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2014-15 TV Cancellations: Under the Dome canned, what will CBS do with CG cows next?

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Jaeger

Member
No. It's Cancelled.

img-2103693-1-FreshPrince-Nooooo.gif
 

ivysaur12

Banned
Yes, two shows erase an entire industry of mentorship.

And plenty of shows with writers rooms have awful, unbalanced writing. It's not mutually exclusive.

The continued practice of it sure doesn't help. I don't think any pay cable channels will have many shows with writers rooms in 5-7 years because of this infatuation with the auteur and prestige of being a "singular voice". It's in vogue for no other reason because it's "film like."

Also, your second paragraph responds to nothing I posted or insinuated. Shitty shows and shitty concepts will be shitty. Not having a room just doesn't help your show.
 

Sober

Member
From what I gathered from that article - and correct me if I'm wrong - but it sounds like Noah Hawley either had 8 scripts of the 10 or 80% of the material of the series, but it wasn't in any condition to be on television. So he has a writers room go over what he has, break the stories for each episode with plot/character beats per act, fill in any gaps, transitions, and go from there.

This is kinda the stuff you learn, at least in a writers room, especially in Canada/US because of how shows are shot. I can only assume Fargo, since it's on FX is ~42 minutes so it has hard act breaks as well you need to account for.
 
The continued practice of it sure doesn't help. I don't think any pay cable channels will have many shows with writers rooms in 5-7 years because of this infatuation with the auteur and prestige of being a "singular voice". It's in vogue for no other reason because it's "film like."

I think they'll realize very quickly that this isn't something most writers/directors can do and succeed. There's an intense risk-reward with the format. That said, I imagine it is cheaper since they only have to pay one writer. I don't know, I only see it really working if they start doing extremely short runs of 3 or so hours per show's season. If this somehow leads into a wide variety of shows with short-run seasons (like Sherlock), I think I'd be ok with that, but it's not realistic for there to be a lot of one-person teams taking on this kind of larger production.


ivysaur12 said:
Also, your second paragraph responds to nothing I posted or insinuated.

It's responding to this:

I also think True Detective is a prime example of a show that struggled without a writers' room on some simple television principles.

and your overall thesis that a writing room will produce better writing than a single writer.

You're probably right that, in general, a writing room will produce a better show. But that doesn't mean it always will, and it doesn't mean Fincher and Flynn are going to produce a terrible show. Let them have their experiment. If they fuck it up, then all it will do is reinforce your argument. If they don't, then it (hopefully) opens up the opportunity for more auteur-type products, which I don't really see as a bad thing.
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
So AMC is cancelling all unscripted programming with the exception of comic book men and talking dead, effective immediately.

Whoa, that's kind of crazy. I haven't been following the ratings for any of their unscripted series (outside of Talking Dead), so I had no idea how poorly they were performing. I assumed they were doing well though since AMC kept ordering new ones, even unveiling an extensive upcoming unscripted slate earlier this year.

That means:

Game of Arms
Freakshow
Small Town Security
4th and Loud
The two Kevin Smith projects
The untitled Chris Hardwick project

are all dead.

“Scripted originals are at the core of the AMC brand,” the network said in a statement to Deadline.”Iconic shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead have driven AMC’s evolution into a must-have television network. We are proud of our efforts in unscripted programming and the unique worlds we have been able to introduce, but in an environment of exploding content options for viewers, we have decided to make scripted programming our priority.”

I vastly prefer scripted to unscripted, so this is great news for me. Still, I hope everyone working on these shows lands on their feet!

More importantly, as cable universe becomes more fragmented, networks have been looking to narrow their brands to distinguish themselves from the competition. In a similar move, USA Network is pulling away from half-hour comedies to focus on its core drama programming that viewers associate with its brand.

This is interesting. It seems like some channels are trying to diversify (Cinemax and Starz, though to be fair these are premium cable and might not be influenced as much by the ever expanding slate of scripted originals on cable) while others are trying to narrow their focus. I wonder which channel is next?
 

ivysaur12

Banned
I think they'll realize very quickly that this isn't something most writers/directors can do and succeed. There's an intense risk-reward with the format. That said, I imagine it is cheaper since they only have to pay one writer. I don't know, I only see it really working if they start doing extremely short runs of 3 or so hours per show's season. If this somehow leads into a wide variety of shows with short-run seasons (like Sherlock), I think I'd be ok with that, but it's not realistic for there to be a lot of one-person teams taking on this kind of larger production.




It's responding to this:



and your overall thesis that a writing room will produce better writing than a single writer.

You're probably right that, in general, a writing room will produce a better show. But that doesn't mean it always will, and it doesn't mean Fincher and Flynn are going to produce a terrible show. Let them have their experiment. If they fuck it up, then all it will do is reinforce your argument. If they don't, then it (hopefully) opens up the opportunity for more auteur-type products, which I don't really see as a bad thing.

Agree to disagree with your last point, then.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
“Scripted originals are at the core of the AMC brand,” the network said in a statement to Deadline.

Are they? Most of your programming is unscripted and you've been increasing your unscripted programming investments the last several years, including as recently as May when you ordered a bunch of unscripted stuff? And when you described your "commitment" to unscripted as "unwavering"?

IZx01it.jpg


But that's none of my business.
 

cory64

Member
AMC: Just pretend that the last four years of new shows didn't happen, isn't it better this way? We know it is, because we think that every day.
 

AlteredBeast

Fork 'em, Sparky!
I personally am still salty about Rubicon. Best one-season of television ever, in my opinion. At least for a show that never got a second season. Why couldn't it have been on HBO instead? :(
 

LycanXIII

Member
That means:

Game of Arms
Freakshow
Small Town Security
4th and Loud
The two Kevin Smith projects
The untitled Chris Hardwick project

are all dead.



