NEW YORK, Aug. 26, 2008
Will Fall TV Season Draw Viewers?
Recuperating From Writers' Strike, Only 17 New Series Have Been Added, Half The Usual Number
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ABC's "Ugly Betty"is among the hits to return in the fall. (ABC/JOHN CLIFFORD)
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Photo Essay A Peek At Fall TV See what the networks are showing to critics.
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Special Report Fall Preview Harvest the season's best of fashion, work, school, and fun!
For this tongue-in-cheek promotion, National Stay at Home Week begins Sept. 21 - also the official start of the 2008-09 TV season.
If only sky-high gas prices would guarantee ABC a captive audience!
Alas, it's hard to make an argument that viewers are breathlessly awaiting ABC's fall season - or any other network's. Audience buzz remains at a hush.
With the networks still reeling from the disruption of last winter's strike by screenwriters, only 17 new series have been slotted for fall - about half the usual number.
And most of them have been unavailable for preview. As the networks continue to play catch-up, few new shows have been put in front of critics, who, in other years, would have been warming up the crowd.Photos: A Peek At Fall TV
Not that there isn't plenty going on. Broadcast networks were already dogged by audience erosion, growing competition from cable and the Internet, and TiVo-equipped viewers who blow off the commercials.
These challenges are only intensifying now. So whatever the programming networks air this fall, there is likely to be drama, suspense and pratfalls as the networks race to adapt to a medium in flux.
Beyond that near-certainty, mostly questions prevail.
The most eagerly awaited entry is "Fringe," Fox's paranormal thriller from J.J. Abrams ("Lost," "Alias"). It also happens to be an exception to all the new shows no one's seen yet: Its 90-minute pilot was screened for critics way back in June and for fans at Comic-Con in July. For weeks, it could be downloaded by anybody else to sample from the Internet.
No one will be sampling "90210" beforehand - by design. The premiere will be kept under wraps until its Sept. 2 airing as a "strategic marketing decision," the CW network recently announced. Thanks to that strategy, any buzz about "90210" is free to dwell on the likelihood it will fall far short of "Beverly Hills, 90210," the 1990s cultural phenomenon that spawned it.
ABC is introducing just two new series. One, "Opportunity Knocks," is a trivia-based game show. The other, a cop drama with a time-travel twist called "Life on Mars," began life as a British series. But it's not the only transplant this fall.
CBS' wedding woes comedy, "Worst Week," and its sci-fi crime drama, "Eleventh Hour," also have been adapted from British TV. NBC's mother-daughter comedy, "Kath & Kim," sprang from an Australian hit. CBS' "The Ex List," a romantic comedy, was inspired by an Israeli series.
They will take their place with successful imports such as NBC's British-born "The Office" and ABC's "Ugly Betty," which originated as a Spanish-language telenovela.
It's worth remembering that last fall, CBS belly-flopped with its version of the British hit "Viva Blackpool," which, transformed into "Viva Laughlin," lasted two weeks.
But for a decade, the networks have been mining reality and game-show formats from around the world with spectacular success ("Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," "Survivor" and "Big Brother" are early examples). This fall, Fox is introducing a game show called "Hole in the Wall," from Japan.
If any of the networks were to strike gold this year with scripted imports, it would likely spur an even bigger global shopping spree.
A 36-year-old wunderkind producer when he came to NBC Universal 16 months ago, Silverman inherited a fourth-place network whose Fall 2007 schedule was already announced.
Today, NBC, thanks to the Beijing Olympics, has crept ahead of ABC to claim third place in total viewers. But the Olympics and their explosive ratings are just a beautiful memory as NBC heads into a brand-new season, its fall schedule crafted by Silverman's team.
Although he champions an inventive multimedia-platform approach to programming, his vision of what viewers want to see is oddly derivative: "Simple themes reinvented, accessible entry points, universality," he rhapsodized when pitching the schedule last April.
But it remains to be seen whether Silverman's stated mission - providing a video respite from the harsh modern world - will placate the restless channel surfer. Or whether other networks will convert to a similar gospel.
His new fall shows include "Kath & Kim"; a remake of the 1980s man-and-his-car hit "Knight Rider"; the self-explanatory "Crusoe"; and "My Own Worst Enemy," an action drama about a family man with a split personality.
At the same time NBC unveiled its fall schedule, it also presented a schedule for midseason, reinvigorated with more new and returning series.
Other networks are also adopting this strategy of prearranged replenishment. It's aimed at minimizing reruns and refreshing the lineup in an orderly way to keep viewers on board.
