Sometimes an entire schedule can be thrown off by one move. It can be an unexpected cancellation that destabilizes a night and causes reinforcements to be called from elsewhere or a reach renewal that bumps off a show that had been penciled in for another season; it can be a project in development seemingly earmarked for a series order that falls through at the last minute or an 11th-hour acquisition that eats up scheduling space and causes its network to reshuffle its deck accordingly. ABC’s entire 2017 fall schedule, for example, is built around the impending arrival of American Idol at midseason, an expensive acquisition for the network that will allegedly require 40 hours of scheduling space. Given that, fall Sundays became a hub for low-priority shows, with Fridays being torn down as a result. Will Idol return to the strong ratings it enjoyed for its “final” season and serve as the promotional platform ABC needs for its midseason lineup? Or has ABC sabotaged itself for an exorbitantly priced nostalgia play for something that ended a little more than a year ago?
That’s what KSiteTV’s Craig Byrne and Shilo Adams are trying to figure out, as they’ve tasked themselves with analyzing the fall schedules of each broadcast network. They’ll break down the schedule of every network on a nightly basis, telling you what surprised them and what they think might be set up for failure, all before naming everything from the most promising new show to worst scheduling move and what they’ll be watching in the fall. But before you delve into the article, you can check out every 2017-18 scheduling article below, as well as links to every trailer ABC released.
2017-18 Scheduling Predictions: NBC | FOX | ABC | CBS | The CW
2017-18 Scheduling Analysis: NBC | FOX | CBS | The CW
Trailers: Ten Days in the Valley | The Good Doctor | The Mayor | The Gospel of Kevin | Deception | The Crossing | Alex, Inc. | Splitting Up Together
SUNDAY
CRAIG’S PREDICTIONS: 7:00 America’s Funniest Home Videos; 8:00 Once Upon a Time; 9:00 Untitled Marc Cherry; 10:00 Quantico
SHILO’S PREDICTIONS: 7:00 America’s Funniest Home Videos; 8:00 Once Upon a Time; 9:00 Untitled Marc Cherry; 10:00 Ten Days in the Valley
ACTUAL SCHEDULE: 7:00 America’s Funniest Home Videos; 8:00 To Tell the Truth; 9:00 Shark Tank; 10:00 Ten Days in the Valley
CRAIG: I’m going to just get this out of the way at the start: ABC’s Fall schedule is brought to us by the letters “W-T-F.” I assume that Sundays are changing so much so that they’ll be free and open for American Idol at midseason; however, banishing an already damaged Once Upon a Time to Friday seems weird. With that said, To Tell the Truth and Shark Tank will probably get decent ratings against the heavy Sunday scripted competition; it just seems to be changing so much all at once.
SHILO: In theory, I get ABC’s strategy of wanting to go primarily unscripted and ultimately low-priority on Sundays this fall, as they’re just trying to make it to Idol‘s premiere next spring. Though I don’t love using their existing game shows in the fall since they’re already been asked to work as winter filler and spring cancellation filler in addition to their summer duties, I think To Tell the Truth should have good flow with Home Videos and get the family audience ABC is chasing with Idol used to watching the network on Sundays in-season. Ten Days in the Valley has a capped order and was picked up to series off-cycle, so if they’re going to use something new on Sundays, it’s probably the best candidate given that they won’t have to worry about it come January. But I don’t love Shark Tank here; it’s too important to them for the filler role they’ve put upon it and moving it to Sundays just so they have to move it again come 2018, as I don’t think they’ll only order a 10-13 episode season, feels pretty useless. I don’t think it’ll have that much compatibility with Ten Days, which will end up stranded in a tough slot, and frankly, it’s frustrating to know that it took Idol for them to move it from Fridays when it was a great performer for years. Now that it’s on the downside of its trajectory, it feels like too little, too late.
