Tag Archives: full season order

Status update #4 on your favorite new and returning shows

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Before we close out the year, let’s take one more look at the survival status of your favorite shows.

CBS is a fan of the high-flying Supergirl so much so that it’s granted the Greg Berlanti-produced superhero series a full season order. The DC Comics-based drama will run for 20 episodes in its debut season.

NBC can’t get enough of Raymond Reddington. The network has renewed the James Spader vehicle The Blacklist for a fourth season ensuring its comeback next fall. The high-octane drama took a daring turn into more serialized storytelling this year and it’s reaping the rewards in the creative department. Also on the Peacock’s nice list is Dick Wolf’s latest spinoff Chicago Med; the medical procedural has been given a five-episode back order bringing its first season tally to 18 hours. Remember, ChiMed debuted late in November, so this can be considered a full season order. On its naughty list is Neil Patrick Harris’ primetime variety show Best Time Ever; it won’t be coming back for more.

Fox‘s summer breakout Wayward Pines will in fact return for a 10-episode second season. The M. Night Shyamalan-produced mystery drama based on author Blake Crouch’s novels hooked viewers with its jaw-dropping twists, fun action sequences, and most of all, its homages to The Twilight Zone and Twin Peaks. Shyamalan will return to EP, but showrunner Chad Hodge is handing off the reigns to Mark Friedman (Believe).

For more, jump after the break. Continue reading Status update #4 on your favorite new and returning shows →

Status update #3 on your favorite new and returning shows

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Many shows that premiered in the fall are about to go on a winter hiatus soon if they haven’t already, and as the seasons change it’s a good time to take our official third look at the TV landscape.

CBS isn’t ready to let go of Code Black just yet. The Marcia Gay-Harden medical procedural has received a five-episode back order, bringing its season 1 episode count to 18. Sure, it’s not a standard Back 9, but any sort of back order these days is a major sign of confidence from a network.

NBC is head over heels for Blindspot. Previously, the big ratings performer starring Jaimie Alexander and Sullivan Stapleton was granted a full season order and was handed an extra episode maxing its season 1 episode count to 23. NBC has no plans to put the kibosh on this thing. In fact, the Peacock network has gone so far as renewing the crime drama for a second season! The net is also happy with Dick Wolf’s offerings; Chicago Fire and its spinoff Chicago P.D. will also be returning for fifth and fourth seasons, respectively, next TV season. And there’s the dramedy that just keeps chugging: The Mysteries of Laura headlined by Debra Messing has been given the greenlight to pump out three additional episodes in its second season; that ups its current season’s episode count to 16.

ABC clearly holds its comedic Wednesday night lineup in high regard. The Middle, The Goldbergs, and black-ish are all seeing episode count bumps to 24 half-hour installments. Modern Family is conspicuously missing from this list, but rest assured that it too will more than likely follow suit. Elsewhere, Tuesday night comedy Fresh off the Boat nabbed a full season order plus the two episode increase bringing its final season 2 tally to 24 eps. Following all of this good news, I’ve saved a sour one for last. The alphabet network is the first to make an official cancellation among the major nets this season and the loser is Wicked City. The incredibly low-rated serial killer drama has been pulled from the schedule after airing only three episodes.

Over at CBS’ sister network The CW, freshman Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and sophomore iZombie have been allotted an additional five episodes. This increases their episode counts to 18 and 19, respectively.

No surprises here: FX wants more American Horror Story and Fargo. The two critically acclaimed series from Ryan Murphy and Noah Hawley, respectively, are solid performers for the cable station and their anthological nature fosters exciting creative overhauls every year.

Status update #2 on your favorite new and returning shows

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The TV landscape is a fickle thing as viewers decide whether or not to tune into new and returning series. With that being said, it is prime time to check back into the status of programs spanning the big networks, cable, and premium cable. Shall we?

CBS is a fan of Limitless, the new fall drama that’s based on the 2011 Bradley Cooper film; it has received the Back 9 order that lifts its episode count to a full-season 22. The same can be said for ensemble sitcom Life in Pieces.

