Beating accusations of a Friday Afternoon News Dump by a few hours, ABC confirmed a Good News/Bad News proposition this morning.
Which would you like first?
Fine. We're cockeyed optimists here, so we'll go “good news” first.
“Forever” has been given a full-season order by ABC, which picked up a back-nine for the immortality-fueled procedural, which stars Ioan Gruffudd, Alana de la Garza and Judd Hirsch.
In live ratings, “Forever” had a so-so start, but has struggled lately drawing audiences hovering a bit under 5 million viewers. DVR figures have been better, with Live+7 figures bringing “Forever” to nearly 8.8 million viewers and a 2.2 rating among adults 18-49 through its opening month.
Mostly though, what “Forever” has had in its favor is a cursed time period on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. Last season, that hour was responsible for the season's first cancellation in “Lucky 7” and for midseason failures “Killer Women” and “Mind Games.” By that standard, “Forever” has been a welcome dose of stability, even if the long-term prognosis beyond 22 episodes is less clear.
So… Fans of “Forever”… Yay?
OK. Now to the bad news.
ABC confirmed that “Selfie” will not be getting a back-nine, making it the second casualty from ABC's Tuesday 8 p.m. comedy block.
“Manhattan Love Story” was the season's first official cancellation when it was pulled effective immediately two weeks ago. “Selfie” remains in a little more limbo and may or may not air the remaining pieces of its initial 13-episode order, but there will be nothing beyond that.
In its first week since the “Manhattan Love Story” cancellation, “Selfie” aired two episodes this week and did a 0.9 rating among adults 18-49, falling just below The Mulaney Line. Not surprisingly, the father of The Mulaney Line, FOX's “Mulaney,” had a 16-episode order trimmed to 13, though it also has yet to be pulled.
For your scorecard purposes, “Manhattan Love Story” and FOX's “Utopia” remain the two new fall shows to get proactively yanked from the schedule and cancelled. “Selfie” joins “Mulaney,” “A to Z” and “Bad Judge” in the presumably-13-and-out pile.
Sad about “Selfie”? Karen Gillan's performance has really grown on me in the past few weeks. I still don't get the accent, but I admire how utterly gung-ho she is and I think her comedic timing, questionable accent aside, is coming into its own. I wish they'd give John Cho more to do, though. Or maybe I wish they'd give him better things to do. The show comes alive when Karen Gillan is there and it shouldn't need to die when it concentrates on the Henry subplot.
And excited for “Forever”? I feel the same as I felt when it started. It's not great, but it's doing “Castle” better than “Castle” is doing “Castle” at this point, though I'm a few episodes behind on “Forever.”
Thoughts?