It's a big season finale week in the land of television and with season finales comes decisions on what to renew, what to cancel, and what new shows deserve a pick-up heading into the fall season. ABC, NBC, and Fox have announced their fall line-ups, including new shows they have picked up and old ones they have let go. The CW and CBS have yet to announce their schedules, but have also picked up new shows for the fall.
ABC has picked up thirteen new shows, including the reboot of Charlie’s Angels with Friday Night Lights alum Minka Kelly, a new Tim Allen comedy called Last Man Standing, Good Christian Belles with Kristin Chenoweth, and a Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy creator) drama called Scandal with Kerry Washington and Lost alum Henry Ian Cusick. The nightly schedule does look familiar, although I am highly disappointed in the fact that Cougar Town will not be coming back until mid-season. The network did cancel Brothers and Sisters, Better with You, Detroit 1-8-7, Mr. Sunshine, No Ordinary Family, Off the Map, and V.
NBC’s schedule is a little different with Parks and Recreation moving to 8:30 on Thursdays and Chuck gets the 8:00 timeslot on Fridays. Because of Tina Fey’s pregnancy, 30 Rock will not be back until mid-season. Cancelled shows include The Cape, Chase, The Event, Law and Order: Los Angeles, Outsourced, and Perfect Couples.
Some shows that were picked up by the network include The Playboy Club, a Glee-like drama called Smash, a new Christina Applegate comedy called Up All Night, and a fairy tale cop drama called Grimm. One surprising turn of events was that the much buzzed about Wonder Woman ended up being passed up. The network thought that the show did not fit into what they had in mind for their schedule.
Fox picked up eight new shows to include in the new schedule, adding the sci-fi drama Terra Nova, a new JJ Abrams show called Alcatraz with Lost favorite Jorge Garcia starring, a new comedy with Zooey Deschanel called New Girl, and Simon Cowell along with Paula Abdul will return to television in the new reality competition X Factor. The show was originally created by Cowell in England and now he is going to see if it can succeed in the states. Shows on the outs are Breaking In, The Chicago Code, Human Target, The Good Guys, Lie to Me, Running Wilde, and Traffic Light.
CBS does not have a full schedule up yet, but has ordered some new shows. Coming to the network will be The 2-2, a cop drama from Robert De Niro, another cop drama called Unforgettable and How to be a Gentleman, a comedy based off a book of the same name. CBS has cancelled #@!% My Dad Says, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, The Defenders, and Mad Love.
The CW has probably made many people happy by picking up Sarah Michelle Gellar’s show The Ringer and has also picked up a new Josh Schwartz (Gossip Girl) show with Rachel Bilson from The OC headlining.
For me, most of the new shows do not look that interesting. JJ Abrams always has promising shows so Alcatraz could possibly be good. I always love having Christina Applegate on my television, was very sad when Samantha Who? was cancelled, so I might give her show a try. Zooey Deschanel is also charming so her show might be worth a look too. Regarding the schedules, everything almost looks the same, but it is a big bummer to see that both Cougar Town and 30 Rock will not be back until next year. Most of the networks shows have been either renewed or cancelled, but some have yet to know their fate. A list of those decisions can be found here.
Crazy amount of turnover this year, product of the fact that there were so few breakout hits from this year's new shows.
Very hopeful that Breaking In in particular will find a way back in some form -- it had really solid ratings in its short first season and deserves a chance to find a sustained audience.
Sad to see Mr. Sunshine and Chicago Code go out. Both were flawed (and likely very expensive) so I can see why they got cancelled but they had a lot of potential and could have been great shows.
Agreed on both, but especially Chicago Code. This week's episode was really freaking good and showed tremendous potential.... ah well.
I've watched the previews for a number of the new ABC shows, so those are the ones I'm most familiar with. The best-looking one to me just may have been "Pan Am", another show trying to recapture the glamour of the 60's, this time with Christina Ricci as a stewardess on Pan Am airline. "Suburgatory" is a comedy that looks fairly witty and could have potential. "The River" is a show that I had heard about and loved the concept of, and it could still be good, but I didn't enjoy the preview as much as I hoped. "Revenge" is another interesting-looking drama/thriller, probably the show I'm second-most looking forward to on ABC's new lineup. "Once Upon A Time" is another really interesting concept, but from the preview it looks like it was executed horribly. I also think it has no chance of appealing to the masses and lasting long at all. And then we have a series of awful-looking laugh track comedies, all looking at the issue of manliness - "Work It", "Man Up", and worst of all, the Tim Allen comeback-vehicle "Last Man Standing". All three of these shows look offensive and unfunny and I wouldn't watch them if I was paid to.
Reuben -- looks like you are inches away from turning that into a full blown post with us :-)