Another year of upfront presentations in New York, another chance for Canadian broadcasters to find that ‘diamond in the rough’ – but the only diamond this year will be the one that Bob (the new ‘Bachelor’) places on the finger of the woman who sweeps him off his feet. None of this year’s new entries swept me off mine.
Last year, we told you that reality programming was here to stay…not so much. Proven reality performers are coming back this season, but the only new reality program that we have heard about doesn’t air until mid-season. Broadcasters must be sensing that viewers don’t want any more reality in their lives.
In total, 39 shows were unveiled, amounting to 28.5 hours of prime time. History dictates that most of these shows will not be returning.
Fox leads the pack with eight new entries. ABC and CBS presented seven each, NBC and WB have six, while UPN has five new shows. Sitcoms dominate the landscape with 20 entries, while dramas are a close second with 17.
NBC: Coupling – the new Friends?
During last year’s upfront, NBC talked about the departure of Friends at the end of the 2002/03 season with Scrubs stepping up as the potential heir to the sitcom throne. While Scrubs hasn’t taken off as well as hoped, it managed to hold its own and remains in the Thursday 8:30 p.m. time-slot.
With the final – I think – season of Friends extended to this year, NBC now believes it has found the replacement program in Coupling, which will be airing after Will & Grace on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. Coupling is a sex comedy about six thirtysomethings living in Chicago, adapted from the British series. It managed to land the crème de la crème time-slot – but so did many other cancelled shows before it.
Along with Coupling come two other comedies to the new season lineup. They are Whoopi and Happy Family. Whoopi (Tuesdays at 8 p.m.), features Ms. Goldberg as a one-hit-wonder singer who now runs a small New York hotel. Her natural flare for hilarity is assisted by a television brother who is dating a Doris-Day-gone-Queen-Latifa white woman, and an Iraqi concierge who makes a lot of references to weapons of mass destruction. Happy Family stars John Larroquette and Christine Baranski as a couple whose happy empty-nest life is unhinged by the return of their feckless twentysomething children.
NBC is also introducing three new dramas to the schedule. Miss Match (Fridays at 8 p.m.) stars Alicia Silverstone as a divorce lawyer who doubles as a matchmaker. Las Vegas (Mondays at 9 p.m.) stars James Caan as the head of a Casino surveillance unit who clashes with a young aide who cannot keep his hands off the boss’s daughter. This show has the potential to do well with Fear Factor as its lead-in.
The final new drama is The Lyon’s Den, which will move into Boomtown’s old time-slot of Sundays at 10 p.m. Rob Lowe emerges from The West Wing to star as a Washington lawyer, crushing opponents as head of a venal corporate law firm by day, while at night he solves the heartaches of immigrants and the underprivileged. Lowe’s recent departure from The West Wing may have come at an opportune time, what with sinking audiences and the imminent departure of Aaron Sorkin. As for Ms. Alicia Silverstone, she needs to stick to doing what she knows best, acting Clueless.
For all you Boomtown fans out there, don’t worry, they have decided to keep Boomtown on the schedule. It will move to Fridays at 10 p.m., bumping the highly successful Law & Order:SVU program to Tuesdays at 10 p.m., where Dateline used to air. This edition of Dateline will be cancelled, leaving the Sunday night edition at 7 p.m.
Other moves include Good Morning Miami, which will now air post-Frasier on Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. Ed, which was considered to be on the fence, will be returning to NBC but will be going back to Wednesdays at 8 p.m.
Among the series that have been dropped for the fall is Crossing Jordan. Jill Hennessy is off having a baby and the show is scheduled to return at some point in time. Hidden Hills, AUSA and Watching Ellie have also been cancelled…with or without a related pregnancy.
While NBC claims that scripted programs are the way to go, the net couldn’t help picking up a new reality program called The Apprentice. From the producers of Survivor, this new entry will follow 16 contestants vying for a high-paying job with Donald Trump. The program is scheduled to air next season, as they are still accepting applications for participants. Anyone feeling lucky out there?
ABC: The comedy king…
Last year ABC claimed that it would keep shows in their time periods to give them a chance to grow. Well grow they didn’t… and this year we see changes on every night.
Most notable is The Wonderful World of Disney’s move from its 7 p.m. Sunday time-slot to Saturdays at 8 p.m. The Practice returns to Sundays at 10 p.m., while Dragnet (now called L.A. Dragnet), has moved to Saturdays post-Disney.
In an attempt to become the comedy king of broadcasters, ABC adds four new laffers to its schedule, making it the broadcaster with the most comedies overall (10).
The first is introduced on Tuesday night at 8:30 p.m. after 8 Simple Rules. I’m With Her stars Teri Polo and is based on writer Chris Henchy’s experiences being married to the vastly-more-famous Brooke Shields. In It’s All Relative (Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m.), an Irish-Catholic bartender (Reid Scott) falls for a Protestant Harvard student (Maggie Lawson) whose gay fathers disapprove of the union.
Back to Kansas and Hope & Faith air back-to-back on Fridays starting at 8:30 p.m. In Back to Kansas, a newlywed couple moves from New York to Kansas to be closer to the wife’s quirky family. Hope & Faith stars Kelly Ripa as a soap opera diva who gets killed off in her show and moves in with her sister, Faith Ford, to escape the tabloids. I can’t say that I would set the VCR to tape any of these, but the lack of competition might give them a chance.
