Predicting How Many Episodes the Network TV's New Fall Shows Will Last
By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Seriously Random Lists | Comments (43)
The Fall TV Season kicks off this week (I believe a few returning shows start tonight, including “Parenthood”). I believe the first new show on the network television schedule debuts on Wednesday night, which is Hank Azaria’s “Free Agents.” That show, in fact, may also be one of the first few to be cancelled.
Below is my tentative predictions, without having actually seen anything but trailers and promos, for how long each new show will last. In most cases, it has almost nothing to do with the quality of the show; it’s more about the network, the time slot, and how it’ll play with wide audiences. A show like Tim Allen’s new show, “Last Man Standing,” looks terrible, but so was “Home Improvement” and that show lasted for something like eight seasons. Likewise, it doesn’t really matter how terrible the show is if it debuts on NBC, they’re more likely to give anything an honest effort because they have so very little to begin with. That would explain why “The Event” and even “The Cape” managed to stay on as long as they did, despite being terrible shows that also had low ratings. From the looks of things, ABC could be the new NBC this season. It’s good to keep that in mind for those of you concerned about watching a show only to become invested and see it cancelled: If it’s a decent show on NBC or ABC, it’ll likely survive for much longer.
Here are the new falls shows, short descriptions, the predicted number of episodes they will air, and promos for each.
ABC
Charlie’s Angels: Reboot of the 1976 show starring Minka Kelly, Annie Ilonzeh, and Rachel Taylor. Prediction: Three seasons.
Last Man Standing: The series will follow Mike Baxter (Tim Allen) a director of marketing at a outdoor sporting goods store in Colorado, whose home life and world is dominated by women. Especially, in this case, his wife and three daughters, one of whom is a single mother. Prediction: Six seasons.
Man Up: The series revolves around the lives of three guys (including Dan Fogler) with questionable childish behavior and lifestyles who decide its time to do the one thing they had forgotten to do: act like real men. Also stars Teri Polo. Prediction: 13 episodes.
Once Upon a Time: Stars, among others, Ginnifer Goodwin and Robert Carlyle. The series is loosely inspired by the classic fairy tale stories except set in the present day. The stories hold a key to the mystery that will draw a bail bonds collector and the son that she gave up for adoption 10 years earlier to a New England town called Storybrooke, Maine. This town is actually a parallel world in which fairy tale characters look like normal people and don’t remember their true identities or anything about their true lives. Prediction: One season.
Pan Am: Christina Ricci and Kelli Garner star in this television series centered around the iconic airline Pan American World Airways during the 1960s. Prediction: One season.
Revenge: The series is loosely based on Alexandre Dumas novel
Suburgatory: Stars, among others, Jeremy Sisto, Alan Tudyk, and Cherly Hines. The series follows a divorced father who decides to get away from New York City to the suburbs so he can give his 16-year-old daughter a better life. However, the move to ‘burbs has the daughter wondering if they just entered the world of The Stepford Wives after they see how ‘perfect’ their new locale is, right down to the neighbors who welcome them into the cul-de-sac. Prediction: Two seasons.
FOX
Allen Gregory: Created by Jonah Hill, Andrew Mogel, and Jarrad Paul that will air on Fox. The series will follow Allen Gregory De Longpre, a precocious 7 year-old being raised by his father Richard and his father’s life partner Jeremy. Prediction: 4 episodes.
I Hate My Teenage Daughter: The series will follow two mothers (Jamie Pressley and Kristi Lauen) who fear their daughters are turning into the kind of girls who tormented them in high school. Prediction: 13 episodes.
New Girl: The show will star Zooey Deschanel as Jessica “Jess” Day, a well-liked, bubbly, and adorable woman in her late 20s who is trying to get over her surprise breakup with her model boyfriend. She eventually finds a new place to stay when she moves in with three single guys: Nick, a bartender; Schmidt, a professional and modern-day casanova; and Coach, a former athlete turned trainer. Prediction: One season.
