SHILO: I think that moving the Tuesdays at 9:00 comedy bloc to 8:00 was a wise move on ABC’s part, as had they not, there would again be three networks with single camera comedies in the hour and they would again cannibalize the audience for that type of programming. Selfie and Manhattan Love Story will be the only broadcast comedies in the hour and that can only help in their search for an audience, just as the Tuesday single camera pileups invariably helped both CBS (NCIS: Los Angeles) and The CW (Supernatural) this past season.
However, I don’t think these are the comedies that will give ABC the success they’re looking for on Tuesdays. Not only are they outside of ABC’s comedy comfort zone, their focus more on relationships than family, meaning that their audience might not be looking for something in this vein, neither has garnered any kind of positive buzz. Buzz might not always translate to ratings success, but in putting two new shows together and asking them to self-start, there has to be something that can draw eyes and there’s nothing that tells me either will be able to breakthrough. This is a style of comedy that ABC has tried quite a bit to no avail, yet if the two comedies have a negative impact on Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, seeing as how they’re on the complete opposite spectrum from the Marvel series in terms of tone, content, and (likely) audience, look for at least one to be pulled before we hit November sweeps.
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Utopia is failing so far in ratings, so I’d say yes, it’s a bomb.