Welcome to Upfronts week, when the broadcast networks (or what’s left of them) announce their Fall schedules and attempt to generate billions of dollars worth of excitement from advertisers.  It’s harder than ever to authoritatively analyze the thought process that goes into a broadcaster’s cancellation, renewal and pick-up decisions, because network ad revenues directly […]

  Read All Our Fall Pilot Reports here. THE TOMORROW PEOPLE:  Wednesday 9PM on CW – If Nothing Else Is On… THE TOMORROW PEOPLE is CW sticking with the CW playbook.  The word “rip-off” may be a strong label for a show whose concept dates back to a British TV series that began in 1973, but […]

  THE MICHAEL J. FOX SHOW:  Thursday 9:30PM on NBC (airing tonight at 9PM) – If Nothing Else Is On… Behind its feel-good star and tone, THE MICHAEL J. FOX SHOW is–even more than most TV shows–as much a business proposition as it is a piece of entertainment, so let’s start with that.  In a […]

  GRACEPOINT:  Thursday 9PM on FOX starting October 2 – Potential DVR Alert PLAYERS:  Broadchurch, the wildly successful limited (and now continuing) British TV series, of which Gracepoint is a remake.  Broadchurch returnees, including series creator Chris Chibnall, director James Strong and star David Tennant.  A cast surrounding Tennant that includes Anna Gunn, Nick Nolte, […]

  GRACEPOINT:  Thursday 9PM on FOX THE FACTS:  David Tennant repeats his role as the lead detective in a US adaptation of the hit British miniseries Broadchurch, about the murder of a child in a small seaside town and what the investigation reveals about the inhabitants.  He’s joined by Anna Gunn in what had been […]

  THE MYSTERIES OF LAURA:  Wednesday 8PM on NBC THE FACTS:  Laura Diamond (Debra Messing) is an NYPD homicide detective who also has to juggle her responsibilities to her young twin sons and her issues with her estranged cop husband (Josh Lucas).  The series creator is Jeff Rake, a veteran writer/producer (everything from The Practice […]

  Thanks to SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL, THE VOICE and Dick Wolf, NBC is in stable–if unexciting–shape as the 2015-16 season ends, and the Peacock’s fall line-up is as notable for what it doesn’t do as for what it does.  Although the network has ordered a dozen new series, only 3 of them will begin airing […]

  Conservative CBS is making lots of changes next fall. UPDATED with reactions to trailers, which are available here.     No network preaches the “Everything is just fine in broadcast TV” scripture louder than CBS, but the fact is that its biggest hits (The Big Bang Theory, NCIS, Survivor) are aging, and the network […]