Broadcast networks go for milkand-cookies comfort

NEW YORK » If provocative, psychejangling shows like “The Handmaid’s Tale” are your taste, head directly to streaming or cable. But if you’re feeling the urge for milk-and-cookies comfort, broadcast television wants to help.

The upcoming TV season will bring more sitcom nostalgia in the “Roseanne” and “Will & Grace” mode. More heartwarming dramas taking a circle-of-life page from “This Is Us.” More crime and medical dramas in which the good guys always win, and in just an hour (minus commercial time).

As once-mighty broadcast ratings continue to be shredded by media alternatives, the networks are going where viewers are pointing them.

That means family-friendly shows in the reality genre as well as scripted: Say “awwww” for “Dancing With the Stars: Juniors,” a kiddie version of the original. While networks have tried before to compete with the daring fare of the likes of HBO, FX, Hulu or Netflix, the 2018-19 season won’t see much of that.

It’s “good news for broadcast” that households gather to watch its shows, ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey said this week. Amen, said CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves, who lauded broadcasting as the “big tent” that brings America together.

Here are details on some upcoming series and the trends behind them.

Room for politics? Yes and no

Roseanne Barr’s support for President Donald Trump was a conspicuous part of her character when “Roseanne” returned, but politics are a poor fit with broadcasting’s wide-net approach. To that end, ABC and NBC are tamping down anticipation that “Roseanne” or “Last Man Standing,” another show with an openly partisan star in Tim Allen, will be soapboxes.

“Tim’s personal politics really aren’t a big feature of the show, and I think that if you were to talk to Tim and our (producers), they would say