2013-14 TV Schedule
 

OK, I'm officially moving my rants and pontifications on the new TV season to the new thread now that we're hearing the upfronts and new schedules and cancellations are behind us.

I haven't had a ton of time to digest everything yet, but I saw my first set of gut-wrenching news -- ABC is putting S.H.I.E.L.D. on at at 8 p.m. Tuesdays ... opposite the No. 1 show on TV.

Ugh. I'm disappointed for two reasons -- one, I'm actually an NCIS fan. I don't want to choose. And while I know that ABC is counting on drawing a completely different demo, I think they are completely underestimating the draw of NCIS. It's almost as if they don't realize that NCIS is also the No. 7 show in 18-49.

I'm also bummed because I want to love this show and hope it's a hit. I'll have to DVR one or the other, and that's no big deal. But more likely than not, one will win and one will lose, and chances are the winner will be NCIS. I just can't imagine taking your flagship new show and sending it on a potential suicide mission.

Yeah, that's poorly thought out scheduling right there.

I assume they think its the only show that had a chance of staying afloat against NCIS. The more they can chip away at it, the better.

Plus, SHIELD is likely seen as a more family show, so it goes in an 8 pm block. They have DWTS Monday and comedies Wednesday. Friday and Sundays are obviously out of the question. Thursdays at 8 have historically been the time slot of death for ABC, so there's no shot they risk destroying it there. Tuesday was the only logical spot.

I guess they assume the Marvel universe has enough pull right now to get more than just lookie loos.

I have to say, this coming season's schedule doesn't see as daunting for my DVR as it did in the past. Enough shows I watch keep going off the air through attrition, and the only potential new show I picked up that might still be around next year is Hannibal. The networks lack of faith in shows is making it much easier to make time for shows I actually want to watch.

I'll go ahead and make my call on SHIELD. Gets a decent to almost good debut, is down to somewhere between 50-60% of curiosity viewers by mid-season. Cancelled after year 2.

I actually think now might be the time to target 8 pm Thursdays. Fox is weaker than ever on Thursdays with the decline of American Idol, and NBC is a disaster. Big Bang Theory is tough, but it's not NCIS tough. I think Once Upon a Time in Wonderland is going to get roughed up.

If I were so anti-moving shows from time slots where they work, I'd be tempted to move The Middle and another comedy to Tuesdays at 8 to counter program NCIS and put SHIELD on Wednesdays. With nothing but new shows on Tuesdays, ABC is betting the entire night and the fates of four new shows on the idea SHIELD will pull viewers from NCIS.

#SixSeasonsAndAMovie!

At first glance, NBC's offerings this year don't appear to be anywhere as close to atrocious as last year's schedule. While I don't have any interest in it, I'm intrigued to see how Welcome to the Family fares. Interesting to see what happens when a major network targets the Latino audience.

Of those three new comedies, none appear to be as bad as last year's crop. At the same time, I find it hard to believe all three will hit, and I wouldn't be surprised to see all three flop. Based on clips from the pilot, I think it's going to be very hard for Michael J. Fox to endure the rigor of shooting a TV series. I'm afraid the show is going to make people sad for him rather than laugh.

Crossbones is catching my eye for a couple of reasons. One is that it was promoted as a mid-season replacement for this past season all the way back to May 2012, and won't be on the air until January 2014. That's forever in TV development world. If it was any good, wouldn't NBC have already aired it or have it on in the fall? Why wait two years?

The ubiquitous "casting issues" seems to be the culprit here.

Although I missed it at the time apparently, a little Googling turned up a Deadline report around the first of the year that Hugh Laurie was in negotiations to play Blackbeard. Now somehow it's Malkovich instead. If the show still hadn't decided who was playing the lead as of January, I guess it wasn't anywhere near ready to go into production.

Hostages on CBS has the potential to be very cool.

Given CBS's success with Hawaii 5-0 I'm surprised they passed on Beverly Hills cop.

the CW might have a couple good shows in the fall, including believe it or not a remake of the British kids sci-fi drama, The Tomorrow People. Looking forward to that one in particular.

VIDEO: Get Your First Look at The CW's New Series Tomorrow People, Reign - Today's News: Our Take | TVGuide.com

I don't want to be THAT GUY, but...

But we've recently eliminated buying TV shows - no cable, no dish. We get some basic shows (they come in quite clearly) and Netflix. That's it. You know what? No one is missing it.

• My 13 year old son would rather play his computer, as would I. He has recently taken an interest in the series 24 via Netflix.
• My wife can't get her HGTV anymore, but can still get programs like Kitchen Nightmare via Netflix.
• My 3 year old daughter can get her shows from basic TV and also via Netflix.

