Armchair Scheduling: The CW Fall 2012

The 2011-2012 season was a big one for The CW. Newly installed President Mark Pedowitz negotiated deals with both Netflix and Hulu to house CW content, and he made a concerted effort to limit the number of reruns on the network’s schedule by acquiring The LA Complex and ordering a handful of reality shows to fill out the summer schedule.

And yet, it’s hard not to look at this season as a failure for the network, which is down 14% year to year. After spending much of their promotional budget on Ringer, a pilot that CBS developed and discarded, they were forced to watch it open low and sink from there. Gossip Girl, once their flagship series, became their lowest rated scripted offering and the spring cycle of America’s Next Top Model was so poorly received that Tyra Banks chose to fire all those involved. In light of this, it’s easy to understand why Pedowitz ordered a record high 8 pilots with an eye towards giving as many as 6 of them the greenlight to series. Below, I try to sort out where your favorite CW shows will land of the network’s fall schedule.

Armchair Scheduling: NBC Fall 2012

Unlike its competitors, NBC has been much more open about its plans this pilot season. They gave an early order to the Matthew Perry fronted Go On and allowed at least 3 other comedy pilots to begin staffing. On the drama side, they’ve played things closer to the vest. Returning favorites like Parenthood and Law & Order: SVU has yet to receive official pickups nor have high profile pilots from their respective creators. The peacock network did, however, give early renewals to Smash and Grimm with the intention of launching both in August out of the summer Olympics.

A flurry of news coming out of NBC today suggests that they could be finalizing a number of things by the end of the day, in which case this post will be need to be edited. Until then, this is my best guess of how NBC’s schedule will look in the fall.

Armchair Scheduling: ABC Fall 2012

ABC rebounded this year under the stewardship of Paul Lee. In his first full year as Entertainment Chief, Lee successfully launched two new dramas (Once Upon a Time, Revenge) and two new comedies (Last Man Standing, Suburgatory). Sure there were bumps along the road (I’m looking at you Work It) but, for the most part, the 2011-2012 season was good to ABC. Moving forward, the network has a better sense of their core competency, soap operas. Down below, I take a look at how ABC’s fall schedule may look.

Armchair Scheduling: CBS Fall 2012

My predictions continue with TV’s highest rated network, CBS. In March, CBS issued a mass renewal announcement that included 15 of their current series. Still, they have a handful of bubble series that could be awarded atypical episode orders and a few buzz worthy pilots that could shake up the television landscape. Down below, I explore what their fall schedule may look like.

Armchair Scheduling: FOX Fall 2012

It’s been a while since I last posted but, with Upfront Week right around the corner, I thought it would be a good time to weigh in on how the fall schedules of each broadcast network may look. Last year, I started writing up these posts almost a month out, but this year that would have been nearly impossible, given the number of pilots that were turned in late and the dearth of shows earning early renewals. Even now, there are still a number of veteran series without pickups that I wouldn’t consider typical bubble shows.

Not unlike last spring, FOX has the fewest decisions to make. With a revamped X-Factor taking up 3 hours of real estate, and returning shows on every single night, they’re not likely to have more than 2 hours of new content to program. Below, I try to sort out how their schedule will look come fall.

Tip Of The Cap/Wag Of The Finger: 2011 In TV

When I posted my list of the Top 10 TV Shows of 2011 on Saturday, I mentioned that there was another TV post on the horizon, wherein I planned to discuss the shows that narrowly missed my list as well as some of the worst offerings from this past year. After a bit of debate, I decided that another list simply wouldn’t suffice. Instead, I’ve chosen to take the “tip of the cap/wag of the finger approach.” Those of you who read TV Guide should be familiar with the format, as they use it for their Cheers and Jeers column. If this style of commentary is one that you guys enjoy, let me know in the comment section, and I’ll try to make it a somewhat regular feature of the site.

2011: A Year In Television

As I expressed in my recap of 2011 in music, I think listing art is a somewhat silly exercise. Still, as someone who started this blog to talk about television, I felt like I should share my thoughts on this year in TV.

Last year, I lamented the incredibly weak crop of fall pilots and the continuing erosion of broadcast ratings. Neither of those problems were really solved in 2011, though ratings seem to have stabilized for the time being. But, even with a less than stellar crop of new series on the network side, there were a handful of new treasures and even more returning favorites stepping up their game.

If all goes according to plan, I should have a piece up early next week praising individual performances and shows that missed my Top 10, but I wanted to make sure to get my list of this year’s best up before the ball dropped. So, without further ado, I give you my Top 10 TV Shows of 2011.

2011: A Year In Music

The slew of year end lists that tend to consume the internet never ceases to amuse me. Ranking art is in many ways a pointless exercise. My list of 2011’s best (insert art form here) will never be the same as yours. Still, as HitFix columnist Melinda Newman expressed in her Top Albums of 2011 piece, best of lists offer the opportunity to expose readers to music that they might not  have listened to otherwise.

Over the last two weeks, I’ve read upwards of twenty Best Albums of 2011 lists to familiarize myself with any albums that I might have missed during the calendar year. Some, like Wild Flag’s eponymous debut, P.J. Harvey’s Let England Shake, and Radiohead’s The King of Limbs garnered admiration from me more than adulation, which is why they don’t appear on my list. Others, like Common’s The Dreamer/The Believer, Robin Thicke’s Love and War and M83’s Hurry Up We’re Dreaming I simply didn’t get to sit with long enough to include.

The list below is reflective of my year in music. It features 40 terrific albums that I implore you to seek out, if you haven’t already. Remember, Spotify is your friend.

We Bought A Zoo: Worthy Of Awards Attention And Your Money

If you happen to follow the Oscar Derby as closely as I do, it helps to have a horse in the race. Obsessing over which 5-10 films the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters will select is significantly less interesting when you’re not rooting for a particular film. To give you a better idea of what I mean, I’ve included a brief list of the films I’ve campaigned for the last 5 years.

A Musing On Misogyny In Rap Music

Earlier this morning, Think Progress’ Alyssa Rosenberg posted an article accusing rapper Childish Gambino (Donald Glover) of blatant misogyny. In the piece, Ms. Rosenberg goes to great lengths to illustrate her point, citing several different songs and outlining the specific lines in those songs that she found most offensive. The evidence is all there, and yet I couldn’t help but disagree with the thesis of her piece.