All the schedule announcements have come out from the this week’s upfronts when the broadcast networks have been presenting their upcoming lineups to the advertisers and we now have a good idea of what the Prime Time slate will look like for sci fi / fantasy shows this Fall. Below is the full rundown for the broadcast networks as well as the cable entries I expect to be on the schedule at the start of next season. This does not include the new entries from Syfy because I have not seen any schedule announcements from them yet (though, I am assuming that Haven will be returning to its regular Friday timeslot).
So based on what I have below, their will be 20 genre entries airing in Fall/early Winter which includes the two “bridge” series (more on that below) from ABC. That number will rise when Syfy sets their schedule and TNT has said The Librarians will air in Fall as well so that could add one more to the tally. That’s a pretty impressive sci fi slate and it looks like we could be getting some really good new entries if Syfy follows through with its current development plan.
Here’s a few quick thoughts on the schedule:
The CW is making a move to get a foothold on Mondays next season just like they did with Tuesdays this year. But they are trying to use sophomore series The Originals as the lead-in for the night and leaving Supernatural on Tuesdays. That may backfire on them and I hope they have a Plan B in place to assure that Mondays (which have been a disaster for them for some time) don’t end up killing the promising The Originals. And why not go with a one-two superhero punch and pair Flash with the series it spun off from Arrow instead of splitting them across two nights?
I like ABC’s idea of a “bridge” series that fills in the gaps for a show between the first and second part of the season and lets them run far less repeats. Agent Carter will take that role for Agents of SHIELD and Galavant will fill the slot for Once Upon A Time. But I am wondering when the actually start airing these bridge shows because late Fall starts often deliver tepid ratings results and December is generally a low viewership month. We will have to see how that pans out, but I think it is a good experiment because we saw how repeats killed the momentum of many shows in the Spring months.
It looks like NBC is sticking with a genre show in the Friday 10 PM EST hour, and even though I previously championed that, this last season it didn’t work out too well. New series Constantine will be moving into the Grimm lead-out slot (pun intended) which killed Dracula this season and hasn’t delivered a ratings boon for Hannibal. I have to say that I think the freshman’s shows prospects don’t look great heading into next season.
Here is the full schedule as it currently stands. I will be updating this throughout the Summer as we get more info on the final Fall slate.
Sunday
8 – 9 PM Once Upon A Time / Galavant (ABC)
9 – 10 PM Resurrection (ABC)
9 – 10 PM The Walking Dead (AMC)
Monday
8 – 9 PM The Originals (CW)
8 – 9 PM Gotham (FOX)
9 – 10 PM Sleepy Hollow (FOX)
Tuesday
8 – 9 PM Flash (CW)
9 – 10 PM Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. / Agent Carter (ABC)
9 – 10 PM Supernatural (CW)
10 – 11 PM Forever (ABC)
10 – 11 PM Person of Interest (CBS)
Wednesday
8 – 9 PM Arrow (CW)
9 – 10 PM The 100 (CW)
10 – 11 PM The American Horror Story (FX)
Thursday
8 – 9 PM Vampire Diaries (CW)
Friday
9 – 10 PM Grimm (NBC)
10 – 11 PM Constantine (NBC)
10 – 11 PM Haven (Syfy)
Mid-Season/Not Scheduled Yet:
The Whispers (New Series, ABC), Beauty and the Beast (CW, Returning Series), iZombie (CW, New Series), The Messengers (CW, New Series), Hannibal (NBC, Returning Series), Emerald City (New Limited Run Series, NBC), Heroes Reborn (Limited Run Series, NBC), Hieroglyph (New Series, FOX), The Last Man on Earth (New Series, FOX), Wayward Pines (New Limited Run Series, FOX), The Librarians (New Series, TNT)
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Star Trek New Visions #1 Mirror Cracked
IDW Publishing
Following up on last years hugely successful ‘Strange New Worlds’ photonovel, John Byrne once again sets sail aboard the Starship: Enterprise, this time with an ongoing, bi-monthly series that begins by going through the looking glass to tell the story of what happened after the classic ‘Mirror, Mirror’ episode of the original series.
The crew discovers two strangers in their midst, and quickly learns that one has made a pact with one of James Kirk’s oldest foes. ‘The Mirror, Cracked’ is the title, and the action unfolds in May!
By: John Byrne
You are one of the reasons all this great programming comes & goes. We all do not have short attention spans & am willing to put up with commercials because thats how we get FREE broadcast programs. I had at least 1, more likely 2 great series I tried to watch every nite. This economy left me 3 yrs ago, without affording pay tv nor out partying Friday & Saturday. I’ve had to learn patience & loyalty. I go to the internet on my phone to voice my concerns & vote for my programming. I looked forward to Grimm, Hannibal, Dracula & others on Friday nites. I rent red box movies on Sat. cause that nite is s**t for broadcast tv.
Okay. Out of the amazing amounts of new genre shows I am most excited about Constantine and hope that Friday doesn’t kill it. I think that two things will determine it. When it is aired first and whether it’s get the promotion it deserves. If they do what they did with Grimm the first season and Sleepy Hollow with an August air date, it might propel the show and this is what I’d do. The reason everybody watched was because there was absolutely nothing else on at that time but summer was essentially or mostly over. So that would be my strategy and the best option for good ratings. I think the networks should split thier seasons into 4, with 13 episodes the max and stop giving us repeats because there is too much competition and we don’t have to watch repeats unless we want too and why do it with commercials when there are so many more options? And if they want to actually make money off their shows they should really consider live streaming where I am forced to watch the show. I like to watch live because it’s fun to tweet at the same time, that and not enough tvs & dvrs in our house, so I watch it later and then why would I want to watch the commercials then because I can pause. or watch on another website. The networks are not keeping up with the younger generations viewing habits and they are going to lose more and more viewers until they make these changes. People want to and like to watch tv, but we are impatient and have short attention spans and the network really needs to start thinking this way. Especially since there is more and more options to choose from. Use to watch about 5 show a year. This year I counted 35. But most of it I watched after it aired commercial free. Just saying.