USA TODAY International Edition
SPEAK UP TO SAVE SHOWS ON THE BUBBLE
USA TODAY’s 21st poll gives readers a chance to throw a lifeline to TV series in danger of sinking
Save Our Shows is ready to save the world. Or at least your favorite TV show.
❚ USA TODAY’s annual survey made history last year when top vote-getter
Timeless was canceled by NBC, which quickly reversed itself, crediting Save Our Shows with demonstrating enthusiastic fan support. ❚ Once again, Timeless is fighting for survival in this spring’s 21st survey, which asks readers whether networks should keep or drop 30 sitcoms and dramas hovering “on the bubble” between renewal and cancellation. The unusually high number reflects a flurry of late spring premieres delayed by the Olympics, with too few airings to demonstrate their staying power. (A few are too new to include.)
But this year’s list also includes longrunning, one-time hits including NBC’s The Blacklist and a pair of CBS dramas,
Criminal Minds and Elementary; a struggling sophomore (ABC’s Designated Survivor) that showed early promise, then faded; low-rated but acclaimed cult favorites (Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine and CW’s iZombie); and some series whose prospects are shakier because their networks don’t own them, including Brooklyn (which NBC Universal produces for Fox), Speechless and Fresh Off the Boat
(both produced by Fox for ABC).
“I really think it’s a great show and an important show,” says star Randall Park of Boat, a sitcom about a Taiwanese family’s culture clash in Orlando. “In my wildest dreams I’d never imagined that we’d go as far as we did, especially being a show about an Asian-American family on network television,” he says. “It’s something I always wanted growing up, and the fact that it happened and I’m a part of it and that we’ve gone four seasons is remarkable.”
As usual, broadcast networks will weigh renewals of these shows against the pilots for potential replacements as they prepare to unveil their 2018-19 schedules in May at presentations to advertisers in New York. (Cable and streaming series aren’t included, but we’re asking you about a few of them).
Ratings performance — and the strength of those pilots — are far from the only factors that determine whether shows are renewed or canceled, although a big hit ensures staying power.
Some freshmen series are pre-sold to Netflix. Genre series, big stars and remakes of popular titles entice overseas programmers. Ownership by the network often tips the scales, and profitability predicts longevity.
How has the business changed? With a record number of TV shows, “It’s tougher to launch, tougher to stay on, so much more fickle than it was,” says Scott Silveri, a producer of NBC’s Friends who’s hoping for a renewal of ABC’s
Speechless. “I’m just going to operate under the assumption that we are doing another season, and will get to work on it,” Silveri says. “And if that ends up not being the case, I’ll just put it on in my backyard.”
“It’s tougher to launch (a series), tougher to stay on, so much more fickle than it was.”
‘Speechless’ producer Scott Silveri