Can Super Fun Night overcome incongruous scheduling and poor reviews to thrive following Modern Family?
CRAIG: Yes, if in an episode Rebel Wilson bumps her head and suddenly remembers that she’s Australian. Seriously… I think she’d be freer and funnier that way.
Like Dads, I hear the show does get better, but unfortunately, anyone who saw and loved “Fat Amy” will be wondering the same thing the critics did all summer, about the accent. It’s just silly and pointless.
That aside, again I think we run into the situation where whatever ABC puts on after Modern Family is still not perfect, and I’m not sure what the perfect solution will be. If Super Fun Night does horribly, it could hurt Nashville, and I think ABC really wants that one to work… so, we’ll see.
SHILO: Super Fun Night was the most frustrating scheduling move of upfronts week, at least for me. ABC has at least three other comedies that could go behind Modern Family and make a decent fit, but for some reason, the network has spent the last four seasons trying to fit young-skewing hangout comedies into what should be a lineup of four family comedies. It’s counterproductive and gets them into trouble every season, yet here we are again, with what could be the first scheduling hole ABC has to deal with.
There’s a tiny chance that the show won’t collapse early in the season if Wilson and the (very talented) cast pounds the pavement and hits the talk show circuit to combat the bad buzz for the Super Fun Night pilot. If you win over enough people this way, you might be able to get them to stick around while you figure things out; if enough decide to stick around and the show does improve, word of mouth can do wonders and help keep the show afloat.
However, Super Fun Night is in a pressure-filled time slot, competing against the likes of Criminal Minds and Law & Order: SVU and having to hold carry most of Modern Family’s audience into Nashville, which doesn’t have much room to slip before it gets into trouble. If there’s no signs of life in terms of ratings or creative uptick, the show will be in trouble, regardless of how much star power Rebel Wilson has or how much ABC wants to be in business with her.
2 Comments
Actually, I think because of the Amell line-up, there might be a chance that there will be an improvement for Arrow/The Tomorrow People than it was for Arrow/Supernatural.
Having a show that is a remake of a British Sci-Fi Cult show, meaning that there is most likely going to be a fan-base from the original series tuning in along with new fans, is something that I think will help that night. Also let’s not forget that having Robbie Amell, the cousin of Stephen Amell who is right now a hot name for The CW viewers will probably also help.
I do agree partly with you Shilo that maybe they should have kept the Arrow/Supernatural line-up for another year but I also believe in this new one but I guess time will tell. Also, if/when Flash gets picked up, I’m seriously wondering if it’s a good idea to pair it up with Arrow just so they can have a Superhero-night; I remember when Amazon was being talked about being lined up with Arrow that some people were feeling that maybe that would be too much for one night but Flash is still a long way to go.
Great article!
Watching Arrow, recording then watching Revolution, watching Nashville.