Long before then, the audience will be sizing up fall entries that also include a Fox comedy about a luxury Manhattan hotel, "Do Not Disturb," and "Project Gary," a CBS comedy about a guy navigating his recent divorce. CBS' drama "The Mentalist" focuses on a consultant to the cops who has a keen eye for clues but a dubious past. CW weighs in with "Privileged," about a sexy live-in tutor in posh Palm Beach, and "Stylista," a reality show where competitors vie for a job at a fashion magazine.
Still, it won't be new shows that determine the outcome of the networks' ratings race. The pivotal factor: Which network has the strongest slate of veteran series.
Several proven hits - Fox's "House," NBC's "Heroes," ABC's "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" - are now awaited by viewers with eagerness that nothing new can match.
Whether returning shows like ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money," "Pushing Daisies" and "Samantha Who?" can reclaim their initial popularity after months on ice - that's less certain.
But is anything certain as ABC sets the stage for Stay at Home Week? Right now, the networks' biggest show is a guessing game, the one they're trying to win.
By Frazier Moore
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Add a Comment See all 12 Comments
- Our family will not view programs that are offensive to our Christian principles.
I am referring to the show "How I Met Your Mother", which aired April 27, 2009.
It was highly inappropriate and offensive to the Christian viewers. - Reply to this comment
- My family and I are fans of your Monday night line-up.
On April 27, 2009, we watched "How I Met Your Mother", and were displeased to see the many references to Christ that were in the show.
As Christians, we did not find this material at all humorous, and were upset tht our faith was treated as a subject for ridicule.
Upon speaking with several othetrpeople, we heard that they all were upset over the content of that show.
Please instruct your writers to be more aware of the major religious groups in our country. We take our faith seriously. We will not watch your shows if they contain material that offends us.
Offensive material includes crude language and graphic sexual scenes.
Thank you for your consideration.
Dorothy Furney - Reply to this comment
- I can''t beleive anyone watches the major networks anymore. There''s so much *** on those networks. The only thing worth watching is 2 1/2 Men.
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- I wouldn''t like it if this season was short-lived like last year. It was a year of hell for television. But, I believe in CBS and CBS has been doing extremely well especially ever since the 1980s.
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- I want Moonlight back. The mental midget in the drivers seat that cancelled a People''s Choice award winner should be fired!!! I''m not interested in ANY of the new shows. I''ll be reading a book, watching DVD''s, outside in the fresh air...or anything else I can think of since programming has gone so far down-hill. I''m not interested in reality shows, I''m sick to death of them. I could care less about game-shows too...how many different ways can the networks do the same thing?!!
The good, original shows...get cancelled...only to be replaced by a knock-off, reality show, or game show. - Reply to this comment
- JUST WAITING FOR THE CSI SHOWS....STILL HOOKED
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- I don''t understand how CBS could have cancelled Shark, it was one of my favorites. No one can act quite like James Woods, it is there loss. I would like to see another network pick up this show because it is a winner.
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- I just watch The Amazing Race, Survivor, NASCAR and news. Nothing else has been worth watching.
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- I find myself watching less and less tv.
Reality/survivor shows are mostly uninteresting. Shows that focus on relationships, ditto. The comedy shows that I''ve seen, by and large, aren''t all that funny. And then there is the creeping invasion of infotainment into programming that is not unlike kudzu. (I''ve been wondering, do they pay so much money that it really doesn''t matter if they have any viewers or not? I know I don''t watch them.)
As programming becomes more and more unappealing I find myself buying more and more DVD''s of old tv shows and the few recent shows that I like. - Reply to this comment
- No. "Reality" shows, remakes of dug-up old material whose name brings a nostalgic tear to ones eye just don''t cut it.
"''Til Death" was actually pretty good, even though they had to show lots of cleavage shots -- the humor often enough held its own, without needing to sink to jiggle factor. I mean, they are nice on the eyes, but I''m watching mostly for the wit. Not what rhymes with it. - Reply to this comment
- Then of course there is the never-ending drama of pro football. Somewhat reminiscent of the blood games of ancient Rome, I honestly cannot understand how the networks can preempt even their own news programming for such. Give it a rest. There are actually people out here with real, functioning minds.
What offends me the most is, they are simply catering to the tastes (or lack there of) of the American people. Thank god for PBS. - Reply to this comment
- Most likely the networks will once again parade out their latest in mind-numbing drivel. I speak of sit-coms that ought to offend the intelligence of a preschooler. Or worse (as hard as that may be to imagine), more %u201Creality%u201D television -- that are about as realistic as Fantasia.
I so look forward to the cooler weather%u2026. - Reply to this comment
