sleepy Hollow became a sleeper hit right off the bat and Brooklyn Nine-Nine took home a pair of Golden Globes. Even their B-tier debuts, like Enlisted (a show that really needs to find it’s way to Tuesdays as soon as possible because it truly deserves a larger audience). Fox has also managed to find a Tuesday comedy lineup that is Fox’s strongest ever (Dads excluded).

Finally, Fox still finds strength in the perpetual motion machine that is it’s Sunday night block. The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Bob’s Burgers all saw renewals in the fall and American Dad will find a second life on TBS, as no conglomerate loves their Seth McFarlane reruns quite like the folks at Turner.

What’s Not Working: First and foremost, Dads was a total train wreck despite the network putting a ton of effort into advertising it, a pretty star studded main cast, and giving it the lead-off slot in said Tuesday comedy lineup. However, Fox’s real problem is actually the opposite of CBS: It’s older shows seem to be tailing off. This is particularly notable on Wednesday and Thursday, as The X-Factor met it’s maker earlier this month, while American Idol now lacks the cache it used to have as a TV powerhouse.

Another problem Fox did not see coming was the nosedive in the ratings The Following took. This is an issue as one could probably guess that The Following is one of Fox’s most expensive shows, yet it’s ratings have been on a downward trajectory from minute one this season as the show’s writing has only gotten worse over time.

Overall Prognosis: Fox is actually in a pretty decent place for the future and could very easily carry the next decade or so under Kevin Reilly’s leadership when the rest of TV reality comes crashing in on CBS and many of it’s flagship shows age out. Additionally, it’s the network least affected by CBS’s Thursday Night Football deal, as Fox’s schedule has been regularly disrupted for over a decade now courtesy of the MLB playoffs, so all it takes is some mild shuffling and a reserving the now open Thursdays (due to the end of the X-Factor) as it’s designated big November premiere night.

NBC: This year seems to be the year that NBC slowly corrected their ship. They’ve figured out how to leverage their trademark properties best, and the one-two punch of Sunday Night Football and The Voice are not only keeping them afloat, but helping to ensure the network doesn’t always stay a punchline.

What’s Working: I mentioned this before in the open but because they are so central to the network’s success, let me reiterate them again: football and The Voice. Almost everything the network does right comes from those two spokes, and unsurprisingly, the further away you get from them the weaker the schedule looks. NBC also managed to find a hit drama in the form of The Blacklist.

NBC has also quietly steadied the ship on Wednesday nights with Dick Wolf coming to the rescue and a strong block of cop procedurals from 9 to 11. Revolution’s survival is still a toss up, but considering the amount of effort the network is going to have to put into fixing Thursday it would require an insanely strong new drama to unseat it.

Finally, NBC has figured out another way to expand an event lineup that currently tends to be very sports-centric: The return of the musical special. The Sound of Music Live! pulled in an astronomical amount of viewers on it’s December 5^th showing, and it’s not implausible to see NBC go to this trick two to three times a year in order to boost ratings.

What’s not working: NBC has done well with The Voice and it’s dramas, but it’s comedy block has fallen into near complete disrepair. After a year in which not a single comedy got picked up for a second season, NBC is perilously close to duplicating that feat for the second year in a row. A large part of this seems to be due to Bob Greenblatt copying the one network even more mismanaged than his: ABC. Family comedies are not working on the peacock, and the complete and utter failures of The Michael J. Fox Show, Sean Saves the World, and Welcome to the Family are certain proof.

NBC is still very low rated all around, and Sundays still seem to be a lost cause when football is not in season, often relying on a mix of Dateline and spackle to fill the lineup. Thursdays are a mess too, (mostly because of the comedy debacle) but I could see a resuscitation if they find two more passable comedies and anchor around Hannibal.

Overall Prognosis: NBC is in a very weird place. For half their lineup, they seem to be doing all the right things, and for the other half the peacock looks like a barren wasteland that seems to only succeed in padding the episode count of Community and Parks and Recreation (I like both of those shows but it says a lot about NBC’s ability to develop comedies in a post 30 Rock, post Office world that the two shows the network keeps trying to kill keep living on).

Next Time: We hop around the dial, looking at the CW and anything on cable worth my attention.

Checking In On The Networks At Mid-season: ABC And CBS

by Michael Tyminski

With the Olympic break gutting away many premieres for the next two weeks (the one notable return I’ll discuss later this week), let’s take the opportunity to see how exactly the major networks (and cable) have been faring midway through the season.

