Upfronts, the annual ritual when TV network execs trek to NYC to pitch their upcoming television schedule in the hopes that advertisers are enticed enough to buy ad time during the shows.
In my preview of the 2016 Upfronts, I’ve taken a look at the pilots (aka first episode) under contention to be picked up to series as well as the prospects for renewal/cancellation of the shows currently on air. Note: these posts could already be out of date with renewal/cancellation & pilot pickup/passed over news since they’ve been published.
In the last part of the Upfronts Preview, I’ll play backseat network executive and lay out how I would program the upcoming television schedule for each of the networks. I’ve went over ABC’s schedule, the CW’s schedule, now it’s time to take a whack at CBS’s.
Say what you will about CBS’s programming, its transitions are smooth: Letterman-to-Colbert (Late Show), Bob Schieffer-to-John Dickerson (Face the Nation), and Nina Tassler to Glen Geller (President CBS Entertainment). Contrast that with the messiness at other networks (Conan, Ann Curry, Michael Strahan). Nina Tassler stepping down is also special in that, so far as is known, she stepped down willingly (after a remarkably long time as CBS Entertainment President) instead of being pushed out as is the norm for the notoriously short career lifespan of network heads of entertainment. Maybe she saw the writing on the wall that the television trends that engulfed so many of CBS’s competitors would eventually catch up to CBS and decided to jump ship before it too caught up to CBS (purely speculation). Either way, she steps down after a strong run at one of the most consistent networks; and it now falls to new CBS Entertainment President Glenn Geller to keep the sturdy CBS ship afloat as it navigates the murky waters of cord-cutting, peak TV, VOD, and depressed 18-49 ratings.
Sunday
Current Schedule: 60 Minutes/Madam Secretary/The Good Wife/Elementary
The Good Wife is going off the air and Madam Secretary & Elementary have both been renewed. CBS seems to be resigned to the fact that Sundays will not be their best night and will be an older-skewing night with low 18-49 ratings, granted they may have a reason to not be too aggressive on this night as CBS-owned Showtime does decent/quite well on Sundays year-round with Homeland, Shameless, Penny Dreadful, Ray Donovan, The Affair, and Masters of Sex.
So it’s probably safe to assume they won’t dramatically rearrange the night and that three of the four hours will stay, with the 9/8c hour being vacated due to The Good Wife ending (R.I.P. you remarkable show). What to fill this hour with that will transition from (and keep) Madam Secretary’s considerable (if older-skewing) audience? Relocate The Amazing Race back to the hour. Honestly the best CBS can expect (and seems content with for the past few seasons) from its Sundays is mid-to-low-1 ratings, which The Amazing Race has been able to pull on the depressed-television-viewing night of Friday.
Monday
Current Schedule: Supergirl/Scorpion/NCIS: Los Angeles
The CBS rumor mill has been working hard with theories of Supergirl’s ratings being a disappointment relative to its cost-per-episode and that Supergirl will only be renewed under the condition that it’s moved to the CW (which CBS co-owns). While this sounds a bit ludicrous, I won’t discount it entirely. For now, I’ll assume it’s renewed and stays on CBS (not that the CW even has room for Supergirl on its packed schedule).
With Thursday Night Football displacing CBS Thursdays for the first 6-or-so weeks of the season, CBS will likely do its usual schedule shuffling to temporarily relocate 2 comedies to Monday. During these first six weeks, have The Big Bang Theory kick off the night and lead into the new Matt LeBlanc comedy to give it a solid launchpad. After TBBT & Matt LeBlanc’s comedy moves to Thursday, fill in with two comedies: returning series Life in Pieces and new comedy My Time/Your Time. While CBS retreated from trying to create a Monday comedy block years ago, a stable 2-hour Thursday comedy block does not give CBS enough real estate to launch all of its comedies. Launch the season with a benched Supergirl and see how the comedies perform on Monday & Thursday. Swap time slots & premiere Supergirl during mid-season as needed.
Tuesday
Current Schedule: NCIS/NCIS: New Orleans/Limitless
This night works, keep it. Although keep an eye on Limitless, and do some off-season tinkering (albeit lightly) as this show started strong but petered off as the season wore on).