Terra Nova: With Stephen Lang, the show begins in the year 2149, a time when all life on planet Earth is threatened with extinction (suggested in trailers to be due to dwindling worldwide air quality and overpopulation). In an effort to save the human race, scientists develop a time machine allowing people to travel 85 million years back in time to prehistoric Earth. Prediction: 13 episodes.
X-Factor: Simon Cowell’s new singing competition reality show. Prediction: Nine seasons.
NBC
Free Agents: Alex (Stephen Mangan) works for CMA, a successful talent agency. Whilst he is grateful for his job, he is currently going through a messy divorce, causing him to become depressed. His boss however, Stephen (Anthony Head), is sex-obsessed, cocksure and roguish. Alex later meets Helen, a co-worker who is more successful and herself recovering from a messy relationship, after her boyfriend died months before her wedding. Prediction: Two episodes.
Grimm: Set in present-day Portland, Oregon, the series puts a new twist on the stories of the Brothers Grimm in which a homicide detective learns that he is a descendent of a group of hunters known as “Grimms”, who fight to keep humanity safe from the supernatural creatures of the world. Upon learning of his destiny and that he is the last of his kind, he has to protect every living soul from the sinister storybook characters that have infiltrated the real world. Prediction: 4 episodes.
The Playboy Club: Featuring Amber Heard and set in 1963, the series will center around the employees (known as Bunnies) of the first Playboy Club in Chicago. Prediction: 6 episodes.
Prime Suspect: Prime Suspect is an American police procedural television drama starring Maria Bello, and is described as a “re-imagining” of the British series by the same name. Prediction: One season.
Up All Night: Starring Christina Applegate, Maya Rudolph, and Will Arnett, the show centers around a couple who struggle to balance their home lives (especially with their newborn child, Amy) and their work lives. Prediction: Two seasons.
Whitney: The series follows the titular character (Whitney Cummings), an opinionated woman and her very-supportive live-in boyfriend. Even though the two have decided that they will not commit to marriage, she does question how committed they are in their 5-year relationship and tries to go as far to prove a point; she begins to fear what she sees as “relationship boredom” and worries what will happen next that could possibly end her relationship. Prediction: 11 episodes.
CBS
Unforgettable: The series follows a former New York City police detective named Carrie Wells, who suffers from hyperthymesia, a rare medical condition that gives her the ability to remember everything. She is reluctantly asked by her former boyfriend and one-time partner to join his homicide unit after he asks for help with solving a case. The move allows her to do the one thing she has been trying to remember, that of finding out how her sister was murdered. Prediction: Three episodes.
Person of Interest: Mr. Finch (Michael Emerson), a mysterious billionaire, has developed a computer program that predicts the identity of people connected to violent crimes that will take place in the future. However, the program has its limitations: for example, it cannot predict whether the person will be a victim, perpetrator, or witness, nor can it predict when or where the crime will take place. Unable to stop the crimes on his own, Finch hires John Reese (Jim Caviezel), a former CIA agent who is presumed dead, to help stop the crimes from taking place. Prediction: Three seasons.
A Gifted Man With Julie Benz and Patrick Wilson, the show centers on an ultra-competitive surgeon whose life is changed forever when his ex-wife dies and begins teaching him what life is all about from the here-after. Prediction: 8 episodes.
2 Broke Girls: Set in New York City, the series chronicles the lives of two waitresses in their twenties—Max (Kat Dennings), who comes from a poor working-class family, and Caroline (Beth Behrs), who was born rich but is now down on her luck—working together at a Brooklyn restaurant. Prediction: 12 episodes.
How to Be a Gentleman: The series chronicles the friendship between an uptight columnist (David Hornsby) and his more freewheeling trainer (Kevin Dillon). Prediction: 6 episodes.
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Comments
Posted by: Ghisent at September 13, 2011 3:06 PM
Man Up: The series revolves around the lives of three guys (including Dan Fogler) with questionable childish behavior and lifestyles who decide its time to do the one thing they had forgotten to do: act like real men. Also stars Teri Polo.
That's the saddest thing I've read in a long time.
What's the story with "Awake," that weird alternate-universe cop show with Lucius Malfoy? That was the most interesting TV trailer I've seen in a while.
(That one comes out mid-season. It does look intriguing. -- DR)