FOX: Breaking In Canceled Yet Again…

FOX has pulled Breaking In from its schedule, once again.  It was supposed to come back on April 24th to follow new epsiodes of New Girl, but now that slot will be filled with New Girl reruns, instead.

We aren’t surprised by this at all.  Although Breaking In holds the distinction of being only the second show in history to survive two cancellations, don’t expect lightning to strike a third time.  Breaking In is not the same show that it was when we reviewed it last year and the addition of Megan Mullally has not helped attract new viewers at all.  We watched a couple of episodes and then had to remove it from the DVR stable because it just wasn’t funny any more.

Sorry, better luck next time.

More Fall 2011 Cast Shakeups – FOX: Saffron Burrows Leaving Bones Spinoff, The Finder… Damon Wayans, Jr. Leaving New Girl

Before their pilot episodes will even air this Fall, two lead cast members from two of FOX’s new series are leaving their respective shows.  Saffron Burrows, who played Ike on the Bones back-door pilot for the new series The Finder is exiting as producers are re-imagining the character.  In related news, Damon Wayans, Jr.’s role on the Zooey Deschanel comedy, New Girl will also have to be recast as Wayans’ other show, ABC’s Happy Endings, was renewed for a second season.

Check out the FOX 2011- 2012 schedule, here, and check out the our Preview – Reviews for all of FOX’s new shows, here, along with all the new trailers.

CBS Cancels Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, Renews CSI: New York

CBS announced Tuesday that they have canceled the Criminal Minds spinoff, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior and renewed CSI: New York for another season.  There’s not really much to say, we don’t watch either shows but despite the expert prediction, we didn’t have any doubt that CSI: New York would be renewed as a lead-in to the recently renewed Blue Bloods.

$#*! My Dad Says Creator Justin Halpern Takes Cancellation Of The Show in Stride

Now, if you didn’t already know, $#*! My Dad Says, the CBS comedy (and we use that term loosely) starring William Shatner and based on the popular Twitter Feed by Justin Halpern with the  Big-5-network-less-than-primetime-ready title, “Shit My Dad Says,” was cancelled last week.  As we’ve noted in the past, this show was the worst show of the 2010 – 2011 season, the worst sitcom of all-time and perhaps the worst television show ever made.  It was an absolute shame because we still absolutely love the Twitter feed (we are one of the original subscribers) and have nothing but respect for Justin or his dad, Sam.

As a final note to the series and in true Shit My Dad Says-fashion, Justin commented as to his reaction to the news of the show cancellation and the subsequent conversation he had with his dad about it on his blog.  It couldn’t have been any more “Justin-and-Sam-like” and it is far funnier than anything that was ever on that show. What’s interesting to note is that Justin’s non-jaded, glass-is-half full assessment of his overall success in the last year is identical to what we said in the review we did of the show back in September 2010.   He’s a class act and the old man raised him well.

So yesterday the TV show based off the twitter feed, and my book, Shit My Dad Says, was cancelled.  I worked on the show for the last year.  It was a bummer, until I remembered that I got a TV show based off a twitter feed and a book and was basically the luckiest asshole who ever roamed this earth.

Here was our take on his success and how we didn’t begrudge him it at all:

Halpern isn’t stupid.  He must know that this is garbage and that his new-found fame from this silly little twitter account will be over in about 15 minutes and he’s cashing in while he can and you know what?  I don’t blame him whatsoever.  If a bunch of no-talent hacks like the cast of Jersey Shore or The Hills or Keeping up With the Kardashians can get paid, why not a guy who has actually made millions of people laugh?

Here’s the conversation with his dad.  we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.  Warning: put down all beverages while reading this or you’ll spend all afternoon cleaning off your monitor…

“Hey.  What do you need. I’m busy,” he said.

“Do you have a second?” I said.

“Is this Justin?” he said.

“Yeah.  Who’d you think it was?“

“Didn’t know.  Just picked up the phone.”

