[Over the next six days, I’m going to be glancing, night-by-night, at how the primetime schedules have changed after the network announcements at upfronts. I’ll be looking at how the various changes will impact the ratings races on each night, as well as my own DVRing habits. Readers can chime in on how their own DVRs will be impacted. And yes, this brief series assumes that anybody still watches TV on their TVs. I’m old-fashioned. Check out last year’s DVR Gridlock installments.]
SUNDAY NIGHTS
7:00 p.m.
ABC: “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
CBS: “60 Minutes”
FOX: “The OT”
NBC: NFL Pre-Game
8:00 p.m.
ABC: “Once Upon a Time”
CBS: “The Amazing Race”
FOX: “The Simpsons,” “Bob’s Burgers”
NBC: Sunday Night Football
9 p.m.
ABC: “Revenge”
CBS: “The Good Wife”
FOX: “Family Guy,” “American Dad”
NBC: Sunday Night Football
10 p.m.
ABC: “Betrayal”
CBS: “The Mentalist”
NBC: Sunday Night Football
What’s Changed: Very little. Apologies for starting this project with the most boring night of the week. CBS’ Sunday is untouched. NBC is still airing football. Other than not announcing anything animated for the 7 p.m. hour, FOX’s Animation Domination isn’t going anywhere. For the fall, the only new show is ABC’s “Betrayal,” which looks to capitalize on a “Revenge” lead-in that doesn’t exist as the bloom continues to fall from that former rose. Things might get a bit more interesting in the spring when FOX is likely to introduce “Murder Police” and NBC will premiere the J.J. Abrams drama “Believe” and the Dermot Mulroney thriller “Crisis.” I mean… Dermot Mulroney! Sunday will never be the same. But until that time, Sunday will be very much the same.
How the Ratings Race Is Impacted: It isn’t. NBC will dominate all fall, while CBS will remain a competitive second in total viewers. In weeks with NFL overrun, people will complain, but CBS will also be a solid second in the 18-49 demographic, unless the overrun games were on FOX. It’s hard to know what it would take for “Once Upon a Time” and “Revenge” to halt the viewer erosion that didn’t really set in last fall, but became increasingly problematic as the spring progressed. Some people had enthusiastic words about the “Revenge” finale, but with Mike Kelly departing, is it already too late? And will the thought of a Peter Pan-heavy season really reinvigorate “Once Upon a Time”? Yeah. Probably not. With no star power, a weak lead-in and a ton of competition from both network rivals and cable, “Betrayal” is dead. It has no chance at success at all. If ABC had faith in “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland” as a full-run series, rather than as a fill-in for the mothership, the network could have aired that at 9 p.m. and pushed “Revenge” to 10 and sacrificed “Betrayal” on Thursdays at 8 p.m. where nothing works anyway. Or, more logical still, ABC could have renewed “Body of Proof” and aired it at 10 p.m. on Sundays, where it would have done poorly, but almost certainly would have done better than “Betrayal” will do. I’m not ready to predict that “Betrayal” is going to be the first show cancelled, because ABC has let a bunch of weak shows air a bunch of episodes in this time slot, but I can’t think of any new show on any network that has less chance of success.
My Predicted DVR: In the fall, things will remain unchanged. I’ll still recap “Amazing Race” on ET, so that I can DVR FOX’s 8 p.m. block and “Once Upon a Time,” which remains just tantalizing enough that I’m not ready to quit. I’ll stick with “The Good Wife” at 9 p.m. and then record “Revenge” in the fall, just to see how a new showrunner changes things. Assuming that “Revenge” continues with its Season 2 morass, I’ll drop it at midseason for “Believe,” which may or may not be good, but at least has a pedigree that demands some attention. I watch cable stuff at 10 p.m., either live or DVRed from 7 p.m. on East Coast feeds, but I’ll give “Crisis” a couple episodes.
How have the new schedules impacted your Sundays?