Category Archives: Summer 2014

Surprise: NBC Renews “Undateable”

34328In what may be the most surprising renewal this season, NBC has renewed Undateable for a second season.

The comedy was originally supposed to premiere at midseason, but was later scheduled for Thursday nights during the summer – a dead zone for NBC comedies.  It surprised everyone and debuted to 3.8 million viewers and 1.3 A18-49 demo, with little promotion or any lead in.  Undateable even outperformed a number of in-season comedies on the network, including the premiere of Welcome to the Family.  The ratings started well for Undateable, but quickly fell.  NBC scheduled the final three episodes for July 3rd, and those three averaged a mere 2 million viewers and 0.6 A18-49 demo – not great for summer of midseason.

Despite those numbers, NBC has given Undateable a second season order of 10 episodes, down three from this season.  The moral of the story: these days, never count a show out until its fate has officially been announced.

TCA Awards 2014 Winners

Breaking_Bad_title_cardThe Television Critics Association Awards winners were announced tonight, with Breaking Bad taking home the biggest award (Program of the Year), and Emmy snub The Good Wife scoring a win in the Outstanding Achievement in Drama.

The winners are in bold.

Program of the Year
Breaking Bad
Game of Thrones
The Good Wife
Orange is the New Black
True Detective

Outstanding Achievement in Comedy
The Big Bang Theory
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Louie
The Mindy Project
Veep

Outstanding Achievement in Drama
The Americans
Breaking Bad
Game of Thrones
House of Cards
The Good Wife

Individual Achievement in Comedy
Louis C.K., Louie
Mindy Kaling, The Mindy Project
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

Individual Achievement in Drama
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black
Matthew McConaughey, True Detective
Matthew Rhys, The Americans

Outstanding New Program
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Fargo
Orange is the New Black
Sleepy Hollow
True Detective

Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries, and Specials
American Horror Story: Coven
Broadchurch
Fargo
The Returned
True Detective

Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming
The Amazing Race
RuPaul’s Drag Race
Shark Tank
Survivor
The Voice

Outstanding Achievement in News and Information
CBS Sunday Morning
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Frontline
60 Minutes

Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming
Adventure Time
Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood
The Fosters
Sesame Street
Switched at Birth

Career Achievement Award
Mark Burnett
James Burrows
Valerie Harper
Jay Leno
William Shatner

Heritage Award
Lost
Saturday Night Live
South Park
Star Trek
Twin Peaks

Did any of the winners surprise you?  Sound off in the comments below!

NBC Renews “The Night Shift”, CW Announces Cancellation

imagesSix episodes through its eight episode first season, NBC has handed a second season renewal to summer drama The Night Shift.

The series, which was originally supposed to debut in the spring, has done okay behind America’s Got Talent on Tuesday nights.  The Night Shift slipped to a 1.2 demo just a few weeks back, but has recovered nicely and put up a 1.4 demo this past week.  Through those six episodes, The Night Shift has averaged a solid 6.71 million viewers.

The medical drama was renewed for a fourteen episode second season, with a return date yet to be announced (although a summer date is expected).

Artwork-for-Famous-in-12_event_mainIn addition, The CW has made a change to its summer schedule.  TMZ-backed Famous in 12 has been pulled from the schedule after only five low-rated episodes.  The series followed a family trying to become famous in twelve weeks, with the help of social media.  Famous in 12 debuted to a meager 610,000 viewers, with its most recent episode notching a mere 470,000 viewers (and an 0.2 demo).

No official replacement has yet been announced, but for at least the foreseeable future, repeats of Arrow will fill the timeslot.

Recent Renewals and Cancellations

The summer season may be upon us, but networks are busy announcing the fates for a number of shows.  Here is a run down of what has been cancelled, and renewed, over the past few days.

Renewals
33821Inside Amy Schumer, Review, and TripTank – Comedy Central handed out renewals to the three series on Monday.  Inside Amy Schumer will return for a third season, while Review and TripTank have been renewed for a second season.

Power – If you haven’t heard of this series before, no worries, it premiered on pay-cable network Starz just last week.  The series debuted to 460,000 viewers, and will air eight (8) episodes this season.  The second season, set to begin filming in September, will consist of ten (10) episodes.  No premiere date has yet been announced.

