Season preview: Scripted shows are scrambling

A new TV season is almost here. But be warned: It will look an awful lot like the old one.
With shrinking ratings and fading profits, the networks tend to stick with what’s already there. This fall, the five big broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CW — combine for only four new dramas. Each one (including “Boston Blue, shown here) isa spin-off.
That’s part of a general cutback that began with the pandemic and strikes, then stuck as streamers grabbed bigger chunks of the audience.
In response, the big networks leaned toward game shows and reality shows (lower costs) and sports (the best shot at younger viewers). ABC took back Monday foorball from ESPN and “Dancing With the Stars” from Disney+, also filling Sundays with Disney movies. Fox inserted football on Fridays; beginning Oct. 21, NBC will have pro basketball on Tuesdays.
Much of this will be apparent in the first weeks of the season.
The early-bird week (starting Sept. 15) has the season-openers of three game-or-reality shows and only one scripted one, “High Potential”; the next week opens eight game/reality shows and six scripted ones. It will be October before most of the scripted shows arrive.
This should depress the people who make scripted shows for networks; they seem to be in a fading business. “If I started thinking like that, I’d go crazy,” said Joan Rater, a producer of the new “Sheriff Country.”
She prefers an optimistic take: In this new world, bland scripted shows don’t have a chance. Networks will let them try fresh things. “It does push us …. We know every episode has gotta be good.”
Shows can think big — if they do it on a modest budget. Matt Kuhn, a producer of this fall’s only new comedy — yes, ONLY new comedy — feels some connection there:
His show, “DMV,” is about the hard-pressed folks at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Doing the show, he said, “kind of reflects what happens at the DMV: How can you do more for less?”
Some manage it. “Blue Bloods” was an expensive show, filmed in New York City with Tom Selleck topping a big cast. Its new spin-off (“Boston Blue”) is set in Boston but mostly filmed in Toronto, with Donnie Wahlberg starring; it’s produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, known for crisp TV shows (“CSI,” “Fire Country,” etc.) and action movies.
On a tighter budget, “Boston Blue” is sort of like “Blue Bloods,” yet different. It has “the same family-rooted stories, but with a Bruckheimer style,” producer Brandon Sonnier said.
As these producers offer optimism, one thing should be noted: All of their shows are on CBS, the only network still reflecting the old days.
CBS did make some cutbacks. It canceled shows — “Blue Bloods,” “FBI: Most Wanted,” “FBI: International” — that had decent ratings, but higher budgets.
But it still has faith in scripted shows. Its three new ones (“DMV,” “Boston Blue,” “Sheriff Country”) join a dozen returning ones. It also has a promising reality show — “The Road,” with its contestants opening for Keith Urban.
The other big networks?
— ABC has the only other new, scripted show on a big-four network, “9-1-1: Nashville.” The network has only five other scripted shows this fall, plus two (“Will Trent,” “The Rookie”) waiting for mid-season.
— Fox’s only new shows are games –“99 to Beat” and “Celebrity Weakest Link” (which isn’t very new). If you don’t count cartoons, Fox only has two scripted shows (“Doc” and “Only Murder in the Building”), with a comedy (“Animal Control”) and a couple new shows planned for mid-season.
— NBC’s only new show is a reality one (“On Brand With Jimmy Fallon”), partly in the “Apprentice” mode. But it does keep nine scripted shows, with six stuffed into the Chicago and “Law & Order” nights.
— And beyond the big-four, other networks help out. CW has one new scripted show, a “Law & Order” spin-off. PBS loads Sundays with ambitious British dramas … and the rest of the week with strong non-fiction, leading to the Nov. 16 start of Ken Burns’ epic “The American Revolution.”
Mostly, CBS has stuck to its formula — shows that wrap up a main story each hour, without going overboard on continuing stories. The result works, as seen in the Nielsen list of the most-watched broadcast shows last season.
CBS had five of the top six shows (with “Tracker” and “Matlock” at No. 1 and 3) and nine of the top 15. ABC had “High Potential” at No. 2 and four more in the top 15. NBC finally shows up at No. 14 (“Chicago Fire”), Fox doesn’t show up until “Doc,” at No. 30.
That’s good news for CBS — until you expand the list to include others. Then half of the most-watched shows are from streamers or cable networks, not broadcast networks.
And that streamer/cable pressure continues. This fall brings the return of major shows — “Only Murders in the Building,” “The Morning Show,” “Loot,” Tulsa King,” “Slow Horses” — plus lots of new ones. Jason Bateman has “Black Rabbit” and Glen Powell has “Chad Powers.” True-crime tales take new looks at Alex Murdaugh and John Wayne Gacy. Horror shows take fresh looks at “IT,” Anne Rice’s witches and the “Walking Dead” zombies. Even Disney+ has “Marvel Zombies.”
That’s a lot of competition for broadcast networks to face. But Tony Phelan, a “Sheriff Country” producers (and Rater’s husband) talks positively about those streamers.
“One of the exciting things that we found with ‘Fire Country’ is that audiences are discovering it on Paramount+,” he said. “And then that’s drawing them back to the network …. One of the great things about being on CBS is our relationship with Paramount+.”
Other networks have similar links — NBC with Peacock, ABC with Hulu. Only Fox doesn’t have a subscription streamer to send shows to.
For now, the system sort of works. Shows get modest audiences over the air, add more on a streamer and get by.
Viewers get lots of choices; producers are no longer restricted to blandness. “CBS has been nothing but supportive of us in taking big swings in terms of storytelling,” Phelan said.
But those swings have to be done on a budget — and on familiar turf. We step into a season with only one new comedy. Fortunately, it’s a good one.