23rd Annual TV Preview – NBC Edition

23rd Annual TV Preview – NBC Edition

For the fourth time in five years, NBC claimed the number one spot in the Adults 18-49 demographic. The network aired both the Super Bowl, the most-watched program of 2018, and the 2018 Winter Olympics in the same year. NBC also benefited from  popular and buzzworthy  shows  like This Is Us (the top-rated drama on broadcast), perpetual powerhouse Sunday Night Football and the hit series The Voice.

Why mess with success? The network is taking a conservative strategy and launching only three new series in the fall, two dramas Manifest and New Amsterdam and the comedy I Feel Bad. “We have a really strong, stable fall with many returning shows that are just great anchors, great lead-ins for us,” said NBC Chairman Bob Greenblatt.

After nine seasons on Wednesday — three at 10PM and last six at 9PM — Law & Order: SVU will be moving to the Thursday 10PM slot for its record-tying 20th season. Wednesday nights will now be comprised of an all Chicago lineup. Putting the three Chicago series on the same night will make it easier and more effective for them to “overlap and crossover,” Greenblatt said. “We thought it was a fun way to energize Wednesday.”

After FOX canceled the Andy Samberg police sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine, NBC announced that it was picking up the series for a sixth season and 13 episodes. Greenblatt said in a statement, “Ever since we sold this show to FOX I’ve regretted letting it get away, and its high time it came back to its rightful home.”

 

NBC New Shows

MANIFEST, Monday 10-11p, Drama When Montego Air Flight 828 landed safely after a turbulent but routine flight, the crew and passengers were relieved to be on the ground. But, in the span of those few hours, the world had aged five years and the flight thought lost – their friends, families and colleagues, after mourning, had given up hope and moved on. Now, faced with the impossible, they’re all given a second chance. As the passengers’ new realities become clear, a deeper mystery unfolds and they soon realize something greater than them may be at work in their lives. COMMENTS: The network has high hopes for this show, giving it one of the best time slots – post The Voice on Monday nights.

NEW AMSTERDAM, Tuesday 10-11p, Drama Inspired by Bellevue, the oldest public hospital in America, this unique medical drama follows the brilliant and charming Dr. Max Goodwin, the institution’s newest medical director, who sets out to tear up the bureaucracy and provide exceptional care. How can he help? The doctors and staff have heard this question before. Dr. Goodwin must disrupt the status quo and prove he will stop at nothing to breathe new life into this understaffed, underfunded, and underappreciated hospital – the only hospital in the world capable of treating Ebola patients, prisoners from Rikers and the President of the United States – and return it to the outstanding hospital that first put it on the map. COMMENTS: This show received the other plum spot in the NBC lineup – post This Is Us – a vote of confidence for this medical drama.

I FEEL BAD, Thursday 9:30-10p, Comedy Emet is the perfect mom, boss, wife, friend and daughter. Okay, she’s not perfect. In fact, she’s just figuring it out like the rest of us. Sure, she feels bad when she has a sexy dream about someone other than her husband, or when she pretends not to know her kids when they misbehave in public, or when she uses her staff to help solve personal problems. But that’s okay, right? Nobody can have it all and do it perfectly. From Executive Producer Amy Poehler comes a modern comedy about being perfectly okay with being imperfect. COMMENTS: The show will air after a still-strong Will & Grace lead-in, but there has not been much buzz. The team consensus was that it was not the funniest show of the season – its success is TBD.

NBC Mid-Season Replacements

ABBYS From the producers of The Good Place comes a  new comedy about the best bar in San Diego – home to good prices, great company and of course, Abby! This unlicensed, makeshift bar nestled in her backyard is the opposite of everything annoying about today’s party scene. There are rules at Abby’s: no cell phones, not even to “look something up,” earning a seat at the bar takes time, and losing a challenge means drinking a limey, sugary “not beer” drink. As the oddball cast of regulars will tell you, hanging out at Abby’s is a coveted honor. But once you’re in, you’re family.

THE ENEMY WITHIN In this spy-hunting thriller, Erica Shepherd (Jennifer Carpenter) is a brilliant former CIA operative, now known as the most notorious traitor in American history, serving life in a Supermax prison. Against every fiber of his being, but with nowhere else to turn, FBI Agent Will Keaton (Morris Chestnut) enlists Shepherd to help track down a fiercely dangerous and elusive criminal she knows all too well. While Shepherd and Keaton have different motivations for bringing the enemy to justice, they both know that to catch a spy… they must think like one.

THE INBETWEEN Cassie Bishop was born with a gift, though she may call it a curse. She can see and communicate with the dead, helping them with their unresolved problems – whether she likes it or not. When her longtime friend Detective Tom Hackett and his new partner, former FBI Agent Damien Asante, need help solving a dark puzzling murder, Cassie agrees to use her abilities. Despite her reluctance, she may have found a way to keep her demons at bay, all the while solving some of the city’s most challenging cases.

THE VILLAGE Welcome to The Village, an apartment building in Brooklyn that appears like any other from the outside, but is quite unique inside. The people who reside here have built a bonded family of friends and neighbors. Sarah’s a nurse and single mom raising a creative teen; Gabe’s a young law student who just got a much older and unexpected roommate; Ava must secure the future of her young, U.S. born son when ICE comes knocking; Nick’s a veteran who’s just returned from war; and the heart and soul of the building, Ron and Patricia, have captivating tales all their own. These are the hopeful, heartwarming and challenging stories of life that prove family is everything, even if it’s the one you make with the people around you.