Benjamonster's TV

The days of 30+ new shows debuting on Broadcast over a couple weeks is long gone sadly (yes, I loved those days). But there are still plenty of shows coming to Broadcast, Cable and Streaming over the next couple months, especially after a pretty quiet summer. This fall, there seems to be a lot of dark thrillers and less comedies and lighthearted procedurals. Maybe that reflects the current state of the world? But there's still a nice mix of shows and there could always be some that are not on this list that I end up being a fan of. But going into the fall, these are my Top 15 Most Anticipated Fall Shows! 15. All's Fair (Hulu, TBD) Last fall was a Ryan Murphy explosion with a bunch of his shows premiering within weeks of each other. This fall, there appears to just be two - another Monster installment (yawn) and this legal drama on Hulu, with a premiere date yet to be announced. The series centers on a team of female divorce attorneys and stars Glenn Close, Naomi Watts, Sarah Pa...

Welcome back to a new TV season on my blog! This year, I will be posting Tuesday through Friday with the following schedule: Tuesdays: Schedules from the Past & Emmy Preview (at end of season) Wednesdays: One Season Wonders Thursdays: Episode Guides Fridays: The Friday Five - Top 5 TV news stories of the week Before that begins tomorrow, I wanted to do a quick Fall Preview post. I was going to post my Top 10 New & Top 10 Returning Shows I'm looking forward to but I found that it was hard to make a list of both, I think this is a little bit of a lighter fall in terms of what I'm interested in. So I combined it to one list. Here are my Top 10 Most Anticipated Shows (New or Returning) of the Fall Season! 10. MONARCH (FOX, September 11) The new broadcast offerings are few and far-between this year. Less than a decade ago, we saw 20-30 shows debut in the fall. This year, there are just ten new scripted shows - just ten! As a whole, they aren't that exciting but there...

Here is my summary of the Fall Preview! Check back all week for pilot reviews of the many shows premiering this week! First up, my predictions. Last year, I correctly predicted The Conners, The Rookie, Single Parents, A Million Little Things, The Neighborhood, Magnum P.I., F.B.I., Manifest, All American and Charmed would survive. I wrongly believed that The Kids are Alright and Murphy Brown would join the list. I correctly predicted cancellations for Dancing with the Stars Junior, The Alec Baldwin Show, Happy Together, I Feel Bad, The Cool Kids, and Rel but wrongly thought God Friended Me, New Amsterdam, and Legacies would get the boot. A pretty good year of guessing overall! Here's this year's predictions. Shows I Think Will Make it to Season 2 Mixed-ish (ABC) Stumptown (ABC) Kids Say the Darndest Things (ABC) Bob Hearts Abishola  (CBS) The Unicorn (CBS) Carol's Second Act (CBS) Evil (CBS) Perfect Harmony (NBC) Almost Family (FOX) Bless the Harts (FOX) Batwo...

Here is my Fall Preview for Sunday. Check back later for my summary of the Fall Preview and all this week for pilot reviews of the new shows! ABC 7:00 America's Funniest Home Videos (30th season) 8:00 KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS 9:00 Shark Tank (11th season) 10:00 The Rookie (2nd season) ABC is going mostly unscripted on Sunday night again but they seem to have a better plan. The ageless America's Funniest Home Videos continues to hold down the 7pm hour and it's followed by something that seems more compatible than last year's Dancing with the Stars Junior, . A reboot of Kids Say the Darndest Things hosted by Tiffany Haddish seems like a good fit on paper and Kids Say has had a couple successful versions over the years.  Shark Tank returns to 9pm after spending the spring at 10pm while The Rookie  takes over the Sunday 10pm slot. The Rookie is in an exceedingly difficult position as a weak scripted drama airing after a bunch of unscripted shows in a very diffi...

