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Entertainment

Thoughts on ABC Network continuing to order scripted TV pilots while CBS & FOX are leaning on new shows straight off the bat

by Sports Benches

The talk of having pilots coming out for the next US TV season in late 2024-early 2025 has emerged recently with CBS choosing not to make any orders & will select future shows via the long-term development process just like Fox whose system nowadays relies on the straight-to-series order process. But ABC will keep on ordering pilots both for the drama and comedy side as they will continue to choose quality over quantity (like 1-2 new shows for drama & comedy) once they’ve reviewed them following the pilot stage.

No surprise there considering they will have one new show that was postponed from last year in High Potential (a crime comedy drama based from France) whereas most of this Fall will focus on the storylines from most returning dramas and comedies that was interrupted during the first half of this 2023-24 prime-time TV season due to the Hollywood strikes including a few more reality/unscripted content. With that being said, a couple of new shows after High Potential would be introduced in January-February of 2025.

We don’t know which shows will be up in contention as time will tell later on but they did have a couple of comedy pilots being lined up after they decided not to order any new sitcoms into series last year when Keeping It Together & Public Defenders failed to meet the requirements they were hoping for being set by Abbott Elementary. 

So all in all, ABC won’t follow Fox & even CBS for the foreseeable future by having all of their future shows being available to the public when most unsuccessful pilots are locked up somewhere in a vault & will most likely never been seen again. I wish they can have all of their yearly unsuccessful pilots being put out only online though like they did with Bad Management (an unsuccessful half-hour sitcom pilot) back in late 2013 but don’t think they will do that again I’m afraid.

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2024 Super Bowl 58 review, Kansas City Chiefs win once again by 3 points v 49ers before CBS’s new drama Tracker accidentally made its quick cameo on Australian TV

by Sports Benches

Yesterday’s Super Bowl 58 was so unreal to watch where the Sam Francisco 49ers & Kansas City Chiefs have gone side-by-side right from the start to the very end through overtime at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. It was quiet for a bit over the first quarter by both teams before the 49ers got away with their first scoring touches off the boot & the big score while the Chiefs took a little longer to finally get themselves going before they earned a lifeline with not long left on the clock in the fourth quarter. So that leaves one last round to fight on the run home in extra time but still one team will have to take home the Vince Lombardi Trophy for the World Championship. At the end of the day, the winning belongs to the Chiefs once again thanks to a championship-winning setup by Patrick Mahomes to Mecole Hardman, who caught that golden pass in the end for the touchdown by just 3 points with 3 secs to go on the overtime clock. The final score was 22-25.

As said, great start by the 49ers but a few hit and misses later on gave a great opportunity for the Chiefs to catch up whilst leading. Unfortunately, that became their tipping point at overtime where the game was eventually won by the Chiefs & it’s a bitter pill to swallow when being second best. Not a bad season though where they made all the way to the main event which is never easy as it will be exactly three decades now since the 49ers last won a World Championship. Meanwhile, congratulations to the Chiefs on what has been an incredible performance from behind after they came back to haunt the 49ers so late it was enough to take home the trophy. It was a final that was never going to be so easy as it was up to them to stop the 49ers in their tracks and they did so to bring back another huge of silverware in front of their fans and hometown too. Looks like the Chiefs are setting the benchmark now, having won three World Championships in the last five years after a long drought & shortcomings that goes way back to Super Bowl IV (1969). Speaking of the Chiefs, let’s see if a Super Rugby in Waikato, New Zealand, will win at last this season that will begin next Friday. They dominated the round robin part almost undefeated until they fell short in the Final at home (FMG Stadium) by the still unbeatable Crusaders team yet again.

And finally straight after the Super Bowl coverage on TV here, Seven have accidentally showed a bit of CBS’s new drama show called Tracker (based on The Never Game novel by Jeffrey Deaver) for 10 seconds before they quickly moved on to their normal programming for the rest of the day. Not sure if they have the rights to that show since 20th Television handles the International Distribution as would love to see a simulcast or even same day airing of first-run US shows here.  It won’t be possible unfortunately due to the time difference worldwide where we all work during the day while some sleep at the same, so don’t think it will make a difference. Not even in a million years that we will get to watch a live simulcast TV drama or comedy ever that can shared by everyone worldwide from its original country of origin other than just the US and Canada legally unlike news, special events and sports coverage. Plus, reality TV shows lead the way these days which isn’t expensive to produce and have it on the air. For now, bring on Super Rugby again soon starting next Friday while a few more scripted shows have returned with more on the way in the next few weeks to resume & finish off this unusual prime-time TV season.

