FRIDAY
CRAIG’S PREDICTIONS: 8:00 Emerald City; 9:00 Grimm; 10:00 Dateline
SHILO’S PREDICTIONS: 8:00 Emerald City; 9:00 Grimm; 10:00 Dateline
ACTUAL SCHEDULE: 8:00 Caught on Camera with Nick Cannon; 9:00 Grimm; 10:00 Dateline
CRAIG: Is Emerald City ever going to air? Yeah, I don’t know. I feel like fall is a better place to take the really big swings, and something like Nick Cannon’s show can return any time. So, yeah, scratching my head a little. On the bright side, Caught on Camera will do fine ratings-wise, which I guess is better than putting on things that might underperform in that hour.
SHILO: Putting Caught on Camera in the fall is one of the most bizarre moves of this upfronts season. I mean, the show did alright this past season and I think it’s in the right time slot for the type of show that it is, but it just feels like NBC could have done a lot more here. I understand wanting a night where you don’t have to exert a lot of effort in order to get decent results, and I get that NBC already has a lot of moves to promote; it’s just that where NBC is so packed, wasting an okay fall slot on something so low priority like Caught on Camera, which should be schedule filler and nothing else, is strange.
What this move also tells me is that they don’t like Emerald City. Ordered straight to series in the summer of 2013 (!), the show had the makings of a fall launch, as promotional material was leaked earlier this year and the concept (an edgier Wizard of Oz) seemed like something NBC could capitalize on during the Olympics. Plus, it was something that could’ve made a nice pairing with Grimm and stood out against the multi-cams and procedurals of 8:00 Fridays. However, the show is still unscheduled, reminding me of how FOX treated similarly delayed Bordertown, and unfortunately, I don’t think it’ll have much of a ratings leash or be put into a situation where it has the capacity to succeed.
What I’m curious about is what NBC does on Friday once Grimm is gone. I’m assuming that even if Grimm gets more episodes than the 13 it currently has for this season, it won’t get 22, so NBC might be looking for their next Friday anchor come 2017.
