Mad about TV

This week are the network tv upfronts where they tell the public about what's on this fall. It's a time for shows to finally get renewed or cancelled. It's a time to show us what looks good and what's worth recording (or TiVo-ing if you're into TiVo).

However this time around, there's been nothing (as of yet) to get super excited about.

Friday Night Lights was renewed (YAY!) but it's been put to a crappy timeslot at 8pm on Fridays. Seriously? Fridays? Thanks, NBC for bringing back a quality show-- one that needs to get viewers, but already has the critics on their side. What better way to get viewers than to put a great show on Friday night when almost no one is watching TV!!! Why did you have to bring it back, NBC, if you were going to put it in a suicide timeslot? Just so you can get all of us who are hooked even more invested and then you'll take it off your schedule after a few bad ratings?

CBS canceled Jericho. Another good show, that yes, maybe was slow after the long hiatus, but was a good show. So now we'll never know what could happen after a nuclear holocaust. The season (now series) finale left us with them fighting it out to save their town-- a little Angel-esque, but even Angel is finishing the story in comic books. CBS says that Jericho wasn't performing even though it had a pretty solid following in the beginning. CBS shouldn't have waited so long to put it back on the air (ABC did the same with Lost and got the same results-- but would you cancel Lost? Of course not.) Maybe the network execs shouldn't put such long breaks in the middle of intense tv shows.

ABC took Men in Trees off of the schedule this spring and didn't let them finish their season... even though they had finally gotten viewers after Grey's Anatomy (don't even get me started on that crappy show). So they brought Men in Trees back (yay!) but also put it's original timeslot of 10pm on Friday. Really? When it didn't get a good following in it's first run in that timeslot? The network knows it doesn't work, so why try it again?

I'm still waiting to hear if my other show on the bubble, Supernatural, will be coming back to the CW. I mean, it's the CW... what ELSE will they put on that network?? Chances are with the way things are going... another good show will bite the dust.

But what's in store for the fall? Prepare yourselves for another slew of television's worst -- 2 shows based on Lipstick Jungle? Didn't we already have Sex and the City?? A spin off of America's Co-Dependent Women, I mean, Grey's Anatomy? A show based on the Geico cavemen? Do you think it'll be funny beyond a 30 second commercial?

ABC Fall Preview
NBC Fall Preview
CBS Fall Preview


I don't think that network executives actually watch tv. How did they feel when their favorite tv show got dumped from the schedule in the middle of the season? How about when they became invested in one really good show only to have it pulled in the second season?

While I will be giving up on TV next year because of studying (we'll see how that works out)... am I really going to be missing anything important? Have the network execs really given up on providing quality television for whatever next celebrity reality show sells (really, Skating with Stars)? Will there be anything other than CSIs -- maybe a CSI: NO ONE REALLY CARES? Can we see something other than America's youth embarassing themselves over trying to be the next idol, model, etc? Somehow I think I'll get out of school and still see the same crap television that's just recycled and repackaged for the next year. Great...

UPDATE: Supernatural was renewed. :) Yay!