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Thoughts on the ABC Network finally unveiling their weekly scripted programming line-up a few days ago for the rest of the shortened 2023-24 Prime-Time TV season

by Sports Benches

Finally this week, ABC has now able to finalise their weekly scripted programming schedule that will run between February and around the middle of 2024 following a long & painful six month hold up from the writers and actors strikes. As it stands during winter to spring on weekends, Saturdays is for sports and Sunday is full of non-scripted and reality tv stuff including its long-time return of What Would You Do? straight after two hours of American Idol at 10pm. Plus, Fridays will always be Shark Tank at 8 before ending the weekday week with two hours of true crime reporting of 20/20 between 9-11pm.

But some shows will have brand new time slots this time on a different day of the week. We will now see The Good Doctor on Tuesday nights at 10am beginning on the 20th of February after The Rookie (9pm) and Will Trent (8pm) as Mondays will all be reality and non-scripted starting in late January with the two-hour Bachelor show at 8pm as well as a limited 20/20 spin-off true crime series (name TBA). Then Wednesdays will always be the home of comedy with a plethora of half-hour sitcoms kicking off a few weeks beforehand (1st to 2nd week of February) such as new seasons of The Conners (1/7), Not Dead Yet (1/7) & Abbott Elementary (1/14) between 8-9.30pm. Although the new season episode of Abbott Elementary will go for an hour, it remains to be seen what the 9.30-10pm slot will be like at a later date – probably a repeat of Abbott unless ABC can find something else to fit in since Home Economics won’t be coming back after 3 seasons. We will also get to see an hour in all-new season of Judge Steve Harvey at 10pm as well. And there will one newcomer moving in after six season from a different network (FOX) called 9-1-1 on Thursdays, which focuses on Los Angeles’s first responders department. Meanwhile, the Grey’s Anatomy franchise has shuffled a bit where the flagship show remains at 9pm after 9-1-1 while spin-off firehouse drama Station 19 will now be at 10pm rather than 8pm. All of these action packed shows will be back on March 14th.

Post-Notes

Interesting take there considering The Good Doctor has followed Dancing With The Stars from being on Mondays for a long time to Tuesdays now. If The Good Lawyer came in which the strikes have saw them miss the cut, then it would’ve been a 10pm Tuesday night show that follows on a day after the main show. The Thursday line-up is fine while Mondays will be the new reality by sharing with Monday Night Football & I guess Wednesday is a little difficult for ABC in regards to the 9.30-10pm time slot. But I guess with The Conners approaching its end & depending on the Season 2 performance of Not Dead Yet, they might to bring one new comedy show going forward – having not taken any new ones from their recent pilot cycle earlier this year. I do assume though by Fall next year, High Intellectual Potential (adopted from France) will be a perfect fit at 10pm on Wednesdays replacing A Million Little Things since it’s a crime comedy show. And I’m sure another new drama or two will be up on Sunday nights during the months go by in 2024 for the next pilot cycle as scripted programming is here to stay but the main focus for ABC going forward is that they will go or chop & change after each year for quality than quantity.

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After the actors’ strike was finally over, CBS replaced The Late Late Show last week with a revival of @midnight while ABC just binned both The Rookie: Feds & The Good Lawyer

by Sports Benches

Glad that the actor’s strike is finally over after 118 days between July and this week as well as six months when it comes to the strikes as a whole that affected the writers from around April until the end of September. All late night and some daytime talk shows are up and running again, as well as seeing CBS finally replace The Late Late Show franchise last week for the 12.37am timeslot with a new version of @midnight called After Midnight after James Corden left also in April this year to return back to the UK where it might not be another talk show, but this time it’s going to be a panel game show that will target a young audience alongside a young comedian at the helm named Taylor Tomlinson based on the up-to-date events off the internet.

