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THE FRIDAY FIVE: Top 5 TV News Stories of the Week Ending 5/28/21

Here's a look at the Top 5 TV News Stories of the Week!

#1 - THE CW PASSES (FOR NOW) ON "POWERPUFF"
Perhaps the highest profile pass of the Upfronts season came this week when The CW passed on the high profile live action version of The Powerpuff Girls, simply called Powerpuff. When The CW announced their schedule this week, it was announced that Powerpuff will be redeveloped. The CW boss Mark Pedowitz called it "a miss" and "campy," which was refreshingly candid coming from the head of a network. It's still surprising that The CW didn't take a swing on it even if it was bad since it had a good amount of hype on the internet from fans of the original Cartoon Network version. Even photos of the leads had been released and a series order seemed a foregone conclusion. But there seems to be at least one show in this boat every year. We'll see if Powerpuff can get it right the second time around.


#2 - "THE KELLY CLARKSON SHOW" TO TAKE ELLEN TIMESLOT
As The Ellen DeGeneres Show prepares to come to an end after the 2021-22 season, it was announced that The Kelly Clarkson Show will take the timeslot on most NBC stations. This was not a surprise but it's definitely a show of faith in Kelly that she can become the new queen of daytime. The Kelly Clarkson Show premiered in September 2019 and was able to cut through the daytime clutter with decent ratings. It lost a step during the pandemic but still seems to be the best poised to take over some of the Ellen audience and still make a mark in the increasingly difficult waters of Daytime TV.

#3 - TONY AWARDS COMING TO PARAMOUNT PLUS
It was announced this week that the long delayed Tony Awards will air on September 26 and coincide with the month that Broadway returns after a year and a half of being dark. The Tony Awards, which were originally planned for June 2020, feature nominees from a truncated Broadway season. As a result, the actual awards will air on Paramount Plus while a celebration of Broadway's return will air on CBS, the network that usually airs the Tonys. It is notable that this is the first time a major awards show is moving to a streamer but this seems to likely be an anomaly and the ceremony will likely return to CBS in 2022.

#4 - NBC CANCELS "DEBRIS"
NBC has made a decision on one of its bubble shows by cancelling Debris after one 13 episode season. The sci-fi drama had soft ratings on Monday nights but seemed to be gaining ground in renewal talks in recent weeks. NBC still has to make decisions on Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (which may move to Peacock), Good Girls (which may move to Netflix) and Manifest.

#5 - RENEWALS OF THE WEEK
It was a quiet week for TV news after Upfronts but a few renewals were announced: a third season of A Black Lady Sketch Show on HBO, a second season of Firefly Lane on Netflix and a third season of Breeders on FX. I don't watch any of those shows but I'm happy for those that do!

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