After The TV Bloodbath: What TV Shows Are Renewed, Cancelled, & Which Are MIA – June 2020 Edition
Welcome to “After The TV Bloodbath 2020”, our annual tradition of rounding up the renewed and cancelled tv series from the big five US networks, which would usually happen just before the US TV Upfronts… However, the global pandemic caused the networks to cancel their in-person Upfronts this year, so we ended up with a slow trickle of renewals and cancellations over a number of weeks rather than one big announcement. It was more like a slow, torturous death by a thousand cuts than the usual Friday night massacre. Either way, the US broadcasters still managed to get their pound of flesh, although UK viewers faired reasonably well again, losing only a few shows.
The Cancellations
Unlike previous years, the cancellation axe was handed around pretty evenly across this season’s crop of tv series. Eighteen series were sent to the chopping block, many of which were freshmen shows which just failed to find an audience. There were a couple of surprises along the way though.
CBS took down five shows, including three freshmen series. They dropped the hammer on sitcoms ‘Broke’ and ‘Carol’s Second Act’, alongside Edie Falco drama ‘Tommy’ after one season (where’s Tony Soprano when you need him?) They also unfriended a deity, cancelling ‘God Friended Me’ after two seasons, and possibly the biggest surprise, the cancellation of Matt LeBlanc’s comedy ‘Man With a Plan’ after four seasons. Out of all of those, only ‘Man With a Plan’ aired in the UK. ‘Criminal Minds’ also came to an end this year after fifteen seasons on the air, and ‘Hawaii Five-0’ ended after ten seasons, but both were concluded on their own terms rather than cancelled.
ABC appears to have been taking pointers from Anakin Skywalker, mowing down younglings with wild abandon. Comedies ‘Single Parents’, ‘Bless This Mess’ and ‘Schooled’ all got the boot after two seasons on the air. Romcom/drama ‘The Baker and the Beauty’ and sci-fi show ‘Emergence’ were both canned after only one season. This was possibly the worst hit for the UK, as ‘Single Parents’, ‘Schooled’, and ‘Emergence’ all aired here.
NBC was somewhat light on their killing last year, but seem to have regained their bloodlust, also taking out five series, and again, taking a leaf out of the “Anakin Skywalker Book of Childcare”, as they were all freshmen shows. ‘Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector’, which is currently airing on Sky Witness in the UK, will not be hunting anymore. It’s joined by Karl Penn comedy ‘Sunnyside’, which aired on Sky Comedy, along with Jimmy Smits legal drama ‘Bluff City Law’, sitcom ‘Indebted’, and Bradley Whitford’s musical comedy ‘Perfect Harmony’. The latter three series never aired in the UK.
FOX was the biggest surprise this year. The channel which is usually happy to butcher it’s way through the schedule with a bloodthirsty glee decided to put down the axe, taking out just three shows. They included Jason Biggs fronted sitcom ‘Outmatched’, drama ‘Almost Family’, and Stephen Dorff procedural ‘Deputy’, none of which aired in the UK.
Lastly, we come to the happy fluffy world of The CW, who once again, cancelled nothing… not a single show. They have, of course, had a few shows come to a conclusion, such as ‘The 100’, ‘Supernatural’, and ‘Arrow’, but all either have (or will) bow out on their own terms.
The Renewals
This year’s renewals have been an interesting bunch. The networks are having to face the reality of COVID-19 filming delays, which will cause a lack of programming for the “Fall Season” (more on that below!). This has led most broadcasters to take a “better the devil you know” approach, renewing series which, in a normal year, might have faced the chopping block.
Not only did The CW not cancel anything, but they were also really early with renewals. Announcing way back in January, the network stated that ‘All American’, ‘Batwoman’, ‘Black Lightning’, ‘Charmed’, ‘DC’s Legends of Tomorrow’, ‘Dynasty’, ‘The Flash’, ‘In The Dark’, ‘Legacies’, ‘Nancy Drew’, ‘Riverdale’, ‘Roswell, New Mexico’ and ‘Supergirl’ will all be back for another season.
Over at CBS in May, they renewed eighteen shows. These included the dramas ‘All Rise’, ‘Blue Bloods’, ‘Bull’, ‘FBI’, ‘FBI: Most Wanted’, ‘MacGyver’, ‘Magnum P.I.’, ‘NCIS’, ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’, ‘NCIS: New Orleans’, ‘Seal Team’ and ‘S.W.A.T.’. The comedies included ‘Bob Hearts Abishola’, ‘The Neighborhood’ and ‘The Unicorn’, along with news shows ’60 Minutes’ and ’48 Hours’ and reality series ‘Undercover Boss’. They joined the previously renewed series ‘Evil’, ‘Mom’, ‘Young Sheldon’, ‘Survivor’ and ‘The Amazing Race’.
Again in May, the Disney-owned ABC network renewed thirteen of its shows including ‘The Rookie‘, ‘Stumptown‘, ‘Mixed-ish‘, ‘American Housewife‘, ‘Black-ish‘, ‘The Conners‘, ‘The Goldbergs‘, and ‘A Million Little Things‘. They also renewed reality series ‘The Bachelor’, ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and ‘Shark Tank’, along with the US version of ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ and news series ’20/20′. They all joined ‘The Good Doctor‘, ‘Grey’s Anatomy‘, ‘Station 19‘, ‘American Idol‘, and ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’ which had already been renewed.