Wednesday
Current Schedule: Survivor/Criminal Minds/Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders
In last week’s ratings, Survivor, in its 32nd season outrated The Voice (10th season) in both total viewers and the 18-49 demo. Very impressive. Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders has been doing admirably enough leading out from its original anchor. As tempting as it would be to keep it there, relocate it to Fridays, where it might prove to be a suitable lead-in for fellow crime-in-exotic-locales program Hawaii Five-0. End Wednesdays with Training Day. I was originally thinking MacGyver but the older-skewing audience of Criminal Minds will probably write off any young actor stepping into the shoes of a rebooted MacGyver without giving the show a chance.
Thursday
Current Schedule: The Big Bang Theory/The Odd Couple/Mom/2 Broke Girls/Rush Hour
After Thursday Night Football, TBBT leads off the night as usual. The Odd Couple has been performing admirably enough during the Spring to warrant it continuing leading out from TBBT. Follow that up with the Matt LaBlanc comedy and end the night’s comedy block with Mom. Finish the night with Drew.
Friday
Current Schedule: The Amazing Race/Hawaii Five-0/Blue Bloods
Hawaii Five-0 is getting up there in age so it will probably ride off into the sunset soon. For now, it’s been renewed so CBS will keep this relatively-stable night in tact. Move Amazing Race back to Sundays and see if Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders can hold its own on Fridays, or even improve on TAR’s ratings by a couple ratings ticks with it potentially being more compatible with the night’s crime drama programming.
2016-17 CBS television schedule
new shows in italics
Sunday: 60 Minutes/Madam Secretary/The Amazing Race/Elementary
Monday: The Big Bang Theory/Untitled Matt LeBlanc comedy/Scorpion/NCIS: Los Angeles
(After football: Life in Pieces/My Time-Your Time/Scorpion/NCIS: Los Angeles)
Tuesday: NCIS/NCIS: New Orleans/Limitless
Wednesday: Survivor/Criminal Minds/Training Day
Thursday: Thursday Night Football
(After football: The Big Bang Theory/The Odd Couple/Untitled Matt LeBlanc comedy/Mom/Drew)
Friday: Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders/Hawaii Five-0/Blue Bloods
Comedy
Charlie Work. Dear God, what an episode.
9. Shameless (Showtime) (↓7)
2. Mr. Robot (USA)
I recognized Jessica Jone’s leading lady Krysten Ritter from her previous work on ABC’s “Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt. 23,” an underwhelming series that didn’t deliver on the strong-ish reviews it received. So I was apathetic. After finishing JJ I couldn’t imagine anyone else playing the titular character. Ritter simply inhabits the role; she is strong with glimpses of a nuanced vulnerability, she easily pulls off the bitter apathetic sarcasm, she is a victim while simultaneously refusing to play the victim, she is superhuman at the same time she is very human. Jessica Jones is a deeply complicated character that required a high level of ability to keep all the plates spinning simultaneously, and Ritter pulls it off with aplomb. This show in particular hits a streak of maximum bingeability towards the end of its first season with cliffhangers galore. Mention must also be given to the great writing, David Tennant (perhaps his third iconic role following The Doctor and Alec Hardy), Rachael Taylor (who also manages the deft balance in playing someone who has been victimized but refuses to be a victim), and ably telling an adult love story (or lack thereof). The acrimonious break-up of the well-written and well-acted Jeri Hogarth didn’t feel like an afterthought nor was it overshadowed by the main plots, a considerable achievement given that the show is about a character that can punch through concrete fending off a mind-controlling villain. It was a fully-fleshed out adult romantic drama, the fact that it was between lesbians was completely incidental. It never plumbed the LGBT aspect because that was not the point. It was the story of breaking up with someone you’d invested decades of your life with, how one partner was ready to move on when the other still wanted to fight to make it work and the relateability of that story.
Whishaw (Q in Skyfall/Spectre) and the name of the show, that’s all it really took for me to give it a try.
2. Broadchurch (ITV)
45-minute runtime: Peter’s presidential run, Alicia striking out on her own, and the goings on at Lockhart-Agos (in addition to other characters that don’t fall neatly into any of the plots). None of these properly have the room to breath and develop in the space of a standard broadcast drama. A premium-cable-sized 60 minutes would be more able to service the disparate storylines.
