Excitement, Energy over Network Television Upfronts? Why?
OK so most of our readers don’t really care about what people in the TV business term Upfronts. Upfronts are the continuous flurry of activity going on this past week and next from all four networks. This is when ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX roll out new shows, cancel old shows and make a real dog and pony show in itself to media buyers challenged with picking the right winners for ad placements. Meaning those shows that will stick and those that will, well end up in the so called canceled bin.
'Undercovers' - Boris Kadjoe as Steven Bloom, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Samantha Bloom
Most shows get a lot of hype. A lot. And then reality sets in. The networks either do a real crappy job reading a winner versus a loser or do an even worse job promoting them. Cold but true.
So why all of the excitement and energy when most shows touted as winners will be absolute failures, headed to the canceled bin?
Let’s look at NBC for a minute. How much money was used to support their biggest failure this past TV season in The Event? A show with a real decent cast that just didn’t catch on at all. Then there was Law & Order: Los Angeles. Nice idea taking the concept from New York and trying to build a west coast version of the show. This series turned out to be a dismal failure, mostly due from this writer’s perspective from the lack of a consistent cast. No way did viewers have a chance to grab on to a character that was consistently seen each week in the show. That’s a bad move for any network TV show that does not fit in to the reality genre. The writing and overall look of the back half of Law and Order: Los Angeles was a dramatic difference but a little too late to save that show.
Chase is another show promoted dismally that failed on NBC. Trying to reach men with Kellie Giddish bouncing around on the screen was a solid idea, but again nothing solid enough to keep viewers engaged on a regular basis. This show could have been a winner as most men that I speak with really liked the show, even past Kellie. But another failure for NBC.
Take the worst program ever on NBC. Outsourced. Another show hyped and promoted as a comedy to fit in to the network’s Thursday night comedy lineup. Extremely stereotypical and reminded me of the same type of programming for African Americans back in the 70′s and part of the 80′s. I thought television was done with that type of programming. This show was plain and simply awful.
Speaking of the diversity effort at NBC, well at least they tried. How about Outlaw with Jimmy Smits, a leading Latino talent placed in a show that was totally unbelievable. Then Undercovers with two African America leads that was canceled as was Outlaw.
So that’s just one network. Noting that NBC takes a lot of chances, these shows have all been canceled, yet with big hype at last year’s Upfronts. So once again, why all the hype?
Here we go again. One more season of hype and not a lot of substance. But we will see what comes from the dust of new shows coming to television this year. To be honest, it’s a weak list of programs but that may be a good thing. And we’ll talk about the ones we think are the cream of the crop. Just don’t expect too much talk. Some of the shows I picked to be winners, well there are a few on the list above that I thought would be back for this upcoming fall season. I must admit that I will just tell the stories this year and not make a lot of predictions on winners and losers.
Rick Thomas
Omarosa follows RealTVCritics.com to get up to date on really hot TV shows and so does Kim Kardashian. Even Yoko Ono is on board with RealTVCritics.com. Join now at:
http://twitter.com/realtvcritic
Join RealTVCritics.com NOW!!!
