TV Feature: Fall 2011 New Network Series Bubble Watch

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NBC
6 New Shows — 2 Full-Seasons, 2 Cancellations, 1 Likely To Be Canceled, 1 Yet to Premiere

Prime Suspect Photo credit: NBC

“Free Agents”
Why bother writing about this disaster any more? No one watched it and I’d like to thank all of you for giving my choice for the worst new show of the year the fate it deserved. Mercifully Canceled.

“Grimm”
Debuts October 28th.

“The Playboy Club”
The answer to the trivia question of what was the first show canceled in the Fall 2011 season. Canceled

“Prime Suspect”
This might be the biggest question mark on any network. The numbers haven’t been good and they’ve been sliding week to week but the show has received good reviews and it feels to me like NBC might stick with it to give it time to develop. The concern for the producers has to be that the net has a strong mid-season slate (including hour-longs “Smash” and “Awake”) and there’s going to have to be room somewhere. If “Rock Center” works in the “TPC” spot then one of those new shows will have to go here and there’s no reason to believe that another NBC news show won’t find a decent audience. In other words, Maria Bello better find an audience under that hat real soon. Canceled at Mid-Season

“Up All Night”
Will Arnett finally has a hit. The show is not setting the ratings on fire but it’s doing well with the right audience. If it can maintain or even grow (and a rumored move to Thursday nights would help), this could be a long-term hit of the kind that NBC hasn’t developed in years. Full Season Ordered

“Whitney”
Given a surprising full-season order by the network that seems even more bizarre as it continues to slide in the ratings and has already dipped below the last-year ratings for “Outsourced.” Who did Whitney Cummings bribe? Full Season Ordered

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com