Which of These New Fall TV Shows Will Fail First?
We're going to go out on a limb and predict that not every new television series this season will be a success. While recent years have brought new ratings hits in the form of This Is Us, The Good Doctor, and Young Sheldon, there have also been plenty of failures. At some point in the coming months, one show will be the first to go.
Which newcomer will be the first cancellation victim of the 2018-19 season? In the gallery above, we discuss the outlook for each of the 18 first-year shows headed to the five broadcast networks this fall. Note that this year (unlike in past years) we don't have quotes from critics' first impressions of the new fall pilots, since several networks have issued new guidelines to reviewers prohibiting such early reviews over the summer. (But over the past week several reviewers have started posting their evaluations of all the new fall shows, so we have summarized those where applicable.)
Special sneak preview September 19; regular debut October 4 on NBC.
The Cast: Sarayu Blue, Paul Adelstein, Madhur Jaffrey, Brian George, James Buckley, Zach Cherry, Johnny Pemberton
The Premise: A mom/boss/wife/friend/daughter feels imperfect in a variety of comedic ways. (Some of those ways are taken from Orli Auslander's acclaimed illustrated book of the same name.)
The Outlook: NBC's 2018-19 lineup of new shows is mostly lacking in star power, which is why you'll see the network promoting their new series by touting their producers rather than performers. For I Feel Bad, that means executive producer Amy Poehler, coming off the success of producing another NBC series (albeit a reality show), Making It. That said, Blue (Blockers, No Tomorrow, Monday Mornings) is already being hailed as one of fall's potential breakout stars, even if the pilot doesn't necessarily have terrific buzz.
NBC is giving the show a boost by airing a sneak preview of the first two episodes on September 19 (at 10 and 10:30p) prior to the regular debut on October 4—not a bad idea, given the difficulties in promoting a series without a highly marketable concept or known cast. After that, Bad will have Will & Grace as a lead-in, another plus. It will also be NBC's only new fall comedy, so it should be given every chance to establish itself.