New Fall TV schedule 2011
 

Now that the new Fall TV season has started, let's have a thread to talk about the new shows and to guess how long they will last.

I'll start

Ringer - Sarah Michelle Gellar plays twins who both have secrets in a soapy CW drama. My take - typical CW show, overly dramatic but at least decent acting. This probably wouldn't last on a regular network, but I'm guessing the ratings will be average for the CW and the show will make the whole season.

Up All Night - Christina Applegate and Will Arnett are new parents trying to figure out how to find a new life/work routine with their new baby. My take - Interesting idea, but not a very funny show. It had its moments, but not enough to make a show last. Will Arnett can't carry a show as a lead. I'm guessing the ratings will be decent with new/recently new parents but will fall steadily after the first show. No more than three episodes before it is cancelled.

Free Agents - Hank Azaria and Kathryn Hahn are both recently single (divorce and widowed respectively) and trying to get back to normal life. They work together and start the show post-one-night-stand and an awkward morning after ensues. My take - Hank Azaria is funny. He went off on a couple small runs of solo comedy during the first show and they were great. I think this show will start out slow as neither headliner is a major draw (for people who aren't familiar with Hank's voice work), but the show will gain momentum as the season goes. The show will probably flirt with being cancelled but retain enough momentum to get through the season.

Anyone else?

Reality show premieres. The only one I'm really looking forward to is Storm Chasers on September 25th.

Fall 2011 reality TV debut schedule + reality blurred

I watched about 5 minutes of Up All Night, and my best description for it is "weird". Maybe a moment here or there that's funny, but it's mostly a boring collection of weird vignettes.

I watched a little bit of Ringer while my wife was watching it. My thought was meh...didn't do much to keep my interest. I have Up All Night and Free Agents on the DVR ready to watch. Up All Night looked funny, but I have heard lots of negativity about Arnett in the past, so I won't get too attached.

We DVRed Up All Night and my wife is planning on watching Ringer. Haven't watched them yet, we watche Survivor and Americas Next Top Model last night.

I think this season of ANTM is going to be horrible. They are doin an all stars cast this season, but all they have brought back for the most part are the divas from each season who fought with everyone, so I think it will be just to much conflict and nothing else. Watching a screaming wanna be 19 year old model is fun for a while, but gets old quick. A house full of them, not so much.

EDIT: Spoilers below just in case:


I watched Ringer too with a little more than passing interest (I'm an identical twin too). Good cast other than the odd choice of the male slacker lead from Life Unexpected, but really how long can she keep the deception up? She's known nothing of her twin's life for six years? And now she's supposedly pregnant after her husband asked if she lost weight? The last minute of the pilot will get me to watch the second episode to see how that plays out, but its looking pretty shallow right now in terms of the plot. (which isn't surprising since its CW).

I have Pan-Am and the Playboy Club competing to be the most spectacular flame out. I think Hart of Dixie should get a quick hook (anyone think Rachel Bilson can carry a show?), but if a tree falls on the CW, does anyone hear it?

Person of Interest looks pretty cool, but its time slot will make it tough to survive, I imagine.

Does anyone watch Nikita? My wife started watching it through Netflix last year and got me hooked.

The new shows don't really interest me or intrigue me much. I'm hoping Terra Nova will be good. I enjoyed The Sing Off when it was a summer show, it just has way to much competition now. Like Swaggs I think the Playboy Club and Pan Am will be gone very quickly.

The ideas behind Unforgettable and Person of Interest are interesting, but not sure how much of a plot you can have around it. XFactor may be unwatchable with the Simon/Paula reunion. Prime Suspect just seems like another cop show. If you like (or a part of) the juvenile audience the Vampire Diaries has attached itself too, you'll likely like the witch version in The Secret Circle.

I want to be interested in Revenge, since I've been a fan of the lead actress there since Everwood, but it just looks very boring. A Gifted Man is the replacement for Ghost Whisperer. Don't know anything about Grimm yet, and the one that surprised me a bit was Once Upon a Time which seems to deal with stories in our world and the fairy tale world intertwining.

The only show I play on adding is "New Girl". It looks interesting and my wife really wants to check it out, which is unusual cause she usually doesn't like sitcoms.

My wife apparently went to school with a group of the people that are going to be on the 9/19 episode of The Sing Off, so she will be watching that one.

It's probably because your wife, like the rest of America, wants to Glen Rice Kat Dennings.

I'm fairly sure a loosely scripted show based on Pumpy would be far far better than any of this shit.

I hadn't heard of her before seeing the previews for the show, but she is rather easy on the eyes.

Wrong show. That's Zooey Deschanel for "New Girl." "2 Broke Girls" is the one with Kat Dennings.

