Upfronts 2017: Assessing Each Network’s Needs

FOX

SHILO: FOX has no discernible brand. ABC has family comedies and soaps; NBC has procedurals, quirky single camera comedies, and live events; CBS has multi-cams and procedurals; The CW has superheros. What exactly comes to mind when you think of a typical FOX show in 2017? How would you shorthand FOX’s lineup? With so many options available for television viewers, you have to have a succinct, easily understandable brand if you want to keep people interested and FOX is currently a jumbled mess of nothingness. There’s nothing that sets them apart from the other broadcast networks, no signifiers that indicate that what you’re watching is a FOX show, and while you can experiment a little if you have a good brand in place, the randomness of FOX’s schedule does the network a major disservice. They have to figure out what exactly this network is and who they’re making shows for if they’re going to have any hope at making the ratings gains necessary to be competitive again.

What’s interesting to me is that FOX does so many buddy procedurals, but since the debut of Bones in 2005, the closest a FOX-produced procedural has gotten to syndication has been Lie to Me‘s 48 episodes earlier this decade, as Sleepy Hollow didn’t lean procedural until after people stopped watching and Rosewood is far from a guaranteed renewal. Where the network is now ran by the same duo behind the studio, one would think that FOX would/could/should go after sturdier programming they can use to build their genre and reboot proclivities around; FOX currently doesn’t have much in the way of foundation and while they found Lethal Weapon this season, they not only need more if they have any hopes at rebuilding, they need to produce a Lethal Weapon of their own considering that the health of a network is at least somewhat related to the health of its studio. And producing stuff for its home network with zero afterlife means that things at FOX aren’t so great right now.

CRAIG: I’m very paradoxical when I talk about what I want on the networks. On the one hand, NBC reviving Will & Grace and FOX ordering up another season of The X-Files both seem like great ideas; on the other, I think we saw that not every brand is due for a revival in this past season, and neither 24 nor Prison Break really matched the ratings success of the originals.

Now that FOX no longer has Bones, and Sleepy Hollow‘s future is surely in doubt, they need to start thinking about their next batch of hits. Yes, there are the players like Gotham, Lucifer, Lethal Weapon, and Star that do pretty all right, as far as hour-longs go; none of them were a Bones or a House, however. FOX should also prepare for a Sunday that may someday not include The Simpsons, though that moment might be years away, and even then they may just do a Peanuts and keep The Simpsons around forever in repeats.

So, on the drama side, I think the idea should be to think big. Create new, big hits; this generation’s X-Files or 24. In many ways, FOX does have some decent shows in their lineup, but they could be doing even better. Empire was certainly a step in that right direction. FOX is supposed to be the bold network, so be bold, be buzzy… and the audiences will come.

I could probably say the same for their half-hours, which aside from the Sunday night animation that’s been around for a while, has kind of been fizzling. I can’t remember the last big FOX half-hour hit; was it really New Girl? Would Brooklyn Nine-Nine count? I know The Mick did okay, but again, create the kind of bold programming that can’t be found elsewhere. That’s what I think FOX needs most.

ABC

CRAIG: Channing Dungey’s inaugural season in charge yielded only one major hit in Designated Survivor. Others – Notorious, Conviction, and Time After Time, to name a few – crashed, and crashed hard. On the bright side, some of the new comedy material did all right.

So what should ABC do?

First off, they need to stop trying to do Shonda shows if they’re not by Shonda Rhimes. I think part of why Notorious fizzled is because audiences felt betrayed; they wanted their TGIT. In retrospect, even having The Catch Season 2 on in the Scandal slot while Kerry Washington’s pregnancy delayed the season might have been a better solution. With that said, I really hope Scandal and the “real” TGIT kick off the new TV season.

Sunday is a problem that is only going to get worse. *Nothing* seems to be popping there aside from Once Upon a Time, which is declining in viewers and probably nearing its final season if it isn’t done already. I get that there’s a lot of competition there, but surely the night can be rebuilt.

I still feel ABC needs another show like Castle that can be easy and comfortable for the Dancing With The Stars audience on Mondays. I also still hope that ABC can continue to mine the Marvel brand for some big-deal programming. The Inhumans may be exactly what they need, but it also has the potential to disappoint. It all depends on the initial reactions that the show gets. Still, Marvel, Disney, and things like Star Wars are all in the ABC-Disney family, so I hope they use those connections to their advantage, since they have that advantage to play with.

The comedy brand, for the most part, is still doing fairly well when compared to many other networks aside from maybe CBS. Hopefully ABC will continue to have success there. There are some shows that are doing simply “okay” but “okay” is still better than “bad” is.

SHILO: ABC has to figure out what in the world they’re doing on Sundays. The last time they found any type of major traction on the night was Once Upon a Time‘s debut season and this season, they’re practically invisible thanks to Once‘s soft ratings and some grab bag-y scheduling that put American Crime with both Time After Time and Match Game. While one option would be to pull a CBS, conceding the night to cable and turning it into a syndication factory where the 8:00 hour is only one with effort, ABC has room to work if they’re so willing. Their comedy brand is as strong as ever, which would work well with the America’s Funniest Home Videos lead-in and contrast with what the other broadcast networks do in the fall, while the network’s recent push toward lighter dramas could allow them to restock their drama coffers while playing into their family brand. With football, The Walking Dead, and cable, Sunday can be a tough nut for broadcast to crack, but ABC simply cannot A) allow Once to lead the night anymore and B) stack three Shonda-adjacent soaps and call it a night. There has to be change and I’m hoping ABC makes a real effort to get out of the basement on Sundays.

I know that there’s been lip service to this already, but ABC needs to rejigger their drama brand. The success of TGIT seemingly convinced them that an ABC drama is deeply serialized, heavy on twists, and tackles darker subject matter, all of which aren’t bad on their own or, with the right drama, combined. But the glumness of ABC’s recent drama brand is in stark contrast to the sunniness and hope displayed in their comedy brand and those two sides not complementing one another isn’t good for the network as a whole. ABC would do right to lean into the tone of their comedies for next season because their drama crop is getting older, they’ve not been able to find much to replace it with, and they can’t rely on Grey’s Anatomy for another 10 seasons. In the past, ABC has had a lot of success with dramedies, or at least dramas that don’t take themselves too seriously, and it could absolutely afford to put a little escapism into the mix with the angst, especially with this current political climate.