NBC is injecting even more life into its solid performers Blindspot, Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., and Law & Order: SVU. All four dramas–including Blindspot, which was previously granted a full season order–have been allotted one extra episode, upping their respective seasons from 22 to 23 episodes. Elsewhere on the Peacock network, underperformers The Player and Truth Be Told are getting episodes taken away from them. The Wesley Snipes casino drama is seeing its episode count reduced from 13 to 9, and the barely-on-the-radar sitcom is shedding three episodes seeing its total drop from 13 to 10.

Over on FOX, Tuesday night sitcoms Grandfathered and The Grinder led by John Stamos and Rob Lowe, respectively, have both received Back 9 orders, thus sealing their fates to last at least until May of next year.

More updates from ABC, FX, AMC, Starz, and HBO after the break. Continue reading Status update #2 on your favorite new and returning shows →

Status update #1 on your favorite new and returning shows

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We’re nearly one month into the 2015 fall TV season, so there’s no better time than now to check on the status of your favorite shows, new and old. I’ll break it down by network.

At CBS, its summer fare was taken under the microscope and only one series made it out alive. Zoo, the animal-themed thriller based on the James Patterson novel starring James Wolk, is coming back for a second season next summer. Sci-fi dramas Extant and Under the Dome are ending after two and three season runs, respectively. The Halle Berry starrer underwent a creative reboot in season 2 and simply couldn’t drum up the ratings needed to continue. Dome, based on Stephen King’s novel, ran out of steam fast as the show quickly exhausted its source material.

NBC is the first network to grant a new fall series a full-season order. Blindspot, starring Jaimie Alexander as an amnesiac Jane Doe who’s covered head-to-toe in mysterious tattoos that are connected to a larger conspiracy, will live on to air a full 22-episode first season on the Peacock network. The FSO follows a pickup of nine additional scripts ordered more than a week prior. Elsewhere, Debra Messing and her crime procedural The Mysteries of Laura has been awarded five additional scripts as its second season aims to go the distance (read: May sweeps).

Fox is showering its Animation Domination fans with love by renewing cult comedy Bob’s Burgers for a seventh and eighth season. As far as new programming is concerned, and in a fairly surprising move, Fox is handing out a full-season order to the Morris Chestnut crime procedural Rosewood before making decisions on higher profile offerings like Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens and sophomore The Last Man on Earth. Rosewood‘s FSO comes a week after Fox ordered three additional scripts for it. Elsewhere, things are looking up for new sitcoms Grandfathered and The Grinder. The John Stamos and Rob Lowe comedies have both been tasked to pump out six additional scripts apiece. Monday night sci-fi drama Minority Report, on the other hand, reports a gloomy forecast; due to low ratings, the network has cut three episodes from its original 13-episode run. Episode 10, which was written as a fall finale, will now serve as a season (or series) finale, according to Deadline.

More updates from ABC, The CW, FX, and AMC after the break. Continue reading Status update #1 on your favorite new and returning shows →

ABC gives FSO to ‘Cristela’, FOX pulls ‘Red Band Society’, ‘Selfie’ moves to Hulu

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Quick update for those of you keeping score: ABC Latino sitcom Cristela is the second comedy to get a full season order this fall following ABC’s African American sitcom Black-ish.

Elsewhere, Fox is pulling hospital drama Red Band Society from its schedule after the low-rated series’ fall finale airs next week on Dec. 3. The network hasn’t officially cancelled it yet, but with its latest airing logging a dismal 0.7 rating in the adults 18-49 demo, all signs point to this being the end.

Selfie fans, are you out there? Though ABC already axed the Karen Gillan/John Cho quirky sitcom, series creator Emily Kapnek tweeted out news that the remaining six unaired episodes will see the light of day on Hulu. They will premiere on the streaming site on a weekly basis between Nov. 25 and Dec 30.

Update (12/2): Another canceled ABC rom-com, Manhattan Love Story, will also play out the remainder of its first and final season on Hulu. Starting Dec. 4 the remaining seven unaired episodes will unspool every Thursday on the streaming site.

Full season orders handed out to 5 network series; 4 others get axed [Updated 11/7]

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Good news for fans of The Eye’s older-skewing programming: four freshman series will live on to see their first season of television all the way through and they are: hacker drama Scorpion, spinoff NCIS: New Orleans, Kevin Williamson’s thriller Stalker, and Téa Leoni top-lined Madam Secretary.

“These four shows have had an immediate impact on our schedule by improving nights, winning time periods and adding more hours of success across our primetime lineup,” said Nina Tassler, CBS’ Entertainment Chairman, in a statement.

