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THE FRIDAY FIVE: Top 5 TV News Stories of the Week Ending 12/18/20

Here's a look at my Top 5 TV news stories of the week! After today, the blog will be taking a holiday break and will return with all new posts on January 4!

#1 - LOTS OF REBOOTS COMING
This week had a lot of news of reboots & revivals. Of course that's a very popular trend on TV in general but it felt like we had a lot of news on that front this week. NBC is going back to the 80s with the announcement that they are developing a new version of hit comedy Night Court, which ran from 1984-1992. It will feature celebrated original star John Larroquette and center on the daughter of original character Harry Stone (the late Harry Anderson). The next day we got the news that L.A. Law, which ran from 1986-1994 on NBC, is in development to be revived at ABC with original star Blair Underwood returning. ABC is also eying a primetime sequel series to All My Children with Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos attached to executive produce and perhaps appear. All those shows are in development, not officially ordered. Officially ordered is a reboot of Fantasy Island, set to air next summer on FOX. The anthology series was an escapist hit in its original run from 1977-1984. A 1998 reboot on ABC did not fare as well. I'm not sure any of these projects will work but we know the networks love a known title.


#2 - "LIZZIE MCGUIRE" DEAD AT DISNEY
One revival not going forward is the Lizzie McGuire revival planned for Disney+ after lots of fits and starts. The series was announced for the then upcoming streamer in August 2019. After some squabbling about content, star Hilary Duff publicly campaigned for the show to move to Hulu, which is also under the Disney umbrella. Other more mature-themed shows like Love, Victor and High Fidelity made the jump and Duff wanted a more modern and adult version of Lizzie. However, the show had some creative shuffling and continued to have behind the scenes issues and so Disney ultimately killed the entire plan. Perhaps they'll try again in a couple years but it doesn't seem like it will happen anytime in the near future.

#3 - "SUPERSTORE" SPINOFF IN THE WORKS
Fresh off the announcement that the current season of Superstore on NBC will be the final one, the network announced that it is developing a spinoff starring series regular Nichole Sakura and recurring star Johnny Pemberton. The series, tentatively titled Bo & Cheyenne, will focus on the two wild characters who are often in a state of arrested development. I enjoy Cheyenne as a character and found Bo to be hilarious in small doses. I am not convinced though that they can carry an entire show as the leads. We'll see, perhaps...

#4 - "EMPIRE" SPINOFF NOT IN THE WORKS
Meanwhile, a different spinoff will not be going forward. FOX has announced they are not continuing to develop a spinoff of Empire focused on Taraji P. Henson's character, Cookie. I never really understood this because it's not like Cookie was a side character, she was a major lead. So it felt weird to me that they would try to do a show with her as a lead again. Plus Empire went from being a massive phenomenon to a low-rated flop over its six year run so this is probably the right call.

#5 - "A.P. BIO" RENEWED
Peacock has renewed A.P. Bio for a fourth season. The series aired for two seasons on NBC before moving to Peacock for its third season. With Brave New World cancelled and other originals delayed by the Pandemic, this is the first series to get renewed at the young streamer.

Happy Holidays and check back on January 4 for a new week of blog posts!
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