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THE FRIDAY FIVE: Top 5 TV News Stories of the Week Ending 10/16/20

 Here's a look at this week's Top 5 TV news stories!

#1 -  CBS ANNOUNCES FALL PREMIERE DATES
In the spring, the networks had different strategies on dealing with COVID-19 and their schedules. FOX and the CW pretty much pandemic-proofed their schedule while ABC, CBS and NBC announced a "fall" schedule for an undetermined date but with many shows on it that were question marks if they could go back into production. The end result was somewhere in the middle. ABC, CBS and NBC were all able to get some but not all of their shows back on their air by November with CBS the latest to announce premiere dates. Young Sheldon, new comedy B Positive and Anna Faris-less Mom will kick things off on November 5. NCIS: New Orleans and NCIS: Los Angeles follow on November 8. S.W.A.T., one of the first shows to go back into production, stars on November 11. The Monday trio of The Neighborhood, Bob Hearts Abishola and All Rise begin November 16 while NCIS kicks off its 18th season on November 17. Still no dates have been set for Bull, FBI, FBI: Most Wanted, SEAL Team, The Unicorn, Evil, MacGyver, Magnum P.I., Blue Bloods and the new The Equalizer. Most of those shows are back in production now but either don't have as many in the can to assure CBS of a premiere date or require more considerations before they can return.

#2 - "LAST MAN STANDING" WILL END WITH SEASON NINE
FOX announced that the upcoming ninth season of Last Man Standing will be the final one for the long-running family comedy. The series got off to a hot start in the Fall of 2011 and then became a staple of Friday nights before being originally cancelled by ABC in May 2017. It was revived by FOX a year later and once again got off to a hot start on Friday nights on its new network. It moved to Thursdays this past season because of WWE Smackdown and it does not have a premiere date yet for its final season. Tim Allen had an eight year run with Home Improvement so Last Man will just slightly eclipse that. I have watched episodes here and there. It was just kind of there for me but it certainly has its fans.

#3 - "DEXTER" GETTING REVIVAL ON SHOWTIME
Showtime announced that its long running drama Dexter will return for a 10 episode limited revival series. The Michael C. Hall serial killer drama originally ran on Showtime from 2006-2013 and was originally a critically acclaimed hit. However, it also famously had a much maligned end to its run from long time fans and critics. It will be interesting to see if fans think this revival corrects the problems or if there's no interest because people have a sour taste in their mouth with this show. The revival is slated to premiere in Fall 2021.

#4 - "LA'S FINEST" CANCELLED AT SPECTRUM
Spectrum has cancelled LA's Finest after two seasons. The police drama has had a very curious run. The spinoff of the Bad Boys film franchise starring Jessica Alba and Gabrielle Union was first in development at NBC and considered a hot pilot for the 2018-19 season. NBC surprisingly passed on the show and it was picked up by Spectrum as a push into originals. However, with very few people actually watching Spectrum originals, FOX decided to pick it up to air as part of the pandemic-proof schedule (Season 1 is currently airing on Monday nights). On top of that, the second season got delayed several months in light of the protests and unrest that swept the country this summer. Now after all the fits and starts, it is officially dead. FOX will probably only air it as long as they need to before their originals can come back.

#5 - "THE LAST OG" RENEWED WITHOUT ONE OF ITS STARS
TBS announced that The Last OG has been renewed for a fourth season but it appears that co-star Tiffany Haddish will not stay with the show although that is not completely clear yet. Also renewed this week was Black Monday on Showtime.

Check back next week for a new week of blog posts!
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