Monday, September 14, 2015

TV: What the decade's demonstrated thus far

If the '10s have demonstrated anything TV wise, it's how little any one knows what they're doing.

For example, NBC stopped airing HEROES in February 2010 and, having nothing to really fill out their schedule since, they're bringing it back as HEROES REBORN on September 24th.

Or take Fox which ended 24 in May of 2010 only to bring it back as 24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY in the spring and summer of 2013 and was seen as a hit.  Fox also took the axe to FRINGE -- which finished airing Januayr 18, 2013.  Their new series since haven't had the devoted following that FRINGE did.

The CW took an axe to NIKITA in December 2013.

For three full seasons, NIKITA delivered ratings that The CW doesn't see -- not even with the over praised and over promoted JANE THE VIRGIN.

Time and again, the '10s have seen fan favorites -- like HART OF DIXIE -- cancelled and the networks bring on new shows which deliver even smaller audiences than the ones they replaced.

ABC is freaking out over BLOOD AND OIL.

They took an axe to REVENGE failing to grasp that it was delivering an audience.

BLOOD AND OIL?

Against the CBS line up, this tired soap opera -- that ABC once tried to palm off on the USA Network which turned its nose at the show -- is supposed to pull in viewers and do so with Don Johnson in a lead role.

Multiple rewritten pilots, multiple show running changes and various reshoots have not reassured ABC.  Nor should ABC be reassured, they made a huge mistake in cancelling REVENGE.


person of interest


Which brings up to CBS and PERSON OF INTEREST.

The network's tired and stale NCIS offerings are getting shakier and shakier -- in fact, last season's PERSON OF INTEREST posted better numbers than NCIS: LOS ANGELES.

Yet, it's PERSON OF INTEREST that CBS is only bringing back for only 13 episodes amid rumors that this will be the show's last season.

The series started off interesting enough revolving around John Reese (Jim Caviezel) recruited by Harold Finch (Michael Emerson) who invented The Machine which identifies people who are either in danger or are a danger.  Season one saw them assisted by Detective Carter (Taraji P. Henson) and Detective Fusco (Kevin Chapman).  Season one involved police corruption, among other plots, and government spying.  The spying only got more intense as did the espionage and counter-espionage.  The cast saw many additions including Shaw (Sarah Shahi) and Root (Amy Acker).

It's become one of the most intense and riveting shows on TV and CBS feels the answer is to usher it to the cancellation bin.

And this as WGN's adding the series in heavy rotation and Netflix streams increasing both awareness of the show and its popularity?

Again, the '10s have only demonstrated repeatedly that the networks keep killing off shows with audiences and replacing them with series that have even smaller audiences.  They fail to appreciate what they have and, as a result, they're losing more viewers each season.