In cable TV, summer is the new fall. For the broadcast networks, it's "Let's throw it against the wall and see if it sticks" time. So what's working as we wait for the curtain to rise on the fall schedules?
Winners
Canada American networks can get Canadian-made series for as little as 25 percent of what they pay for Hollywood shows. Of course, it only makes economic sense if you can get somebody to watch them (which wasn't the case with CBS' quickly axed The Bridge). Now that ABC's Rookie Blue is averaging 7 million viewers, you can bet there will be a lot more imports next summer.
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Acrophobes, beware! The new vertigo-inducing quiz show Downfall challenges players to answer questions before their potential prizes — and possibly even themselves — are sent crashing over the edge of an L.A. high-rise on a massive conveyor belt. Host Chris Jericho tells us about the high points of tonight's season premiere, airing at 9/8c on ABC...
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The good news about this year's bumper crop of new summer TV: There's plenty of it. (I spent much of the last few days wading through a mid-July burst of new crime-drama premieres.) The bad news: There's too much of it, and too little of it — at least from what I've seen so far — is any good. (I'm talking about the brand new stuff here, which keeps on coming whether we particularly want it to or not.) At this point, I'm beginning to pine for good old repeats.
Tuesday night provided two particularly painful examples: TNT's dreary Memphis Beat crime drama and ABC's insipid Downfall game show.
Memphis is particularly disappointing...
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Hawthorne
9/8c TNT
Star and executive producer Jada Pinkett Smith's character-driven hospital drama opens its second season. This new nurse verse begins with a harsh reality: Richmond Trinity goes out of business completely, prompting several staff members to land employment at a decaying hospital set in a run-down neighborhood. There, series protagonist Christina Hawthorne promptly clashes with the nursing supervisor. And the change is a bitter pill to swallow for Tom as well: He must relinquish his administrative post.
Read on for previews of Memphis Beat, Deadliest Catch, Primetime: Mind Games, Downfall, the World Cup and 30 for 30.
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ABC's high-tension new reality series Downfall doesn't premiere until next week, but we've got your first look.
Chris Jericho to host ABC's Downfall
Hosted by WWE superstar Chris Jericho, the game show takes place atop a 10-story building in Los Angeles. Contestants must answer questions against a clock to win prizes and a shot at $1 million.
In each round, if contestants fail to answer fast enough, they'll see a conveyor belt moving facsimiles of their prizes to the edge of the roof, so they'll plummet and be destroyed. The contestants can back up the conveyor belt, however, by putting either their own personal possessions or family members at risk of going off the roof.
Downfall premieres Tuesday, June 22 at 9/8c on ABC. Watch the video after the jump...
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