V I D E O A G E October 2022 32 New U.S. Broadcast Season (Continued from Cover) A scene from Fire Country Raymond Lee plays Dr. Ben Song in Quantum Leap season, making their way carefully through this post-pandemic world. They’re sticking with tried-and-true properties, as TV execs appear to be hoping fans will follow their favorite storylines and characters into new series, with prequels and spinoffs sprinkled across the fall lineups. As a sure sign that times are a-changing, NBC is considering reducing its primetime programming by an hour. That means local affiliates would be free to air their own programming or syndicated shows starting at 10 p.m. (all times are EST). The move may make good financial sense, as appointment TV is becoming less and less popular. Nothing’s been officially decided yet, though, so no changes are coming this year. ABC is betting on The Rookie spinoff The Rookie: Feds, which tells the story of Simone Clark, the oldest rookie in the FBI Academy. It airs on the alphabet net on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. and is represented by eOne International Distribution. Supernatural fans can rejoice... and hopefully tune into The CW on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. for the prequel The Winchesters to watch the love story of Sam and Dean Winchester’s parents, John and Mary, and how they risked everything to save the world. The story is told from Dean’s perspective and narrated by Jensen Ackles. The series is distributed by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) International. The CW is also betting that Walker fans are hungry for more, with Walker: Independence, an origin story that follows affluent Bostonian Abby Walker as she seeks vengeance after her husband is murdered on their quest out West in the late 1800s. The show, from Paramount Global Content Distribution, airs Thursday nights at 9 p.m. This year’s pilot slate also proves that execs still aren’t willing to risk it all on completely new ideas, either. NBC hasn’t given up on bringing the old into the present — though it seems to have finally grasped that U.S. audiences don’t want to see pure reboots (remember the Murphy Brown reboot that didn’t come back? We’re trying to forget it, too). The network picked up Quantum Leap, set 30 years after the original 1990s series of the same name. From NBCUniversal Global Distribution, the show follows physicist Ben Song and his team, which was put together to discover more about the Quantum Leap accelerator and its creator, Dr. Sam Beckett. The 2012 film End of Watch is being revived for FOX. The drama series follows two L.A. police officers and friends as they fight crime. It was given a script-to-series commitment (international distributor still TBA). Author Karin Slaughter’s novel series is the basis of the drama Will Trent, which has been ordered to series by ABC for a midseason debut. The show is about Georgia Bureau of Investigations’ Special Agent Will Trent, who grew up in foster care and wants to ensure that no one else is abandoned the way he was. Another series adapted from a book has a spot in ABC’s slate, with single-camera comedy Not Dead Yet, starring Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin), as a newly single and broke woman who scores a job writing obituaries and begins to receive life advice from a very unlikely source. Disney is the international distributor. The fall season doesn’t just have familiar stories and characters. It also has familiar faces, a.k.a. star power, that the network execs are no doubt hoping will draw big audiences. ABC’s lineup is heavy on well-known names. Hilary Swank stars in Alaska Daily as an award-winning investigative journalist who leaves a top job in New York and takes a position at a daily metro paper in Anchorage, Alaska, where she seeks to rebuild her career and her reputation. The drama is represented by Disney Platform Distribution and airs on the alphabet net on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ABC is also betting on The Company You Keep, starring Milo Ventimiglia of This Is Us fame. The spy drama, based on the Korean series My Fellow Citizens, is set for a midseason debut. It follows a conman and an undercover CIA agent who fall in love after a one-night stand and quickly find themselves intertwined professionally, as well. NBC is getting in on the stargazing too, with George Lopez headlining Lopez vs. Lopez, a comedy that will replace Capital One College Bowl in November at 8 p.m. on Fridays. Lopez stars opposite his real-life daughter. The show is represented by NBCUniversal Global Distribution. FOX gave a straight-to-series order to Monarch, starring Susan Sarandon and Trace Adkins. The musical drama tells the story of the Roman family, whose reign as country music royalty may be coming to an end. Audiences can tune in on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. to catch this show, which is distributed by Sony Pictures. And then there are the shows that hinge on first responders and the U.S. legal system. Take Fire Country, for example. The show is inspired by actor Max Thieriot’s experiences and follows a young convict who joins a firefighting program to shorten his prison sentence and finds himself fighting fires alongside elite firefighters in Northern California. It airs on CBS Fridays at 9 p.m. and is represented by Paramount Global Content Distribution. Police officers are front and center in Avalon, which ABC ordered straight to series. The female-led police drama takes place on Catalina Island and follows Detective Nicole “Nic” Searcy as she investigates a case that changes her life. The series, from writer and executive producer David E. Kelley is repped by Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution and is slated for a midseason debut. CBS is toting another police drama with East New York at 9 p.m. on Sunday nights. Newly promoted police captain Regina Haywood leads a group of diverse detectives and officers who are charged with keeping working-class neighborhoods in Brooklyn safe. It is distributed by WBD International. FOX is also focusing on the men and women in blue. The network ordered Alert straight to series. The show follows a woman who joins LAPD’s Missing Persons Unit after her son goes missing. Alert is represented internationally by Sony Pictures. The new broadcast season is also offering up legal dramas like So Help Me Todd, about an overbearing mom and attorney who hires her roguish private detective son to be the in-house investigator at her firm. The show is being shopped internationally by Paramount Global Content Distribution, while it takes up residence in CBS’s Thursday night at 9 slot. Based on the BBC crime anthology, Accused follows individuals who are accused of a crime without knowing how they wound up on trial. The drama is told from the point-of-view of the defendant and is repped by Sony Pictures. And then, of course, there are animals. The single-camera comedy Animal Control was ordered straight to series by FOX. It follows a team of Animal Control workers who find that their relationships with other people are more complicated than their relationships with the animals. Animal Control is distributed by FOX Entertainment Global. Naturally, we can’t know for sure which shows will strike a chord with American audiences, but we do know that there’s a little something for most everyone. We’re not going to get too down on the nets for playing safe. Not yet, anyway. (By Sara Alessi) Amanda Warren and Richard Kind in East New York Photo Courtesy of Paramount Global Content Distribution
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