FOX is a long, long way from atoning for the cancellation of Firefly, Wonderfalls, and others, but they did manage -- contrary to what years of bad decision making would lead us to suspect -- to make two good decisions in the last day or two.
One, they picked up Arrested Development, the funniest comedy on television, for its third season.
Two, they avoided letting 24 slip to another network, renewing it for two more seasons.
ABC, on the other hand, has some splainin' to do. They announced their fall schedule today, and have chosen to feed Alias to the wolves next season. Alias will air on Thursdays at 8:00/7:00 C&M. For those that maybe don't have electricity in their homes on Thursdays, that's the time slot dominated by Survivor, filled respectably (ratings-wise) by Joey, and (pending FOX's schedule announcement later this week) also fought over by The OC. Plus, the WB has "proudly" announced they're moving Smallville into the same time slot. I'm sorry, but when a person who owns two TiVos (that would be me) is complaining about a TV pileup, there are some serious issues.
Add in Jennifer Garner's rumored pregnancy, sure to cause some creative difficulties for the show if true, and you can virtually guarantee next season will be the last for Alias. Though, to be honest, if it slips again and loses any of the quality they've managed to reclaim in the last few weeks, it's surely for the best.
Oh... and almost forgot... ABC is bumping Lost an hour later on Wednesday nights next season. Where it would be airing opposite The West Wing, except that NBC has elected to move that to Sunday. (Thankfully, they're putting it in the hour before Desperate Housewives would have ground it into mulch.)
Yes, there will be a short quiz later. Hope you took notes.
6 comments:
A year or two ago, I read rumors of a single DVR box that recorded five live feeds and allowed a sixth for viewing recorded programs. Given the fractured, contentious nature of the current television market, such an invention couldn't come sooner.
I'll probably go into more detail of the upfronts on my own blog, but I agree that Alias and Smallville are being set up to fail. Their respective networks know these shows have little chance of gaining audiences in that slot. As our household doesn't watch anything in that slot with any regularly (sorry, Survivor bores us), we'll probably be the few who'll take a chance with Alias -- or at least TiVo it.
I doubt 24 was ever in any jeopardy of leaving Fox. Something tells me those rumors were planted to generate buzz for the upfronts.
(Heh... gonna review the post a little more carefully before clicking "publish" this time... ;-) )
Agreed, the chances of Fox actually losing 24 were probably slim to none.
Also, no need to apologize for not liking Survivor -- it's not that good. Its "watercooler" factor is greater than the sum of its parts. Or something like that. I mean, I'm pretty sure I'd never watch it by myself. But because I have a group of friends that actually likes to get together and watch it, hurling insults at the screen throughout, we get our entertainment mileage out of it.
The Amazing Race is our "reality game show" of choice, and while we happen to have a circle of close friends who follow it, we'd watch it regardless. The last two Survivor seasons we watched in full earnest were All-Star and The Australian Outback. In between, we'd infrequently follow the contest.
After swearing never to watch The Apprentice again after the second awful season, I was sucked in about three episodes in by the "street smarts vs. book smarts" setup. While the overall cast this third season was more entertaining than that of the second season, the final two contestants leave me feeling as "meh" as the final two before them. Fortunately, the finale is only one hour compared to the three-hour coldest-circle-of-hell of last year.
Speaking of 24, check out this Onion Infograph. You'll see the connection.
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