Benjamonster's TV

CBS handed out full seasons today to Man with a Plan and The Great Indoors . The two comedies didn't premiere until late October so a full season for them is 19 episodes. They have been OK but not great in 8:30pm slots. The Great Indoors has had OK total numbers but poor retention out of The Big Bang Theory while Man with a Plan has had lower numbers but is a decent fit out of it lead-in Kevin Can Wait . CBS also announced that Code Black got an order for three more episodes. Still waiting on its fate is Pure Genius (extra episodes seem unlikely) and The Odd Couple (more likely).

ABC announced this evening that it has picked up its new freshman comedy American Housewife for a full season. The sitcom has been a big reason that ABC's making a comedy imprint on Tuesdays. It has built on its lead-in, The Middle , for all four weeks it has been on the air. The show seems to be a perfect fit in the ABC comedy lineup along with Wednesday's Speechless . The lowest rated of the four midweek comedies, The Real O'Neals , got a 3 episode pickup which indicates it will probably make way for a midseason show at some point.

CBS handed out full seasons today to all three of its freshmen shows that have premiered so far: Kevin Can Wait, Bull, and MacGyver . Kevin Can Wait has had a strong start to the season airing behind The Big Bang Theory . However, its task gets a whole lot harder a week from tonight when Big Bang moves back to Thursdays and Kevin must lead off the Monday lineup. But its gotten a lot of exposure and CBS is showing faith that the solid audience for the Kevin James sitcom will continue next week and beyond. Bull has been a solid performer on Tuesday nights. It is the top new show in terms of total viewers but it's getting overshadowed by that other Tuesday newbie, NBC's This is Us . Perhaps the biggest surprise of the fall season was the dynamic debut of MacGyver . It has come back to earth but the Friday drama has still been solid and seemingly has helped Hawaii Five-0 . Still to debut for CBS are a trio of shows coming next week: comedies Man with a Plan and The Great Indoor...

FOX handed out a full season to Lethal Weapon . A full season for Weapon means 18 episodes just as it did for This is Us . Getting less than 22 or 24 episodes used to be a bad sign but we're in an era with smaller episode orders for many hit shows including Weapon 's lead-out, Empire , which also has 18 episodes. This probably means that FOX is sticking with its plan to air Star and Shots Fired in the winter before returning to Empire and Lethal Weapon in the spring.

ABC handed out full seasons to their successful new Wednesday freshmen: comedy Speechless and Designated Survivor . Both had solid debuts last week. Speechless had a very solid week two hold while Designated Survivor held up OK in week two and had a major DVR lift for its premiere episode. Wednesdays is working best for ABC right now with unknown quantities coming up on Mondays ( Conviction ) and Tuesdays (comedy lineup). a major weakness on Thursdays ( Notorious ) and all around weakness on Fridays and Sundays.

We're barely a week into the season and NBC has already handed out a full season to one of their freshman, This is Us . The show got a five episode add-on for a total of 18 episodes. That is often a kiss of death to not get the full 22 episodes, but this was a request by the creator, Dan Fogelman, not the network as the show is envisioned as a shorter episode run each season. This is Us is a candidate for a breakout hit, premiering to 10.1 million viewers and a 2.8 demo. When 3 day DVR was added, it went all the way up to 13.5 million viewers and a 4.2 demo. The demo is tops for any new show. Episode two airs tonight at 10pm and then it moves to 9pm starting October 11.

A day after its Tuesday companion, The Grinder , got a full season, FOX's new John Stamos comedy Grandfathered was given a full season today. As I mentioned yesterday, both The Grinder and Grandfathered had OK debuts and then big week two drops. They are struggling but FOX is going to give them some time to find an audience. I wouldn't be surprised if they get paired with the new season of New Girl and the new Guide to Surviving Life in the spring. We'll have a good indication by May if the trend is upward or still downward and that will probably determine where things go as far as a possible second season. Grandfathered joins The Grinder, Dr. Ken, Quantico, Limitless, Rosewood, Life in Pieces, and Blindspot on the full season list.

Two comedies were given full season orders on Tuesday: Life in Pieces on CBS and The Grinder on FOX. Both comedies have had rocky starts to the season but have gotten some critical attention and now have a show of faith from their networks. Life in Pieces premiered on the first day of the season after The Big Bang Theory . Its raw numbers have allowed it to be the highest rated new comedy but the retention out of Big Bang has been pretty bad. There was a time where I was pretty convinced it wasn't going to make the move to Thursday with Big Bang but it had a stronger showing on its final Monday episode last week and it will make the move. Whether it gets to stay in the post- Big Bang slot all season remains to be seen. The Grinder is the lower rated but more critically acclaimed member of FOX's new Tuesday comedy block. Along with Grandfathered , The Grinder got off to an OK start but plunged in its second week. Since then, it has hovered around a 0.9 demo which is pret...

