TUESDAY
CRAIG: 8:00 Roseanne; 8:30 American Housewife; 9:00 Black-ish; 9:30 Splitting Up Together; 10:00 The Rookie
SHILO:
ACTUAL SCHEDULE: 8:00 Roseanne; 8:30 The Kids Are Alright; 9:00 Black-ish; 9:30 Splitting Up Together; 10:00 The Rookie
CRAIG: I was really, really put off by the trailer for The Rookie which suggests that 40 is old. But, the actual olds do love Nathan Fillion and he is good at doing a down-the-middle enjoyed-by-all show, so maybe the series will go over for the audience that isn’t feeling talked down to, and it’ll certainly improve on what Tuesdays at 10 usually do for ABC. With that said, I like this schedule; I’m not sure The Kids Are Alright is the ideal Roseanne lead-out, but they could certainly do much worse.
SHILO: I figured that ABC was going to seize the opportunity that Roseanne presented them and build up their multi-cam slate. I know the network wants to go broader and more targeted toward Middle America with their programming, so with the recent history of striking out with multi-cams, using the mammoth success of Roseanne seemed like an easy way to build their slate. However, they did the next best thing by utilizing The Kids Are Alright, a ’70s-set Goldbergs clone with conservative parents and eight siblings; despite former ABC President Paul Lee’s attempts at building a diverse brand, ABC’s comedy audience tends to prefer shows like The Kids Are Alright and the Roseanne lead-in should make sure it gets sampled, so I’d be surprised to not see a back nine, if not a quick renewal.
Though ABC at least trying something different structurally is interesting, I’m curious about is the transition between The Kids Are Alright and Black-ish. The compatibility between recent Roseanne lead-out The Middle and Black-ish isn’t amazing, but it feels closer than The Kids Are Alright and Black-ish, which will have to deal with time period differences as well as political. On the whole, I do think that the 8:00 hour will be big enough to offset most of the awkwardness that comes from that 8:30 -> 9:00 transition, which should be beneficial toward Splitting Up Together (a good retainer of Black-ish who scored a renewal thanks in part to scheduling) and ABC’s latest 10:00 hope The Rookie. I just wonder about how the arrangement on Tuesday will affect the night’s flow.
