Last week was the annual upfront presentations from the networks to the advertisers. The networks preview their fall shows and everybody and their brother writes about it. First I'll go over the cancellations, then I'll go night by night just like my fall previews. Things will change before fall, I'm sure, but so far here's what we've got:
CANCELLATIONS or otherwise not returning shows: FlashForward, Lost, Scrubs, 24, Dollhouse, Heroes, Law & Order. I am apparently the only person who was still enjoying FlashForward.
MONDAY: There's still a train wreck in the 8:00 hour with House, Chuck, and How I Met Your Mother. The big news there really is that Chuck got picked up for another 13 episode order. The 9:00 hour is full of new shows with NBC's The Event looking the most promising. Other new announced shows include Mike & Molly on CBS, a sitcom about a couple that meets at Overeaters Anonymous, and Lonestar on Fox, which sounds like an updated version of Dallas. In the 10:00 hour Castle returns for its third season and there are two new shows. NBC has Chase, about U.S. Marshals chasing down fugitives and CBS has a remake of Hawaii 5-0. I wish I was kidding about that last one, but I'm not.
TUESDAY: Fox moves Glee to 8:00 on Tuesday this fall. In the winter it will move to Wednesday at 9:00. Fox follows Glee in the 9:00 hour with two new sitcoms, Raising Hope and Running Wilde. Running Wilde has a pretty appealing cast, but I'm guessing both of these will be a 'pass' come fall. ABC is the other network with new shows on Tuesdays. At 8:00 they have No Ordinary Family, which looks like a live action Incredibles from what I've been able to gather, and at 10:00 they have Detroit 1-8-7. Detroit cop show procedural. I'm not holding my breath for either one of those.
WEDNESDAY: This is the first night of CBS' bold moves, shifting Thursday stalwart Survivor to Wednesday at 8:00. This puts it up against NBC's new J. J. Abrams drama Undercovers, a show about a married pair of retired spies called back to action. This is one of the first shows I'm genuinely interested in checking out. The CW has a new show on Wednesdays at 9:00 called Hellcats. If they get it right, it will be an hour of Bring it On every week, but I'd be willing to bet that they're not going to get it right. The 10:00 hour is full of law. ABC has the Bruckheimer produced The Whole Truth, CBS has the Jim Belushi vehicle Defenders, and NBC has the newest entry in the Law & Order franchise, Law & Order: Los Angeles. I guess this is as good a place as any to mention that NBC canceled the mothership after 20 seasons and is sort of replacing it with LOLA, which hasn't even been cast yet and didn't produce a pilot.
THURSDAY: The second of CBS' bold moves is tonight at 8:00 where we now find The Big Bang Theory at 8:00. They're following it with the first sitcom based on Twitter: Sh*t My Dad Says starring William Shatner as the dad. NBC is moving 30 Rock to 8:30, which will work out well for me because now I won't have to pick between it, Fringe and CSI. NBC also has two new shows on Thursday. Outsourced, which sounds awful, and Love Bites, which sounds at best uninspiring. ABC also has a new show at 8:00 called My Generation. Based solely on what I've read, it sounds like the could have just called it Pulled After Three Episodes. The CW has a new version of La Femme Nikita called, unsurprisingly, Nikita. I'm apparently supposed to know the star of the show, Maggie Q, but I have never heard of her.
FRIDAY: If you've made it this far, I know exactly what you're thinking: "But C, where is CSI: NY?" Look no further. CBS has moved it to Fridays at 9:00, after a relocated Medium and before a new Tom Selleck cop show called Blue Bloods. NBC has a new legal drama at 10:00 on Fridays called Outlaws starring Jimmy Smits. Unfortunately it sounds like this one could also be called Canceled. Fox has relocated the entertaining Human Target to Fridays at 8:00, which will be followed at 9:00 by season 1.5 of Good Guys, which it's airing over the summer. Good Guys stars Bradley Whitford (that's Josh Lyman to most of us) and Colin Hanks. It started airing this week, but I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, so no opinion rendered. Smallville remains on Friday nights on the CW for its tenth and final season.
SATURDAY as usual has nothing.
SUNDAY: The last of CBS' big moves is tonight, with CSI: Miami moving to Sundays at 10:00. Other than that, there's nothing else on Sunday besides The Simpsons at 8:00.
There are a few shows that are returning that aren't yet on the schedule, like V. It'll be a mid-season replacement for one of ABC's shows that tanks. There are also a handful of cable shows coming back, but that's a post for another time.
I would also like to commend NBC (I know, try not to faint), for not picking up the remake of The Rockford Files. Yes, they had it in their pipeline and decided it was bad enough that they weren't going to pick it up. Are the networks learning? Probably not. This just means it was horrific. On the other hand, they also didn't pick up Rex Is Not Your Lawyer, which would have put David Tennant on our TVs this fall. It didn't look like a great show, but I would have tuned in anyway.
No Supernatural? Reallly?
Posted by: Fletchilicious | 09/21/2010 at 09:19 AM