Now that The CW announced its 2015-2016 TV season plans this morning, we know exactly what this Fall will look like on TV. There are quite a few intriguing trends, with each network making their own often-strange decisions. But overall, the schedule will look remarkably similar to Fall 2014.
‘Supergirl’ screenshot from CBS YouTube video
Don’t fix what’s not broken
That appeared to the be the main mantra for all five networks. CBS, which often boasts that it is “America’s most watched network,” and ABC only have five new shows debuting this fall each. Fox only has five, but that network only has two hours a night instead of CBS’ three. NBC has six, while The CW only has one new show premiering right away.
In addition, many nights are exactly the same. ABC is keeping both Wednesday and Shonda Rhimes Day (I mean Thursday) the same. CBS is doing the same thing with The Big Bang Theory that it did last season, when it had its first Thursday Night Football games. NBC’s Wednesday will also be the exact same crime dramas.
NBC doesn’t want you to laugh
NBC apparently gave up on developing comedies. Although the network did order quite a few, all the new ones were held back for midseason, save for Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s People Are Talking. That show and the all-live season of Undateable will both air on Fridays, against ABC’s Last Man Standing and Dr. Ken.
It’s sad to see that NBC has decided to move away completely from comedies on Thursdays. Instead, Thursday will be devoted to The Blacklist sandwiched between new dramas The Player and Heroes Reborn. It’s a move that didn’t help new shows this season - and likely hurt The Blacklist - but NBC is sticking to it.
‘The Muppets’ image courtesy of ABC
Battle of the DC Comics Superheroes
It’s clear that the schedulers at CBS know nothing about superheroes. If they did, they wouldn’t have put Supergirl against Gotham on Mondays at the SAME TIME. Thankfully, Supergirl won’t start until November (after TNF ends), but it will make things tough. At least Hulu and On Demand will help us.
The CW also smartly put The Flash and Arrow on different nights again. You don’t need them on the same night when they could be used as strong lead-ins for other shows. The network did hold back the third DC show, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, for midseason.
What do all four of these shows have in common? Producer Greg Berlanti, of course.
New Tuesdays
Boy, it’s going to be tough to figure out what to watch on Tuesdays if you don’t care about ABC’s Agents of SHIELD or CBS’ NCIS shows. Eight brand new shows will air on Tuesdays, including an all-new night on Fox. That’s a really gutsy move, but not a bad one. Both comedies - Grandfathered and The Grider - star well-known actors (John Stamos and Rob Lowe, respectively). Plus, Scream Queens has the Ryan Murphy brand to promote and a zillion stars in the cast.
ABC has The Muppets and ends the night with Quantico. NBC’s new shows are the medical drama Heartbreaker and then Neil Patrick Harris’ Best Time Ever through November. (It is going to be really fun to see how The Muppets do against Stamos’ show.)
Even CBS got in on the new Tuesday game with Limitless, which is based on the Bradley Cooper movie (and even has Cooper recurring).
Fox has Empire so give up
Fox has a full season of Empire this year, so everyone else might as well give up on Wednesdays. The network has 18 episodes ordered for the show’s second season. Nine will air in a row in the fall and another nine in the winter. Empire was the biggest hit of the ‘14/‘15 season, so Fox will get to find out if that was a fluke or if people really want to see more of Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson yelling at each other.
‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ photo: Mathieu Young/The CW
Check out the full schedules below:
NBC
CBS
Fox
ABC
The CW
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