“You didn’t know who it was and you answered the phone with ‘Hey.  What do you need?  I’m busy?,” I asked.

“Lets people know not to fuck around with my time,” he said.

“My show got cancelled,” I said.

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line and I wasn’t sure if he heard me.  I was about to say it again, when he spoke.

“Well.  Fuck.  Sorry to hear that, son.”

“Eh, it’s okay.  It happens.  It was crazy I got a show on the air in the first place.”

“Well, I liked it.  It was kind of shitty at first, but I thought it got a lot better.  You know what show I like? Cheers.  That was a good show,” he said.

“That was a good show,” I said, wondering if that was part of a larger point he was about to make.

“Also I liked The Simpsons.  At first I thought, it’s just a stupid cartoon for pants-shitters, but I was wrong, great show.”  (Pants-shitters is how my dad refers to toddlers.)

“Well, I just wanted to let you know.  I know you’re busy so I’ll let you go,” I said.

“I‘m 75.  If you’re busy when you’re seventy five, you fucked up the first seventy five years.  I want you to know that I’m proud of you.  You didn’t put a bullet through Bin Laden but I’m proud of you.  You’re a bust-ass kid.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“And let’s not forget the big picture here.  You don’t have to live with me anymore.  One less person crawling up your ass every morning.  That’s all anyone can fucking ask for.

100th Post! ABC Cancels V, Brothers And Sisters & 5 More Shows, Renews Body of Proof, Happy Endings, Picks Up Charlie’s Angels, 11 More…

It’s our 100th Post, Yay!

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that ABC went mad-crazy on Friday dumping seven shows including five freshman shows, renewing two and picking up a whopping twelve new scripted shows, all in advance of tomorrow’s upfront advertising event where they’ll announce their schedule for the 2011 – 2012 season.

Canceled:

V:  The phrase “no surprise here” is really a running theme with all of these canceled shows on ABC but never is it more appropriate than for V. V was phenomenal in its first season but by the third episode of the second season, it had become one of the most ridiculous and embarrassing SciFi shows ever produced.  Fans will of course blame ABC for how they scheduled, this is nonsense.  The show turned and we’ve actually been working on a remedial course that will published i na couple of weeks for folks who don’t understand why V was so damned ridiculous.  We’re not saying that we’re happy about its departure, but we sure as Hell understand why it was canceled and make no doubt about it, it deserved to be canceled.

Detroit 1-8-7:  This is a very sad, albeit necessary cancellation.  D-187 was one of the best police procedurals in recent memory and we were sure it was going to be terrible.  It’s unfortunate that it couldn’t find an audience.  Again, the writing for this show was on the wall since November 2010.

No Ordinary Family:  *sigh*  What’s unfortunate about this cancellation is how much potential this series had and how it completely fell off the rails.  The show became less about superheroes and more about this dysfunctional family and wore thin very quickly.  Not to mention, Jim Powell (Michael Chiklis) is the probably the most emasculated male lead character in the history of television.

Off the Map:  We got through twenty minutes of the pilot, to turn it off.  Terrible writing, terrible acting and just complete and utter tripe.  It’s nothing but typical recycled procedural crap.  Good-bye, you won’t be missed. We hated this show so much, we couldn’t bring ourselves to do a review on it.  Fortunately, Off the Map is off the map.

Mr. Sunshine:  We actually forced ourselves to sit through two episodes of this mess. This was a very poor rip-off if 30 Rock was one of the worst shows we’ve seen this season.  It was nothing ut really bad recycled jokes, recycled characters and recycled plotlines.  Good Riddance.  Maybe it will be another decade before we’ll have to be subjected to Matthew Perry again. What?  We can’t be the only ones who thinks Friends is one of the worst pieces of crap shows ever made.