ABC: It has to have been a fairly disappointing year overall for ABC after the wholesale changes they made over the summer (especially on Tuesday nights) only to see no real advancement in positioning relative to the other networks in addition to an alarmingly high number of new shows tanking with incredible speed.

What’s working: On the positive side, ABC’s Tuesday revamp seems to have taken some hold, with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D being the strongest non-NCIS show on Tuesdays. Similarly it’s lead outs The Goldbergs and (especially) Trophy Wife have attracted some critical acclaim, even if Trophy Wife is struggling in the ratings. Fridays, with their mix of Shark Tank and family comedies also seem to be a strong point for the network, seeing how reruns of Shark Tank have become the network’s go to emergency fill over the past year.

What’s not working: Outside of Tuesdays from 8-10, ABC’s newer shows have been an unmitigated disaster. Once Upon A Time In Wonderland was not only painfully cheesy but stuck in the Thursday at 8 death slot from the get go. The Assets tanked so horribly it got eaten by the Shark Tank in two episodes. Super Fun Night ended up being not only a bad fit despite having a bankable star and a Modern Family lead in, but also evident from minute one why CBS didn’t even bother to pick up the pilot.

The biggest hole for ABC, however has been that third hour on Tuesdays. If Thursday at 8 is known as the alphabet’s death slot, then Tuesdays at 10 have to be it’s stillborn slot, as not one but two new premieres (Lucky 7 and Killer Women) have died incredibly swift, painful deaths. A good chunk of this is likely related to the fact that the network continually insists on putting understated shows immediately behind two of the most cartoonish hours on television (I don’t see how anyone could buy Trophy Wife as a viable lead in for a grim slice-of-life drama like Lucky 7).

Overall Prognosis: It feels like ABC is swiftly becoming the new NBC, only without all the amusing backstage drama that makes mocking the peacock so much fun, with it’s often bizarre scheduling decisions and inability to use it’s anchors to promote it’s other shows. There are a lot of new shows being rolled out after the Olympics, so there is still one last chance to salvage what would otherwise be a rough year.

CBS: The realities of network TV have slowly been applying to CBS after a few years of ultimately ending up in their own orbit. For the first time in a decade, CBS actually seems fairly vulnerable, as it’s numbers are much more in line with the other major networks.

What’s working: Despite all the doom and gloom I mentioned in the opening paragraph, it’s important to remember that CBS still has two of the most venerable juggernauts on broadcast airwaves in NCIS and The Big Bang Theory. The network still has a fairly deep bench all around whether it’s on the comedy side (Mike and Molly), or the drama end (in a most dire scenario, the network could easily spackle with most of it’s Friday or Sunday dramas). The best move CBS has made actually hits next year: it’s acquisition of half of the Thursday Night Football package. This move gives the network eight weeks of fairly steady ratings and allows it to debut it’s comedy lineup right in the heart of November sweeps, where high ratings matter most.

What’s not working: Mondays at 10 have become have a gaping hole in the schedule for CBS. Much like ABC’s Tuesday anchors, it’s pretty clear that the network can’t find a good fit for the slot and is using it as a dumping ground for mediocre-to-poor shows like Hostages and Intelligence. This is a huge problem as Mondays are quickly becoming a bright spot for other networks (particularly NBC and Fox), so with the removal of Monday anchor How I Met Your Mother in march, CBS’s viewership could erode most drastically on that night.

Speaking of erosion, it’s a real problem CBS has to start worrying about in the future. I’ve mentioned numerous times how CBS’s line up is starting to really show it’s age (think about its’ core shows and most of them date back to the Bush administration with half of them being in his first term and Survivor actually launching while Clinton was still president). Unfortunately, the network cannot seem to find new anchors to replace it’s existing ones: The Crazy Ones is not pulling it’s weight and neither is Mom. With the likely removal of Two and A Half Men to go with the end of How I Met Your Mother, CBS will only have Big Bang to prop up it’s newer comedies and will have to rely on shows like 2 Broke Girls , Mike and Molly, and the still fairly untested The Millers to carry the ratings load.

