The tensest time in the TV industry is nearly behind us.
That’s because the big broadcast networks have nearly finished rolling out their schedules for the 2011-12 TV season for advertisers. So let’s cap it all off with an exercise in what Hollywood loves most: keeping score.
Winners
Women. Among 39 new shows planned on NBC, CBS, Fox and ABC, 22 star female characters or center on women, from comic Whitney Cummings’ NBC sitcom “Whitney” to ABC’s reboot of ’70s adventure show, “Charlie’s Angels.” It’s an influx of femininity that will bring a wide range of new opportunities for women to TV’s big tent.
Comedy. The success of ABC’s “Modern Family,” combined with the failure rate of most dramas, has persuaded the TV industry to dive deep into comedy. Comedies repeat better and make lots of dough in syndication, so the move makes lots of sense.
Nostalgia and music. “Playboy Club” and “Pan Am” give actors a chance to strut in ’60s-era sharkskin suits to a Rat Pack soundtrack. But the show that inspired them, AMC’s “Mad Men,” draws only about 2 million viewers a week; why do network suits think they will do better? There’s also lots of music coming, from former “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell’s “The X Factor” on Fox to a “Glee”-style, Steven Spielberg-produced drama about launching a Broadway musical called “Smash.”
Losers
Women. Many of the new shows starring women skirt the edge of sexism and exploitation. The tag line on the trailer for ABC’s “Charlie’s Angels” reboot calls them “three little girls . . . who are no angels.” Are we still calling grown women girls in 2011?
New shows. In its new schedule, NBC officially canceled every new show it presented last fall, as did ABC (shows that debuted this spring, like Dana Delany’s “Body of Proof,” did make the cut). That’s why, in part, NBC has a dozen new shows planned next season while ABC has 13 new series on tap; when you kill off that many freshman shows, you need to put a lot of new blood in the pipeline.
Ethnic and racial diversity. So far, it seems just one new show features a character of color as a star: ABC’s “Scandal,” featuring Kerry Washington, who is black, as a superstar crisis manager in Washington, D.C. (created not so coincidentally by “Grey’s Anatomy” executive producer Shonda Rhimes, who is also black). Last fall, NBC alone had four new shows starring characters of color, now all canceled. Here’s hoping the TV industry hasn’t decided that reflecting the country’s growing diversity makes for bad business.