Better With You:  We made it through three episodes and the last two minutes of every episode that wound up on our DVR recordings of Modern Family.  This may be one of the worst shows ever made next to $#*! My Dad Says.  There was nothing funny about this and it abused every sitcom cliché from the last 50 years of television and it made us angry that the producers had such a low opinion of their audience.

Brothers and Sisters:  We have no problem with this show and in fact we’ve never watched it but we understand that it had a loyal following (Little Sister ‘Tastic was a big fan).  The problem was that viewership had been steadily declining and once you get past the fifth season, if the ratings aren’t there to justify higher ad-revenues it’s impossible to keep a show because at this point the production costs (including cast salaried) increase dramatically.

Renewed:

Body of Proof:  We don’t understand the appeal of this show, but then again we don’t understand the appeal of all safe procedurals.  This show really particularly stupid, with dopey and recycled premises and really bad dialogue.  But, alas, what do we know as audiences seem to love it.

Happy Endings:  We have to be honest, we haven’t had time to watch this show but it does look very funny and it does have strong critical buzz surrounding it so we’re looking forward to watching it over the summer and reviewing it.  Part of the reason we didn’t put it to the front of our schedule is that based on the ratings, we weren’t expecting it to be renewed.  Good for them!

Picked Up (We’ll be providing our assessments of the new shows shortly after the schedule announcement is made on Tuesday):

Charlie’s Angels:  A modern take on the 1970s series starring Annie Ilonzeh (Melrose Place), Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights, Parenthood) and Rachael Taylor (Grey’s Anatomy) as Charlie’s (Robert Wagner) new Angels. The Miami-set drama, from Sony Pictures Television, is written by Smallville duo Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and produced by Nancy Juvonen (Whip It), Leonard Goldberg (the Charlie’s Angels features) and Drew Barrymore, who appeared in the big-screen reboot. Marcos Siega (The Vampire Diaries) directed the pilot.

Last Man Standing: The project centers on the former Home Improvement star, who is fighting for his manhood in a world increasingly dominated by women. Nancy Travis (So I Married an Axe Murderer) co-stars in the multicamera comedy from 20th Television. Jack Burditt (30 Rock) penned the pilot, with Marty Adelstein (Prison Break), Becky Clements and Shawn Levy (Date Night) on board as producers. Insiders believe the mutlicam Allen vehicle, which has had “lock” status for weeks, will launch a second ABC comedy block, likely on Tuesdays (Improvement‘s old stomping ground).

Pan Am: From Sony, the sexy soap set in the 1960s focuses on stewardesses and pilots, some of whom live double lives as spies. Christina Ricci stars in her first series regular role in the drama written and produced by Jack Orman (ER). Also producing are Sid Ganis, Nancy Hult Ganis and Thomas Schlamme (The West Wing), who helmed the pilot.

Apartment 23: The a single-camera comedy from 20th TV centers on a Midwestern girl (Dreama Walker, The Good Wife) whose big-city dreams are dashed after her first week in New York, where she finds herself living with her worst nightmare (Krysten Ritter, Breaking Bad). James Van Der Beek (Dawson’s Creek) co-stars as himself in his first series comedy role. Nahnatchka Khan (American Dad) and Dave Hemingson (Traffic Light) penned the pilot and will produce along with Jeffrey Morton (Traffic Light). Jason Winer (Modern Family) helmed the pilot.

Good Christian Belles (formerly Good Christian Bitches): The soap revolves around a former high school “mean girl” (Leslie Bibb, Popular) who returns home to Dallas after her marriage ends in scandal. The series, from ABC Studios, also stars Kristin Chenoweth (Glee) and Annie Potts (Designing Women). Robert Harling(Laws of Attraction), who penned the pilot, produces alongside Darren Star (Sex and the City) and Aaron Kaplan. Alan Poul (Six Feet Under) directed the pilot. The series is based on the book by Kim Gatlin.