Elsewhere, The Peacock picked up The Mysterious of Laura for a full 22-episode first season.

Debra has effortlessly infused Laura with a relatability that is captivating audiences,” said Jennifer Salke, NBC’s President of Entertainment. “We can’t wait to see how Laura will continue to evolve throughout the entire season.”

And now, the sour news. Low ratings are forcing out rom-coms Manhattan Love Story (ABC) and A to Z (NBC), as well as Kate Walsh sitcom Bad Judge (NBC) and FOX’s “social experiment” reality show Utopia. MLS and Utopia were pulled from their network schedules on the dates of their cancellation (10/24 and 11/2, respectively), but in a surprise move NBC is allowing A to Z and Bad Judge finish out their original 13-episode orders. The former comedy has shot 11 of 13 episodes and the latter has produced 10. What this means is that the creatives behind them will be able to scramble together plotline bookends since they’re aware the end is in sight. A silver lining: at least these shows will air final episodes that will indeed serve as series finales with at least some closure before audiences are forced to say goodbye.

If you’re keeping count, these full season orders join previously announced pickups of ABC’s Black-ish and How to Get Away with Murder, FOX’s Gotham, and The CW’s The Flash and Jane the Virgin.

Update (11/7): ABC has cancelled rom-com Selfie and has given a full season order to the Ioan Gruffudd-led drama Forever.

The CW gives full season orders to ‘The Flash’ & ‘Jane the Virgin’

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On Tuesday, The CW expressed their confidence in two of their fall freshman series–The Flash and Jane the Virgin–by allotting them full season orders. Both were buzzy shows pre-launch, and then they fared well in the ratings. The DC Comics-based Flash pilot, in fact, was crowned the network’s most watched series premiere ever with 6.1 million viewers in Live+3 tracking.

“We have had a fantastic start to our season this year, with The Flash launching as our most-watched series premiere ever, and Jane The Virgin recognized as the best new show this season by critics across the country,” said CW president Mark Pedowitz. “Over the past three seasons, we have made it our mission to grow and to broaden out our audience, and to keep raising the bar with the quality and impact of our new shows, and The Flash and Jane have both exceeded our expectations on all counts.”

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8 and Jane the Virgin airs Mondays at 9.

FOX grants ‘Gotham’ full season order

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FOX becomes the second network to step up and grant a full season order to one of its new fall shows. DC Comics-based Gotham will tell its season one origin story across 22 episodes. Previously ABC placed confidence in Shondaland drama How to Get Away with Murder and Anthony Anderson sitcom Black-ish.

“Gotham debuted as one of the most buzzed-about shows of the fall, and with good reason,” said Fox Television Group’s Dana Walden and Gary Newman. “Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon have created an incredibly rich world, with characters that draw you in and a cast that brings to life these heroes and villains in a way we’ve never seen before. We are so excited to see where Bruno, Danny and the entire Gotham team take this story over the course of this season, and so thankful to all the fans who have embraced it this fall.”

The Batman & villains origin story has gotten off to a pretty solid start. The pieces of the puzzle started to align in Gotham‘s most recent episode “Arkham” as the procedural nature of the show is finally starting to give way to a more serialized approach involving Ben McKenzie’s Det. Gordon, David Mazouz’s young Bruce Wayne, Jada Pinkett Smith’s seducing Fish Mooney, and of course scene-stealer Robin Lord Taylor as Penguin.

Gotham airs Mondays at 8pm on FOX.

ABC grants full season orders to ‘How to Get Away with Murder’ & ‘Black-ish’

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ABC is the first of the Big Four networks to announce full season orders for its new fall series. Drama How to Get Away with Murder, from Shonda Rhimes and starring Viola Davis, and comedy Black-ish starring Anthony Anderson and Laurence Fishburne, will both live to see full seasons this year. Murder will wrap up its first season with a grand total of 15 episodes, while Black-ish will play out over the course of a more typical 22 episodes. (Murder‘s debut season was always envisioned to have a shorter run; this allots movie star Davis to work on other projects if she so chooses.)

The pickups are no shocker. Murder was the fall’s #1 rated new series drawing 14 million viewers and a 3.8 rating among the coveted adults 18-49 demo. Black-ish debuted with 10.8 million viewers and a 3.3 rating and continues to attract Modern Family viewers in its plum post MF timeslot.

