This past Monday, September 25, Young Sheldon aired after the 11th season premier of The Big Bang Theory. The BBT received a 3.9 in 18-49 and had 17 million viewers, slightly higher than season 10.

I was not surprised to hear about Young Sheldon’s successful first episode. With tons of advertising on the CBS network, especially during The Emmys, it was quite obvious when to tune in to the premier.

17.2 million people watched Young Sheldon. The show received a 3.8 in 18-49 and is considered the biggest comedy show premier on a network since 2 Broke Girls in 2011. Kevin Can Wait, which held Young Sheldon’s time slot last September for their series premier, only received 2.6 in 18-49 and  11.2 million viewers.

Critics applaud the decision to switch from a multi-camera to a single-camera format. However, some critics also criticize the characters in the series calling Sheldon’s siblings “one-dimensional” and “annoying.” Of course there will not be only positive feedback on a show as someone always has negative input.

Overall, reviews seem to be calling the show a “success” and a series worth watching. Young Sheldon will not be returning until November 2nd, post football, on Thursday nights at 8:30 PM. This month long break in between the first episode and the second, gives people the opportunity to tune in if they haven’t already.

Watch episode one here .

Finally, ‘The Good Doctor’ premiered strongly this past Monday, September 25^th, after ABC’s ‘Dancing with the Stars’. As I expected, the show won the 10 pm time slot against ‘The Brave’ (NBC) and ‘Scorpion’ (CBS). Both these shows followed the trend of military television considering our current political climate while ‘The Good Doctor’ deviated from that tone. This brought a different target audience to tune into a show that essentially gives hope, relieve, ‘sassiness’ and a lot more feelings characteristic of what many refer to as ‘feel good TV’.

"I couldn't save them. it's sad.
Neither one had the chance to become an adult. They should have become adults." #TheGoodDoctor pic.twitter.com/tQccZNomZb

— The Good Doctor (@GoodDoctorABC) September 26, 2017

Interestingly, it even got more ratings than its lead-in (‘Dancing with the Stars’ got a 1.5 rating) averaging 11.22 million viewers and a 2.4 rating that was finally adjusted into a 2.2 rating. However, this number is huge if compared to both of its competing shows: ‘The Brave’ got a 1.4 rating that then adjusted to a 1.3, and Scorpion got a 1.0 in its third season premiere.

As expected, these last two battled among the 25-54 male demo, leaving ‘The Good Doctor’ to take all the rest of the audience, the 18-49 more female skewing demo, with a smart counter programming technique. Way to go, ABC!

Watch pilot on ABC!

By: Alex E. Álvarez

Kevin (Probably) Saves The World is coming up on its release date of Tuesday, October 3rd. This post focuses on why ABC might have chosen that time slot and the pros/cons of what it is up against. With a 10pm slot, I feel Kevin (Probably) Saves The World will be more of an adult show, rather than an angelic-drama for the family to enjoy. Majority of the cast are adults and with a religious tone, it most likely will be harder for a younger audience to understand.

The hour-long pilot will be aired directly after 4 of ABC’s 30-minute shows (The Middle, Fresh Off The Boat, Blackish and The Mayor). The Mayor is their only new series which have received positive reviews. The only problem is, Kevin (Probably) Saves The World is up against NCIS: New Orleans and Law and Order True Crime. Any viewers interested in crime shows, which there are a lot of, will automatically go to one of those shows. The benefit of this time slot though is that there are no other types of angelic-dramas so there will be no competition in that category.

During this past week, ‘The Good Doctor’ significantly increased its social media presence. While the show had a good amount of presence in Facebook and Twitter, it had left Instagram behind.

However, this past week, it utilized a new Instagram trend that has been used mostly by younger users. It consists of putting multiple posts that in the main page, with the grid view, they would create an image. This was a great way to appeal to that 18-34 demo.

‘The Good Doctor’: Instagram Feed

They also did a screening of the pilot at a university followed by a Q&A with Executive Producer, David Shore, and West Wing actor, Richard Schiff. For this, they only promoted using Instagram Stories, which provides better data analytics than Snapchat, and more user interaction.

‘The Good Doctor’: Instagram Stories

Furthermore, they tweeted articles from renowned sources like Yahoo, skewing older, and NowThis, a new digital company that appeals younger. Not only do these bring those users that follow the show, but also those from their specific platforms.

Lastly, on Facebook Stories, they added a filter for people to “see how Shaun would see”. These platforms and techniques are interactive, and specifically to attract younger people repeatedly over the week before the premiere.