Revenge: The Count of Monte Cristo-inspired soap from Mike Kelley (Swingtown), centers on a woman (Emily VanCamp, Brothers and Sisters) who moves to the Hamptons. The ABC Studios pilot, which was directed by Phillip Noyce, counts Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey as executive producers.

Once Upon a Time: A fantasy drama that revolves around a woman (Jennifer Morrison, How I Met Your Mother) who, after a boy who claims to be her son shows up, is drawn into a town where fairy tales might be real. Ginnifer Goodwin (Big Love) co-stars as Snow White in a cast that also includes Robert Carlyle (Stargate Universe) and Josh Dallas (Thor) as Prince Charming.Lost’s Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz penned the pilot and will produce alongside Steve Pearlman (V) and Mark Mylod (Shameless), who directed the pilot from ABC’s sister studio.

Scandal (formerly Damage Control): The drama revolves around the life and work of a professional fixer (Kerry Washington) and her staff. Lost’s Henry Ian Cusick co-stars as her right-hand man and Tony Goldwyn plays the president. It is based on the career of crisis management consultant Judy Smith, who serves alongside producers including Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice) and Betsy Beers (Grey’s Anatomy). From ABC Studios, the pilot was directed by Paul McGuigan (Lucky Number Slevin).

The River: A stylized project that follows a crew through the Amazon in search of a missing adventurer. Eloise Mumford (Lone Star) stars in the ABC Studios drama written by Michael Green (Kings) and Michael R. Perry (Persons Unknown). Executive producers include Oren Peliand Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity), Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey (United States of Tara), Zack Estrin (No Ordinary Family) and Steven Schneider (Paranormal Activity). Jaume Collet-Serra directed the pilot, which was shot in Puerto Rico.

Work It: The cross-dressing comedy from Warner Bros. TV and Andrew Reich and Ted Cohen(Friends), revolves around two out-of-work car salesmen (Amaury Nolasco, Ben Koldyke) who dress as women in order to get jobs as pharmaceutical reps. Beth McCarthy Miller directed the pilot.

Suburgatory: The project stars Jane Levy as a New Yorker who moves to a cookie-cutter community and discovers that the suburbs is more frightening than any horror movie she’s seen. Jeremy Sisto (Law & Order), Alan Tudyk (Firefly) and Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm) co-star. The single-camera comedy from Warner Bros. TV was written by Emily Kapnek (Hung, Parks and Recreation), with the pilot directed by Mike Fresco (Raising Hope, Better Off Ted).

Man Up: The single-camera comedy from ABC Studios and Chris Moynihan (Coupling) is a look at what it takes to survive as a modern man, as told through the eyes of three best friends and the women in their lives.

ALERT! FOX Announces 2011 – 2012 Schedule

Here it is, folks, direct from the FOX Upfront Advertising Event, FOX’s 2011 – 2012 Primetime Programming Schedule (scroll down for complete schedule).  Please note, if you don’t see your favorite show from this season, recent cancellations have been covered here, however as we reported, the status of Breaking In is reported to be still up in the air.

If you have any questions about other shows, post them below.

Some programming notes:

• Some solid scripted shows, however the new comedies seem weak, despite the star power behind them.
• The elephant in the room that is Terra Nova: The Big Gamble.  Depending on how well or poorly this does could change the direction of the entire schedule. Read why we believe TN is such a big gamble, here and here.  Believe us, we’re rooting for it, we’re just nervous about it and we think FOX is too.  We’re still trying to figure out if they plan to run this for an entire 22 episode run because it’s nowhere on the mid-season schedule.  So it’s either going for 13 episodes (which we believe would be the smarter move) or it will have an abbreviated 19 episode season non-stop through December.
• New J.J. Abrams, series Alcatraz to premiere mid-season.  Perhaps the smartest move of the schedule to avoid hiatuses and loss of interest by audiences of what no doubt will be a Lost-type serial.
• After 24 seasons, America’s Most Wanted is no longer a regular series.  It will now be shown as four specials throughout the year.
• The Cleveland Show has swapped places with American Dad, going to the less desirable 7:30 – 8:30 PM spot on Sunday and putting AD back into its longstanding 9:30 – 10:00 PM for the first half of the season.  New series Allen Gregory will be in the 8:30 – 9:30 PM slot, a slot that was filled by The Cleveland Show for the first half of the season and Bob’s Burgers for the second half.  This gives credence to our suggestion that we made when the announcement for AD‘s renewal was made in which the press release claimed that an order had been placed for 22 episodes, however it contradicted itself by stating that the show was renewed through 2013.  We suggested that one of the only ways this would make sense would be if AD was going to get half-season treatment, although we did find that scenario the most unlikely.  This could change, however depending on the success/failure of AG and ND.
• We’re not expecting a whole lot from AG and ND and we don’t think FOX is either.  We explain why here.  We expect these shows to both be canceled pretty quickly as the two had seven and six episodes orders, respectively.  We hear that FOX has at least two more animated shows in the hopper waiting to go, though, just in case.
• Finally, keep in mind that an NFL lockout is looming.  This could send ripples through the entire FOX schedule.

So without further adieu:

FOX FALL 2011 PRIMETIME SCHEDULE
(All Times ET/PT)

MONDAY

8:00-9:00 PM    Terra Nova (NEW!)
9:00-10:00 PM   House

TUESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM    Glee
9:00-9:30 PM    The New Girl (NEW!)
9:30-10:00 PM   Raising Hope

WEDNESDAY
8:00-9:30 PM    The X-Factor  (NEW!)
9:30-10:00 PM   I Hate My Teenage Daughter (NEW!)

THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 PM    The X-Factor (Results Show) (NEW!)
9:00-10:00 PM   Bones

FRIDAY
8:00-9:00 PM    Kitchen Nightmares
9:00-10:00 PM   Fringe

SATURDAY
8:00-8:30 PM    COPS 
8:30-9:00 PM    COPS
9:00-10:00 PM   (Encores) / America’s Most Wanted (Specials)

SUNDAY
7:00-7:30 PM    The OT (NFL post-game show)
7:30-8:00 PM    The Cleveland Show
8:00-8:30 PM    The Simpsons
8:30-9:00 PM    Allen Gregory (NEW!)
9:00-9:30 PM    Family Guy
9:30-10:00 PM   American Dad

FOX MIDSEASON 2012 PRIMETIME SCHEDULE
(All Times ET/PT)

MONDAY
8:00-9:00 PM    House
9:00-10:00 PM   Alcatraz (NEW!)

TUESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM    Glee
9:00-9:30 PM    The New Girl (NEW!)
9:30-10:00 PM   Raising Hope

WEDNESDAY
8:00-9:30 PM    American Idol
9:30-10:00 PM   I Hate My Teenage Daughter (NEW!)

THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 PM    American Idol  (Results Show)
9:00-10:00 PM   The Finder (NEW!)  / Bones (Spring)

FRIDAY
8:00-9:00 PM    Kitchen Nightmares
9:00-10:00 PM   Fringe

SATURDAY
8:00-8:30 PM    COPS
8:30-9:00 PM    COPS
9:00-10:00 PM   (Encores) / America’s Most Wanted (Specials)

SUNDAY
7:00-7:30 PM    The OT (NFL post-game)
7:30-8:00 PM    The Cleveland Show
8:00-8:30 PM    The Simpsons
8:30-9:00 PM    Napoleon Dynamite (NEW!)
9:00-9:30 PM    Family Guy
9:30-10:00 PM   American Dad

TV-Tastic EPIC FAIL: House Renewed! Lie To Me, Human Target, The Chicago Code, & Breaking In CANCELED!

When we’re wrong we admit it and this was the biggest case of FAIL that we have had since we started this blog.   A few weeks ago we not only predicted that FOX would lose House but we also predicted that out of these three shows, Lie To Me, Human Target, and The Chicago Code at least one would be saved despite mediocre ratings. Well, we were wrong on all counts, but it certainly is a qualified FAIL.