Now ABC today has finally made their decisions regarding the last two shows that have been hanging in the balance for months, such a possible Season 2 of the Rookie: Feds & a potential spin-off on The Good Lawyer following its backdoor pilot episode of the flagship The Good Doctor medical drama show back in March this year. Unfortunately, neither of them will be going forward since it’s almost the end of this year thanks to both strikes along with the end of comedy sitcom Home Economics who won’t be getting a 4th season not long after the writers’ strike has over. That means, the only new show from this year’s pilot intake that got a series order other than rescuing 9-1-1 from FOX was High Potential, a comedy-crime police drama adopted from France whose plot involving a mother of three who has extraordinary ability to solve crimes, will still go ahead but has since been pushed back to a year from now in order to get their returning scripted shows back on the air first ASAP through March 2024. If it wasn’t for the writer’s & actors’ strikes, A full season of The Good Lawyer would’ve been on the air by now last month or early March next year if both strikes did end sooner before October which sadly took a month longer than anticipated. Plus, while fans did enjoy watching the Rookie spin-off show (The Rookie: Feds) with sound ratings, they can only focus on the main show moving forward as there is no room for Season 2 with also unfortunate thanks from the strike.

While there is nothing ABC can do about this no matter how disappointed the usual TV fan is feeling at the moment, all they can now is honour their existing strike-proof commitments between now and February before all of their existing scripted programming can come back in life. Then we’ll wait and see which next batch of in-development projects will be up for a pilot screening come mid-2024 as I expect they will choose quality over quantity when it comes to picking up series orders. So scripted programming is here to stay but their library shelf won’t fill in that much since The Golden Bachelor for the elderly and the return of Dancing With the Stars on free-to-air (this time on Tuesday nights) has been their main headline acts since this prime-time TV season. Although I still haven’t heard much detail or official confirmation about the return of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition since June/July, but as it stands, it looks like The Home Edit duo of Clea Shearer & Joanna Teplin will be hosting the show rather than Ty Pennington who hosted the original version on this network between 2004-2012.

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Thoughts on The Spiderwick Chronicles getting a new home at The Roku Channel with hope of While You Were Breeding also landing a lifeline elsewhere from Freeform

by Sports Benches

Well, we found one recently unaired cancelled Disney + show ahead of its premiere that saw them land a new home at The Roku Channel (streaming service) a days ago, which is called The Spiderwick Chronicles. We will now see eight instead of the originally planned six episodes going into early next year, having finished filming during the production beforehand. 

If you’d like to know a bit about the plot, it’s based on a children’s fantasy novel around the Grace’s family discovery after they’ve moved into their ancestral home (Estate). That’s great news to hear & also even better to watch all eight episodes for free too thanks to Roku where it would’ve been gone behind a paywall if that show wasn’t cancelled on Disney +. Plus, we will expect to watch it on Paramount + here in Australia since they’re the International distributor, even though Disney’s 20th Television is listed as the co-producers of the show.

All we can hope now is for While You Were Breeding, a comedy drama travel show, to get a new home too after they were given the chop recently by Freeform – despite finishing all ten episodes in production beforehand. Yes, that show was also set behind a paywall but I would love to see it on Roku or a similar paid streaming service too, especially when this year’s film strikes have changed Freeform’s way over time before they were left out of it. As said, unaired pilots or even unaired scripted programming rarely get a 2nd chance. But this can be done if appropriate & we’d like to see While You Were Breeding on the air on a different streaming service of any kind with the help of Freeform via their studios arm sooner rather than later.

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Thoughts on Dancing With The Stars back on Free-to-air TV earlier on Tuesday this week at the ABC Network with its Season 32 premiere

by Sports Benches

Earlier this week, Dancing With The Stars has returned to its original home on ABC to kickstart Season 32 after a year out while the show continues airing live as a simulcast on Disney +, with the next day on-demand content available on Hulu.

The only difference is that they now air on Tuesday nights rather than on Monday nights like it has been over the last 15 years. It comes after the network will air Monday Night Football every week in the NFL just for this season due to the scripted programming complications regarding the strike (writers portion now gone with actors one still not out just yet). 