We're just asking ourselves why didn't we do this earlier? I might miss the Walking Dead in the fall and the occasional Sunday Night Football game, but beyond that I can't think of any reason to go back to paying for TV. Of course we can get the broadcast station stuff you all are referring to, but even that doesn't generate any excitement around the ole' homestead.

Did the same thing here about a year ago, and we totally don't miss it. Netflix + I can still get the OTA broadcasts for a lot of sports = just peachy.

And here I think it's great, since there is nothing on at 8 PM on Tuesdays that my wife and I like... I understand NCIS is the #1 rated show, but there are a lot of people that don't watch it.

I think the arm's length commitment from Eddie Murphy has to be to partly to blame. It sounded like a ragged concept with Murphy maybe showing up once in a great while but otherwise MIA.

The other problem is that CBS only had one drama slot to fill. You'd have to figure that Beverly Hills Cop would skew male, and their one slot free was on Mondays opposite Monday Night Football. That's a tough sell.

Yes and no. About 1 in 5 people watching TV at 8pm on Tuesdays watch NCIS. Of those watching one of the broadcast networks, they basically pull almost 60 percent of the viewers. We know fans are attached to the show, and likely aren't going to leave anytime soon. For the show to be a hit, you're going to have to pull viewers who have turned to cable & DVRs or don't watch TV on Tuesday nights. And there is no evidence that suggests either of those are statistically likely. The most likely scenario is that even fewer people are watching TV and the broadcast networks at 8pm Tuesdays, but NCIS will still have the exact same audience.

Nothing wrong with counter programming, but typically you do it with a show that has established some momentum.

Thought this was the closest fit of the existing threads:
Why You’re Addicted to TV - Newsweek and The Daily Beast

This.

HUT & PUT (Households Using Television/ Persons Using Television) aren't likely to change noticeably based on one show. And if anything they're probably going to slide, at least incrementally.

Meh. Don't want to be "that guy" in response but if you negotiate a little with directv my wife and I pay around $65 a month for whole home DVRs and HBO. So I can pause sports, watch sports on ESPN channels, watch the Cardinals on fox sports, watch fantastic HBO shows, etc. to each their own I guess. We would never pay $$$ to go out for the night and don't have lavish vacations and 65 is t really breaking the bank.

I'd like to be first in with the prediction that THE CRAZY ONES is toast after 2 episodes, 3 at the most. Mork and Buffy do MAD MEN, except no aliens/creatures and no nostalgia. This will have viewers screaming to have ANIMAL PRACTICE brought back.

CBS has had a male skewing action drama in that slot for years with Hawaii 5-0 and they filled it with another one this fall in Hostages. So I don't buy the second part of the argument. I do buy that moonves didn't like the pilot as much as the drama development team did. Whether that is due to Murphy I don't know.

Am I the only one who doesn't really watch anything that ABC, NBC, CBS or Fox puts out? The only series from those networks I watch is Modern Family. I gave up on Community and haven't ever gotten into Parks & Rec which are likely the only shows I'd consider watching on NBC at this point.

I think at this point in time I am just not willing to give network shows my time because it is so likely they will be cancelled. I know that has always been the case but for whatever reason it has truly hit me in the past year or so.

I'd rather watch a show like Terriers for 12 episodes and get some type of closure than watch a truncated season of Last Resort I guess.

We have been getting into the habit of DVRing a series and not getting invested until we know not will stick. Just deleted the whole series if how to live with your parents.

Nah, you're not alone.

I literally can't think of the last broadcast network series I watched in first run. Several of the crime procedurals I've either watched in syndication and/or Netflixed, but on first airing? I truly don't have a clue what it would be.

He's been testing the rigors of doing a TV series with frequent guest appearances on The Good Wife, so I'm assuming he's prepared for what it will take. Furthermore, the fact that he's playing someone with Parkinson's makes it easier. Part of the difficulty with Spin City was waiting for his medication to kick in so he could shoot a scene. That won't be an issue now. Also, he played himself in a similar fashion on Curb Your Enthusiasm and it was a highly acclaimed episode. I think this could work in a similar fashion.

I am wrestling with doing this right now as well. I only watch cable tv for sports now and I won't be watching anything until September for college football. My wife only watches Vampire Diaries and they just wrapped up the season so now is a good as time as any to test the experiment if I am going to do it.

Good point on Hawaii 5-0, even if ultimately it couldn't sustain its early success in the time slot. Not sure if that's to do with the competition or the quality of the show, although I would guess the later.

Hostages sounds like a male-skewing show because of the Jerry Bruckheimer factor but with Toni Collette as the lead it seems more a female-skewing show. I'm not particularly excited about the concept.