House Stays With FOX For Eighth Season

The New York Daily News has reported that Universal Media Studios the has come to terms with FOX Broadcasting over the price for the show and cast salaries.  Well, to be more accurate NYD reported that NBCUniversal had come to terms with FOX Broadcasting, which is completely inaccurate. Look, Mainstream Lazy-Press, stop calling it NBCUniversal because it sounds cool.  It’s NOT NBCUniversal.  It used to be NBCUniversal Television Studios and NBCUniversal Television Group is the parent company but that’s not who makes the decisions for UMS.  This is the equivalent of calling 20th Century Fox Television Studios, FOX Entertainment Group.

Rant over… moving along.

NOT NBCUniversal

With the deal finally getting sealed for House,  we’re not surprised about the cancellations. We predicted that House wasn’t going to be picked up because of all the deadlines that had gone by, the fact that Universal Media Studios (fka NBCUniversal Television Studio) and FOX could not come to terms on licensing fees and actors salaries and the fact that UMS really wanted this money and would have been glad to take it from NBC who is not only desperate for a scripted drama hit, but it also just had $200 million more dumped into its budget for programming by Comcast. So based on this and the fact that FOX has a lot of question marks this Fall for scripted-drama, we speculated that the loss of House would set off a tidal wave of changes in FOX’s programming decisions, including the ones we mentioned in the beginning of this piece.

So, yes, we failed, but consider the fact that all of those predictions were predicated on House going to NBC.  Regardless of the outcome, there’s certainly no denying the fact that the fate of House on FOX was the key factor in their recent programming decisions so the importance of House for FOX cannot be overstated.  It’s no coincidence that the day the announcement is made about House that FOX also announces that they are canceling five scripted shows (not surprisingly, Traffic Light was also canceled) and picking up a whole bunch of new pilots (story, here).

Canceled? Huh???

That being said, we were very surprised about the cancellation of Breaking In for a couple of reasons.  First, it’s a great show, and it has a strong cast (with the Christian Slater as the lead), put up decent numbers, had great exposure as the lead-out for American Idol and had a lot of potential.  We don’t understand their logic of not giving it a chance to run a complete season next Fall.  The show couldn’t have been particularly expensive to produce and it certainly wasn’t losing money. Was the problem really that it wasn’t retaining enough of AI‘s audience as the lead-out?  How much were they expecting, really?  It’s not entirely the same audience.

But fear not, as it looks like FOX may be reconsidering this rather hasty decision and it is possible that we may see BI in FOX’s 2011 – 2012 schedule after all.  Check out this related post for all the details about all the latest developments for BI.

Folks, don’t forget that the major network up-front media events are on Monday, May 16th.  This is the day that we will find out the fates of all this season’s shows that haven’t already been decided and we’ll also find out what new shows will be on the schedules for the 2011 – 2012 season.  You can find out the schedules for all of the events, here.

TV SCOOP! CBS Ousts ‘Blue Bloods’ Creators – Is This A Sign Of Certain Renewal?

Deadline is reporting that CBS has kicked to the curb Blue Bloods creators, Mitchell Burgess and Robin Green and it has been reported that the network had creative differences with the two and that it needed to be more procedural (yuck!) in nature. Deadline notes how bizarre this is considering that former showrunner, Ken Sanzel, was exited-stage left due to his conflict with star, Tom Selleck, who thought the show was too procedural and actually refused to accept the scripts (Damn!).

Now, we don’t care about the intricacies of this mess and all of the politics involved.  If you do, read the Deadline piece because you must know by now that’s not we’re about at The ‘Tastic.  We’re all about he bottom line and what news like this means to a show that is one of the best new shows of the season, specifically in regard to renewal because Blue Bloods has been on the bubble all season long.