Unlike the previous three broadcasters, FOX drip-feed it’s renewals over a few weeks rather than making a single big announcement. These included dramas ‘9-1-1‘, and spin-off(ish) series ‘9-1-1: Lone Star‘, ‘Prodigal Son‘, and ‘The Resident‘; Tim Allen comedy ‘Last Man Standing‘ and sitcom ‘Bless the Harts‘; Reality series & game shows ‘Beat Shazam’, ‘Hell’s Kitchen’, ‘The Masked Singer’, ‘Mental Samurai’, and ‘So You Think You Can Dance’; Along with animated shows ‘Bob’s Burgers‘, ‘Duncanville‘, ‘Family Guy‘, and, of course, ‘The Simpsons‘.
Lastly, NBC also drip-fed their announcements, not revealing the fate of some of their shows until this week. However, they had already handed out some massive three-season renewals earlier in the year… like Oprah handing out cars… “You get three seasons, you get three seasons, everyone… gets… three… seasons!” These included three new seasons for ratings juggernaut ‘This Is Us‘, along with three seasons for brilliant medical drama ‘New Amsterdam‘. Also getting the three-season love were ‘Chicago Fire‘, ‘Chicago P.D.‘ and ‘Chicago Med‘, alongside a three-season renewal for procedural drama ‘Law & Order: SVU‘, making it break the record for the longest-running primetime drama ever on US TV. Outside of the multiple season love-in, ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘ was renewed back in November, followed by a renewal for ‘Superstore‘ and ‘The Blacklist‘ in February, ‘Good Girls‘ in May, rounded off with the fabulous ‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist‘ and thriller ‘Manifest‘, which earned their renewals just this week.
Still MIA (and “Fall Season” changes…)
Currently, there are only two shows from the “big five” networks which still don’t have a renewal or cancellation. These are The CW’s ‘Riverdale’ spin-off(ish) ‘Katy Keene‘, and NBC drama ‘Council Of Dads‘. Both of these are news shows which began airing midseason, so are likely to get a thumbs up or down later in the year. There are usually a lot more stragglers, but given there was only one pilot filmed before COVID-19 shut everything down, the networks have chosen to air on the side of caution, and renew more existing series than they maybe would have otherwise.
Which brings us to our next point – “Fall Season” (or Autumn to us Brits)… Whilst LA is slowly starting to allow shows to film again, and Vancouver is looking to reopen in early July, there is no telling yet exactly how well things will go. There are obviously a lot of new rules in place to protect people from spreading the virus, but those are likely to slow down the filming process and add complications. These means it is unclear exactly what shows will be filmed in time for the traditional “Fall Season” launch, which is usually around mid-September.
The CW‘s solution to this is to move their “Fall Season” from its usual Sept start date to January 2021. That means most of the renewed shows listed above will not air until next year. The knock-on effect of that decision leaves the network with a big gap to fill between September and December… To cover this, The CW is holding back some of their Summer shows, such as ‘The Outpost’ and ‘Pandora’, and moving them to fill the hole, along with buying in some outside shows, such as E4 comedy ‘Dead Pixels‘. They are, however, planning on airing the concluding episodes of ‘Supernatural’s final season at some point between September and December (so yay!)
CBS and NBC are both taking a different tack, and have announced that their “Fall Seasons” will go ahead as planned… which does sound like a bit of a risk if they can’t get back to filming sooner rather than later. However, they are using the term “Fall” rather loosely, and it may be that the new season begins October or November, rather than September. The bosses at CBS are also saying that it could be a bit of a staggered start, with some shows returning earlier than others. For example, the various medical and police procedurals tend to have a shorter turn around times than more complex drama such as sci-fi, meaning they could probably get on-air faster.
FOX has gone for a mix of both strategies, rejigging the “Fall” line up, but also bumping some shows to “midseason” (i.e. around January 2021). Most of the live-action shows listed above in the renewals will move to midseason. However, they do have the animated shows ‘The Simpsons’, ‘Family Guy’ and ‘Bob’s Burgers’ which can all air in the Fall. They also (luckily) happened to have two new dramas already filmed prior to the shutdown which will join them – ‘Filthy Rich‘ starring Kim Cattrall, and ‘neXt‘ starring John Slattery.
UPDATED: Lastly, ABC has opted to side with the CBS/NBC plan, and announced a pretty normal “Fall Season” line-up, with most of the shows listed in the renewals returning. The only real change from normal is both ‘Black-ish’ and ‘Mixed-ish’ have been pushed to midseason, so will return in 2021 alongside ‘American Idol’, ‘Card Sharks’, ‘$100,000 Pyramid’, ‘The Bachelor’ and ‘For Life’.
Of course, all this messing around with the “Fall Schedule”, will also cause issues for the UK channels who buy a lot of these imports, such as Sky, E4 and FOX UK. With the Arrowverse not returning until January 2021, that means Sky One will have some gaps to fill this Autumn. It is also possibly the reason why the latest season of shows such as ‘SWAT’ and ‘MacGyver’ have yet to air, as the broadcaster tries to spread out the shows they do have already “in the can”.
One solution would be to pick up some of the US series which don’t yet have a UK home, although the problem with that strategy is the broadcaster is then somewhat obligated to pick up any future seasons… The other option could be to buy in some of the series listed above which have already been cancelled after one season, but have not been aired in the UK – new content with none of the commitment. The downside there is that may upset some viewers who get into a drama, only to discover that it definitely won’t be returning…
Whatever happens, we are in for an interesting tv year!