In the end I think you're right -- I think CBS passed on Beverly Hills Cop because it wasn't a good show. Frankly, I'm actually glad because BHC3 did enough to ruin the memory of the original without a crappy TV show completely undermining the franchise.

Hannibal is coming back for 13 episodes next year. I hope they give them a good idea on whether they're likely to get a third so they can get to a satisfying place in the story.

Anybody in on The Bridge on FX? I really liked the pilot.

I'm giving Under the Dome one last chance but I suspect I'll be taking it off the DVR tonight.

I didnt make it through two episodes of Under the Dome before I was bored by it.

I looked into the Bridge, but just wasn't sure if it was my cup of tea or not. I didn't see the pilot yet, was it good enough to check out?

I definitely think so. During the summer my standards are lower anyway, since I hardly have any shows recording right now, but this felt like a real solid beginning by any standard to me. I'm intrigued by the crime they're dealing with, I'm interested in the US Border issues that come up in the pilot (not in a political way, just the difference in life and safety and crime on each side), and I'm interested in the characters they introduce early on.

I read the book, so I've hung on. It's a loose grip now, though. The first episode was decent enough for set up, but they've diverged so completely from the book and whatever action does exist is unoriginal and uninteresting.

I didn't see much about it, but the damned ads I kept seeing for it intrigued the wife and I enough to check it out. Both really liked it, hoping it keeps up.

I lasted one episode with Under The Dome, wife lasted 2 and a little of a third. Just seemed meh to me. Interesting story, but the acting was subpar, in my opinion, and it didn't do enough to keep my interest.

Yeah - I thought it was pretty good. Has potential.

I have plenty to watch this summer.

I still have the last 3 episodes of "Hannibal" to get through.

I recorded and will watch the first episode of "The Bridge". (I think that, as of now, HBO aside, I watch more "FX" shows than any other channel: Amercian Horror Story, The Americans and The Brdige.)

I have "True Blood" to watch. (This season has been great so far, the werewolves/Sam plot aside.)

I recorded the entire six episode run of AMC's "Rectify" last Sunday, which I know nothing about, but have heard good things.

"Breaking Bad" starts up in less than a month.

I am still slowly making it way through "Arrested Development". I just started the second season this morning.

I typically only watch these shows in the morning while drinking coffee before I go to work. So, how much I get through depends on when I wake up and how early I need to get into the office.

do they do the awful fake Maine accents? there really is nothing worse than terrible Maine accents

Not sure what thread is best for this, but has anyone seen Orange is the New Black? Have heard good things so far about it.

What does a Maine accent sound like?

No, they just have terrible main actors

Check the Netflix thread.

I finished the first season a couple days ago. Excellent series IMO. Not quite as good as House of Cards in my viewpoint, but still worth seeing.

And both are infinite worlds better than that Hemlock Grove dreck.

I have to watch both House of Cards and Orange yet...looking forward to them both.

Both True Blood and Dexter have been awesome this season.

Wait, did you mean main accents or Maine accents?

Watched the first episode of Orange Is The New Black. Very enjoyable...hoping the rest of the series keeps up!

Enjoyed the first two episodes of the return of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" but they need to either ditch the "star guests" or make the 4th member of the group a rotating spot for them. Otherwise you get one 'regular' player who does fuck-all for most of the show.

I thought the same. I am really happy this show is back though. I loved it for a while (until I got a little tired of it).

Yeah I stumbled upon that myself-nice to see the "old gang" (Ryan, Colin, and Wayne) back together again. Hope the other regulars from the old show show up on this one too. I would agree they need to do one or the other-star guest as a rotating fourth or other comic in the fourth slot with no star guest. Great that they played a lot of the old games too. And Aisha Tyler is way easier to listen to than Drew Carey. Disappointed she didn't do any of the "games" herself though as she's a comedienne.

It's on the CW by the way for those looking for it.

Did not know there was a new Whose Line (even tho SA was talking about it earlier this week- didn't realize it was new). Good to know!

SI

I am pissed there hasn't been a Ho-Down yet... :)

Kevin McHale did much better than Lauren Cohan, but I agree they need to either expand that "special guest" role a little more or just do away with it. But it has been great so far.

Anyone else watching The Bridge? I saw the pilot and really liked it. It's an atmospheric mystery/thriller set on the border of Texas and Mexico and has a cop from each side (Diane Kruger/Demian Bichir) working together to stop a serial killer. Very interesting characters and an intriguing story.

the Bridge is being recorded. looking forward to checking it out despite what I feel was kind of lackluster marketing.