Which of These New Fall TV Shows Will Fail First?

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – September 5, 2017

If there is anything we can guarantee about the fall TV season, it's that at least one of the highly promoted network newcomers will fail to catch on with audiences and meet a premature end. Heck, it happens every year.

But which freshman series will be this year's This Is Us, and which will be its Conviction? Below, we have picked out some of the pros and cons facing each of the new broadcast series debuting between September and November

10 of 18 photo by Neil Jacobs/CBS ©2016 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved
57 Me, Myself and I: Season 1

Pros: Normally this would be a rarity among CBS's typical lineup of conventional multi-camera sitcoms, but the network has recently found success with a single-camera, multiple-stories-in-one-episode comedy (Life in Pieces), and could do so again with this series that follows one man's life at three different time periods, in the past, present, and future. (He's played by three different actors, including TV veterans John Larroquette and Bobby Moynihan.) Nostalgia also seems to be big on the small screen today, and one-third of the show will be set in 1991.

Cons: The novel concept might make it harder to win viewers, and producers will need to ensure that all three time periods are compelling, consistent, and unified enough for viewers to stick around. (The verdict on the pilot seems to be that the show hasn't quite met that challenge yet.) Another potential obstacle: Larroquette and Moynihan are playing the same person despite the fact that they look nothing like each other (nor are they remotely close to the same height). The show will also lose its relatively strong lead-in (Kevin Can Wait) after its first month.

Me, Myself & I

CBS, Mondays at 9:30p starting 9/25
Watch the trailer

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