For a couple of weeks we've been speculating about which TV shows will not make the cut come the network's announcements of their fall lineups. Evidently, great anxiety has been building up.
Take, for example, this email from a reader in Birta:
I have read your column for several years and enjoyed most of them, but now I am ready to explode. I can't believe that the best show on Fox -- the best show on TV -- is in danger of being canceled.
The Following is hands down the best show by far. The show is way too good to be canceled.
If you're driving down Arkansas 10 near Ola tomorrow afternoon and hear a muffled explosion, then you'll know that The Following lost its No. 1 fan.
We'll find out at 3 p.m. Monday what Fox has planned for fall, including whether The Following made the cut. But NBC is first up to bat with its upfront presentation.
The upfronts are the razzle-dazzle showbiz extravaganzas where the networks reveal their new fall shows for assembled advertisers, gush about how this will be the most magnificent lineup in the history of television and take their "upfront" advertising dollars.
Here's the schedule for this week's network upfront presentations.
Monday: NBC, 10 a.m.; Fox, 3 p.m.
Tuesday: ABC, 3 p.m.
Wednesday: CBS, 3 p.m.
Thursday: The CW, 9:30 a.m.
The networks go to obscene lengths to try to impress advertising buyers. They are wined and dined and treated to unctuous schmoozing by network talent and moguls. There are parties and luncheons and private after-parties. It's all glorious excess that rarely results in stellar programming across the board.
Of course, many programs have already gotten word that they'll be back in the fall. And other new series have been leaked ahead of time in order to get a jump on the buzz. Here's the buzz on three new shows from NBC.
The network has ordered three pilots to series for next season: Blindspot, Heartbreaker and the Chicago Fire spinoff, Chicago Med. The latter will probably be a midseason show.
Between Chicago Fire, Chicago Med and Chicago PD, it looks as if NBC has the Windy City covered. The new series will feature characters from the police and fire department dramas.
With hyperbolic gushiness, NBC promises Chicago Med will be "an emotional thrill ride through the day-to-day chaos of the city's most explosive hospital and the courageous team of doctors who hold it together."
"Explosive" hospital? Really? Ouch. There's more.
The hospital team will be "forging fiery relationships in the pulse-pounding pandemonium of the emergency room, and through it all, familiar faces from the Chicago police and fire departments will intertwine as this third team of Chicago heroes hits the ground running."
Got that? "Pulse-pounding pandemonium"!
The cast includes Oliver Platt, S. Epatha Merkerson, Laurie Holden, Nick Gehlfuss and Yaya Dacosta.
Merkerson played New York police Lt. Anita Van Buren on Dick Wolf's Law & Order.
Meanwhile, Blindspot will be a conspiracy/mystery drama from executive producer Greg Berlanti, the guy responsible for Arrow, The Flash and The Mysteries of Laura.
In Blindspot, "a vast international plot explodes [more explosions?] when a beautiful Jane Doe (Jaimie Alexander) is discovered naked in Times Square, completely covered in mysterious, intricate tattoos. She has no memory of who she is or how she got there."
I'd show you the photo, but it was a bit too provocative for a family newspaper.
One of the tattoos is the name of FBI agent Kurt Weller, and everyone eventually realizes that each tattoo is a crime to solve.
The cast includes Sullivan Stapleton, Audrey Esparza, Rob Brown, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Ukweli Roach and Ashley Johnson.
Heartbreaker is based on the real life of Dr. Kathy Magliato and follows the adventures of Dr. Alex Panttiere (Melissa George), an outspoken, world-renowned heart-transplant surgeon.
Alex "always operates on her own terms."
Yes, you read that correctly. She operates on her own terms.
Alex also "has a racy personal life, manages the daily demands of skeptical faculty and dutiful interns, and pushes the boundaries of medical science to impressive new heights."
The cast includes Dave Annable, Don Hany, Shelley Conn, D.L. Hughley, Jamie Kennedy, Maya Erskine, J. Louis Mills and Joshua Leonard.
FINALES
Here are the shows wrapping things up for the season over the next couple of days.
Today: Once Upon a Time, 7 p.m., ABC; The Good Wife, 8 p.m., CBS; Revenge, 9 p.m., ABC; Wolf Hall, 9 p.m., PBS.
Monday: The Originals, 7 p.m., The CW; Jane the Virgin, 8 p.m., The CW; Castle, 9 p.m. ABC.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Style on 05/10/2015