Question: With the writers' strike still going strong, is there any chance for canceled shows that still had episodes left over? Instead of more "reality" might Justice or Close to Home be revisited? Justice was probably my favorite "new show" last season, but when friends tried to view it, it kept changing nights, so it didn't really get a chance to establish a following. And if it doesn't get a comeback nod, is there any chance that the full season might be available on DVD?
Answer: The strike is not going to be a lifeline for long-dead series to be resurrected. Or for the networks to open up their lineups to classics from the past, or to shows from other shores. Or for most of the other schemes I keep hearing from frustrated viewers who wish the networks would resort to a strategy other than filling their schedules with bottom-scraping reality programming. Fact is: Some of this reality filler is performing better than expected, another sad consequence of this unfortunate work
...
read more
With the Fox network, it's often all about the mid-season, the time when shows like American Idol and 24 come along to rescue the network from its fall doldrums. Not that it's impossible for any of Fox's September newcomers to catch on. The Kelsey Grammer/Patricia Heaton sitcom Back to You looks very commercial. The situation is admittedly tougher for the downbeat New Orleans crime drama K-Ville or the murky supernatural crime drama New Amsterdam (about an immortal detective) to buck the odds and be a factor come January. While it's possible one or both may hit its mark, you can't help but feel that they might as well be titled "Placeholder 1" and "Placeholder 2" (shades of last fall's Vanished, Justice and Standoff).Once again, Fox is holding back one of its biggest guns (literally) for January. Easily the most anticipated show on the network's lineup is The Sarah Connor Chronicles (look for the word Terminator to be added to the title before it premieres): a high-octane, big-budge...
read more
From one of Julia Robert's students in Mona Lisa Smile to one of Rory's best Yale pals on Gilmore Girls, Krysten Ritter is working with the best in the business and getting so much exposure, you can catch her on TV more than once a week. Taking a break from Gilmore's bright-eyed Lucy, Ritter plays another coed tonight on Fox's 'Til Death (8 pm/ET), starring Everybody Loves Raymond's Brad Garrett. And when you're done laughing up her comedy spot, check out her other Fox appearance this wee
read more
Question: In your Ask Matt column last week, someone asked about Fox's reason behind promoting and supporting Standoff while dumping Justice. I'm not a fan of either show (though I did find Justice more enjoyable than Standoff), but I can understand why Fox chose to stay with the latter. Standoff is produced by 20th Century Fox Television, while Justice was produced by Warner Bros. Will a network's production house affect its willingness to pick up other production houses' shows? I remembered NBC initially held Scrubs, a Touchstone production, until last January because it wanted to promote My Name Is Earl, an NBC Universal show. Last month, CBS canceled Waterfront, a Warner Bros. production, before it even hit the airwaves. It was suspected (mainly by the actor Joe Pantoliano) that the network wanted to promote its CBS-Paramount produced 3 LBS. So, do networks only care about ratings and ad money, or are they also trying to make more of their own productions hits over other company's ...
read more
Question: I was very upset to hear that Fox is canceling Justice, one of my favorite shows. One of the unique parts of this show is that at the end you are given the details on exactly how the person was killed. While at the end of other crime drama episodes, you still wonder exactly how "it" happened. Why is it that Fox is dumping Justice while going all out to save Standoff? I have tried to watch Standoff on three different occasions and have only found poor acting and even worse story lines. I feel that Fox has not even tried to help Justice with promos and advertisement but is continually doing this for Standoff.
Answer: The fact is, Fox had another lousy fall, with not even a Prison Break-sized breakthrough this year. Justice was given two chances. When it was clearly getting clobbered by Criminal Minds on Wednesdays (don't ask me why — that's the most inexplicably popular show on TV), Fox moved it behind Prison Break, which was about as good a shot as Justice was going to get.
...
read more
