Analyzing The New Fall Schedule: ABC

MONDAY

Shilo’s Picks: 8:00 Dancing With The Stars, 10:00 Castle
Craig’s Picks: 8:00 Dancing With The Stars, 10:00 Castle
Actual Schedule: 8:00 Dancing With The Stars, 10:00 Castle

CRAIG: I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that we got this schedule right, and ABC did keep things consistent. Eventually they’ll need another Monday night show, but for now, Castle works.

SHILO: The network tends to be more conservative than you’d expect given the amount of product they have and the amount of scheduling they have to do. So it wasn’t a surprise that they decided to keep Castle on Mondays; it seemed destined for either Mondays at 10:00 or Tuesdays at 10:00, but when the network decided to pick up the tonally similar Forever and pair with Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, it got to keep its slot and give ABC its second completely stable night.

TUESDAY

Shilo’s Picks: 8:00 Cristela, 8:30 Keep It Together, 9:00 SHIELD, 10:00 Clementine
Craig’s Picks: 8:00 Cristela, 8:30 Keep it Together, 9:00 SHIELD, 10:00 Agatha
Actual Schedule: 8:00 Selfie, 8:30 Manhattan Love Story, 9:00 SHIELD, 10:00 Forever

CRAIG: Appropriately, SHIELD has moved to the 9:00 slot, away from the NCIS mothership and avoiding a comic book battle as Flash is on The CW at 8. I’m not entirely sure Selfie is the right choice to lead a night, and without seeing a trailer or knowing any better I’d think Manhattan Love Story sounds like an hour-long drama, but whatever. I’m surprised Cristela didn’t end up with a Tuesday night lead-off slot, if anything new was to start the night.

Forever doesn’t look revolutionary but it does look down-the-middle comfortable enough that it should work well after SHIELD and appeal to the general ABC audience, even if it didn’t last too long the first time, when it was called New Amsterdam.

SHILO: Tuesdays are more a mixed bag for ABC and could end up being the problem night once again next season. On one hand, moving SHIELD to 9:00 and getting it away from NCIS is smart, since the two shared something of an audience. With the show’s purported creative growth and increased buzz, airing in the most-viewed hour in primetime might help it, if not breakout, become a major network cornerstone. And it seemed like the best choice to air behind it would be a character procedural, since ABC’s serialized shows don’t repeat well and with Castle aging, they needed something in that vein. Hence Forever being a pretty decent choice for a 10:00 lead-out.

But the 8:00 comedy hour is especially vulnerable. ABC did good by getting it out of the way of the 9:00 hour, where we could have seen a three-network single-cam logjam for the third straight season. But both Selfie and Manhattan Love Story look like they could be polarizing entries into the schedule and without a veteran around to give either a boost, they’re going to have to sink or swim on their own accord, especially since they don’t have a compatible lead-out to help pull in viewers.

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