CBS handed out a full season order to its new freshman drama Limitless on Friday. The drama, based on a 2011 movie, premiered to a solid 1.9 demo and impressively held there its second week. It has since dropped to a 1.4 but CBS sees some hope in the show. Many think it would do better and be more of a fit on Monday after Scorpion  and it's possible CBS will make that move for midseason. Limitless joins NBC's Blindspot, FOX's Rosewood ,   and ABC's Quantico and Dr. Ken on the full season order list. CBS also ordered additional scripts for Code Black , but that may not translate into episodes.

ABC announced today that freshman comedy Dr. Ken has been picked up for a full season. Despite being savaged by critics, it has been a surprise success in the early goings on Friday night. It debuted with a healthy 1.5 demo. This past week, it had a 1.3 demo, which tied it with The Muppets , a show with a much higher priority and better timeslot. It has proven to fit like a glove with Last Man Standing so far, which has been a problem for its lead-outs for years. ABC has cancelled the show after Last Man for three years in a row now. Dr. Ken will try to break that streak. It joins Quantico and NBC's Blindspot on the full season order list.

Despite dropping ratings each week, FOX has renewed its new medical procedural Rosewood  for a full season. The drama has benefited greatly from being the lead-in to TV's top show, Empire . When Empire  debuted this season with a mammoth 6.7 demo, Rosewood got a very solid 2.4 demo as the 8pm lead-in and it had a huge rise at the half hour (2.1 to 2.7) as audiences tuned in early for Empire . It has dropped a full demo point since then, hitting a 1.4 this week. But FOX has faith in it and given how things have gone for their other shows, both new and returning, I guess it's not too surprising. Rosewood joins NBC's Blindspot as the only freshmen picked up for a full season so far.

ABC announced today that two of its shows, a freshman and a sophomore, received full season orders today. Quantico got off to a surprisingly good start on Sunday nights and then held its audience entirely in week #2. It took a dip in week 3 but has gotten huge DVR lifts and has built big on its weak Blood & Oil lead-in. The full episode count is not actually 22 but 19, but that may be due to scheduling reasons. The question now is how soon will ABC pull Blood & Oil so that Quantico can have an actual lead-in? Fresh Off the Boat had a 13 episode order for its sophomore season but its been upped to the full 22 after a solid start to its season on Tuesday nights. Even as its lead-in, the new The Muppets , has been dropping, Boat was one of the few shows to rise in the third week of the season. It seems to be a long-term player in ABC's increasingly large cupboard of family-oriented comedies and has been a critical darling since its premiere.

Not surprisingly, NBC's Blindspot became the first new show to get a full season order. The lead-out from The Voice has been one of the more successful new shows in a rough season for newbies. It has dropped some each week in same-day ratings but is getting huge DVR lifts. So far, it seems much closer to The Blacklist than the duds that aired in the post- Voice slot last year, State of Affairs and The Night Shift . It has still had slightly troubling drops at the half so I'm not convinced this will be a hit yet but I'm not surprised at all by the move. It will likely get to keep the post- Voice slot all season. The question is, will it air at all during the hiatus from The Voice ? As for NBC's other newbies, Heroes: Reborn is a "limited" series and looking much weaker, Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris seems lead-in dependent, and The Player is close to dead. Still to premiere this fall are Truth Be Told next Friday and Chicago Med in November.

ABC has given a vote of confidence to struggling Friday newbie Cristela by giving it a full season order. The comedy, starring comedienne Cristela Alonzo, got off to a pretty decent start by Friday standards, but it has struggled in recent weeks with retention out of the modest ratings for lead-in  Last Man Standing . The show was critically panned but most critics agree that Alonzo is a pretty likable personality. Cristela joins Black-ish, How to Get Away with Murder, and Forever on the full season order list for ABC. Selfie and Manhattan Love Story have been cancelled. ABC has announced a lot of its spring plans including Marvel's Agent Carter and Galavant in January, and Secrets & Lies and American Crime in March. This pickup makes me wonder what will happen to promising midseason comedy Fresh Off the Boat . There is seemingly no place for it in the lineup but we'll see.