PrettyLittleLiarsIntertitlePretty Little Liars – ABC Family’s number one series, which started its fifth season this past Tuesday, has been renewed for two more seasons, keeping it on the air through its seventh season.  The mystery drama returned to a dominant 2.72 million viewers, and was number one on Twitter yet again.  Writers will have to make sure some answers are solved, or viewers may begin to flee.

Sirens – USA’s first original comedy series was renewed for a second season after its first season averaged 1.13 million viewers.  The second season will consist of 13 episodes, an increase of three (3) episodes from its first season.

I-Wanna-Marry-HarryCancellations
I Wanna Marry Harry – The embarrassing FOX reality series was pulled from the airwaves after four episodes averaged a mere 1.27 million viewers.  The show fell below one million viewers for its Tuesday episode, which may be one of the lowest performances for a series on any of the big four broadcast networks.  For the (few) viewers who care, the remaining episodes will be added to FOX.com.

Riot – The other embarrassment on the FOX Tuesday lineup was also cancelled this past week.  The unscripted series, which I thought was a drama series until the day after its premiered, also averaged 1.27 million viewers for its four episodes.  No word yet on when, or even if, the remaining episodes will air.  For the remainder of the summer (or at least until FOX makes changes), the Tuesday night lineup will be encores of Family Guy, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, New Girl, and The Mindy Project.

Chances of New Series: May 2014

There are three series debuting this week, kicking off the official start to the summer television season.  All three of the summer debuts ending the month of May come from NBC.

As I stated earlier this month, I’m abandoning the five scale system I previously used in favor of a brand new scale.  The new scale is much more simple, going from five possible options to only two.  This scale isn’t finalized for the fall season yet, but I will be testing it during the summer months.  Any thoughts on the scale are always welcome!

Renewal Predicted – The series will be renewed
Cancellation Predicted – The series will be cancelled
imagesTimeslot: Tuesdays at 10/9c
Lead in: America’s Got Talent
Broadcast Competition: Celebrity Wife Swap, and Person of Interest (r)
Analysis: The Night Shift is not the first scripted series to get a shot behind NBC’s number one summer series, America’s Got Talent.  Just last year, NBC launched Camp and the series failed to catch on.  Despite the 2.2-2.6 lead in most weeks, Camp did low 1.0’s and even some sub-1.0’s.  The reviews for The Night Shift have been mediocre, at best, with many pointing out the typical medical drama cliches.  The competition is weak, but that is common for the summer season.  Similar to Camp, I do not see The Night Shift finding much of an audience, even if it does have the best summer lead in.
Prediction: Cancellation
34328Timeslot: Thursdays at 9/8c and 9:30/8:30c
Lead in: Hollywood Game Night
Broadcast Competition: Big Brother (begins 6/26), Gang Related, Rookie Blue (begins 6/19), and The Vampire Diaires (r)
Analysis: Undateable was the one NBC comedy I was most excited about this season, and yet it gets the summer treatment.  It’s not the worst of situations for the new comedy; however, as it has a solid lead in (Hollywood Game Night) and lead out (Last Comic Standing).  Then again, this is a comedy airing on Thursday nights, where NBC has failed to launch a single comedy hit in the past few seasons.  The competition is light, with every broadcast network in repeat mode, with the exception of  FOX airing Gang Related, until mid-June.  Airing two episodes a week screams burnoff to me and it’ll be off the air by the end of June.  If NBC had any faith in the series, I think it would have aired at midseason, or at least one episode a week.
Prediction: Cancellation
crossbones-s1-keyart-xlTimeslot: Fridays at 10/9c
Lead in: Dateline NBC
Broadcast Competition: 20/20 and Blue Bloods (r)
Analysis: I can’t remember the last time a broadcast network launched a series during the summer on Friday nights.  Crossbones; however, is a solid option for the night, since it will likely skew older.  It doesn’t really fit on the schedule anywhere else either, so Friday looked like the perfect dumping ground.  Dateline NBC pulled in a 1.6 in the 9 o’clock hour this past week, so if it can do that again this week, Crossbones has a solid launchpad.  Competition is also very light, with 20/20 pretty much the only show it has to face, on broadcast or cable.  As I said though, this is a summer series airing on Friday nights.  Is anyone even going to be home when Crossbones is on?  My guess is few will be interested, like most summer offerings.
Prediction: Cancellation