ABC
One thing ABC changed in the 2017-18 TV season was Sunday and trying to figure out what to do with it. So they've gone with more reality/game/variety programming instead of drama, except in the last hour slot. A Change for the next season is instead they've gone with no drama on Sunday at all and focused on the other mode that worked for them. "American Idol" gave them a saving hope for Sundays and they've expanded on that with "Dancing With the Stars : Juniors" (kind of joining NBC on the kid train.)
A.B.C = All Big Comedy ? ABC has in recent years been focused on comedy where 2/3rd of Tuesday and Wednesday are comedy series. Meaning 4 hours a week of their schedule are devoted to comedy. They had Friday nights but had to move a drama off Sunday , "Once Upon a Time" and Friday was there. Read why "Last Man Standing" and "Dr.Ken" ended. In the next season they are replacing the long running "The Middle" (which was part of ABC's double down on comedy) and replacing a show they tried but they felt didn't work. read: "Alex Inc." Friday gets comedy again with long runners , "Fresh off the Boat", and "Speechless". They like to use strong comedy as a launch pad for new series. The series that followed "Modern Family", the series that followed "The Middle" for example. "The Goldbergs" and "Black-ish" say hello. The new seasons of "Roseanne" is their well high rated series , and so of course use that as a lead series. "The Kids Are Alright" gets that honor. "Black-ish" isn't being used as a launch pad this season because the series following it proved it's chance already. "Splitting Up Together". Wednesday has it's lead comedies of "The Goldbergs" and "Modern Family". A returning series takes the slot after The Goldbergs - "American Housewife" , while after 'Modern' is a new series so, once again being used as a launch pad. "Modern Family" isn't getting younger. Also Brad Garrett is back on network TV.
Tuesday 10/9c. ABC has had a hard time with that slot , so there is once again a new drama in that slot. "The Rookie" Question is will this be a charm for them?
The Good Doctor, sometimes a series takes off and this was one of them , so of course ABC wasn't going to mess with that even keeping it in its slot of Mondays 10/9c.
Shondaland continues. "Grey Anatomy" keeps on going and Thursdays still have Shondaland series. This year they've gone with a spin-off of 'Grey' but with fire fighters. "Station 19" while "How to Get Away with Murder" finishes up the night as per tradition. There's only 1 other series left from her company that's "For the People" , which ABC renewed," look for that at mid-season. Since Shonda Rhimes has made a deal with Netflix , that is the last new series for ABC better hold on tight.
For the most part ABC kept it the same and focused on what's reliable and what works for them.
More after the jump
CBS
Nothing to see here move on. Alright, I'm kind of joking.
CBS doesn't do radical , it's not their thing. Mondays and CBS comedy have been a thing for a long time, it's the night "Everybody Loves Raymond" used to air. They've done two hours of comedy on Monday for a long time as well. But recently, they've not had the fire on Monday unless "Big Bang Theory" was there. "Kevin Can Wait" and "Superior Donuts" were 2 series that came back from previous seasons but didn't work. While, they tried 3 new comedies on Monday in the 2017-18 season all 3 failed. Good thing "Young Sheldon" was on Thursdays, related to another series, and well-received. If 100% of the new series they tried on Monday didn't work -then it was time for a change.
Mondays in the new season will be comedy still at 8/7c and they are trying two new ones. Let's hope that CBS and Monday and Comedy all have a relationship after this. Unlike ABC, CBS doubles down on drama. (Whispers : they have series waiting in the background just in case) We get a remake of "Magnum P.I" on Mondays at 9/8c , this comes after CBS' remake of "Hawaii Five-O", "S.W.A.T" and whatever "MacGyver" is supposed to be.
