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Posts tagged as “Chuck”

The Guessing Game 2009 – Pilots

Wow, just as I’m about to post my list of Pilots that I think are gonna get picked up, NBC announces 6 shows that are getting picked up.

Anyway, the Guessing Game still continues with this time the list of Pilots that will get picked up (says me, and I’m always right wrong).

In the interest of full disclosure I have kept here untouched what I thought the NBC pick-ups were gonna look like.

Here goes everything:

Comedies

The Karenskys
What: A woman reunites with her eccentric family.
When: Mondays.
Why: You need your annual comedy that is gonna get canned ASAP.

Accidentally on Purpose
What: A San Fran movie critic becomes pregnant of a much younger man with whom she had a fling.
When: Wednesdays.
Why: Jenna Elfman.

Dramas

Three Rivers
What: A medical procedural about organ donation told through the points of views of the doctors, the donors, and the recipients.
When: Sundays.
Why: It’s a procedural, and we’re talking about CBS here.

Back
What: A man reported missing for eight years after 9/11 comes back home to his family.
When: Sundays.
Why: Cry Out Loud Sundays.

Washington Field
What: Experts travelling around the world to protect the U.S. national interest.
When: Thursdays.
Why: Come on, “Experts travelling around the world to protect the U.S. national interest.”

NCIS Spin-Off
What: NCIS 2.0
When: Coupled with NCIS (Tuesdays).
Why: It’s an NCIS spin-off.

Comedies

100 Questions for Charlotte Payne
What: The story of Charlotte Payne, a young woman in the New York dating scene with her friends.
When: Thursdays.
Why: It might be good? (LOL)

Community
What: …College.
When: With 100 Questions.
Why: Joe and Anthony Russo from Arrested Development. And Chevy Chase (fresh off his Chuck stint).

Parenthood
What: A mother uproots her kids to return to her hometown.
When: Fridays.
Why: Great cast.

Dramas

Day One
What: Jericho meets Survivors, in Van Nuys.
When: Mondays, eventually coupled with Heroes.
Why: Post-apocalyptic show and seems like a good replacement for Heroes in the long run.

Legally Mad
What: A partner at his Chicago law-firm working with his daughter.
When: Mid-Season and Sundays at 9PM.
Why: It’s a David E. Kelley procedural.

Lost & Found
What: John and Jane Does at the LAPD.
When: Wednesdays, in replacement of Law & Order?
Why: Dick Wolf.

Trauma
What: An emergency medical procedural taking place “out in the field”.
When: Sundays?
Why: Sounds to me like the perfect E.R replacement.

Comedies

Cougar Town
What: Courtney Cox at 40 and on the prowl.
When: Scrubs‘ timeslot.
Why: ABC seemed to love Scrubs so much that it literally bought it back to life. Why not another Bill Lawrence project?

No Heroics
What: The daily lives of fail super-heroes.
When: Mondays.
Why: Because it’s so original that it’s actually inspired by a U.K. show of the same name (and content).

The Bridget Show
What: A self-help guru that can’t follow her own advice.
When: Wednesdays.
Why: Barry Sonnenfeld, Lauren Graham and Jeffrey Tambor.

The New Twenty
What: Two friends, one who just had a baby, the other whom’s wife just left him.
When: Mid-Season.
Why: Eric McCormack and Tad Quill.

Dramas

Flash Forward
What: Take a look at all those posts.
When: Wednesdays at 10PM and then coupled with Lost.
Why: ABC has been talking about the show for months, and are promoting it like it has already been picked up. Also, it’s replacing Lost.

Empire State
What: Romeo & Juliet set in modern days.
When: Until it gets canned.
Why: Too much of a great cast to let it slip away.

See Kate Run
What: Jack & Bobby meets Commander in Chief.
When: Wednesdays at 8PM.
Why: Hilary Clinton will be so proud.

Eastwick
What: TV adaptation of the 1987 movie.
When: Mid-Season 2010.
Why: Witches in primetime, why not?

V
What: Remake of the 80s mini-series.
When: Wednesdays at 8PM.
Why: Because they’re pushing it already.

Happy Town
What: Twin Peaks 2.0, from the guy that made the U.S. version of Life on Mars.
When: Wednesdays at 9PM (until Lost).
Why: Because I want to see Amy Acker back on TV sooner than later.

Comedies

AbFab
What: U.S. adaptation of the cult British show.
When: Sundays.
Why: They want to try to emulate the iconic British success.

Brothers
What: A retired football player returns to his hometown.
When: Sundays (hey, it’s FOX).
Why: Mitch Hurwitz meets CCH Pounder.

Dramas

Human Target
What: Based on the DC Comic, a bodyguard that impersonates his clients.
When: With Dollhouse if it gets renewed, if not, with 24.
Why: Why would FOX not take a chance on an “edgy” SF-action drama?

Maggie Hill
What: A schizophrenic heart surgeon.
When: Thursdays.
Why: Alfre Woodard & Brian Grazer.

All done.
Once the Upfronts are done I’ll check back on both posts to count the points!

Until then, as usual, Wait & See…

Online saving

A month after Disney gets its 30% share in Hulu (why is everyone only surprised about it now?), all the ABC shows that will be streaming there have been announced:

– Full episodes for ABC’s Lost and Grey’s Anatomy as well as ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Greek.
– Episodes from some ABC daytime shows like General Hospital and The View.
– Canceled/old shows like Commander in Chief, Hope & Faith, as well as Less Than Perfect.
– A few Disney Channel shows as well as a couple of classic Disney movies.

