Fox's Upfront: Defenders of Television

To expand upon my schedule complaint:
Airing limited run series in Fall (when you know that the slotholders will need to vacate those spots once 24/AI comes back) is a good move.
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But a reality series (especially this one) is not a good move. First off, it will just have aired a cycle in the summer, and there is no proof that audiences will want another batch immediately. Secondly, Fox Fall = baseball playoffs. How exactly do you run a reality series where it is possibly weeks between episodes? What about weeks where there is baseball on the performance slots & not on the result slot? Or vice versa?
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Fox should, as long as 24 and AI will end up on Spring schedules, air limited series in Fall. But they should either be scripted shows (they even had a pilot in Masterwork), or pre-filmed reality series that will flow reasonably well regardless of interruption. Dance is neither.
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Aside from that:
Brothers: Poor CCH Pounder. Admittedly, she now has more work than the rest of The Shield's cast, but this seems so beneath her talents.
Human Target: Attention Fox viewers- you are too dumb to pay attention to Fringe after AI, so have this no-backstory series instead.
Past Life: Err, this is the net result of the "focus on women" out of this year's pilot process? Another "woment like nonrational supernatural stuff" show? Cripes.
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And yes, it is odd that Past Life is so "sexist", but Fox is the least "racist" out of all the broadcast nets. (Although I'm still not seeing much in the way of Hispanics.)
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And as far as defending television goes: this is Fox, they are used to receiving the highest ad rates. They have the most to lose if advertisers move to online/cable. If everyone else starts defending the medium, then I'd worry.

@Tom Shaw: Why is Past Life sexist? Was it really what came out of the "Let's find out what women want" machine, or is that an assumption? Honestly asking.

i reject the assertion that Wanda Sykes, has EVER been funny in ANYTHING. I mean she can start all the flame wars with El Rushbo that she wants, but you could get more chuckles water boarding a cat than you would watching Wanda Sykes. Awful awful awful, how can someone so spectacularly unfunny keep getting paid for it?

[...] Still, attendees had to wonder why the executives were acting so defensive. “When you’re working this hard to persuade a room of advertisers of the basic efficacy of your medium — you are nervous about something,” Mr. Poniewozik wrote later. [...]

Tom Shaw , if Human Target uses even a little of the Vertigo imprint's version of the story, it will be about 9000 times smarter then Fringe. Are you familiar at all with the source material?
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I hope you aren't dismissing the show out of hand because of some sort of misguided bias against comic books, that would be silly.
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I will grant you that the 1990 Rick Springfield attempt at the show was terrible, but there is a whole new compass to act as a guide. I remain optimistic.

@Ashman: I am familiar with the comic, and was honestly interested in the series... until I heard what Fox had done to it. Chance is now simply "employed" as an associate of the target (which I suppose saves on fx costs), and it is Fox's own words that the show is "easy to watch".
Admittedly, Fox also played the "no complicated backstory!" card with Fringe at this time last year, and look at how that show turned out by the finale, so we'll see just how the show & comic diverge. But I am not hopeful (even if McBride, Haley, and Valley is the casting jackpot).
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@Rorshach: I put "sexist" in quotes because I don't personally believe it is offensive, but it is suggestive that out of Fox's goal of programming more women-focused shows for 2009, the best (and only) show they could come up with is yet another entry in the "supernatural" crimefighter category (see Medium, Ghost Whisperer).

@Tom Shaw: Gotcha.
@Carlos: I personally find Sykes hysterical. The WHCD was weak, but she's great on Curb and her standup is very good. And she's always very funny on various latenight shows, which is pretty important for this new show. I've admittedly never seen her on whatever the Louis-Dreyfus show is called.

I time shift my viewing, but I still watch it on a TV. Also, I skip through the commercials unless there is one that looks funny or interesting. I'll go back and watch those. So This is an announcement/warning to advertisers: Do a better job and I'll watch your crummy commercials.

[...] Fox’s Upfront: Defenders of Television   Having gone to upfronts for years now, there’s a certain kind of presentation I’ve gotten used to. [...] [...]