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The New TV Season: Burning Questions Answered!
Kate Walsh by Eric Ogden/ABC
The 2007-08 season is starting soon and there are many questions looming. After consulting a few network insiders, The Biz is going to try to answer a few of the big ones.
Will Private Practice be the next Joey?
Ah, the much maligned spin-off. The answer is no. The audience still has a lot of goodwill towards Grey's Anatomy. ABC has surrounded it on Wednesday with two of its strongest pilots, Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money. It has a solid night, with Private Practice as a presold tent pole to hold it up. But expect the veteran cast on PP to attract an older audience than the Grey's mother ship.
Will the recent controversy over Kid Nation help or hurt the show?
Help — but only for the first week. "The publicity is not about the show, it's about the making of the show, not about the content," said one exec at a competing network. "Viewers are not going to stay around for three or four weeks just to see if CBS has been doing something unethical." That being said, network research shows that viewers' awareness of the show has risen in recent weeks while the intent to view remains high. In premiere week it's all about a big opening, and Kid Nation is going to have one.
Is this a make-or-break year for the CW?
You'd better believe it. Last year the network got a pass for being cobbled together from the remnants of the WB and UPN. This season it has clearly defined itself as a hip, young-adult network, and its new shows Gossip Girl and Reaper are among the favorites of the ad agencies. So what happens if it doesn't make ratings and revenue progress over last season? "You're going to have to take a serious look at the business model," says one network insider.
Will Mandy Patinkin's departure from Criminal Minds hurt the show's ratings?
Not as much as the fact that CM's Wednesday-at-9-pm time period is now the most competitive of the week: ABC's Private Practice, CW's Gossip Girl, NBC's Bionic Woman and Fox turning to a proven reality-TV commodity in Gordon Ramsay with Kitchen Nightmares.
What will be the first show canceled?
"Canceled," of course, is a relative term these days. We saw lots of underperforming shows pulled only to be burned off at fill-in-the-blank.com. So which show will disappear first? It's tempting to say Viva Laughlin, but CBS isn't launching the show until mid-October. The better bets are ABC's pair of unfunny comedies Cavemen and Carpoolers, which could easily be dispatched to make way for a double run of According to Jim, and NBC's Life, which has an incompatible lead-in with Bionic Woman and competition from the established hit CSI: NY. You can see the headlines already: "Death for Life."
Who's going to win the ratings race?
The real question is what set of numbers are going to be used to measure success. Advertisers will be getting ratings that tell them how many viewers are watching commercials. But are USA Today and other newspapers going to list the most-watched spots of the week? That's doubtful. Will comparing last season's ratings of live viewing to the new season, which will include three days of delayed viewing on DVR, give a clear picture of who's making progress? In other words, our heads will be spinning with spin.
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Sep 5, 2007 3:00 PM
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Will Private Practice be the next Joey?
I was puzzled by people's reaction to the "pilot" episode. I'm in the minority; I enjoyed both the characters and the set-up.
Is this a make-or-break year for the CW?
Both Gossip Girl and Reaper look like they'll be good programs but the truth is that The CW has only a few(a few as in 2) really good programs but no smash mainstream hit. Any new network will tell you that if you want to make some noise you need to find just one huge signature show to build around.
What will be the first show canceled?
It's too difficult to predict what the general public will be watching, who would've guessed that Smith would have been the first casualty of the major networks last year. But I'm going to vote Life as the first canceled, it looks like a snoozer.
Who's going to win the ratings race?
The Neilson ratings are so inaccurate it's a joke, but it's the only system out there and the networks have to live with that fact.
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Sep 5, 2007 9:03 PM
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This is interesting reading your thoughts on the subject. I have yet to see any of the new shows. Some may be good but they just don't appeal to me. Just from the early buzz about the new shows, I think you might be very accurate in your assessments.
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Sep 6, 2007 1:06 AM
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Speaking of spin-offs...Kate Walsh has been guaranteed a return slot in GA should Private Practice fall off into the Pacific. Has there ever been a situation where a spin-off tanked and the star was successfully re-integrated into "the mother ship"? I know Kim Delaney was promised her role back on NYPD Blue but it seems she only came back for a few episodes after Philly was cancelled. Just curious......
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Sep 6, 2007 8:20 AM
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I saw the pilot of Chuck online and I really hope this one connects. It's a keeper for sure.
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Sep 6, 2007 9:49 AM
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The only instance of when the star of failed spin-off was successfully re-integrated into "the mother ship", as least as I know of, was when "The Jeffersons" Florence (Marla Gibbs) checked out of...err..."Checking In" and returned after that show's failure several weeks later. Actually, having only seen very few promos of CI during its CBS run and no episodes except for the pilot on TJ, I have no idea if the show was even moderately entertaining.
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Sep 6, 2007 12:17 PM
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A Different World was spun off of Cosby and didn't tank, but Lisa Bonet bombed as the lead and was returned to Cosby (where, admittedly, she bombed again). Does that count?
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Sep 6, 2007 12:44 PM
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The Lone Gunmen spun-off from The X-Files and they returned after it was PREMATURELY cancelled!
That still pisses me off!
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Sep 6, 2007 2:35 PM
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I just watched the pilot of "Life" on the free Blockbuster video that's currently available, and I highly doubt that "Life" will be cancelled. The cast is too good (Damian Lewis is always riveting - he just commands attention), and the premise is too intriguing for people not to enjoy over the typical storylines & oppressive seriousness of "CSI". Plus, I think the "cliffhanger" aspect to "Life" revolving around who framed Det. Charlie Crews (Lewis' character), combined with the obvious chemistry between Crews & his partner (Shahi), will keep people tuned in.
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Sep 6, 2007 5:51 PM
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Buzz in the scifi community is that "Bionic Woman" is stinky cheese. Not as awful as "Flush Gordon", but nothing that is going to hang around for long. Someone PLEASE write some good scifi without stupid main characters and bouncing boobs, and keep it on the air!
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Sep 7, 2007 2:03 PM
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There have been plenty of well written, well acted shows placed in the scrap heap because their networks basically threw them under the bus by scheduling them against established blockbusters, e.g., ER, the CSIs.
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Sep 7, 2007 2:25 PM
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525600min I like youre comment on PP and I agree with you for more info on PP visit PrivatePracticeFans.com
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Sep 8, 2007 7:06 PM
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