Meanwhile, E!’s Save One Show poll results have been announced with The Sarah Connor Chronicles leading at 53%, more than twice the numbers that Chuck pulled (25%) and over five times Dollhouse‘s (10%). Life only got 8% followed by Privileged at 4%.

For those who care, I’m also still working on my list of pilots that I think will get picked up (more on that next week) as well as my “What you need to know before the new Star Trek” post.

The Guessing Game 2009 – Renewals and Cancellations

The Upfronts are fast approaching and I need to post what I think will happen (if only to say TOLDJA!).

Let the Guessing Game begin!

First, the renewals.

Lots of shows are on the bubble as always this time of year.
Ergo, it’s the perfect moment to play the guessing game of what is coming back/getting canceled.

Some of the educated guesses on here are mainly follow-ups to my durability thinking in the Spec Script 2009 list I gave a couple of months ago.

Shows that are not on this list have either been already declared canceled (My Own Worst Enemy, Prison Break, etc.), have already been renewed (24, Ugly Betty, Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, etc.), or I don’t care much about/forgot about.

Since I’m crazy, often wrong, and especially suicidal, here is my guess list:

Cold Case
My guess: Canceled
Why?: This renewal fight is between Cold Case and Without a Trace. Given that Trace has more decent numbers than Cold Case,
Why not?: The show is the youngest of the two.

Eleventh Hour
My guess: Canceled
Why?: A lot of other, new, procedural-type shows are coming CBS’ way.
Why not?: Bruckheimer.

Flashpoint
My guess: Renewed
Why?: Epic Friday ratings. Add to that the fact that more and more shows are being co-produced, and Flashpoint is here for the long run.
Why not?: No real reason.

How I Met Your Mother
My guess: Renewed
Why?: I think it still has one season under its sleeve.
Why not?: Average ratings for a CBS sitcom, and both The Big Bang Theory & Two and a Half Men have already been renewed for multiple seasons.

The Mentalist
My guess: Renewed
Why?: Duh.
Why not?: CBS execs have realised it’s a Psych copy-cat.

The New Life of Old Christine
My guess: Canceled
Why?: Has been disposable ever since it was launched.
Why not?: If the upcoming sitcoms are complete failures, the show might see another day.

Rules of Engagement
My guess: Renewed
Why?: The show is pulling in better numbers than CSI: Miami.
Why not?: Like Old Christine, the show is fairly disposable and has mostly those ratings thanks two its lead-in.

Without a Trace
My guess: Renewed
Why?: See above regarding Cold Case.
Why not?: The show is old and expensive.

Worst Week
My guess: Canceled
Why?: Pulled out of sked, low ratings.
Why not?: Jesus has returned.

Chuck
My guess: Renewed
Why?: Like I previously said, I doubt NBC would leave to die a heavily-promoted show, especially after putting so much money in the 3-D episode, even if the ratings are average.
Why not?: Everyone and their mothers are saying it’s canned.

Kings
My guess: Canceled
Why?: Thoroughly under-promoted, a lame timeslot followed by an even lamer timeslot followed by the show being pushed back to Summer.
Why not?: Good question.

Life
My guess: Canceled
Why?: The show was on average pulling worse ratings than Knight Rider or My Own Worst Enemy.
Why not?: My prayers worked.

Medium
My guess: Canceled
Why?: Because I want it to.
Why not?: Sundays at 10PM, right doc?

My Name is Earl
My guess: Canceled
Why?: Change is coming and they need to clean out a bit their Thursday lineup.
Why not?: The ratings, even though average, are still decent compared to the rest of the NBC shows.

Parks & Recreation
My guess: Renewed
Why?: The show pulls in pretty decent numbers…
Why not?: …despite its very late start.

Southland
My guess: Renewed
Why?: The show pulls in pretty decent numbers despite its very late start.
Why not?: NBC’s sked is getting smaller and smaller.

Better Off Ted
My guess: Canceled
Why?: In the same rating-zone as Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money once were.
Why not?: No reason why it should get renewed, Better Off Dead.

Castle
My guess: Canceled
Why?: Lackluster ratings (and reviews) and ABC needs to shed some shows to make room for the new.
Why not?: I don’t want Nathan Fillion to be jobless.

Cupid
My guess: Canceled
Why?: No time for third chances.
Why not?: Why not, not?

Scrubs
My guess: Canceled
Why?: Everyone has moved on.
Why not?: It would be a good prank to renew it.

The Unusuals
My guess: Canceled
Why?: Very late start and mediocre ratings.
Why not?: ABC might take pity on Harold Perrineau.

Bones
My guess: Renewed
Why?: Decent to good ratings.
Why not?: Don’t you want to continue be bored?

Dollhouse
My guess: Canceled
Why?: All those reasons.
Why not?: All these reasons.

Fringe
My guess: Renewed
Why?: “By the writers of Star Trek comes the new season of Fringe.”
Why not?: In one of the many parallel universes out there, the show gets canned.

House M.D.
My guess: Renewed
Why?: Best. Ratings. Ever.
Why not?: The Upfronts will be on April Fool’s Day 2010.

Lie to Me
My guess: Renewed
Why?: Also has great ratings and a known star.
Why not?: I would be lying if I said it was gonna get canceled.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles
My guess: Canceled
Why?: More or less the same reasons as Dollhouse. The ratings are bad and FOX isn’t happy.
Why not?: Send back an army of viewers in time to watch the show.

Sit Down, Shut Up
My guess: Canceled
Why?: The poor ratings are tanking FOX’s Sunday night.
Why not?: The ratings the show would pull next year would be (sadly) funnier than the show itself. Yes, I’m harsh.

The next Guessing Game will be about the pilots that are going to get picked up, so stay tuned.