It looks like FlashForward will end with its final episode this season, so it'll only have closure if its producers saw the writing on the wall or got a heads up from ABC and wrote a fitting finale. More pilot news: NBC has picked up The Cape and the comedy Friends With Benefits. Also, Kindreds and Garza have been re-titled. They're now going to be called Harry's Law and Outlaw respectively. Update: ABC has picked up Body of Proof, a crime procedural starring Dana Delaney, and Off the Map, another medical show produced by Shonda Rhimes.
Here's a handy list of all the new shows, bubble shows and cancellations in one place. Still waiting for the CW to announce their shows...I'm rooting for Ben Browder! And CBS is still mum, but they have hardly anything in the race worth bothering about. I'd like Chaos to make the grade. The still-untitled medical drama also sounds worth checking out.
That's if any CBS news leaks or is announced early on Monday. CBS's upfront presentation is on Wednesday.
The Event will take Heroes timeslot. Here's hoping it will turn out better, but the premise will be tricky - the big, amorphous conspiracy story does have a tendency to fizzle. If they can pull it off with the aplomb of Lost, great. But if it's a stupid conspiracy plotline like Jericho and Prison Break, forget it. Chase seems even more likely to fizzle - Yet Another Cop Show. NBC already had to cancel Mercy and Trauma. I guess it hasn't learned its lesson about launching a generic show in an overexposed genre. Uh-oh. Let's hope we actually see it someday and it doesn't end up like Day One.
Didn't have to wait till Mon for CBS news. Not much of an update but the two shows I like are still possibilities...
The CW has picked up Nikita and Hellcats. AMC has ordered a pilot for a western called Hell on Wheels about the construction of the transcontinental railroad in the 1860s. CBS has renewed Medium and Rules of Engagement and cancelled Cold Case, Ghost Whisperer, Numb3rs, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Gary Unmarried, Miami Medical, and Accidentally on Purpose.
CW also kept One Tree Hill and Life Unexpected. ABC last year was talking about taking Christine if CBS canceled it, wonder if they would do the same this year.
There's also a chance ABC could pick up Ghost Whisperer (which they co-produce with CBS). Changelings (aka Betwixt) is dead at The CW. The number of SFF pilots in the mix this year at the broadcast networks was down quite dramatically compared to recent seasons, but Changelings has turned out to be the only one that didn't get picked up.
Aw, I would have given Betwitx a shot. But it's great that Ben Browder will be back on the tube! Even if the show is likely to be horrible: So poverty is forcing her into (shudder) cheerleading? Oh the humanity! Yeah, there were a ton of cop show pilots but they must have all been competing for X number of cop show slots because a lot of them thankfully have fallen by the wayside (even, shockingly, the much-hyped Rockford Files remake). Pretty decent slate of sf/f genre shows this season, especially counting cable. Actual historical fiction?!? Hurray for AMC, once again!
TNT has picked up the Steven Spielberg alien invasion series they were developing. It now has a title - Fallen Skies - and it'll air next year.
CBS didn't pick up either series I was interested in. Phooey on them. They are the most vanilla of all the vanilla networks.
Word is that CBS might still order a couple more shows for midseason and announce them tomorrow or next week.
Syfy's action-adventure pilot "Alphas." Uh oh, sounds like a wannabe No Ordinary Family(ABC) clip show for SyFy... May 24, 2010 http://www.thewrap.com/ind-column/syfy-picks-lost-director-bender-alphas-pilot-17694
Sounds more like another attempt at Heroes. Maybe they should just hire the Heroes actors - some of them were the best thing about the show. Round out the cast with Lost actors and we're golden! And pick up a few more of the top genre actors who don't currently have gigs, like Ben Browder, Lee Pace and Sprague Grayden. Or they could get cast in yet another skiffy superhero project: Three Inches. ABC isn't done picking up pilots. More planned for springtime. Here's a good sounding one: ...aaand, not so good: