Analyzing Trees' Latest Rescheduling, Trimming Biggest Loser's Fat, Predicting Moonlight's Renewal and More!
Anne Heche and James Tupper, Men in Trees
Question: I think an emerging problem bubble shows like
Men in Trees and
The New Adventures of Old Christine have in an era where every TV network has a counterpart studio to produce shows, is that of being produced out-of-house, so to speak. If the ratings are great, like NBC Universal's
House is on Fox, then it's a moot point, but I feel a show being produced by a rival network's studio is starting to become a liability.
Trees and
Old Christine, both produced by Warner Bros. TV, are quality shows deserving of a larger audience. But CBS would rather cancel the latter for a lowbrow show that only does marginally better (
Rules of Engagement, produced by CBS Television Studios), and ABC would rather treat
Trees with five different time slots in two seasons and an eight-month hiatus. I still don't think networks are out to cancel shows, but compare these shows' plights to
Friday Night Lights, an NBC Universal show that NBC was dying to find a deal with Direct TV to keep going and
According to Jim, an ABC Studios show that ABC will pick up for another year because of off-network decisions. It's an observation of mine that is worrying me because I see business starting to trump quality and potential even more than before.
— Chris L.
Matt Roush: The good news about
Christine is that it ended this season's run last week on a high, both in a ratings spike and with one of its funniest episodes of the season, in which Christine got hilariously amped up on testosterone, a sure Emmy-reel pick for Julia Louis-Dreyfus. I have to think CBS will at least give
Christine the same sort of midseason pickup order it got this year, if it isn't in fact on the fall lineup, which it deserves to be.
Men in Trees, on the other hand, is (as discussed in
my Dispatch earlier this week) in much worse shape after the latest schedule disruption, when
Boston Legal takes over the Wednesday slot at the end of the month. But to get to your larger point, I have to agree that shows that aren't produced or co-produced by a network's in-house studio are at a disadvantage if they don't become breakout hits. If you ask me (and you kind of did),
Men in Trees' fate was sealed a year ago in February, when ABC abruptly dropped it from its berth on Thursdays, where it had fit in quite nicely as a nightcap to a strong romantic-comedy lineup, and began showing preferential treatment to the dreadful
October Road, an in-house production.
Trees was kept off the air until October, when it was put in a Friday death slot, while
October Road was given plum Thursday and Monday time periods when it got its midseason second chance (which it blew) this season. It's hard not to look at this as a case of a network playing favorites for corporate, rather than creative, reasons. In this case, ABC sided with a loser, and made a loser out of what could have been a winner. And guess who really loses here? We do.