Although they will revert to some Mondays next fall with the Football (NFL), but I guess the Monday three hour block will be full of scripted programming. Plus, Tyra Banks has moved on after three years centre stage off previous host Tom Bergeron & Erin Andrews. America’s Funniest Videos host & avid dancer Alfonso Ribiero steps up in her place at the ballroom, while Julianne Hough will be joining Alfonso as his backstage co-host.

The first celebrity to be eliminated was comedian/actor Matt Walsh who originally withdrew his spot from the show before the premiere last week due to the actor’s strike, but then changed his mind because the writer’s strike was finally done & sadly his time there was short-lived off the back of a poor show with Koko Iwasaki.

We wish Matt all the best as the next episode is back on Tuesday at 8pm ET LIVE on ABC and Disney Plus.

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Thoughts on Freeform’s backflip of While You Were Breeding where they will now not be on the air despite completing all ten episodes

by Sports Benches

Image by Freepik

At the same time two days ago when ABC cancelled Home Economics after three seasons, its sister cable channel Freeform has decided not to put While You Were Breeding on the air at all next year despite finishing all ten episodes just before the five month strike began earlier in May. If the strike didn’t happen, the show would’ve started airing last month, but then the unexpected strike saw its August premiere being postponed to sometime 2024 & now it’s in the trash bin instead.

It’s an hour-long comedy show about one person’s journey (30-year-old woman named Kacey), who explores the world alone from LA that reflects her true self, which is based on a book memoir What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding by writer/producer Kristin Newman. Although one can only hope that Freeform Studios will find another home for them & air these 10 episodes. Yes, these pilot lifelines don’t come out much, especially when ABC backflipped Avalon from its straight to series order nearly a year ago after they saw the pilot episode. However, considering that the writers strike is now over, a streamer or another TV network should take this opportunity & show how scripted TV is done for all on the air.

We would’ve loved to see Freeform kept its promises to the show’s creator and its cast & crew, but sadly it’s not about the show as they no longer fit the network’s programming strategy with thanks to the strike being re-worked over time. Instead, they chose to put a few reality TV programming shows on the air this year with more to come, which is the direction they’re going alongside weekly repeated & season programming marathons. It also seems Freeform would retain just a handful of original scripted programming while adding a few brand new quality ones soon just like ABC & it would be no surprise if Freeform would be sold alone/shut down at some stage since viewers are tuning in more on their devices rather than cable.

Grown-ish is currently in its sixth and final season while The Good Summer should stick around a bit longer as we wait & see if both Praise Petey & Cruel Summer will stay on for another season alongside the new scripted pickups in a few weeks time.

For now, please support Kristin by buying/reading her book to know all about what the TV adaptation would look like which is available on Amazon here while we hope it would be on the air elsewhere sooner rather than later.

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Thoughts on ABC Network’s axing of comedy show Home Economics after Season 3 & High Potential being moved to Fall next year

by Sports Benches

First few days post-strike for writers to get back to work and the first thing ABC has done is not renewing comedy show Home Economics after three seasons on the air. It’s no surprise considering ABC wants quality rather than quantity of comedy content led by Abbott Elementary, having chosen not to put any of these new shows onboard for the next cycle (which was usually meant to be this Fall but now has changed after what happened over 5 months ago due to the strikes).

So it might have taken that long but Home Economics has probably reached its plateau before the announcement today as the seasons goes by. That means, we will expect to see new season episodes of The Conners, Abbott Elementary & Not Dead Yet for sometime next year before we wait & see what happens in the next cycle window.

Then moving onto the drama side of things and they still have yet to make decisions whether or not if The Rookie: Feds will get a 2nd season as well as giving The Good Lawyer spin-off show of The Good Doctor a full-season order after airing the backdoor pilot earlier in March this year. Meanwhile, ABC has set a premiere date of the American High Intellectual Potential crime comedy drama to Fall next year rather than rushing up at the wrong time during Spring or Summer. 

I’m pretty sure they’re definitely not going to do an Avalon here when they first made a straight to series order early last year for the initial 2023 mid-season window, then it was moved to Fall of this year because of Will Trent & The Company You Keep and eventually by November last year, they reversed that decision & chose not proceed Avalon into a series order following a screen test of the pilot. I also don’t think any other network would rescue a passed pilot which is rare as well.