True. Not sure why I read it wrong. I still stand by my statement, whether it applies to Ms. Deschanel or Ms. Dennings.

I'm intrigued about "Once Upon a Time". And "New Girl" because I love Zooey Deschanel. I'm intrigued about "Pan Am" and "Playboy Club" (after reading what they were and not just, hey look women dressed scantily in the 1960s).

Matt Roush said Pan Am was real good while Playboy Club was dreadful. If Person Of Interest looks like it's gonna stick I'll catch up/watch it just because of Emerson but nothing this year particularly titillates me.

The pilot is a free DL on iTunes right now. It had its moments but you can never tell much from a pilot. I found Damon Wayans to be pretty funny but he's off the show now.

dola

I'm interested in watching "Person of Interest" because it's a Jonathan Nolan project.

Kat Dennings is hot but I bet "2 Broke Girls" won't last long.

I did want to plug a new show for a friend of mine. One of my best friends is writing and hosting his own show on the Travel Channel. I've mentioned this guy before, he's an author. He writes crime fiction.

His show doesn't air until Dec. 5 (at 10:00 PM EST). I will post a reminder.

It was just recently announced:

Breaking News - Thrilled Novelist Marcus Sakey Unveils Untold Stories Beneath Each City's Underbelly in New Travel Channel Series "Hidden City" Premiering Monday, December 5 at 10:00 P.M. ET/PT | TheFutonCritic.com

THRILLER NOVELIST MARCUS SAKEY UNVEILS UNTOLD STORIES BENEATH EACH CITY'S UNDERBELLY IN NEW TRAVEL CHANNEL SERIES "HIDDEN CITY" PREMIERING MONDAY, DECEMBER 5 AT 10:00 P.M. ET/PT

CHEVY CHASE, MD (September 13, 2011) - Thriller novelist Marcus Sakey knows good stories and how to uncover them. To research his bestselling books, he's shadowed homicide detectives, gone shooting with Special Forces and even learned how to pick a deadbolt. Now in the new original one-hour series, "Hidden City," premiering on Monday, December 5 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT, Sakey travels the country, city to city, to dig up the less-than-pristine history and reveal the untold story behind each locale, serving as a personal guide to each city's unique past.

The premiere episode explores Sakey's hometown of Chicago, the city famous for reinventing itself through its checkered history. Viewers will meet America's first - and maybe worst - serial killer, H.H. Holmes; walk in the footsteps of legendary gangster, John Dillinger; and dig into the 1968 DNC riots, when protestors clashed with police in a battle royale broadcast live to the world.

Throughout the 12-episode series, Sakey does whatever it takes to get into the heads of the characters that define the city. In Chicago, police were trained in riot control techniques, so he straps on some pads and picks up a baton; and the protestors were hit with Mace - so Sakey takes a blast right in the eyes. Through it all, he interprets the events as a novelist, looking for the plot, characters and themes that put it all together.

Rappelling with SWAT, attending an autopsy, interviewing a porn star, stealing a car - it's all in a week's work. For Sakey, the "who" and "what" tell you everything about "where." From his POV, the gallows humor of a South Central gang cop provides better insight into Los Angeles than a studio tour or a trip to the beach. A typical day can begin with a meeting with the Boston FBI in the morning and end sharing a drink with a Southie bank robber at night.

Additional episodes examine the most notorious historical events of Anchorage, Atlanta, Austin, Boston, the Florida Keys, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. As Sakey travels, he's packing his preconceived notions, his attitude and his willingness to be unimpressed. He'll walk the streets, meets the people and take a few bruises to reveal the "Hidden City."

"Hidden City" is produced by Crazy Legs Productions for Travel Channel. For Crazy Legs, the executive producers are Tom Cappello and Michael Lucker. The executive producer for Travel Channel is David E. Gerber.

Read more: Breaking News - Thrilled Novelist Marcus Sakey Unveils Untold Stories Beneath Each City's Underbelly in New Travel Channel Series "Hidden City" Premiering Monday, December 5 at 10:00 P.M. ET/PT | TheFutonCritic.com

There are really no new shows that I'm interested in.

I have plenty coming back though: Modern Family, The Office, Parks & Rec, Community, 30 Rock and Walking Dead. Between those and catching up with "Breaking Bad" on Netflix, hockey, NFL and college football my TV wont go neglected.

What's the deal with 30 Rock? Is it mid season again?

I was going to say that I wasn't interested in any of the new shows. But, the show HB mentioned sounds fascinating (although really you had me at HH Holmes)

she just had a baby, so maybe?

The first episode was not very funny. This is the new Odd Couple with a poor girl from the block matched up with the daughter of a crooked Wall Street Millionaire who is now broke. There is some potential with the former rich girl helping the poor girl make use of her talents and try to build a business, but I don't think the show will last long enough to see that plan take root.

