CRAIG’S CHOICES
Most Promising Trailer: Will & Grace, even though it was more of a musical presentation created for the Upfronts. It made me so happy to see Jack and Karen again… Will and Grace too, I guess. They all have barely aged and I’m grateful I missed the series finale so I won’t be irritated at any continuity conflicts. There’s something to be said for the comfort of revisiting old friends.
Most Anticipated New Show: Does Will & Grace count as new? No? Then I’ll have to go with Rise, which doesn’t arrive until midseason. It looks like the “Glee taken seriously” that we need, if we’re never going to get a decent Fame reboot. I’m really looking forward to seeing that one.
Best Scheduling Move: My hemming and hawing about the This Is Us move aside, letting Will & Grace lead Thursday night is perfect ammunition against the Grey’s Anatomy and Big Bang behemoths. And, when CBS has Football, it’s not as though Will & Grace shares an audience with football anyway.
Worst Scheduling Move: So many to choose from! This Is Us moving is big. The Blacklist at 8PM Wednesday is another head-scratcher. And I don’t know how Blindspot and Taken are going to thrive on Friday nights if they didn’t do too well earlier in the week, unless business dealings allow them to be profitable with very little worry about actual broadcast ratings.
Most Likely New Hit: Great News. Yes, it’s already premiered. But being a hit will be a new thing.
Likely First Cancellation: In this day and age, it’s more like “most likely to quietly not get picked up for a Back Nine and then absent from another season in May.” So, I’m going to go with Taken. Blindspot being in Season 3 will likely get renewed if it does even halfway decent numbers. Then again, Taken is a co-production and therefore cheaper to produce, so, who knows.
Calling this season of The Blacklist “the final season” wouldn’t shock me, either.
What I’ll Be Watching In The Fall: In the Fall? Will & Grace and probably Great News after it. I’ll be anxiously awaiting the return of Timeless, and I’ll watch Superstore if it happens to be on.
SHILO’S SUPERLATIVES
Most Promising Trailer: One of the trailers NBC didn’t officially release, Rise looks like emotionally grounded Glee or, if you will, Smash ran through the Friday Night Lights filter. It has the signature Jason Katims emotion (that can sometimes cross into emotional manipulation) and is one of the few shows on broadcast that focuses on life in a small town. Given that, I think I might like it more without the heavy focus on the performing arts, but after a week of upfronts trailers, it’s one of the most distinct new shows of next season and something that I think could appeal to NBC’s brand of aspirational and inspirational content.
Most Anticipated New Show: Another trailer not made public, Good Girls looks like the broadcast version of upcoming TNT drama Claws and I mean that in the best way. It’s funny, it’s bold, and it has a primarily female ensemble, all of which NBC needs. I wonder about whether its concept is amenable to series television and whether it’ll be able to fulfill its creative potential under the restraint of broadcast, but I think it could turn into something special if everything breaks its way.
Best Scheduling Move: The Brave feels like the best choice for post-Voice Mondays. It plays to its lead-in’s conservative base and it should have an advantage in being the first military-themed show out of the gates next season, so it won’t have to worry about concept fatigue. I wonder about how the show is going to skew and whether its trailer is strong enough to make an impression, but at least for right now, it seems like the right show in the right slot on the right network.
Worst Scheduling Move: This Is Us has the possibility of going very wrong and I don’t see Superstore/The Good Place benefiting from being post-Voice, but I’m befuddled by NBC’s treatment of the Dick Wolf-verse. Fire and PD managed to keep their slots, but Justice is still stuck in limbo after doing pretty decently on Sundays and Med gets pushed to midseason for awards bait with the Law & Order name slapped on it. The Chicago shows have all been good performers for NBC and while I get that NBC might be worried with neither Fire nor PD selling into syndication yet, I don’t think that’s cause for downsizing to this degree. If ever there was a time to air procedurals on Thursdays, it’s this season, so waiting until 2018 to air Med repeat-free is misplaced strategy that neutralizes what’s been a good asset for them. I’ll be curious to see how NBC’s schedule shakes down and whether moving away from the Chicago shows comes back to bite them or not.
Most Likely New Hit: Where I don’t think True Crime will hold up that well post-This Is Us, I think The Brave wins this by default. I don’t know if it’ll be huge like Blindspot and The Blacklist were when they aired after The Voice, but it has a great lead-in that should be at least somewhat compatible and a concept that would appeal to Middle America, which has become an important audience for NBC. Even if it’s not a game changer, I would be surprised if The Brave didn’t turn into at least a solid utility player.
Likely First Cancellation: NBC is pretty crowded and both renewed and picked up quite a bit of scripted content, so you’d think that their trigger finger would be itching from the get-go. However, True Crime has a capped order and The Brave seems fairly on-brand, so considering that and the fact that NBC will have the Olympics in February, I don’t think anything new gets officially cancelled until the spring at least. The worst case scenario is probably that The Brave has a 13-16 episode order and something premieres after The Voice post-Olympics, so if you’re looking for a blood bath next season, NBC won’t be it.
What I’ll Be Watching In the Fall: I’ll be watching Superstore, which had a second season that started really rocky for me before finishing quite strongly.
HOW DID WE DO?
Giving a half point for each correct half hour, and half credit if we go the night right but the time wrong, here’s how we ranked:
Craig had 5.5 points out of a total 15, one below Shilo’s 6.5 as he accurately predicted The Brave for Monday nights. Neither of us did particularly well in predicting NBC’s moves this year. Better luck with the schedules for the other networks?
Find all of KSiteTV’s schedule prediction and analysis articles here.
