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 […]

  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 […]

  In a very unusual move, NBC has already made major changes in the fall schedule that it announced just 2 weeks ago.  In fact, it’s changed the centerpiece of that schedule, reversing the move of its breakout hit This Is Us to Thursdays, and leaving it instead on Tuesday.   As the chart indicates, This Is […]

  See our analysis of the fall line-ups for NBC, FOX, ABC and CBS. In a way, CW got there before anyone else.  The mini-network has been able to make a business out of shrunken linear ratings for years, cobbling together low network license fees, lucrative SVOD deals, an extensive push on streaming, and international sales to produce […]

    See our analysis of the fall line-ups for NBC, FOX and ABC. CBS always has the same story to tell at this time of year.  It portrays itself, with some accuracy, as television’s bastion of consistency, where hit shows run for years and years (and years and years and years), and even the […]

  Check out our looks at the NBC and FOX fall line-ups. ABC’s 2016-17 season was a tale of two genres.  On the comedy side, things were relatively smooth, with American Housewife and Speechless painlessly integrated into the Tuesday and Wednesday line-ups, and The Goldbergs functioning well as the Wednesday night opener.  Dramas, though, were a disaster. All the new 1-hours […]

See our commentary on the NBC fall schedule here. FOX had a terrible 2016-17 season (blurred a bit by airing the Super Bowl and a historic World Series).  The closest thing it had to a new hit was Lethal Weapon, and it watched in horror as Empire plunged in the ratings with unprecedented speed.  The network’s fall schedule […]

  The Upfronts are officially here, more troubled than ever thanks to the ever-declining ratings at the broadcast networks.  (This Variety article does a good job of laying out the ways in which business considerations are altering what shows are put on the air.)  NBC is in the best position of the broadcasters, thanks to […]