11. House of Cards (Netflix) (↓6)
4. Bates Motels (A&E)
Not much to mess around with here. Simpsons, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Family Guy all staying put. Originally I wanted to push New Girl here and burn off what will probably be its last season in the 7/6 o’clock hour, which may very well still be an option, but hold it back for later in the season. Star Zooey Deschanel is pregnant anyways which will delay production on the show a bit. Also NFL football usually bleeds into Fox’s Sundays and New Girl is a hard transition from football. The live-action/animation mix has proven itself to be a good mix (proving my skepticism wrong) so keep it up. Save Last Man on Earth for spring and put John Stamos-starring ‘Grandfathered’ in the last half-hour.
Tuesday needs a dramatic overhaul. No more Hell’s Kitchen on any of the other nights. It can’t sustain a 2-season/year cycle. It burns itself out too much. Dancing with the Stars & The Voice can do it because they replenish their cast and coaches, Hell’s Kitchen retreads itself way too much to have 2 16-or-so episode seasons months apart. Also New Girl is barely sustainable at its current ratings and there is no 9:30/8:30 comedy to follow it. Scrap this night and start from scratch.
Current Schedule:The Mysteries of Laura/Law & Order: Special Victims Unit/Chicago P.D.
Sunday is a fixer-upper. Madam Secretary is another prime example of the double-edge sword of CBS programming, it pulls in perfectly fine ratings in total viewership, but man oh man does this show skew old. It started off decently with a 2.0 rating (far from spectacular given how hard CBS was pushing this show) ended with a 1.0 for its last two episodes of the season. That. is. miserable. Multiple comedies have been cancelled recently pulling in ratings a little higher than a 1.0 and a) they’re on networks worse off than CBS & b) comedies are less expensive to produce than hour-long dramas. CBS inexplicably renewed it in a wave of freshmen renewals earlier in the season, and boy they must be kicking themselves for it.
a steeper-than-predicted ratings depreciation, has managed to shore up an hour CBS has had trouble with. Its ratings have mostly stabilized. The question becomes which new comedy to have follow TBBT on Mondays? CBS hasn’t ordered too many comedies thusfar (that might change when they officially announce their schedule at their upfronts presentation), but out of the two ordered so far, Jane Lynch-starring Angel from Hell sounds better. After TBBT moves back to Thursdays, Angel from Hell will probably mesh at least decently with its presumed lead-in 2 Broke Girls.
With the relative dearth of comedy orders from CBS coupled with its struggles maintaining 2 hours of comedies on Thursday (it currently has a TBBT repeat regularly scheduled for the night) AND its many drama renewals, it’s conceivable that it will cut back an hour of comedies on Thursday.
Believe it or not, America’s Funniest Home Videos still pulls in perfectly decent ratings, and OUaT was rejuvenated in the fall from its Frozen storyline. Though AFHV host Tom Bergeron will be stepping down after this season, that doesn’t seem like it’ll be a catalyst for a precipitous ratings drop.
Tuesday has been a bit of a sore spot for ABC, with the last hour in particular being a graveyard of cancelled shows. The opening hour also barely got to know Selfie/Manhattan Love Story before both got yanked off the schedule. However Spring saw the arrival of Fresh off the Boat which got heavy sampling from premiering two episodes in Wednesday’s comedy block (one after Modern Family). After moving to its regular Tuesday time slot it dropped off as expected but didn’t slide too far, managing to stabilize at perfectly decent levels. To no surprise it’s been renewed. The question is for how many episodes and if not a full season, fall or spring? This doesn’t particularly seem like a show to benefit greatly plot-wise from shorter orders so go ahead and give it a full 22-episode order and have it continue launching the night. Have Dr. Ken follow it up.
very potent self-starter with no lead-in of its own. Sure Modern Family has come down from its ratings heyday. It’s still the highest rated show on Wednesday (when Empire isn’t airing). Don’t. be. stupid.
ABC finally found a way to solve its Thursday first-hour problem, after years of failing to launch a show in the 8/7c hour that stuck around longer than a season (if even), simply shifting the schedule back plugged the hole along with presenting a marketing opportunity under the TGIT banner.
AVthatsme 