2014-15 TV Season

NIELSENWAR 2014-15: The NBC Schedule – Grid and Instant Analysis

Posted May 11, 2014 by Mitch Metcalf

  NBC has kept a lot of is pieces in place, but also made some significant changes for next season, especially on its once-signature Thursday night.  Let’s dig in. MONDAY:  No surprise that THE VOICE is staying where it is, but 10PM is a risk.  NBC will keep THE BLACKLIST there only until November 10, […]

Full Story »

Midseason Pilots

THE SKED Pilot Review: “Killer Women”

Posted January 7, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  KILLER WOMEN:  Tuesday 10PM on ABC – Worth A Look KILLER WOMEN can’t keep up the pace of its Kill Bill-inflected opening, but it’s a fun ride nonetheless.  The premise, adapted from an Argentine format (one of the producers is Sofia Vergara) by US series developer Hannah Shakespeare, is straightforwardly procedural:  Molly Parker (Tricia […]

Full Story »

2014-15 TV Season

NIELSENWAR 2014-15 Trailer Review: “Empire”

Posted May 12, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  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 […]

Full Story »

Midseason Pilots

THE SKED Pilot Report: “Crisis”

Posted March 16, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  Read All Our Fall Pilot Reports here and Midseason Pilot Reports here. CRISIS:  Sunday 10PM on NBC – If Nothing Else is On… Funny story.  Remember how last fall, there was a serialized thriller about a high-stakes political kidnapping in Washington whose victims included teens called Hostages that flopped badly?  NBC would prefer that […]

Full Story »

2016-17 TV Season

UPDATED – NIELSENWAR UPFRONTS: ABC Fall Schedule

Posted May 17, 2016 by Mitch Salem

  ABC’s fall line-up is a mix of the audacious and the not-so-much. UPDATED with reactions to trailers, which are available here.     ABC needed to shake things up for next season, and to an extent it has, although even if things go well, there will be more to do.  It’s relying on its […]

Full Story »

Midseason Pilots

THE SKED Pilot Review: “Surviving Jack”

Posted March 27, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  SURVIVING JACK:  Thursday 9:30PM on FOX – Change the Channel SURVIVING JACK is a Mortifying Parent Sitcom, which isn’t much of a surprise, since it originated with Justin Halpern, who wrote the book that became the short-lived sitcom S#!* My Dad Says and also wrote the book I Suck At Girls, which inspired this […]

Full Story »

2014-15 TV Season

NIELSENWAR 2014-15 Trailer Review: FOX’s “Wayward Pines”

Posted May 12, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  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 […]

Full Story »

Midseason Pilots

THE SKED Pilot Review: “Star-Crossed”

Posted February 17, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  STAR-CROSSED:  Monday 8PM on CW – Change the Channel If aliens are in high school, we must be on CW.  The network’s midseason entry STAR-CROSSED plays as a clip reel of CW’s greatest hits, from the supernatural teen romance of The Vampire Diaries to the forbidden love of Beauty and the Beast to the […]

Full Story »