The Playboy Club could very well be the first show to get the ax. I nearly turned it off half-way through but decided to wait and see if it went anywhere. It didn't.

The long term point does make it interesting. It is also a little hard to put too much value into the pilot of a sitcom since 22 minutes is barely enough time to introduce the characters and put them into their places for a normal show. I'll definitely give this one a second look to see if it is worth keeping.

Hopefully they fixed some of the supporting characters (outside of the diner owner...bryce lee...that made me laugh), but the chemistry between the two actresses is there...I hope this one lasts. With the right tweaks post-pilot (if they made them) it could end up being decently funny.

Interesting. Sounds quite a bit like City Confidential, the early-mid '00s show narrated by Paul Winfield that profiled a particular murder/crime and what it revealed about the town it occured in, but done in a No Reservations-type first-person stroll through the town.

It is so difficult to tell how good a sitcom will be based on the pilot. The whole first season of Parks and Recreation was weak, but it has turned into one of the best sitcoms on TV.

I have to agree with this.

So far I have been very impressed with 2 Broke Girls a New Girl. To a lesser extent, I have also enjoyed Ringer and Up All Night. I will keep up with all 4 shows, but will certainly drop a couple of them at some point, especially with many other new shows sounding so good - Person of Interest, Terra Nova, Pan Am, and Homeland.

The commercial for "New Girl" made the show look horrible, and it looked worse and worse every time the commercial aired. So it went from horrible the first time to "please stab me in the nuts, as then I'll have something to distract me from this commercial" the 50th time to "I'll just stab myself in the nuts" the 100th time. Good thing I didn't see it a 101st time or I'd be a very unhappy camper right now, I reckon.

The only shows I have added are Homeland and Terra Nova. I have a bad feeling that Terra Nova is going to bomb hard.

Didn't they already make "Hanging with Mr. Cooper"? *runs*

I have Terra Nova on my DVR, but agree that it basically can't be successful. I added several other new shows....trying to get the most out of my TiVo

This is what will happen to Terra Nova:


New FOX Science Fiction Show:

Does Alan T like it? If yes -> Cancel at end of season / If no -> It will run for 2-3 seasons on days when there is not more American Idol/X-factor/Chef Ramsey shows....



I swear, the kiss of death for fox science fiction shows is me liking them. Fox absolutely never gives them a chance ever.

Dharma & Greg being on TV last night made my year.

ICE COLD

(I could have sworn I've made this rant before but I can't find it anywhere)

I understand the reputation Fox has. However, when was the last time any other network even got close to anything Sci Fi? Quick- now name me the last Sci Fi show that any broadcast network let go longer than 2 seasons if I don't let you use Lost (I'd argue that it was probably sold to the network as a lifeboat drama rather than Sci Fi even tho it clearly ended up being some cross between the two with some religious allegory thrown in for good measure).

Clearly there is some exec who is hilariously playing out a real life Charlie Brown and the football scenario only with "Really, Joss Whedon, this time we'll let your show go more than 1 season and not put it in a crappy time slot". But aside from that, what other network was going to show The Sarah Conner Chronicles (my personal favorite) or Firefly or whatever your favorite show is that Fox keeps killing? Face it- they take chances on shows that other networks won't touch with a 10' pole and that's why they keep getting cancelled. Unfortunately, they probably should never have gone to a network in the first place.

SI

Fair enough.. I was about to say hey what about Fringe? but uh that is fox too :)

Still, I always get my hopes up only to have them crushed by more reality tv shows.

Hell, real Sci Fi is getting killed off even on *sigh* SyFy, as they, too, have succumbed to crap creep

SI

Watched the CBS lineup last night, pretty much.

Thought HIMYM looked like it has jumped the shark. 2 1/2 Men sucked beyond belief. Two Broke Girls will be gone by mid season (which in a way suck because that brunette is smoking hot but I cringe every time that blonde opens her mouth, her voice makes my ears bleed).

Fringe? X-Files? Sliders?

Fox gives Scifi more of a chance than any other network would.

Wasn't impressed by the commercial either. And now tonight I see that ZD is in another commercial for...something. And she's singing. She's cute, but I wonder if her hipster act is going to get old quickly with folks.

I thought Two And A Half Men was nice and fresh. Kutcher and Cryer need some time to gel but I get the feeling that Sheen will be back sooner rather than later, perhaps as early as next season.

The more I think about Dharma & Greg the sadder I get. I laughed at their dialog last night but now I'm just sitting here upset with the state of their marriage. Their love was about the power of the cosmos to bring two people together and how it appears Lorre is trying to tell me that not even the cosmos can overcome the human condition and man is that a bummer.