No discussion of the 2009-10 season would be complete without the success story that is Fox's musical-comedy Glee. While some signs of backlash have begun to emerge, the 20th Century Fox Television-produced show has already made stars of its ensemble cast and propelled veteran actor Jane Lynch to the A-list. Over two million Glee singles have been downloaded on iTunes and the show won both a Peabody Award and the Golden Globe for best television series (in the musical or comedy category). Despite airing opposite the final season of ABC's Lost, Glee returned from a lengthy hiatus in April to score its highest audience to date (13.66 million viewers overall) and the cast performed for President Barack Obama at the White House. Not bad for a freshman series by any stretch, much less one that received a third season renewal… before the first season had even wrapped.
Exiting the sinking ship that was NBC, the former Tonight Show host managed to walk away with not only his dignity intact but also the respect and adoration of his millions of devoted fans, launching a sold-out national comedy tour (the proceeds of which went to the staffers whose jobs ended the Tonight Show was unceremoniously handed back to Jay Leno) and signing on to host a late-night talk show on cable channel TBS, a major move designed to show in no uncertain terms just how much clout cable has today. (His TBS show is set to launch this fall.) O'Brien may have lost the rights to the Masturbating Bear, but O'Brien proved that it's possible to retain your sense of humor in the face of professional adversity and that living well is the best revenge.
While the resurgence of comedy programming may not quite have arrived as anticipated (the same number of comedies are on the fall schedules as a year ago), every comedy writer needs to acknowledge their debt of thanks to Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd's winsome and relatable family comedy Modern Family, which premiered to boffo numbers last fall and wrapped its freshman season as a critical and audience darling. No small feat for ABC, given its struggle in recent years to produce a comedy hit. Modern Family's sharp writing, well-drawn characters, and universal appeal have given ABC a strong lynchpin for its Wednesday night comedy block, and gives the audience an intelligent, hysterical, and emotionally resonant show that both families and singles can enjoy in equal measure. Television—especially network comedy—is a better place thanks to the presence of the Pritchett-Dunphy clan.
Fox hasn't had much luck on Thursdays against NBC's critically acclaimed comedy block and CBS' Survivor and CSI. This season, Fox scheduled quirky dramas Bones and Fringe on the night and walked away with a potent one-two punch that has given the network some much needed traction on a highly competitive evening. Procedural crime drama Bones—which reached its milestone 100th episode this season (with an episode that depicted the first meeting between David Boreanaz's Booth and Emily Deschanel's Brennan) and trippy sci-fi drama Fringe—have done something impossible: they're remaining intact on the schedule next season, the first time Fox has kept its Thursday night lineup in place in some time. That's a huge vote of confidence in both shows, which have proven themselves quite willing to take risks of their own, following two stellar seasons. The only thing missing: an Emmy nod for Fringe's criminally overlooked John Noble.
While Robert and Michelle King's drama The Good Wife started off as a standard courtroom show meshed with a take on the Eliot Spitzer sex scandal, it quickly morphed into a serialized drama about the choices we make and how the consequences can affect everyone around us, exploring the damaged marriage between Julianna Margulies' dutiful wife Alicia Florrick and scandalized state's attorney Peter (Chris Noth), all set amid a series of gripping cases. Landing an early second season renewal, The Good Wife looks to stir things up even more by making recurring guest star Alan Cumming a series regular. The show has scored well with critics and viewers, who regularly bring more than 12 million total viewers to the show each week, and is the first breakout hit at 10 p.m. in recent memory, making this wife more great than merely good.
One of the great success stories of the summer has to be that of Fox’s procedural drama Lie to Me. When it launched it its first season, it scored breakout numbers but the second season returned to some middling numbers last fall, leading Fox to pull the Tim Roth-led series from the schedule and schedule it during the summer, even as it had ordered additional episodes. The move seems to have worked, as did bringing in The Shield creator Shawn Ryan to take over showrunning duties on the second season: the back half of the sophomore season returned with more than 6 million viewers and, over the course of the next ten episodes, consistently delivered more than 5 million viewers, no small feat for a first-run scripted drama airing during the summer. The ratings and creative were so strong, in fact, that Fox opted to renew Lie to Me for a third season… and is bringing it back to the regular season rotation. Season 3 of Lie to Me is slated to return in November.
For the first time ever, action-comedy Chuck managed to secure a renewal before its season wrapped, a first in the show's three-year history. This time, the show's ardent fans didn't even have to concoct a Subway campaign to bring the show back on NBC's schedule—and NBC wisely realized that it needed to launch Season 4 of Chuck in the fall, rather than delay it until midseason. Creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak also bucked the trend by throwing star-crossed lovers Chuck (Zachary Levi) and Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) into a full-blown relationship… and the show didn't implode like Moonlighting as a result. Here's to hoping NBC realizes it has a crowd—and critic—pleasing show that scores well in the key demo on Mondays at 8 pm, a tough hour for any network, and gives the show a full-season order.