No more expensive simulcast of a football game that they only get for part of the season, that also airs on another source as well. And Thursdays are still funny. Thursday Night Football was part of CBS schedule for sometime but now that's gone and they get some room to breathe. No more having to hokey-pokey "The Big Bang Theory" from Mondays to Thursdays. They are also playing it safe no new* comedies on that night. "The Big Bang Theory" (final season?) , "Young Sheldon" ,and "Mom". Then they've brought back a series that ended in 1998 for its 11 th season. Joining the club that ABC and NBC have done , "Murphy Brown" is back. Will it pay off? Only the future knows. *new to someone
I say, that CBS plays to what they know works for them, crime drama's /police procedurals take up most of their drama slate. They have a new drama that they hope the title won't sound to outdated if it makes it 10 years. "God Friended Me".
Look at this description :
A podcast-hosting, self-proclaimed "pesky atheist who wants to make you think" (Brandon Micheal Hall) isn't so sure what to think when he's friended by God on Facebook and then poked to help strangers for reasons that aren't immediately clear. The truth is there's more to this story than our hero or anyone else knows.That's a 2010 description of a series that sounds like someone just learned about Facebook. Hope the show's better than the description.
They put it on Sundays, they seem to be the only network really focused on Sundays still.
CBS plays it safe and hopes they can stay "America's Most Watched Network".
FOX
Burn everything.
Late last year, the parent company of the FOX network decided that they don't want a movie studio, television studio, cable networks that aren't news or sports networks (non regional) anymore. If that sale happens then they will be a network partying like it's 1975. Back when networks weren't allowed to be owned with TV /Movie studios. Ironic, since FOX is the reason why that rule is gone.
The recent trend over the years has been for networks to look inward and buy series from their own sister studios and not go outside. (More on that soon)
Thursday Night Football, FOX decided (NBC and CBS said it was too rich for their blood) to pick up the simulcast of NFL Network's Thursday Night Football that's also shared with Amazon. They don't have to share it with another network like NBC and CBS did, well besides NFL network , who also still has some exclusive games because NFL. Live Sports is maybe where Fox wants to be if their deal goes through. Plus they get the cheap easy NFL ratings , (well unless they drop again).
Sunday Sunday Sunday. The Simpsons won't die , Family Guy won't die. (this is not an insult to fans) The past few years their Sunday line up was try a new comedy after the Simpsons and another new live-action comedy after Family Guy. Only a few made it. "Last Man on Earth", "Brooklyn Nine Nine" (The latter moved to Tuesdays). Otherwise, it's been a failure. Finally (bias) after years of weirdly putting it on where it could be preempted by Sunday afternoon football double headers, "Bob's Burgers" gets to be on at 8:30/7:30c. They are also trying a new comedy at 9:30/8:30c called "Rel".
Brookyln Bye Bye Hello. Fox cleaned house, "Last Man on Earth", "The Mick", and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" were canceled. Along with some of the series they tried on Sunday that didn't work. 'Brooklyn' got a reprieve because its production company is Universal Television and NBC is co-owned so 2+2=4. Fox picked up "Last Man Standing" and no this show or the other two mentioned weren't canceled because of this coming back. "Last Man Standing" is made by 20th Television (their sister studio) and so it was a match made in heaven.
Vikki Lawrence is back. Hey Fox picked up a show starting Vikki Lawrence.
They aren't edgy anymore. With the pick ups of "Last Man Standing" and "The Cool Kids" there have messages of "FOX is no longer the network of edgy comedy or etc" To say it FOX hasn't been edgy since "Family Guy" was revived. "The Simpsons" aren't that show that grabs headlines much anymore unless FOX promos it, "Family Guy" doesn't get that outrage machine going anymore, FOX became a main stream network a long time ago, it's just now people notice it. "Brooklyn Nine Nine" wasn't a FOX series it just happened to be on FOX. When NBC's head said the series fits better on NBC than on Fox (source) , he's right it's pretty much an NBC style series that happened to be on FOX.
It's hard for a network to be edgy anymore when Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, cable channels can do it more. Also I hate that word.
