WAYWARD PINES:  Midseason TBD on FOX THE FACTS:  M. Night Shyamalan is the marquee producer of this neo-Twin Peaks-ian limited series.  (He also directed the pilot.)  It concerns Secret Service agent Ethan Burke, who travels to the small, strange town of Wayward Pines in search of two missing agents.  The people he encounters there […]

  EMPIRE:  Midseason TBD on FOX THE FACTS:  Think Nashville, but with a hip-hop beat and an A-level pedigree.  Music tycoon Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) is dying–although not just yet–and has to decide who between his two sons will inherit his giant company, causing all manner of family scheming.  Complicating things further:  his ex-wife (Taraji […]

  SCORPION:  Monday 9PM on CBS starting – Worth A Look PLAYERS:  The real-life hacker Walter O’Brien, on whose adventures Scorpion is (very loosely) based–and who is also an Executive Producer on the show.  Series creator Nick Santora, who created Breakout Kings and was a writer/producer on Prison Break.  Pilot director Justin Lin.  An ensemble […]

  According to Advertising Age, advertisers have begun to buy time on the broadcast networks for the 2014-15 TV season, which is the whole reason the hoopla of the “Upfronts” exists in the first place.  There are two basic components to each of these sales (although they can become quite intricate):  the rate that buyers […]

  JANE THE VIRGIN:  Monday 9PM on CW – If Nothing Else Is On… PLAYERS:  Ugly Betty, plus the whole notion of basing US TV shows on Spanish-language series (Red Band Society and The Mysteries of Laura are two more this season), and especially Executive Producer Ben Silverman, who’s was one of those behind Betty […]

  The rest of the week:  Monday,  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The Saturday primetime network schedule, such as it is, isn’t worth much attention, being a patchwork of reruns and sports (although we will include estimates for that night in our full-week network projections).  That brings us to Sunday, once the showcase night for […]

  NBC and FOX will be the first broadcast networks to announce their 2014-15 schedules next Monday, so it makes sense that they’re the first to begin announcing their new series pick-ups.  No trailers have yet been released, but here are some quick facts on each: FOX Note:  In addition to those below, FOX has […]

  Last week, the glamorous part of the network “Upfronts” took place, largely for viewer and media purposes:  hordes of new shows were announced, stars were trotted out, executives madly spun this past season’s numbers so that every decline looked like a triumph, gala parties were held.  This week, however, the real Upfronts kick into […]