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 […]

  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 […]

  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 […]

  CW will continue to be DC Comics (and Greg Berlanti) TV. For a network that only ordered three new shows (two of them for fall), CW has made quite a few changes in its new schedule, with DC Comics properties anchoring 4 nights of the week (and veteran Vampire Diaries the 5th) for stability, but […]

  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 […]