Here is my Fall Preview for Friday, a night with absolutely no new shows. ABC 8:00 American Housewife (4th season) 8:30 Fresh Off the Boat (6th season) 9:00 20/20 (43rd season) ABC is sticking with a comedy hour at 8pm but it will be tweaked from last year. American Housewife moves on to the night and it's already on its third night and fifth timeslot since it debuted in 2016. It has clearly become ABC's utility player and now will try to do acceptable enough ratings for a Friday night. It is followed by Fresh Off the Boat , which slides back half an hour and could be in its final season (most certainly it will be a final season for disgruntled star Constance Wu assuming her contract is up after a typical six years). Instead of trying a show at 9pm, ABC is opting to go with two hours of 20/20 , which will go head to head with two hours of Dateline NBC . CBS 8:00 Hawaii Five-0 (10th season) 9:00 Magnum P.I. (2nd season) 10:00 Blue Bloods (10th season) CBS continu...

Here is my Fall Preview for Thursday, a night with big chances on NBC and CBS and no changes on the other three networks. There are also three shows with announced final seasons. ABC 8:00 Grey's Anatomy (16th season) 9:00 A Million Little Things (2nd season) 10:00 How to Get Away with Murder (6th season) ABC still is airing juicy dramas on Thursday nights but the TGIT moniker is gone. What's not gone is Grey's Anatomy as the ever-popular medical drama remains one of ABC's top shows heading into Season 16. Its run has been so impressive and it's not done yet. A Million Little Things returns at 9pm for season two. It moved to this slot in January and saw growth from its low rated Wednesday airings in the fall. We'll see if it can keep the momentum up after being off the air since February. At 10pm is How to Get Away with Murder entering its sixth and final season. Once a buzzy water cooler show, it has become one of ABC's lowest rated dramas so the fin...

Here is my preview for Wednesday, a night with very few changes on any network. ABC 8:00 The Goldbergs (7th season) 8:30 Schooled (2nd season) 9:00 Modern Family (11th season) 9:30 Single Parents (2nd season) 10:00 STUMPTOWN ABC is keeping its comedy lineup entirely in tact and two sophomore shows will get another chance to air behind their anchor shows. One of those shows, Modern Family , is entering its 11th and final season. The one-time critical darling and ratings smash has waned a lot in recent years, but it still remains one of ABC's better performers in the demo. If The Big Bang Theory couldn't get a final year bump, I don't think that will happen here either but I still would have tried to do something to spark the night while Modern is still in the mix. The 10pm show is Stumptown starring Cobie Smulders. It seemed to be the only drama developed by ABC that they actually liked and has gotten a lot of promotion, but I'm still skeptical of its success c...

Here is my Fall Preview for Tuesday! A night with no changes on two networks and the only new shows airing on ABC. ABC 8:00 The Conners (2nd season) 8:30 Bless This Mess (2nd season) 9:00 MIXED-ISH 9:30 Black-ish (6th season) 10:00 EMERGENCE ABC is making some changes to its Tuesday lineup with the only two new shows on any network on Tuesdays. First up though is the return of The Conners. As I mentioned in my sophomore preview, The Conners wasn't at the level of Roseanne but was valuable to the night as evidenced by how the night went after its season ended. It is followed by Bless This Mess , which is getting a boost of confidence after a six episode run last spring. ABC has spunoff Black-ish again but some proof of how badly Black-ish is doing, the spinoff will actually air first. Mixed-ish will air at 9pm and it seems to have some vibes of The Goldbergs . It also seems like ABC is trying to make it very much its own show and not too closely connected, at least in adve...

Here is my Fall Preview for Monday, a night with new shows on three different networks (CBS, NBC and FOX), and an overhaul on the CW. ABC 8:00 Dancing with the Stars (28th edition) 10:00 The Good Doctor (3rd season) ABC is keeping its Dancing with the Stars/The Good Doctor combo going for a third consecutive fall. Dancing only aired one installment last year so it hasn't been seen since last fall. It made some news this summer with one of its stars being Sean Spicer and the subsequent threats of boycott. With things like that, I often think the people who are boycotting and the people purposely watching because of the support tend to cancel each other out so a noticeable bump or drop seems unlikely. The Good Doctor was a huge hit in its freshman year. It was steady in season two, but seems to be continuously losing buzz so some more drops wouldn't shock me. CBS 8:00 The Neighborhood (2nd season) 8:30 BOB HEARTS ABISHOLA 9:00 ALL RISE 10:00 Bull (4th season) CBS c...