Overall Prognosis: CBS still rules the roost, but it also still needs to find some shows to carry it through the future, as even its’ juggernauts slowly become fossils (Big Bang Theory is in season seven, NCIS in season twelve, CSI in season fourteen.). That being said, the network is still making the right moves to continue to buy more time, hoping the network can strike gold (particularly on the comedy side of the ledger) at least once more.

Next Time: Part two of this series comes next week. Later this week, I take some time to look forward to season two of Netflix’s House of Cards.

Your TV Guide To Avoiding The Super Bowl

by Michael Tyminski

As basically everyone is aware, (doubly so if you happen to reside in the New York area like myself, where the game is being played) there is some sort of big football (not soccer) game being played this Sunday night that pretty much everyone in the country watches. Now while the game itself will likely be fantastic, it’s not inconceivable that you may not want to watch it (or may want to duck out during the halftime show—typically the weakest part of the broadcast). If so, it’s imperative to look into the counter-programming that occurs during the big game.

The first notable example of Super Bowl counter programming coincidentally enough came from this years broadcaster of the big game: Fox. Going up against Super Bowl XXVI, with it’s tepid ice themed halftime show (the game may have been played in 1992, but the halftime show looked like something out of 1971), Fox unleashed a special Super Bowl themed edition of the seminal sketch comedy show In Living Color. People tuned out from halftime in droves, leading the organizers of the following year’s event to schedule a just barely past prime Michael Jackson to perform at halftime. USA scored a similar victory in 1999, with viewers tuning into their Halftime Heat at the half of a snooze-worthy Broncos-Falcons tilt.

So with that being said, where are the best spots to find refuge from Sunday’s main event?

Avoid the major networks: While it’s pretty self-explanatory the reason for ducking Fox, the other major networks don’t fare much better. CBS, ABC, and NBC are all on reruns Sunday night, as their lucrative TV deals with the NFL (ABC owns ESPN broadcaster of Monday Night Football and is rumored to be bidding for the Thursday Night Football package as well) that prevent them from attempting a counter programming ratings stunt to swipe away viewers. If there is one shining light, it’s that Fox put the strongest possible pairing for after the game, with new episodes of New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine in the vaunted post Super Bowl slot.

For the first time ever, another Super Bowl Sunday institution is under attack: If there is one piece of consistent Super Bowl counter programming over the past few years, it’s the Puppy Bowl. This year marks the 10^th installment of the event, which runs from mid-afternoon all the way till 3 in the morning, with the best halftime show this Sunday: Keyboard Cat. Dueling with that will be Hallmark Channel’s first ever Kitten Bowl, which runs from noon eastern. However, the Puppy Bowl will still have an edge with it’s newest feature: Fantasy Puppy Bowl, meaning that everyone who hates football can now understand why everyone who watches sports is addicted to fantasy sports.

Marathons around the Dial: There are some quality marathons out there if you look around the cable dial. Is Horror your fix? AMC has a The Walking Dead marathon out there this Sunday. Need something a little more fabulous? Bravo is running Real Housewives of Atlanta back to back all day, while E! Blocks together Sex and The City. Do you enjoy cop shows (If you watch CBS the answer to this question is a resounding yes)? If so, then look to USA’s Law and Order: SVU and Spike TV’s run of COPS. Last but not least, are you looking to laugh? VH1 is running reruns of Saturday Night Live, TBS is running the Shrek trilogy back-to-back-to-back and Comedy Central is marathoning Tosh.O (ok, that last one was a stretch).

If all else fails, there’s always Netflix: One of the largest upsides to the gradual move towards internet streaming is that fixed schedules are much less of an impediment than in the past. I recommend taking the opportunity to catch up on House of Cards (more on that in a couple of weeks), though obviously this can be replaced by a marathon of anything in their library.

With the New Year Comes New TV | Best New TV Shows

by Michael Tyminski

New Year’s Day always has a slightly bittersweet feel to it due to it being the end of a month of holiday parties and light work loads. Pop culture also tends to lag into the new year, the result of shorter season orders, the movie dumping ground, and the (often accurate) assumption that people are not gonna spend money on music after the spend-a-thon that is the holiday shopping season.

This year, however, we hit the ground running on mid-season due to Sochi’s Winter Olympics displacing the brunt of the traditional February sweeps period, pushing other events like the Oscars and Grammys out of February (The Olympics eat up three of the four weekends in February, while TV’s largest event – some football game being played in New Jersey – eats up the fourth). This is particularly notable as CBS and NBC both are pushing out new slates of episodes from their comedy lineup tonight, while ABC trots out The Taste for a new season while also debuting it’s new show The Assets.