ABC is also adding three new dramas: Karen Sisco (starring Carla Cugino as a U.S. marshal), which airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m.; Threat Matrix (an elite task force trained to protect the nation), on Thursdays at 8 p.m.; and 10-8 (starring Danny Nucci as an L.A. sheriff), which airs Sundays at 8 p.m.
None of last year’s dramas is returning and two of the three new dramas slotted for this year are against Law & Order and Survivor. It looks like history may be repeating itself.
CBS: The drama queen
After the cast of the musical Chicago opened up the presentation with their own rendition of ‘All That Jazz’ (called ‘All Those Ads’), chairman and CEO of CBS, Les Moonves, talked about stability, programming, audience loyalty and marketing as the cornerstones of CBS. That being said, seven new series and changes on six nights are the reality. The only night that remains intact is Thursday.
While ABC is trying to become the comedy king, CBS is…the drama queen?? The network is adding just two comedies and five dramas to its lineup.
The first comedy, Two & A Half Men, airs post-Everybody Loves Raymond on Mondays at 9:30 p.m., and stars Charlie Sheen and ’80s star Jon Cryer (Pretty in Pink). While this comedy stands a good chance of remaining on the schedule, The Stones, starring Robert Klein and Judith Light (Who’s the Boss?), airing opposite The Bachelor and The West Wing, is going to have a fight on its hands.
Naval CIS, (a JAG spin-off airing Tuesdays at 8 p.m.), stars Mark Harmon as a military counter-intelligence officer. It’s the only drama in its time-slot apart from Gilmore Girls, so it might do well against the adult and male demos. The Brotherhood of Poland, N.H. (Wednesdays at 10 p.m.), from producer David E. Kelley, revolves around three brothers running a small town in New England. Though the pilot looked okay, it’s up against the popular Law & Order franchise… ’nuff said!
The Friday night charge will kick off at 8 p.m. with Joan of Arcadia, a drama about a modern-day Joan of Arc starring Joe Mantegna and Mary Steenburgen. The competition isn’t very fierce so it might do well. The Handler (Fridays at 10 p.m.), starring Joe Pantoliano (The Sopranos), is about a team of undercover cops. Crime dramas are very popular now, but this show is not going to be able to handle Boomtown in the same slot.
Of course, Survivor is back for another season. The seventh edition takes place this fall in the Pearl Islands, in Central America. Look for a special edition in midseason featuring former contestants Richard Hatch, Susan Hawk, Rudy Boesch, Tina Weston, Jerri Manthey and Ethan Zohn, to name a few.
FOX: Eight new shows
Fox presented eight new shows – more than any other network. We’ll see four new comedies, three dramas and a junior version of American Idol.
Fox is on an upswing with the success of shows such as American Idol, 24 and Joe Millionaire. Joe is back, although I’m not sure exactly how they are going to run the show, considering the premise was originally a surprise. Joe is taking over Boston Public’s Monday at 8 p.m. time period, bumping Boston to Fridays at 9 p.m. Fastlane, John Doe, Married by America and Mr. Personality have all been cancelled but Wanda at Large, Cedric the Entertainer and Oliver Beene are returning, albeit on different nights.
Fox’s comedy nights are Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The first new comedy will air Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. A Minute with Stan Hooper stars Norm Macdonald as a TV news reporter who moves from New York to a small town in Wisconsin. With That ’70s Show as its lead-in, it has a decent chance of surviving, at least until American Idol gears up again in spring 2004.
Luis, airing Fridays at 8:30 p.m., stars Luis Guzman as a doughnut shop owner in Spanish Harlem. The only possible saving grace for this show is its lack of competition. The Ortegas, airing Sundays at 8:30 p.m., is about a family who broadcast a TV show out of their home. Apparently NBC passed on this show… a wise move on their part. The last new comedy on the schedule is Arrested Development, which airs Sundays at 9:30 p.m. after Malcolm in the Middle. Eighties sitcom teen Jason Bateman plays a single dad who has to run the family business after his father is arrested. I think I’ll be going to bed early on Sundays in the fall.
The three new dramas airing on Fox are Skin (Mondays at 9 p.m.), Tru Calling (Thursdays at 8 p.m.), and The O.C. (Thursdays at 9 p.m.). A romance between the children of an L.A. district attorney and his porn producer nemesis sets the stage in Skin. It has a good chance of surviving, as all of its competition, with the exception of Everybody Loves Raymond, is new. I can’t say the same for Tru Calling and The O.C. The Thursday 8-10 p.m. time-slot is the kiss of death. The only saving grace for The O.C. is that Fox is going to be launching it in the summer hoping to gain an audience before the show goes up against first-run C.S.I. in the fall.
WB and UPN: Tarzan chemistry
The WB has been enjoying success with the solid performance of programs such as Everwood, Gilmore Girls and Smallville. Stay tuned in the fall for a new show called Tarzan and Jane (Sundays at 9 p.m.). The chemistry between the two leads may make me re-think going to bed early on Sundays.
As for UPN, most if not all of these shows are not likely to be picked up in Canada. Hopefully I won’t be subjected to shows like The Mullets. Then again, I wasn’t too crazy about The Simpsons at first either…go figure!
Kathleen Khoorshed is media manager at Toronto-based OMD Canada. She can be reached at: kathleen.khoorshed@omd.com.