So as backwards as this sounds, the creators getting fired is great for the prospects of renewal.  How, do you ask?  Why bother canning the creators if you are just going to cancel the show at the end of the season, anyway?  Heck, they’ve finished filming this season’s episodes already. That combined with the comments made by Armando Nuñez, president of CBS Studios International,  Blue Bloods is pretty much cemented for a second season.

It’s perhaps not as sexy to talk about, but it has proven a success both on the network and in terms of global distribution.

Boom… see ya next fall, Blue Bloods.

Commentary: Lights Out Down For The Count… Or Is It?

On March 24th, F/X announced that they would not be renewing their critically acclaimed drama, Lights Out, for a second season as we originally reported here.  In our original review, we stated that Lights Out was the best new show of the Spring and we gave it a coveted 10 out of 10 rating (an honor that has only been bestowed upon one other show since we started the blog, HBO’s Boardwalk Empire) after only seeing two episodes and we firmly stand by that assessment, but we get why it didn’t catch on with audiences.

As terrific as Lights Out was, the boxing backdrop in and of itself simply was too niche to appeal to any kind of general audience.  First, boxing has never been that popular of a sport in the U.S., but in the last two decades the sport has seen a serious decline in interest by the public.  As we noted, boxing really was incidental to the show.  The show was really about an ordinary man who, in his prime, had fame and money due to his particular talent, was losing everything and at this point would do ANYTHING to protect his family, even if that meant risking his own personal health, violating his own ethics and morals and even breaking the law.

The problem was that F/X sold this show as a boxing show when there were only two fights during the whole season.  It was very gritty and compelling but unfortunately due to F/X’s decision to emphasize the boxing element before the show ever aired, audiences never really wanted to find out. Now, we aren’t necessarily slamming F/X for the marketing decision, though, as it’s kind of difficult for us to envision a way to market this show downplaying the boxing aspect and making it more attractive to a broader audience at the same time.  Maybe “Lights Out” wasn’t the best title for the show, perhaps?

C’est la vie, though.  TV shows come and go and it’s really difficult for us to get too attached to a show considering how fickle audiences are and how quickly even the best shows seem to leave us.  The upside is that Season One of Lights Out played out like a 13 episode miniseries, even in the finale, leaving unanswered questions that frankly didn’t need a second season to be expanded on (even though it would have been nice).  They could simply be left to the viewer’s imagination to figure it out for themselves, and that, folks, is a mark of great storytelling.

Possibly Up at the 9 Count For One More Round?

As Spock said, “There are always… possibilities.”  No sooner did F/X make the announcement of the cancellation of Lights Out did DirecTV issue feelers to its followers on Twitter regarding interest in possibly picking it up:

FX cancels “Lights Out,” what’s your reaction?

And they aren’t the only ones.  In an interview he did for The Hollywood Reporter, Executive Producer Warren Leight explains that although he’s not optimistic about the chances of the show being picked up by another network, they have been pitching it and Showtime’s name in particular had come up.

People express “maybe” kind of interest. I would love to believe it when it happens. My sense is it’s unlikely Showtime would pick up a show that had been on basic cable.

Not so fast there, Mr. Leight.  We think everyone who watched this show probably agrees that it was better suited for premium cable than basic cable to begin with (again, we noted this as well in our original review) and there’s also the fact that Showtime has a history of broadcasting programming that was rejected by non-premium television (see: The Reagans in 2003).

However, If this does become a reality, our money is on DirecTV Channel 101 if for only the reason that they recently picked up the highly acclaimed Damages from F/X in January with Season 4 set to air in July.  As much as DirecTV claims that they are out of the “Save Our Show” business, wanting to instead focus on original programming for their Channel 101, we believe that if they can find success with Season Four of Damages, their attitude about a show like Lights Out will change rather quickly.  So, at this point, it’s a waiting game.