I vastly prefer scripted to unscripted, so this is great news for me. Still, I hope everyone working on these shows lands on their feet!

Hardwick could probably take his show to BBC America.
 

Phil S.

Banned
My favorite part of these topics aren't the news of cancellations, but the clever topic title changes when a show gets cancelled. :)
 

TheOddOne

Member
reminding me that
Enlightened is gone and I just have to deal
Enlightened is gone and I just have to deal
Enlightened is gone and I just have to deal
Anaron feels your pain, too.

- Deadline: ‘How To Get Away With Murder’ & ‘Black-Ish’ Get Full-Season Orders At ABC
ABC has handed drama How To Get Away With Murder and comedy Black-ish pickups for two and nine more episodes, respectively, bringing their first-season orders to 15 and 22 episodes, respectively.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
I think they'll realize very quickly that this isn't something most writers/directors can do and succeed. There's an intense risk-reward with the format. That said, I imagine it is cheaper since they only have to pay one writer. I don't know, I only see it really working if they start doing extremely short runs of 3 or so hours per show's season. If this somehow leads into a wide variety of shows with short-run seasons (like Sherlock), I think I'd be ok with that, but it's not realistic for there to be a lot of one-person teams taking on this kind of larger production.
It's pretty standard practice for British/Australian shows though. But most of them don't have the pressure of trying fill out 20+ episode seasons. Or even 13 episode seasons.

Strangely, it's the non-scripted panel shows that seem to have writer rooms over there. Go figure. lol
 

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
So AMC is cancelling all unscripted programming with the exception of comic book men and talking dead, effective immediately.

Game of Arms season 2 production to stop immediately.

Source: http://deadline.com/2014/10/amc-uns...ed-series-talking-dead-comic-book-men-849024/

Walking Dead’s companion talk show, Talking Dead, has been a monster hit fitting for the series that spawned it — its Season 4 averaged 5.6 million total viewers, 3.7 million adults 18-49 per episode in Live+3.

Jesus. That is way too many people watching infomercials starring Chris Hardwick's profuse desperation.
 
Game of Arms and those other shows that take names that are obviously "inspired" by another TV show or something else that's highly popular has been annoying me for awhile, I never watched it but good riddance.
 

Joni

Member
Game of Arms and those other shows that take names that are obviously "inspired" by another TV show or something else that's highly popular has been annoying me for awhile, I never watched it but good riddance.

What, you don't like The Big Brain Theory?
You're not alone
 
- Thursday night numbers from TVbtN:
On CBS, NFL Kickoff earned a preliminary 2.5, down three tenths from last week's preliminary 2.8 adults 18-49 rating.

On ABC Grey's Anatomy garnered a 2.4, down two tenths from last week's 2.6 adults 18-49 rating. Scandal notched a 3.0, down four tenths from last week's 3.4 adults 18-49 rating. How to Get Away With Murder earned a 3.1, down two tenths from last week's 3.3 adults 18-49 rating.

On NBC, The Biggest Loser earned a series low 1.2, down a tenth from last week's series low 1.3 adults 18-49 rating. Bad Judge matched last week's 1.3 adults 18-49 rating. A to Z notched a 1.0, down two tenths from last week's 1.2 adults 18-49 rating. Parenthood matched last week's 1.3 adults 18-49 rating.

On FOX, Bones matched last week's 1.5 adults 18-49 rating. Gracepoint garnered a 0.9, down three tenths from last week's 1.2 adults 18-49 rating.

On the CW, The Vampire Diaries earned a 0.7, down two tenths from last week's 0.9 adults 18-49 rating. Reign matched last week's 0.4 adults 18-49 rating.
 

Busty

Banned
Three out of eight hours of programming FOX has had this week has scored below a 1.0

RIP

Yikes. I had a feeling that Fox would have a rocky year but not this bad. I see that Gracepoint continues its downward spiral as expected and I don't see any of Fox's mid season offerings turning around much.

Backstrom could find an audience but I'm not sure that Empire or Wayward Pines are what Fox needs to fix their current ratings 'ailment'.

At this point it's looking like Gotham could end the season as Fox's number one rated drama.


I have to admit that I'd have thought A to Z would be doing better for NBC than it is. Though I haven't seen it myself I have heard nothing but good things.

Is it scheduling or is the show just not connecting with an audience?
 

Penguin

Member
I have to admit that I'd have thought A to Z would be doing better for NBC than it is. Though I haven't seen it myself I have heard nothing but good things.

Is it scheduling or is the show just not connecting with an audience?

Personally speaking, I feel they just kind of threw it out there with no anchor.

For years and years, NBC Thursday has always had a show that kind of held together the line-up, but now it's down to two rookie comedies... and The Biggest Loser isn't the best lead-in for it.

I enjoyed the first episode, but I never remember its on.
 
- Deadline: LeBron James Produced ‘Survivor’s Remorse’ Renewed For Season 2 By Starz
Less than a week after it first hit the court, Survivor’s Remorse is already set to come back for another season. The Lebron James executive produced series of sudden basketball fame and fortune turned into a nightmare at times will be back with 10-episodes for its second cycle, That’s up from the 6-episodes of the current first season. “We’re thrilled with the overwhelming critical acclaim Survivors Remorse has received and we look forward to continuing our partnership with such an all-star team,” said Starz’s Chris Albrecht today.

Survivor’s Remorse debuted on October 4 at 9 PM to 203,000 total viewers. Over all its plays over the weekend, the half hour comedy drew 605,000 viewers for Starz. With an online preview, the debut episode of Survivor’s Remorse had a multiplatform performance of 1.3 million viewers in its opening week.
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
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