In the case of Shonda’s new show, it didn’t take any time to get completely invested. Viola Davis fully embraces her outside-the-lines criminal lawyer character Annalise Keating from the get-go, and her rag-tag students embroiled in a mysterious murder give way to tantalizing flashbacks and fun storytelling. Black-ish, on the other hand, took some time to accept but by the end of episode 2 it was easy to acknowledge its honest and rather unapologetic nature.

Murder airs Thursdays at 10pm, and Black-ish airs Wednesdays at 9:30pm.

Still no word on the fate of ABC’s other new comedies Manhattan Love Story and Selfie, but if ratings are any indication neither of them will be lasting that long.

NBC renews ‘The Blacklist’ for second season

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Here’s some exciting news: NBC has granted the wildly addicting and action-packed procedural The Blacklist for a 22-episode second season. After airing only two episodes the Peacock ordered a full season of the show and it didn’t take the network much longer to decide The Blacklist is a keeper. It’s a ratings machine; it ranks as the #1 drama in the coveted 18-49 demo averaging a 4.9 rating/13 share, plus it gains even more viewers after factoring in DVR usage.

“The success of The Blacklist demonstrates that inspired storytelling is alive and well in broadcast television, and I’m impressed on a daily basis by this creative team’s imagination and the extent to which they will go to capture this grand vision on film,” NBC head Robert Greenblatt said in a statement. “With gratitude to both our partners at Sony Pictures Television and our NBC development executives who took a great script and shepherded it into a great series, I hope that Red Reddington never runs out of names to bring down on his list!”

The Blacklist aired its fall finale last Monday and it returns with new episodes January 13.

Elsewhere, The CW gave full season orders to its three new series The Originals, The Tomorrow People, and Reign.

Fall TV updates: ABC gives ‘The Goldbergs’ & ‘Trophy Wife’ full season orders, cancels ‘Back in the Game’

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ABC has given comedies The Goldbergs and Trophy Wife full season orders; with the back-nine each Tuesday night sitcom will air 22 episodes this season. Averaging 7.5 million viewers and a 2.7 rating in adults 18-49 and 5.7 million viewers and a 1.9 rating, respectively,  The Goldbergs and Trophy Wife will live on at least through May and creatively speaking they deserve it. Both shows are consistently funny and highly relatable family fare.

Super Fun Night isn’t going anywhere. Averaging 7.4 million viewers and a 2.8 rating, the Rebel Wilson sitcom received an additional script order for four more episodes.

One ABC sitcom that didn’t make the cut is Back in the Game. Though the show has admittedly been getting better creatively with each passing week, the ratings failed to make a mark (it’s averaging 7.3 million viewers and a 2.1 rating, landing right between Goldbergs and Wife) and the network is cutting it loose–but not before letting its 13 episodes run all the way through. Note that the cancellation news comes after the alphabet network ordered an additional two scripts for the Bad News Bears-esque comedy; that’s typically a show of confidence from a network but in this case it didn’t pan out.

Fall TV updates: FOX gives ‘Dads’ full season order, ABC likes ‘Back in the Game’ & ‘Super Fun Night’

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Despite critics panning the series as its September premiere approached, FOX has granted Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild’s Dads a full season order; the back-nine increases the season’s episode total to 22. You can certainly argue that the “bad press” for Dads helped increase its popularity leading to its FSO. The raunchy sitcom starring Seth Green, Giovanni Ribisi, and Martin Mull averages a 2.2/7 rating among adults 18-49, a respectable number in these DVR-heavy times. FOX head Kevin Reilly explained the reason behind the season one order:

“FOX has been looking to break into the multi-camera format for some time,” he said. “With Dads, we have an asset that we can grow, and we’re looking forward to seeing where the fantastic cast and the creative minds of Seth, Alec, Mike and Wellesley take us the rest of the season.”

Shifting to ABC and single-cam comedies, comedies Back in the Game with James Caan and Super Fun Night with Rebel Wilson have each received two additional script orders–a good sign for fans of these shows. Previously the alphabet network showed confidence in its other half-hour sitcoms The Goldbergs and Trophy Wife by ordering three more scripts apiece for them. Is the network bold enough to grant FSOs to four of these guys? Time–and ratings–will tell.