if i didnt check my dvr I would have never know

I was excited about both Castle and the Unusuals and lasted 2 episodes of Castle and only about 3/4th of the first episode of the Unusuals. I thought my love for Nathan Fillion and Amber Tamblyn would have me supporting both of these shows but they just didn’t do it for me.

I’m not saying necessarily you want Castle specifically. Although making the (theoretical) supposition while saying to drop the better-performing Chuck is quite confusing. BOTH networks are in big trouble. It’s obvious on NBC’s part because they’re handing over 5 hours of primetime programming to Jay Leno. (partly to keep him off ABC, too, but still…) It’s obvious on ABC’s part since it hasn’t had a rookie show not be in trouble since even before the strike started. Private Practice is the only rookie or sophomore show not in trouble, and that’s only because of the Grey’s lead-in. Hell, DWTS + Grey’s = Leno’s 5 hours, so they’re in the same boat. The only real difference is that NBC keeps shooting itself in the foot with its decision-making. Every network gets failed pilots all the time; ABC is just on a really bad streak. That, or they have people making these decisions with no sense of taste, I don’t know.

Anyway, both of them need a combination of veteran shows with consistent numbers and rookie shows that will stick around. Like Julia said, ABC is in a better position to do so with the litany of pilots in its pipeline. NBC doesn’t have that luxury. NBC actually has a comedy pilot about a Stripes-esque group of underachievers at a community college. I wish I was making that up.

NBC is the one that needs to keep more of their current shows because there’s not much coming in for them. ABC really isn’t in a good position to trash their schedule and reset, either, but they’re in a better position than NBC.

Oh, but haven’t you heard, the Monday 8pm hour is the most competitive hour of the week.

“The Unusuals?…….whatever! Better Off Ted?……sounds stoopid! Lost?! Totally Awesome!”

That’s about as subjective as it gets. In retrospect Lost seems to have worked, but it’s a pretty average title, whereas I like The Unusuals and would wager a guess that the title is the last reason the show is tanking.

even though its definitely shrinking lost’s audience, it still wins the night as the #1 scripted show.

also, if it was to be moved, i say move it to 10pm.

and last night’s epi was great.

Bones is also a pleasent surprise.

I’m not even quite sure what or why you are arguing since you say you don’t think ABC actually has a chance of bringing back Castle.

I like JT idea of moving Castle to 8pm on Wedensdays next Fall.

Oh-Well….still crossing my fingers for Chuck.

Your basis is that you feel like NBC has SO many losses it must cut them all, and that ABC doesn’t have as many bad shows so it doesn’t have to cut all of them. But nonetheless, because you LIKE the show, you concoct an absurd hypothetical (for a show that pulled a 1.9 rating in the final numbers! ONE POINT NINE. HELLO!? ).

So you would, hypothetically find keeping a show that generates a 1.9, on ABC easier than keeping a show that pulled a 2.3 the same night, albeit in different time slots.

sorry, still completely absurd.

My point is I find it easier to see a scenario for a Castle renewal than a Chuck renewal because one’s on ABC and the other is on NBC. I don’t however expect Castle to come back.

I think its incredibly unlikely to say the least that there’s any serious consideration to bringing Castle back as things stand. However I find the various hypothetical scenarios surrounding a Castle renewal easier to consider because its on ABC and unlike NBC they’re going to have to plug holes in the schedule next year. Their slate of locks going forward next year isn’t much improved on NBC’s and at least one of their locks is entirely dependent on its lead-in at this stage and worse still their show launching ratio is arguably worse than NBC’s right now.

As it stands I think ABC will ditch all of their new shows (with the exception being that Surviving Suburbia might survive if it manages to hold steady next week) however I think something like Castle or even The Unusuals has to do a lot less to make itself renewal worthy than Chuck does. If by some miracle either of Castle or The Unusuals rebounds to a 2.1 or 2.2 before the end of their respective runs then I think ABC does consider bringing it back – purely because they’ll likely need something and want a ‘new’ show to carry forward to a second season. To me its much more conceivable that Castle or The Unusuals can rebound three tenths than Chuck rebounding basically an entire point (although after this weeks number it is slightly less than that), which is where I think it would need to be to lock in renewal. For met at least.

Basically right now its much easier for me to entertain the hypothetical for ABC than it is for NBC because their situations are different and the threshold for what a show should need going forward is different. I’ll also point out that I brought up Castle as the ABC show of choice in response to someone else questioning ABC needing to bring something back next year.