As the networks firm up their midseason plans, ABC handed out a late full season order to drama Forever . The show premiered to modest numbers with a sneak preview behind Dancing with the Stars on the first night of the season. Then, it pulled a surprising move by actually building on its premiere in its regular timeslot - Tuesday at 10pm. It hasn't been as strong since, dipping as low as a 1.1 demo. However, this has been an improvement in the timeslot, which was deadly to ABC last year and its instant bomb freshmen Lucky 7, Killer Women, and Mind Games . ABC is giving it a chance to find a core audience, and they certainly could be doing worse in the slot. Forever joins Black-ish and How to Get Away with Murder on the full season list for ABC. Manhattan Love Story and Selfie have been cancelled while no decision has been made on Cristela yet. ABC also announced that Galavant and Marvel's Agent Carter will premiere the first week of January.

NBC has handed out its first full season order this year to dramedy The Mysteries of Laura . The Debra Messing show got a sneak preview after America's Got Talent and was sampled well. Since moving to the difficult 8pm slot, it has skewed old but held up pretty well. It also seems to fit nicely with Law & Order: SVU, which follows it. It does similar demo numbers to Revolution last year, but the total viewer count is much higher. With this news and the full season for Madam Secretary on CBS, it seems as though total viewer counts are more of a factor than they've been in recent years. Both those shows skew old but have been pretty solid and consistent with viewers. None of the other NBC newbies are lighting the world on fire. A to Z is as good as dead on Thursdays and Bad Judge is not faring much better. Marry Me has done OK, but it seems very likely that it's due to its timeslot. It's too early to tell about Constantine yet. NBC has a big priority in State of A...

CBS handed out full seasons today to four strong freshman dramas, all of the shows they've premiered so far this season (comedy The McCarthys  arrives on Thursday). The sure thing came for NCIS: New Orleans , the most watched new show on any network. While it skews older like NCIS itself, it has consistently done very well in the cozy 9pm slot after its parent show. In fact, it tied NCIS in the demo this past week, an impressive feat. Speaking of old skewing shows, Madam Secretary is one of the oldest skewing shows on TV. But it has been remarkably consistent, hovering around 12 million viewers and a 1.5 demo. This has been the case when it has had a huge   post-football 60 Minutes lead-in and a very small 60 Minutes lead-in, so it definitely has its own audience. It seems to be a great pair with The Good Wife and I would guess it's getting a lot of upscale viewers. Scorpion has been a pleasant surprise on Mondays. I thought this show was doomed, but it came roaring ou...

In an unsurprising move, FOX has picked up Gotham for a full season. The show already had a 16 episode order, and it seemed like they were doing a half-season type approach. But they picked it up for the full 22 episodes. Gotham has delivered decent numbers and for FOX, it has been exceptional as almost everything else has tanked. Week one delivered a 3.2 demo followed by a 2.8 in week two and 2.5 last week. FOX has to hope it stabilizes soon, but every other show except for the Sunday shows is regularly in the 1s, so Gotham is a real shining star. The status of the other FOX freshmen: Red Band Society, Mulaney, Gracepoint, and Utopia is shaky at best with all of them hovering around a 1.0 demo. Mulaney has a 16 episode order, Gracepoint is a limited 10 episode series, and Utopia has already been banished to Fridays. While it doesn't look good for Red Band , I wouldn't count it out yet because it's on FOX. It's been a very tough fall for them.

ABC was the first network to award full season orders to two freshmen that are hot out of the gate. ABC gave How to Get Away with Murder and Black-ish full season orders. How to Get Away with Murder 's full season is more just a symbolic gesture since it will only be 15 episodes, as designed. Still, it's been an absolute beast as the top demo performer for a new show, plus it added two full demo points in L+3 DVR ratings from last week. It has actually built on its Scandal lead-in in total viewers the first two weeks, and it has a ton of online buzz.  Black-ish was picked up for the full 22 episodes. After a strong debut, it had a pretty sharp fall in week two, but then recovered a strong three tenths in the demo this week even as its Modern Family lead-in went down. It's early, but it's looking like the best Family retainer yet and it fits very nicely into ABC's family comedy lineup. A couple other strong freshmen will probably get similar news before too lon...

ABC has finally made its decision on their four freshmen comedies. The Goldbergs and Trophy Wife were given full seasons, Super Fun Night was given additional episodes, and Back in the Game was cancelled. The Goldbergs' full season notice was no surprise after the most recent week which saw it hold steady despite a repeat lead-in of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Though it has been far from impressive, this was an encouraging sign. It was also arguably the most promoted new sitcom on ABC this season. Through six episodes, it has averaged 6.1 million viewers and a 2.0 demo. The bigger surprise was the pickup of Trophy Wife as it is easily the lowest rated new sitcom on ABC. However, it rose this week and it is the only show not following a big name show or a proven success. But it has the most critical acclaim and ABC brass seems to be really behind the show. Through six episodes, it has averaged 4.7 million viewers and a 1.5 demo. These moves coupled with the Super ...