Saturday, November 24, 2012

Where does your favorite television show currently stand?



Last week, the cancellations from the new season began in earnest.

ABC announced they were ending ‘The Last Resort’ and ‘666 Park Avenue’ after their initial 13-episode runs. The cancellation of ‘The Last Resort’ makes me sad – but I just couldn’t get in to ‘666 Park Avenue.’

CBS announced – to no one’s surprise – that the sitcom ‘Partners’ was being taken off the air effective immediately. They made the first cancellation of the year when they dumped ‘Made in Jersey’ after two airings, and Fox also axed ‘Animal Practice.’

This follows previous announcements that this would be the final season for ’30 Rock,’ ‘Gossip Girl,’ ‘The Office’ and ‘Private Practice’ – all of which were overdue to end and are also limping to their prospective finish lines.

NBC’s ‘Community’ looks to be ending, too, -- although no official announcement has been made – but Chevy Chase has already announced he’s out.

So, what about the other shows?

It’s not looking good for Fox’s ‘The Mob Doctor, but no decision has been made.

A handful of new shows have been given full seasons, the most notable are ‘Elementary,’ ‘Chicago Fire,’ ‘Arrow,’ ‘Nashville,’ ‘Revolution’ and ‘Vegas.’ I’m still confused how ‘The Neighbors’ got a full season pick-up – but I can’t think it will last into a second season.

Look for ABC to shuffle ‘Nashville’ to Sunday nights – pairing it with ‘Revenge.’ ‘Nashville’ was the best reviewed show of the new  year but it’s not exactly lighting up the Nielsens. Moving it out of the heavy Wednesday slot might help it – but it might also already be too late.

There are still a bevy of shows yet to premiere this year – with ‘The Following’ and  ‘The Carrie Diaries’ being the ones I’m most interested in checking out right now. Most of those will debut after the new year. I'll publish a list when I see firm dates.

The truth is, the two shows I’m most worried about are on cable.

The first is TNT’s ‘Leverage’ – which is returning for its winter run on Tuesday. I love ‘Leverage,’ but TNT usually announces the next season pickup before the winter episodes. I’m worried that the fact they haven’t done that yet means the show isn’t going to get a pick-up.

I think that would be a mistake on TNT’s part – especially given the popularity of the show – but I’m not in charge and I don’t make the decisions. As a compromise, I hope they give the show one final season – which would be season six -- so they can wrap things up right.

The other cable show I’m worried about is USA’s ‘Psych.’ That show has had its premiere date continuously shuffled -- now the seventh season will premiere on Feb. 27, 2013. ‘Psych’ is USA’s longest running show – and it absolutely gets no love. Instead USA props crap like ‘Royal Pains’ and ‘Necessary Roughness.’

‘Psych’ has a loyal audience – and it’s going to celebrate its 100th episode this season – so USA should try and show it some love. I want the show runners to have proper notice – so they can craft a solid ending to the show. USA owes them that.

USA also announced a couple of weeks ago that they were canning freshman series ‘Common Law.’ I liked ‘Common Law’ – but I didn’t love it. Still, I think they should have tried shifting it from Friday’s. It’s like USA wanted to kill it.

What do you think? What shows are you worried about? Which ones are you glad they cancelled?

2 Comments:

Blogger Stephen Frye said...

At opening of season, I was interested in Last Resort, Revolution, Elementary and Vegas. But I generally wait until a season or two and then catch up, not wanting to waste time on a show that will most likely be canceled. So Last Resort is gone, so I didn't miss anything. I watched first two Revolutions just to see what they are like, but I'll wait until they get renewed for 2nd season. Elementary seems, just from cursory glance, to be shortlived. Now the question is, which once survives.

November 26, 2012 at 8:34 AM 
Blogger Unknown said...

I really liked Last Resort. I can't believe they cancelled it. I'm hoping that at least they'll wrap it up properly. I'm thrilled Elementary has been picked up! Thank you for the update! :)

November 29, 2012 at 2:46 PM 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home