This week you can expect to see a flurry of posts here. Actually, it’ll be more like five, but that’s a flurry by the standards of this blog. All week I’ll be looking at the news from the Upfronts and offering my opinions on the decisions being unveiled.
A quick word of explanation for the uninitiated. The Upfronts occur every May. It’s the week where all of the American television networks unveil their schedules for the next year to advertisers. It’s the network’s opportunity to convince advertisers to purchase time on their network, during their shows. It’s important that the network be convincing, demonstrating that they have the best schedule and the “next big thing” since upwards of 80% of all commercial time for the next year will be sold during this week.
NBC got to present first this year. After finishing last in the ratings this year, thanks to a stable of unsuccessful shows, the Jay Leno Show debacle, and the gaping hole it left in the schedule. Word of cancellations began to leak out of NBC late last week and were later confirmed by the network. Two of the biggest cancellations were Heroes and Law & Order. The cancellation of Heroes wasn’t much of a surprise, as it had been experiencing rapidly plummeting ratings, was expensive to produce, and, after a fantastic first season, had seen nearly all of the critics and most of its fans turn on it as it rehashed the same storylines over and over. There are still rumours of a two or four hour miniseries event to wrap up the dangling storylines, but at this point that looks like wishful thinking by the series’ few remaining fans. That Law & Order was dropped is far more surprising. It was no longer receiving strong ratings, and it’s best days were far behind it, but being renewed this year, for its 21st season, would have made it the longest running drama in history. It seems odd that, given all the holes in its schedule, the network wouldn’t have kept it around for one more year.
Edit: It seems there may still be some hope for Law & Order. TNT is reportedly in talks to pick up the show for a 21st season. It seems unlikely, though, as Turner, TNT's parent company, likely won't be able to spend a lot on the deal, thanks to other expensive deals for Conan O'Brien's talkshow and Southland, but you can never count Dick Wolf out...
That’s not the only odd thing about NBC’s schedule. Thursday night was the only day the network had experienced any semblance of success, with its two hour comedy block. So, naturally, they decided to gut this night, moving some shows around (30 Rock an hour earlier) and holding others for midseason (Parks and Recreation).
So, what did NBC do with all their extra space? They’ve ordered twelve news series.
The Event looks interesting, but it seems like it would work best as a miniseries. I’m not sure they’re going to be able to drag this plot into an ongoing series without making it boring.
Undercovers is the new spy comedy from J.J. Abrams. This is a series that I want to like, just because of its pedigree. From the trailer, though, it looks like it will rely too much on bad comedy to make it watchable over the long haul. “Sexpianoge”? Really"?
I love Brittany Snow, but Harry’s Law just looks bad. (Also, can you say asshole on network TV? Don’t think I’ve heard it used before)
It looks like they’ve replaced one lackluster superhero show with another in The Cape. The presence of Keith David and Summer Glau in the cast means I’ll probably give this one a try, but I don’t think it’ll be good.
The rest of the new series are even less inspired. Given what they’ve presented today, it doesn’t look like NBC will be moving from its last place position any time soon.
To see the trailers for all of the new NBC series, click here.
I’ll be back later today with my comments on Fox’s schedule.
Sleep well,
DTE
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