And Patrick I’m not entirely sure what you’re asking me when you ask ‘why advocate that for NBC when ABC in in similar trouble’. I get the impression that you think I’m advocating a Castle renewal and lets be completely clear on this now – I’m not. What I am saying is that ABC is in a different position to NBC right now. Without Leno then I’d have no real issues with NBC renewing Chuck and I don’t think we’d even be discussing them not renewing it.

I’d love to see ABC ditch everything on their line-up that isn’t working but realistically I don’t think we can expect to see that happen because without a Leno like deal to explain it advertisers would have an unholy freak out if you axe everything but Dancing/The Bachelor, Greys, Private Practice (as long as it stays behind Greys) and Desperate Housewives. Like I said above if by some miracle Castle or The Unusuals rebounds slightly then ABC probably take another look at it.

Fox is lucky to have a show like “Bones”. I’m sure it’ll be back on wednesdays come fall…probably paired with LTM.

No matter how many times people say that Bones is underrated it isn’t doing what that show has done for FOX in its 4 seasons justice! Since 2005 it has aired on four different nights of the week and switched timeslots 7 times and somehow the ratings continue to climb every season.

Imagine what kind of audience Bones would attract if it was on CBS and stayed in a set time slot for a little while.

Hmmm… did the CW really beated CBS? waht a freakin shame!

as for lost, as much as i know the 10pm slot can be tough that is really where lost does best…it’s a show that really needs digesting and to be talked about afterwards (our group of six spends the next 30-45 min discussing what we’ve learned) even if we wanted to watch the unusuals (which we don’t) we wouldn’t/couldn’t because of this…

Say what you will about FOX. At least they figured out the 3 best time slots to put their 3 procedurals. The 3 time slots where CBS isn’t airing procedurals.

Well, it just seems like other networks weren’t as badly affected, like Fox and CBS. Or to put it more accurately, I guess I have to question what state each of the respective networks was in before the strike started, since we seem to have far different results among them. At least in terms of shows succeeding vs. shows failing. Going by the R/I index from April 7th, ABC and Fox have similar 18-49 averages, yet there is much more turmoil at ABC.

By why advocate that for NBC when ABC is in similar trouble? Grey’s Anatomy is its only scripted juggernaut show shown during the weeknights. (NBC counterprograms on Sundays vs. Desperate Housewives with football, so that’s a wash) Private Practice loses 33% of it’s Grey’s lead-in, and Ugly Betty has been on the bubble for ABC, although I can’t imagine them canceling it this season. With those 5 extra hours of programming to do that NBC doesn’t have to do, that puts them into quite the predicament. ABC can’t get away with a slew of rookie shows any more than NBC can.

But the strike is now a year and change in the rear-view mirror. Not every network is suffering like they are (other than NBC, natch). Not to mention, that still wouldn’t explain shows that are tanking they did bring back (like Samantha Who?), or shows they knew they would place midseason anyway (like Scrubs). CBS and Fox had the same strike to contend with, and neither of them are really any worse for the wear. Lie to Me and The Mentalist are two examples of rookie shows that are thriving.

I’m not sure it’s good to dump EVERY midseason show. Otherwise, you’re starting ’09-’10 the exact same way you started ’08-’09. The key will be packaging the right shows and picking some decent pilots.

You stick with the shows that work and for NBC that’s pretty much The Office, 30 Rock, SVU and Biggest Loser and build around those.

They should and will dump every midseason show with the possible exception of Surviving Suburbia, but even that I’m not so sure about. This season will be written off as a casualty of the strike, due to the piss-poor pilot season they had because of it.

True that. I also agree that ABC is likely kicking itself right now for some of the shows they let go.

Wow, that Leno move doesn’t seem so stupid these days, does it. Guaranteed revenue 5 hours each week, unless Leno is a complete idiot in developing his new show. Even then, it still won’t be a Kings-sized disaster. $4.3M per episode. Yikes!

I agree that the notion of Castle has more promise than the notion of the Unusuals, the premieres for each definitely support the thinking. But notions sometimes get dashed in a hurry. At this point, there doesn’t seem to be any promise for either.

As for ABC, I’m stumped as well as to what should happen with their shows. Nothing they seem to put on the air as midseason replacements have done any better (and typically do worse) than the shows that got axed to begin with.

In general though Julia my point on Castle is and was that it has more drop in potential than The Unusuals, which is building a serialised story arc and has more all around quality than Cupid therefore if you’re gambling on any of them and they’re all at about the same level numbers wise (and right now they pretty much are) you go with the one that’s not a complete train wreck and is more casual viewer friendly. It was less about their numbers (because all three have horrible numbers) and all about the general content of the shows.

And Patrick as I said to Robert it was less that the hypothetical’s were realistic or particularly worthwhile but more that they were there to demonstrate a basic point – under unlikely circumstance x I can see show y being renewed.