As an aside, we highly recommend reading the full interview with THR that we linked to earlier. Leight gives many insights into the show and the state of television today and confirms a lot of our original contentions about the show that we restated above.

ALERT! FOX Renews American Dad For Seventh Season!!!

Via Press Release From FOX:

GOOD MORNING, U.S.A.! IT’S GONNA BE A WONDERFUL DAY!

“American Dad” RENEWED FOR SEVENTH TERM

Emmy-nominated Animation Domination staple American Dad has been renewed for a seventh season, bringing the series through the 2012-2013 season, it was announced today by Kevin Reilly, President of Entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Company.

“This is fantastic news,” said Roger the Alien. “But you do realize I’m not real, right?”

American Dad follows the lives of ultra-conservative, staunch GOP supporter and CIA agent STAN SMITH (Seth MacFarlane) and his eccentric family that includes FRANCINE (Wendy Schaal), his ditzy-but-lovable wife; HAYLEY (Rachael MacFarlane), his 18-year-old left-wing hippie daughter; STEVE (Scott Grimes), his geeky, 14-year-old son; ROGER (Seth MacFarlane), the selfish and sarcastic cross-dressing space alien; and KLAUS (Dee Bradley Baker), an attention-starved goldfish. The fan-favorite series airs Sundays (7:30-8:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

Expect lots of hijinks from the Smiths this spring! Roger attempts to make Steve a “cool kid” by letting him drive other kids around in a tractor, but the plan quickly backfires. Meanwhile, Francine gets a job at Stan’s office, but she cramps his style; and Roger starts dressing like a teenage girl and quickly seduces Steve’s best friend, SNOT (guest voice Curtis Armstrong). Upcoming guest voices for this season include Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Anjelica Huston, Elisabeth Shue, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Burt Reynolds and Grammy Award winner Cee-Lo Green.

American Dad is a 20^th Century Fox Television production. Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman serve as co-creators and executive producers, while Kenny Schwartz, Rick Wiener and Nahnatchka Khan serve as executive producers. Become a fan of American Dad on Facebook at www.facebook.com/americandad and follow the series on Twitter at www.twitter.com/americandadfox.

We are officially not hating FOX today (ONE day, FOX… you get ONE DAY!) but we would like to point out that after we saw the pilot of Bob’s Burgers we knew that the renewal of American Dad was inevitable and noted it in our review.  So tell your friends about how brilliant our insight is (again) and that they have to read this blog.  That being said, with this announcement today, we find it highly unlikely that Bob’s Burgers will be renewed and we are thankful for that as it’s just awful.

There is a discrepancy here, though, that we would like to point out:  American Dad is currently in its sixth season (2010 – 2011).  The press release indicates that the American Dad renewal will bring the series through the 2012 – 2013 season.  The numbers don’t work on that (it should be 2011 – 2012)  unless FOX intends to split up season seven over the course of 2 years (there are reports that the order was for 22 episodes) premiering each half in January 2012 and January 2013.  We don’t find this scenario likely but it’s not out of the realm of possibility either.

Consider this:  FOX has ordered pilots for at least two new animated shows for 2011 – 2012 and they are continuing to look for more because they want to expand their “Animation Domination” schedule, according to our sources.  There is no change in time-slot according to the press release which means that American Dad will still be airing at 7:30 p.m.   The problem is that FOX stops airing programming at 10:00 p.m. so they are limited on time slots to keep plugging cartoons into.  The only solution would be half-season programming, i.e., air “Cartoon-X” in the Fall of 2011 and American Dad for 11 episodes in Spring 2012, rinse and repeat for the following season.  Although we find this scenario unlikely, it is possible and we don’t think it would necessarily be a bad thing.

The more likely of the scenarios, however, is that they either just made a mistake and meant 2011 – 2012 or they actually renewed it for two seasons.  As much as we’d like the latter, we’re leaning towards the former for obvious reasons.

Of course, we’ll keep you updated as we find out more.