Mostly Drama. Fox's line up minus Friday and Sunday are drama (Thursday after Football will be Drama) "Empire" and "Star" get Wednesday. The dramas they have fit the network's identity its made for itself more than the comedies.
Gordon Ramsay. He' still has a lot of series on the network, they aren't focused on reality as much as they used to be but he seems to be their main stay when they do.
NBC
Playing it safe also. Everyone, besides FOX is playing it safe and fitting to their own network identities.
The Voice. It got to face up against a revived "American Idol" and did fine. The series is also still used a launch pad for what NBC hopes is their next big thing. So, they added a new drama called "Manifest" to follow it on Mondays.
"This is US" Weirdly, NBC could have moved the show to Thursday this season, without that Football problem but they'd rather not . Last year , they tried but quickly changed their minds. (You can read last year's upfront on this blog to see what I mean) This show is still their hit and they are using it to launch another series a medical drama called "New Amsterdam"
The Night Chicago. Dick Wolf's Chicago series of shows now get a whole night to themselves.
Law and Order 20 years. Law and Order : SVU moves to Thursdays and it's on it's 20th season (tying it's parent series).
Only one night of Football. Tired of writing about Football. NBC along with CBS gave up on Thursday Night Football. Sunday Night continues and NBC hopes that the ratings don't fall again.
"Must See TV" Thursdays still focus on comedy for 2 hours. They've had faith in their revival of "Will and Grace" by giving it a 2 season renewal. Brooklyn Nine-Nine moves to the network, taking a mid season run. They've only added one new series for comedy night and they have some series in storage just in case.
Summer moves. NBC has moved two summer series "World of Dance" and "Midnight Texas" moved from summer to the main season. "Texas" getting a slot in the fall, and "Dance" getting the post football Sunday let's fight ABC slot. Is an interesting thing to do.
The CW
One more night. In the fall of 2009 the CW after not having the best experience on Sunday Nights ended that and went to a 5 night a week schedule , now it's back. Though it will be shorter than the 5 hours it was during the WB/ early CW days.
They've decided to have "Supergirl" take the lead for the night , followed by a remake of "Charmed".
Will it work for them this time?
Remake station. While reviving shows seems to be a trend, remaking them is even easier I guess, the CW has decided to remake "Charmed", "Roswell" ( as Roswell, New Mexico) with already remaking "Dynasty". Ironic that the series they picked up as remakes this time , the originals aired on the network the CW replaced, the WB. (Or in Charmed's case both The WB and UPN) The hard thing about remaking a series is hoping that new viewers will like it and fans of the original series don't get mad at it for existing.
Still Heroic. The new series the CW picked up for this season aren't more new super-hero based series maybe it's because they don't want burn out or D.C is launching a new streaming service (because why not?) But the CW is still a network with super hero and or DC based shows on a lot of nights on their network. Because if it works it stays.
Franchised. Vampire Diaries was one of the CW's longest running (that didn't begin on the WB ) series running from 2009 to 2017. So of course, they wanted to hang on that success and they created a spin off called "The Originals" but that's ending after 5 years so they wanted to continue the Vampire Diaries legacy. That's where "Legacies" comes in and that new series they hope will carry on the mantel.
Overall
Identities. All the networks have an identity. "Blue Bloods" fits with CBS, if that show were moved to ABC,NBC,FOX,or the CW it would look out of place. The networks pick shows that fit their crafted identities they've worked hard to look at. Is strange that "Roseanne" which aired on ABC in the 1990's still fits well on ABC in the 2010's , but it would definitely be out of place on CBS.
Re-(vive, make,boots) . CBS, The CW, ABC,and ABC all have at least on series that's a revival season of a series that ended 20 years ago, or remakes of series that ended over 20 years ago. The question is will the success of the new season of "Roseanne" inspire more revival seasons? This season may answer that question. Will "Murphy Brown" attract ? At the same time what can be revived? It is harder than you think, than say remaking a show with you can get a new cast and write new stories that have nothing to do with the original series.
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