While critics have lobbed barbed remarks at Undercover Boss, CBS' feel-good reality series (which is based on a British reality format) has steamrolled the competition this year, building on the ratings of Sunday night lead-in The Amazing Race to deliver a staggering average of more than 17 million total viewers per episode, becoming the highest-rated new series of the 2009-10 season. (CBS' post-Super Bowl premiere nabbed nearly 40 million total viewers.) While one can't help wondering why employees of various companies are gullible enough to believe that a camera-trailing newbie asking questions isn't suspicious, Undercover Boss has proven so popular that the network has ordered a second season of CEOs going undercover to infiltrate their own companies. How these high-level managers will manage to remain undetected for a second season remains a mystery to many but if viewers remain hooked, CBS might have a long-term hit on their hands.
Jason Katims' ode to the joys and frustrations of being a parent, Parenthood (itself based on the 1989 feature film by Ron Howard), had some major obstacles to overcome before it reached the screen in March, most notably the delay caused by the health-related departure of actress Maura Tierney (who was later replaced by Lauren Graham), the death of studio executive Nora O'Brien, and the fact that the Universal Media Studios-produced drama was going to have to fill in a gap created by the cancellation of The Jay Leno Show at 10 p.m. on Tuesdays. Mixed reviews have given way to an appreciation for the low-key and emotive drama, with close to 6 million viewers tuning in on a regular basis. Despite ordering 12 new shows for fall and midseason, Parenthood earned a second season, the only one of NBC's crop of scripted freshman dramas to do so.
It's a tricky proposition to launch a procedural spinoff, much less from a show that's itself already a spinoff, but NCIS did that successfully this season with the smash hit NCIS: Los Angeles, created by Shane Brennan. NCIS: Los Angeles—which stars Chris O'Donnell, LL Cool J, Daniela Ruah, Peter Cambor, Adam Jamal Craig, Barrettt Foa, and Linda Hunt—moved the action to the West Coast and continued the original's patented blend of mystery and action, scoring between 15-17 million total viewers each week. Airing both NCIS offerings back-to-back has given CBS a valuable and highly competitive two-hour block on Tuesdays for the first time in years, as well as a potent lead-in for drama The Good Wife at 10 p.m.
While the CW's new drama offerings fizzled this season, it did have one new show that sizzled: the supernatural drama The Vampire Diaries, which managed to fuse together soapy romantic plots and Gothic trappings--and build on the public's seemingly insatiable desire for vampires, thanks to Twilight and HBO's True Blood. The steamy drama—created by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec—has quickly made sex symbols out of leads Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder, and Nina Dobrev and kept captivated viewers. Produced by Warner Bros. Television, the show has drawn an average of 3.66 million viewers this season.
ABC seemed dead-set on making serialized sci-fi drama FlashForward—based loosely on the novel by Robert L. Sawyer—their best shot at a replacement for Lost, which was wrapped up its six-season run this month. Like Lost, the plot revolved around a group of disparate characters who were united by a singular event, in this case, a global blackout where people glimpsed a vision of their futures six months hence. But unlike Lost, FlashForward's audience didn't get hooked on a series of incomprehensible mysteries or one-dimensional characters, even with the presence of two former Lost stars in Dominic Monaghan and Sonya Walger. Showrunner musical chairs, a reduced episodic order, a protracted hiatus, and plummeting ratings (the show was getting regularly beaten by the CW's Vampire Diaries in the key demo) led to ABC declining to order a second season. Which producers should have seen in their own flash-forwards.
Considering that superhero drama Heroes was one of the mainstays of NBC's schedule and had even been named one of the 10 best series of the year by the American Film Institute (for its freshman season), it's shocking to see just how far the show had fallen. Season 4 of Heroes, panned by viewers and critics alike, averaged a paltry 5.9 million total viewers, a far cry from the Season 1 heyday of nearly 14 million. While rumors swirled that NBC would renew the show in order to obtain some much needed international coin, the network ultimately opted to end the show altogether, citing production costs. At press time, series creator Tim Kring and NBC are in discussions about developing a two-hour movie to wrap up the show's dangling storylines but it's clear that the viewers have long since moved on.
Not a good year overall for the once unstoppable medical drama genre, with no less than four offerings— Trauma, Mercy, Miami Medical, and Three Rivers—all tanking in the ratings. While NBC tried its hardest to find an audience for ratings-challenged Trauma and Mercy—even ordering additional installments of Trauma beyond the initial 13 episodes and bringing in former Dawson's Creek star James Van Der Beek to spice up Mercy—both of them were axed by the network at the end of the season after hovering ominously around the 5-6 million viewer mark. CBS didn't have much luck either, pulling transplant drama Three Rivers (or Tres Rios as it was nicknamed by critics) after just eight episodes, and watching as Jerry Bruckheimer-executive produced drama Miami Medical was DOA on Friday nights this spring. Even ABC's Grey's Anatomy has been off this season, pointing towards possible viewer fatigue for the category.
