With Chicago Fire out of the Wednesdays at 10:00 slot and CSI aging, will Nashville be able to hold its own, despite a new lead-in?
SHILO: Nashville had pretty much everything going for it last season – strong ancillary income from music sales, awards recognition from the Golden Globes and Emmys, a combination of established stars and up-and-comers that featured a whole lot of chemistry, healthy DVR numbers, (generally) positive critical attention – everything except noteworthy live ratings, as the show ended up being modestly rated at best. The show never quite became the phenomenon that it could’ve been and was touted as being and honestly, its prospects for season two don’t look that great.
Music supervisor T. Bone Burnett isn’t coming back; Super Fun Night is about as incompatible of a lead-in as Nashville could have gotten; the show is said to be heading toward a soapier direction that it started down in the last few episodes of the first season, including the much-maligned finale; its serialization makes it difficult for people to jump aboard, especially since the network won’t be running a recap special ahead of the premiere. Granted, there’s said to be retooling going on that could help the series find more focus during season two, and there’s always the chance that the show comes in second every night behind CSI (which I think is likely), but Nashville doesn’t have much ground to give up before it heads to dangerous territory and becomes a series on the bubble.
CRAIG: I’m not sure how it will perform. A bad lead-in could hurt the show, like I said, and it’s possible that anyone who might conceivably be interested in watching the show already is, and that those who aren’t watching probably won’t care to jump in late. It’s an uphill battle, for sure.
I think it also depends on how Ironside does. I don’t predict that one will do too well, but maybe we’ll be surprised. SVU IS a great lead-in, after all. At the end of the day, CSI will probably win Wednesdays at 10 no matter how you cook it.
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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.