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
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Lena Headey and Thomas Dekker in The Sarah Connor Chronicles by Joe Viles/Fox
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...
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Krysten Ritter with Brad Garrett, 'Til Death
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
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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 ...
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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.
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I can’t remember the last time I was so glad when something DIDN’T air. I’d been holding off commenting on the atrocity known as O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here’s How It Happened, truly believing this was so beyond contempt, so outrageously inappropriate, that wiser heads would eventually prevail and keep it from polluting airwaves or bookstores.Which is exactly what came to pass. So now we have an answer to the age-old question: Is there a limit to what the networks will do to generate ratings during a sweeps month? Apparently so, when there’s a big enough outcry.Hard to imagine a more intense media furor than the one set off last Tuesday, when Fox announced it would air a two-part prime-time interview next Monday and Wednesday with Simpson (ironically, occupying time periods that once belonged to a series titled Justice) that coincided with the publication of a book (also now scrapped). Sometimes a media circus (think Michael Jackson) ensures a huge tune-i...
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Gale Harold's Eddie Cibrian's ratings-anemic Vanished has been pulled from Fox's prime-time lineup effective immediately, though the final four episodes wrapping up Sara Collin's mysterious disappearance will air online at Fox On Demand, starting today, with Episode 10. The recently vanished Justice will resurface Dec. 1 to claim the Fridays-at-8 pm time slot.
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Question: What is the deal with Fox? They completely botched the reshowing of 24 last summer. And now they are messing with Justice? While I'll agree that it isn't the greatest show ever produced, I do like the whole premise of showing the trial, the verdict and then what really happened. Why is Fox taking it off the schedule until December? It doesn't seem like Fox has so many other hit shows. I mean, how many nights a week can you watch House? Thanks for letting me vent.
Answer: These are always dark months for Fox — that excruciating period when we're waiting for 24 and American Idol to return. None of Fox's new shows popped, but when Justice failed in its second time period, with a fairly powerful lead-in, Prison Break, it was doomed. Much as I enjoyed Victor Garber, it also didn't help that the show was in many ways as generic as its title. Bottom line: Justice is expected to burn off more, if not all, of its episodes in December. But the show wasn't renewed past the initia ...
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After failing to draw good numbers in two different time slots, Fox's Justice has been pulled from the schedule effective immediately, the Hollywood trades are reporting. For the next two weeks, at least, repeats of House will occupy the Monday, 9 pm slot (which ultimately, come mid-January, will be turned over to a little show called 24). Better news, though, for another Monday series: as first spilled by the Ausiello Report, ABC has granted a full-season order to What About Brian, which, despite placing a regular third in the 10 o'clock hour, has been managing solid audience retention out of lead-in The Bachelor.UPDATE: Speaking of Monday TV, the Ausiello Report has Friday Night Lights news that will make you cheer!
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Question: It's fall again, and Fox is once again a failure. I sort of see the network as a homeless man, sinking into poverty every fall, getting a $100 check from his parents and blowing it all on booze over the next five months, only to find himself in deeper debt next fall. 'Til Death, Happy Hour, Standoff, Vanished and Justice are all bound to be canceled. It seems as if they fall asleep for three months and wait for American Idol and 24 to save them, while House and Prison Break are the feeding tube. They grabbed only one new serial, a bad one, and premiered several procedurals and hokey, unfunny, laugh-track sitcoms. This is the complete opposite of progress. I also question its strategy with The O.C. Are they moving it to Wednesday because they realized that they screwed over an established hit two years ago, or are they just trying to burn off the episodes faster? Getting this show's audience back should be an easy task: A show about rich teenagers with angst isn't hard to ...
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