This time around, the mid-season schedule trots out the return of a number of old favorites, be it a competition show like American Idol (a show that schedule prognosticators for next year will be eyeing like a hawk as it’s success has major ramifications on Fox’s fall slate for 2014-15), comedies such as Archer, Community (a personal favorite, and one that has danced around the cancellation ax twice already), and dramas such as The Following (a permanent half-season fixture due to an episode cap in Kevin Bacon’s contract) and House of Cards (dropping on Netflix Valentine’s day).

The displacement is also going to create two waves of new shows, one wave in January, and a large spring wave that looks to pick up around the tail end of February. Amongst the shows receiving the most hype in the January window include the legal dramedy Rake (with Greg Kinnear), HBO’s True Detective (with big names such as Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey), and Dick Wolf’s Chicago PD. Notable later debuts include Crisis and Mixology (which gets the Modern Family lead-in despite not really fitting with ABC’s family comedy Wednesdays).

In terms of event TV (a word that will be thrown around quite a bit this year), this mid-season is packed to the gills, between the Golden Globes (1/12), the Grammys (1/26), the Oscars (3/6), the Winter Olympics (2/7 until 2/23), and some football game that everyone watches for the ads (2/2). As with last year, I will be live blogging the three aforementioned awards shows right here on Manhattan Digest.

In addition to all of the above, we also will see NBC attempt yet another changing of the guard at late-night, this time deposing Jay Leno from The Tonight Show for current Late Night host Jimmy Fallon. Seth Meyers will then move into the 12:30 am spot. Hopefully for all parties involved this goes considerably more gracefully than what we got when the peacock tried the same maneuver five years ago (a maneuver that NBC is still feeling the sting of today).

Next Time: Regular reviews pick back up Tuesday, with ABC’s new drama Killer Women.

For The First Time New Year’s Eve Seems Like A Wide Open Affair

by Michael Tyminski

A lot of people probably don’t think of New Year’s eve as much of a television day. However, quite to the contrary, it’s subtly one of the bigger TV days of the year – with big-ticket sporting events running during the day (it’s the number two college bowl day of the year for example), marathons of favorite shows around the dial (I would be surprised if USA didn’t run 24+ hours of Modern Family or NCIS on New Year’s Eve) and of course, the ubiquitous New Year’s Eve specials that have been a staple of TV since the dawn of the medium.

One notable thing about the New Year’s special however, is that it’s been a fairly monolithic entity, with often one dominant show that the country rang in the new year at-large with. In the early days of television, this was the role of big band leader Guy Lombardo. Lombardo, a New York City native had a show that capped off with “Auld Lang Syne” popularizing the tradition that the Scottish folk song ring in the New Year across the United States.

In the 1970’s however, American Bandstand and Pyramid host Dick Clark had a revolutionary idea. What if in lieu of the stuffy old galas that were the core of the Lombardo scene at the time there was a show targeting the younger more rock and roll oriented scene? This would lead to the creation of Rockin’ New Years Eve in 1972 from Times Square, a staple of New Year’s since then (I defy you to find me a New Year’s Eve Party that doesn’t come to a screeching halt at 11:55 to find the nearest TV and watch the ball drop). Clark’s show would go on to dominate the landscape for the next four decades until his death in 2012.

It would be in the last few years that other networks would slowly start to build up competition to Rockin’ New Year’s Eve much as Clark did to Lombardo. NBC and FOX would also have musically oriented shows emanating from Times Square. Late night cable network [adult swim] would also get in on the experience having specials featuring casts from shows as diverse as long running animated show Aqua Teen Hunger Force, to newcomer anti-talk show The Eric Andre Show. Even Jamie Kennedy got in on the action with a disastrous special that aired on KTLA.

With Clark gone and the year of retrospection out of the way, it seems like now more than ever that there could be stratification and parity on New Year’s eve. Will people stick with Rockin’ New Year’s Eve? They might from familiarity, but Ryan Seacrest is no Dick Clark no matter how hard he tries. Will they go someplace else, whether to Daly or to cable? Will the ball drop remain the center of New Year’s Eve parties? We will know the answers to these questions in the years to come.

Happy New Year and have a Happy Healthy 2014 from myself and everyone here at Manhattan Digest!

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