But we could see Season 7 of 9-1-1 alongside all other existing drama shows that is returning a few months earlier than that since it was previously aired on FOX for a few years (although they kept 9-1-1 Lone Star) prior to making the move here. 

I guess it’s still too early to tell since the actors strike isn’t done yet with hope of seeing light at the end of the tunnel early next week. Well, obviously the comedy side is correct timing for the network to make as said above not long after the writers strike was finally over with Home Economics being given the chop. Now I’m not sure what ABC has said in more detail about The Rookie: Feds, so hard to tell considering they still got the main show after a few years on the air since 2018.

On the other hand, The Good Lawyer is something they liked after the screen test came back really well off the back from the backdoor pilot episode as it would be a perfect lead-in for the main show at 8 or 9pm Mondays. If the strike didn’t happen at all, then it would’ve been on the air by now. Other networks have already their plans set when it comes to the next available scripted programming cycle, but this one is a bit unusual and if the actors strike doesn’t end anytime soon; ABC would have no choice but to put that Good Lawyer idea into the bin. This is the one to keep a close eye on that would hopefully boost their Monday programming block’s performance with the audience & its storylines/content.

For now, we wish that crew the best of luck as you can go watch all three seasons of Home Economics only on Stan here in Australia as well as Hulu in the US.

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Thoughts on the Writers strike amongst the TV & film industry finally ending with the actors strike still not over just yet

by Sports Benches

So the writers strike could come to a close at last as soon as tomorrow after a tough five months out when they couldn’t be able to craft scripted content at the hands of the studio companies. Although there’s still a long way to go when it comes to the SAG-AFTRA strikes amongst actors too as we don’t know when that will end as well.

The good news is that we can see late-night talk shows & some daytime talk shows coming up going back to normal. 

Plus, we can finally see CBS replace The Late Late Show franchise on the 12.30am timeslot at some point with an improv game show called @midnight. It hasn’t been officially announced yet due to the strikes but it looks like they will at last be able to roll the dice under the one Stephen Colbert umbrella, which is executive producing @midnight while hosting & also executive producing his own talk show at 11.35pm. That is one thing to keep an eye on since James Corden left The Late Late Show hot seat earlier in April this year.

Meanwhile, the bad news is that we may have to wait a bit longer for the scripted programming – particularly prime-time – to have new episodes out again since the actors strike isn’t done just yet. 

There is still uncertainty of what ABC is gonna do with The Rookie: Feds, Home Economics & a potential spin-off to The Good Doctor, The Good Lawyer. But ABC does rate The Good Lawyer very highly since the screen test came back really well off the back from the backdoor pilot of The Good Doctor episode back in March this year, so not easy for them to ignore such a proposal that can hopefully get the best out of their Monday prime-time schedule. Speaking of their Monday prime-time schedule, The Good Lawyer can be a perfect lead-in towards the main show at 9pm with a game/reality show or even 9-1-1 (the one they took away from FOX after six seasons except 9-1-1 Lone Star) to kickstart the new week beforehand.

We’ll just have to wait and see what will happen to both Home Economics & The Rookie: Feds once everyone is able to go back to work by writing/scripting, producing & showing awesome TV.

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Thoughts on John J. York’s recent health battle who portrays Mac Scorpio on General Hospital

by Sports Benches

We all enjoy watching Mac Scorpio on the show every time he’s on the job to help protect the citizens of Port Charles within the Police Department while he puts family first with wife Felicia as well as Maxie and in recent times, Cody Bell who broke free of Sasha Gilmore after being tricked by her mother in-law Gladys Corbin & physiatrist Dr Montague. A day or two ago, the portrayer, John J. York has announced his break from General Hospital at least for a few weeks due to his recent health battle that affects his blood & bone marrow & he needs your help to donate his cause via the link here. I’ve enjoyed his presence on the show for a few years now as we wish him all the best on his recovery. Plus, another fact about Mac – his brother is Robert Scorpio who is Aussie being played by an Aussie who calls LA home nowadays in Tristan Rogers.

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