By: Alex E. Álvarez

September 12^th, 2017

NBC’s The Brave starring Mike Vogul and Anne Heche will premiere on Monday September 25^th at 10PM. The show was green lit in early January and picked up to series on May 4^th  before NBCUniversal’s upfront on May 15^th. The pilot is written by Dean Georgaris and directed by Brad Anderson. The show is produced by Universal Television and Keshet Studios. The show was originally called ‘For God And Country’ and changed names between the time the show was picked up to series and presented at the upfronts. Production of the show started at the end of July in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico and will continue to the beginning of December. The Brave will compete with CBS’s Scorpion and ABC’s The Good Doctor during the Monday night time slot. It will also compete with a variety of other military shows such as CBS’s SWAT, CBS’s Seal Team and CW’s Valor. The Brave however sets itself apart from following both a special operations unit on the ground and a intelligence office in the United States.

September 19^th, 2017

Deadline’s Dominic Patten reviewed all the new military series that are about to air earlier this week. The competition between “SEAL Team,” “The Brave,” and “Valor” is strong due to every show premiering their first season this fall and encompassing the similar military storylines. While Patten praises SEAL Team, he says that the only bravery one can attribute to NBC’s The Brave, is that “you have to be very brave indeed to sit through it with any level of excitement.” In another Deadline article, it was reported that when asking Executive Producer and Showrunner Dean Georgaris about the competition among military shows, he said “We’re not worried about standing out… We’re focused on doing the best job with our approach, which is immersive.” The show does not have an ongoing plot line and focuses on a new subject being rescued each week. In the interview, the showrunner also mentioned that The Brave is supposed to be a tribute to the military men and women who fight for our country every day. The show is supposed to be an immersive and realistic representation of what these people go through. As the show premiere’s next week, hopefully the reviews will mirror that intention.

September 27^th, 2017

The Brave premiered this past Monday with disappointing and bleak reviews. Variety called it “as generic as broadcast piltots get… its characters are bland and even the action sequences have nothing special to set them apart.” Indiewire also commented that there was poor character development in the first episode, claiming that the episode would have been much more interesting had the network killed off many of the major characters and instilling fear that The Brave deserves. “Nothing about the first episode makes us think The Brave is any different than most case-of-the-week fare built for mass appeal… it sure feels like The Brave is happy playing it safe.” However, Indiewire’s opinion of The Brave may change as the ending of the episode had the main characters playing on the beach when a suicide bomber crashes near them. The pilot ends with an explosion, leaving the viewers to wonder who is going to survive in next week’s episode. Hopefully next week’s episode will provide more character development and thrill for the military drama.

In this age of the internet, social media has become increasingly important in the marketing of every product. ‘The Good Doctor’ follows this trend by posting constantly on its social media accounts.

The show’s Twitter account makes a daily post that most of the times includes a picture or a promo video. On Twitter, it has 15.2 K followers, and in Facebook around 475,000 people likers and/or followers. People engage with the posts by commenting and sharing; one publication made on August 15^th was played over 10 million times and was shared by more than 225,000 people. This shows that there is a good amount of people interacting with the show’s accounts.

‘The Good Doctor’: Facebook Following

Other types of posts include pictures on set with some of the talent (Daniel Dae Kim with Freddie Highmore), and a recent one that was published on September 14^th had Freddie Highmore dissecting a scene.

In comparison, direct competitor from NBC, ‘The Brave,’ has only 1,800 followers on Twitter and around 29,000 likers and/or followers on Facebook. ‘The Brave’ skews a bit older and more male driven, while ‘The Good Doctor’ skews more younger and female, which are the demos that spend most time on social media.

‘The Good Doctor’: Twitter Account

By: Alex E. Álvarez

Ghosted is a new half-hour comedy coming to Fox on October 1^st. Starring and Executive Produced by Adam Scott and Craig Robinson, the show certainly has the comedic pedigree to succeed. Adam Scott has featured in arguably two of the best sitcoms of the last 20 years: Parks and Recreation and the oft-overlooked Party Down, and Robinson is perhaps best known for his role on another comedy juggernaut: The Office. Their past projects speak not only to the talent of the two stars but also their taste level, which could bode well for their new Fox comedy.

Those working behind the scenes on Ghosted have impressive resumes as well: director Jonathan Krisel counts SNL, Portlandia, and Baskets among his projects, and writer Kevin Etten has worked on Scrubs, The Late Show with David Letterman, and Workaholics.

Of course, there are countless examples of talented people taking major missteps (Book of Henry may have just cost Colin Trevorrow his Star Wars job), and even a good product doesn’t necessarily translate into good ratings. Up against NBC’s Sunday Night Football, CBS’ Wisdom of the Crowd (new, premiering Oct 1) and ABC’s To Tell the Truth, Ghosted is the only sitcom in its 8:30p timeslot. This counter-programming strategy has had mixed results for Fox on Sunday nights, so we’ll have to wait and see whether Ghosted can succeed where so many others have failed.