After The TV Bloodbath: The Winners & Losers – May 2018 Edition
This time of year, as we head into the US Network’s Upfront presentations next week, it is always a bloody war. However, the 2018 Friday Night Massacre was a particularly brutal one. There are still a few skirmishes to come, but the majority of the cancellations and renewals are now in, so we’re going to survey the battlefield and see who is left alive.
The Cancellations
There were a number of shows felled in the 48hrs of war, but no network did more damage than Fox. They started their assault by felling two beloved comedies ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ and ‘The Last Man On Earth’, and also taking down comedy series ‘The Mick’. Then followed that up by sticking a stake through the heart of ‘The Exorcist’, and even bringing down ‘Lucifer’ himself.
ABC also managed to do some pretty heavy damage, taking down the President, CIA and FBI as it cancelled ‘Designated Survivor’ & ‘Quantico’. They also took down a bunch of freshmen shows including ‘The Crossing’, ‘Kevin (Probably) Saves the World’, ‘Deception’, ‘Alex, Inc.’, and as we had long suspected, ‘Marvel’s Inhumans’.
Over at NBC, things are a little less bloody, although they do still have a number of shows hostage. So far, the network has cancelled ‘Great News’, ‘The Brave’, ‘Rise’ and ‘Taken’, the latter being the only one of the four cancelled shows to make it this side of the pond.
CBS took out ‘9JKL’, ‘Me, Myself & I’, ‘Living Biblically’, ‘Superior Donuts’ and ‘Wisdom of the Crowd’, none of which have aired over here. They did, however, slaughter ‘Zoo’ earlier in the year, and have also cancelled ‘Scorpion’, which might sting some fans…
Over on The CW, then took out only two shows – ‘Valor’ and ‘Life Sentence’. However, they did opt not to pick up the much discussed ‘Supernatural’ spin-off series ‘Wayward Sisters’, which will come as very sad news to fans.
The Renewals
As the mist clears on the battlefield and we survey the landscape to see who managed to avoid the carnage, a lone figure stumbles towards us. Blooded and bruised from Fox’s axe, but ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ is alive thanks to a swift rescue from NBC. Other shows picked up by the network include comedy ‘AP Bio’, ‘Blindspot’, ‘Law & Order: SVU’ and all the ‘Chicago’ series. They join ‘Superstore’, ‘The Good Place’, and ‘This Is Us’ which were already safe. We’re still waiting to hear the fate of ‘Law & Order True Crime’, ‘The Blacklist’ and our beloved ‘Timeless’. Hopefully, we should have more on those at the NBC Upfront on Monday, although we are being told they might not make a decision on ‘Timeless’ until Septemeber.
Over on Fox, the death bringer network has renewed a number of shows this week including the musical dramas ‘Star’ and ‘Empire’, and medical drama ‘The Resident’. They join ‘The Orville’, ‘The Gifted’, ‘The Simpsons’ and (because the need to renew something that didn’t start with “The”) ‘9-1-1’. They also made a surprisingly benevolent pickup, given the network’s bloodthirsty nature, by reviving ABC’s cancelled Tim Allen sitcom ‘Last Man Standing’ for a 7th Season.
Fox’s scythe still has a number of potential victims tied up including sci-fi comedy ‘Ghosted’, Batman prequel ‘Gotham’, and ‘Lethal Weapon’. The latter being very much reliant on whether they will move forward without its embattled co-lead Clayne Crawford. UPDATE: Fox has renewed ‘Gotham’ for a 5th & final season, whilst ‘Lethal Weapon’ has also been renewed, albeit with Seann William Scott joining playing a new character as co-lead. Crawford has been fired.
ABC made a surprise renewal of Shondaland legal drama ‘For the People’ which had been struggling in the ratings. That joins the previously renewed ‘The Good Doctor’, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, ‘The Goldbergs’, ‘Modern Family’ and ‘Roseanne’. We are still waiting on the fate of ‘Agents Of SHIELD’.
CBS had already handed out a lot of its renewals including ‘Bull’, ‘Hawaii Five-O’, ‘MacGyver’, ‘Madam Secretary’, ‘Blue Bloods’, ‘NCIS: New Orleans’, and ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’. They joined the networks other previously announced renewals which include ‘The Big Bang Theory’, ‘Young Sheldon’, ‘Mom’, ‘NCIS’, ‘SEAL Team’, and ‘S.W.A.T.’. UPDATE: They have now renewed Alan Cumming’s show ‘Instinct‘, the wonderful ‘Life in Pieces‘, ‘Criminal Minds‘, and Matt LeBlanc’s ‘Man With A Plan‘.
Lastly, The CW, who is very much as “make love not war” network, had already renewed most of their shows. That includes ‘Legends Of Tomorrow’, ‘Arrow’, ‘Flash’, ‘Supergirl’, and newcomer ‘Black Lightning’. Greg Berlanti’s other non-DC comic book drama, ‘Riverdale’, had also already been picked up, along with ‘Supernatural’ which returns for a monumental 14th Season. The comedies ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ and ‘Jane the Virgin’ will both be back as will ‘Dynasty’ and ‘The 100’. The only outlier left was ‘iZombie’, but because The CW is such a lovely fluffy network, they haded out a renewal to that too last night.
There will still be a lot more news about new shows and some more renewals & cancellations over the next week as the US networks present their line-ups for the coming seasons at their Upfronts next week. Check back in for all the latest info!