The 2019-20 is just over a week away. All week I will have night-by-night previews but first, as I do every year, here's a look at the sophomore class. Before getting to this year's sophomores, here is the history of the sophomores since my blog started in 2010: 2010-11 43 new shows, 11 returned for Season 2 (25.6%) 4 still on the air and entering Season 10: Blue Bloods, Hawaii Five-0, The Voice, Bob's Burgers 2011-12 53 new shows, 21 returned for Season 2 (39.6%) 1 still on the air and entering Season 8: Last Man Standing (not entering Season 9 due to one year off between its ABC and FOX run) 2012-13 38 new shows, 12 returned for Season 2 (31.6%) 2 still on the air and entering Season 8: Chicago Fire, Arrow 2013-14 48 new shows, 15 returned for Season 2 (31.3%) 8 still on the air and entering Season 7: The Blacklist, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Chicago PD, Mom, The Goldbergs, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Masterchef Junior, The 100 2014-15 45 new shows, 1...

I hope you enjoyed this week's Fall Preview! Check back regularly for pilot reviews! Here are my predictions for the season. Last year, I had an OK year of predicting. I correctly predicted The Good Doctor, SEAL Team, Young Sheldon, The Gifted, and Dynasty would survive. I mistakenly thought The Mayor, The Brave, and Law & Order: True Crime would join that list. I correctly predicted cancellations of Kevin (Probably) Saves the World, Marvel's The Inhumans, Ten Days in the Valley, 9JKL, Me Myself & I, Wisdom of the Crowd, Ghosted, and Valor . I mistakenly thought The Orville and S.W.A.T. would also be cancelled. Here are my predictions for this year! Shows I Think Will Make It to Season 2 The Conners (ABC) Kids are Alright (ABC) The Rookie (ABC) Single Parents (ABC) A Million Little Things (ABC) The Neighborhood (CBS) Magnum P.I. (CBS) F.B.I. (CBS) Murphy Brown (CBS) Manifest (NBC) All American (CW) Charmed (CW) Shows I Think Will Be One and Done Dan...

Here is my Fall Preview for Sunday! Check back later today for my Fall Preview wrap-up and all week for reviews of new shows as they air! ABC 7:00 America's Funniest Home Videos (29th season) 8:00 DANCING WITH THE STARS JUNIOR 9:00 Shark Tank (10th season) 10:00 THE ALEC BALDWIN SHOW ABC is going all unscripted on Sunday nights in the fall. They are starting with the venerable America's Funniest Home Videos , entering its 29th season. It is followed by a junior edition of Dancing with the Stars. This is the first time that Dancing will do a junior edition and they'll be hoping it goes better than the ill-fated American Juniors edition of American Idol many years ago. It is followed by veteran Shark Tank in its 10th season. At 10pm is the new talk show The Alec Baldwin Show , which had a preview after the Oscars. Baldwin last attempted a talk show in 2013 on MSNBC and it was cancelled after five weeks when he reportedly used an anti-gay slur. We'll see if it goe...

Here is my Fall Preview for Friday! ABC 8:00 Fresh Off the Boat (5th season) 8:30 Speechless (3rd season) 9:00 Child Support (2nd season) 10:00 20/20 (42nd season) After an ill-advised year with Marvel shows and Once Upon a Time , ABC is going back to comedy on Friday night. They are even trying to re-start the TGIF moniker but they've moved some modest performers at best to kick-start the night. Leading off the night is Fresh Off the Boat . It has never been a big hit for ABC but has always done OK. ABC might be hoping that the smash success of summer movie Crazy Rich Asians might help since its star, Constance Wu, is the lead on Boat . Speechless follows at 8:30pm after two seasons on Wednesday. I think if ABC really wanted to carve out a comedy presence on Friday, they needed to bring over a stronger performer. At 9pm is game show Child Support , which had a quiet run last winter. 20/20 ends the night with its 42nd season. CBS 8:00 MacGyver (3rd season) 9:00 Hawaii ...