Coming off of a moderately successful revival of teen drama 90210, the CW was hoping that nostalgia would bring audiences back to another famous Los Angeles address, Melrose Place, an update of the once iconic Fox nighttime soap that featured gasp-inducing storylines—faked deaths, exploding apartment complexes, multiple-personality-based mayhem—that stretched credibility even as they kept Americans glued to their televisions. Entrusting oversight of the soap to former Smallville writer-producers Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer, the CW didn't foresee the apathy that greeted this pale imitation of the original. Even with a huge promotional splash, only 2.3 million viewers tuned in to the premiere. Despite the return of Heather Locklear's Amanda, ratings continued to decline, with fewer than one million viewers by the time its season ended. Unsurprisingly, the CW canceled the show, officially shuttering Melrose Place in May.
Every now and then a show comes along that is so absolutely mind-boggling that it's hard to imagine just how it got greenlighted in the first place. This season, that show was incomprehensible murder mystery/sci-fi/supernatural drama Happy Town, from creators Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, and Scott Rosenberg, a kitchen sink drama that was overflowing with bizarre symbolism, oddball characters, and creepy mysteries but didn't hold a candle to the series that obviously inspired it, David Lynch and Mark Frost's gloriously creepy/cool Twin Peaks. Just over 5 million viewers tuned in for the first episode; viewership dropped off by more than 2 million by the third episode, prompting ABC to yank it off the schedule. Currently, the network intends to burn off the remaining episodes this summer and it's a forgone conclusion that ABC made the right decision to axe this show.
While Conan O'Brien walked away the winner in the public opinion race after the late night debacle this past season at NBC, Jay Leno didn't quite walk away unscathed. Beside for the very public failure of The Jay Leno Show at 10 p.m., Leno was widely perceived as stealing back The Tonight Show from O'Brien after pledging five years earlier to a hand-over in 2009. Comedians didn't take kindly to the perceived slight and the public began to see Leno in less than favorable terms. However, there were upsides to the 10 p.m. debacle: Leno's failure provoked NBC into a period of strong and proactive development this season. Additionally, Leno's own return to Tonight did have an unexpected twist: ratings are up.
ABC's reimagining of the classic 1980s sci-fi series V got off to a promising start but its momentum was defused by a number of factors, including behind-the-scenes drama with producers and an exceptionally lengthy hiatus after the first four episodes–it was off the air for four months. When V returned at the end of March at 10 p.m., airing after Lost, it struggled to bring its initial audience back. New showrunner Scott Rosenbaum turned up the volume the final two installments offered gripping status quo-altering action-adventure and an unpredictability that had been missing from the early episodes... and the show itself saw an uptick in ratings, landing roughly 5.5 million viewers in the end, a far cry from the 14.3 million who tuned into the pilot. Still, ABC gave V a second season, though another midseason launch will likely erode viewing figures further still.
Once unstoppable American Idol proved itself to be quite stoppable this season, as the aging music competition series stumbled in the ratings. Was it the addition of new judge Ellen DeGeneres, replacing wild card Paula Abdul? Staid and charmless contestants? Whatever the reason, Fox needs to find a way of fixing the franchise, with judge Simon Cowell set to move onto nascent competition series X Factor next year. It's never a good sign when the producers turn to the audience to fix a flagging show, but that's just what Idol did, inviting viewers to fill out a lengthy survey designed to improve the show when it returns next year. Given Fox's use of Idol as a springboard to launch new programming, the network has to find a way to stem the tide as ratings were off nine percent this year alone.
One of NBC's efforts to fill the 10 p.m. timeslot vacated by Jay Leno was reality series The Marriage Ref, from executive producer Jerry Seinfeld, in which three celebrities acted as a panel of experts as married couples sought help for solving ongoing (and often inane) arguments that had cropped up in their relationship. Critics savaged the show, wondering just how Jerry Seinfeld could put his name on something so unfunny, while ratings slipped with each showing, dropping from 14 million viewers for its premiere to less than half of that three episodes later, despite the presence of such celebrities as Larry David, Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Ricky Gervais. Still, NBC renewed it for a second season… which means more pointless arguments and leaden jokes next season.
Both action-drama Human Target and crime procedural Lie to Me found themselves on the bubble for renewal this year. Both shows generated much positive buzz—and good-will among critics—but generated lackluster ratings, with Lie to Me getting yanked from the schedule to return this summer. Yet Fox gave both a vote of confidence by renewing both for the 2010-11 season. Former Chuck writer/producer Matt Miller has signed on as the new showrunner for Human Target next season, while Lie to Me will say goodbye to Shawn Ryan, who will depart to oversee his new series, cop drama Ride-Along. The success or failure of both shows could determine whether Fox will continue its strategy of developing strong character-driven procedurals as well as genre-specific programming such as Human Target, based on a Vertigo comic series.
While Ghost Whisperer and Old Christine couldn't be more different—one is a supernatural drama about a spirit medium and the other is a kooky divorcee who sees potential mates rather than ghosts—both aging series were axed by CBS this month. What was surprising is that ratings were still decent for both, and that CBS would cancel them knowing that a rival network—ABC in this case—is standing by in the wings to pick them up. While no deals have been reached at press time, it seems as though discussions are ongoing between ABC and the shows' respective studios about crossing over. Whether ABC can turn them from middling performers into hits remains to be seen, especially as Scrubs sank when it jumped from NBC.
