“Star Trek: Discovery” has premiered on CBS and as we wait for the rating numbers, the critics have spoken.

Variety’s Maureen Ryan noted the show’s attempts to update the classic optimism of the Trek formula while striking a balance between the gritty modern drama. She also praised Sonequa Martin-Green’s performance and the way the show makes the show care for her lead character.

In fact, most reviewers have universally praised Martin-Green and the show’s production value. Entertainment Weekly’s Darren Franich referred to Martin-Green as a ‘commanding presence,’ while Hollywood Reporter praised her for displaying ‘intelligence, command, and sheer presence.’ Esquire also cited praised the ‘stunning production value.’ Among the supporting cast, Hollywood Reporter cited Jason Issacs as a good foil for Martin-Green, noting he is ‘incapable of giving an uninteresting performance.’

Criticisms have been leveled at the supporting cast and certain plot details however, along with the show’s ability to launch CBS’s All Access platform. For Hollywood Reporter’s praise, they also noted the first two episodes sell a show that doesn’t feel like the third episode or like a proper series, making Martin-Green’s performance likely ‘not enough’ to sell the series to a wide audience. Vulture praised much of the show, but noted that some of the logic of the plot were like ‘swiss cheese.’ And outside of the lead cast, complaints have been leveled by Esquire over the ‘stiff dialogue and acting’ from the supporting cast.

We will soon learn if this will effect the ratings.

Ghosted is using an interesting strategy to garner viewers ahead of its October 1 premiere on Fox: the pilot of the new comedy starring Adam Scott and Craig Robinson was live streamed on Twitter every night from Sept. 21 to Sept. 24. The move is part of a broader partnership between Fox and Twitter involving pre-show and post-show interaction with the cast, journalists and “influencers” for multiple shows.

In addition to the Twitter, the Ghosted pilot is also currently available to stream on demand at Fox.com, as has become quite common with new shows. The Twitter strategy seems to indicate that Fox is hoping to create some positive social media buzz for the new sitcom, and leverage its recognizable leading men to drum up some excitement from fans.

Get ready for a scary good time. The #Ghosted premiere is streaming LIVE on Twitter TONIGHT at 9/8c! https://t.co/Xj5II9W0ds

— Ghosted (@GhostedonFOX) September 24, 2017

With Young Sheldon premiering in just two short days, I want to look at predictions and expectations for the series.

There is no doubt the premier will do amazing as it airs right after the 11th season premier of The Big Bang Theory. These fans will more than likely hang around to watch Young Sheldon at 8:30. The show will also be advertised during commercials on CBS all day.

According to a study done by IPSOS TV Dailies, which poled 6,000 TV watchers between the ages of 18 and 49 over the past three weeks, Young Sheldon has an awareness rate of 36.1% while shows like Will and Grace have 66.5%. Young Sheldon falls way above shows like 9JKL with 9.4%. These numbers do not reflect how the season will do so I still remain very hopeful that Young Sheldon will be a top hit Fall series.  I look forward to tuning in Monday night at 8:30 PM on CBS. I will be live tweeting. Follow me @jordancramer4

2017 Fall Broadcast Matrix (IPSOS TV Dailies)

The countdown has begun: it’s 2 days to the premiere of Me, Myself & I. As expected, social media buzz for the show lags behind the highly-anticipated, Young Sheldon, which premieres on the same night. Today, Young Sheldon has 10 times the number of Twitter followers and 14 times the number of YouTube views for its first look preview.

Interestingly, social media posts heavily feature interviews with Bobby Moynihan, and not the equally prominent John Larroquette. This could be because social media users, particularly on Twitter, tend to fall in the younger 18-49 range, and will likely be more familiar with the former SNL star.

Compared to YouTube and Facebook, Twitter is the platform where Me, Myself & I has been the most active and received the highest engagement. This is both because of the nature of the platform, which allows for high posting and re-tweeting frequency without fatiguing fans, and the type of content that thrives on Twitter. For example, because of the show’s strong ties to basketball (young Alex is obsessed with Michael Jordon), a cast member interviewed Lakers owner, Jeanie Buss. The clip garnered 239 likes on Twitter but only 9 on Facebook, underscoring the prominence of sports-related content on Twitter.

Before even officially airing, critics have not been taking a liking to CBS’s new show Wisdom of the Crowd. Generally, they say the series is nothing viewers haven’t already seen before. It is a tech based crime show involving a billionaire. This is similar to FOX’s APB, CBS’s Bull, and CBS’s Person of Interest. Overall, shows of this genre do not tend to be very successful. The reviews believe that Wisdom of the Crowd does not offer anything different or special. If audiences were not a fan of this genre before, they will not be one after this show. While Wisdom of the Crowd may do okay on CBS, especially during Sunday night prime time, Variety does not predict it will make the top 10 rating for new shows this Fall. Critics’ reviews suggest just skipping it.

While the numbers were not the best, with the show matching last year’s overall audience with 11.38 million viewers, but with key demo 18-49 viewership falling to an all time low at a 2.3 share there are a few bright spots:

1. The show featured a number of business and cultural “firsts” or records-
   1. Hulu – First streaming network to win a drama award (“Handmaid’s Tale”)
   2. Lena Waithe (& Aziz Ansari) – first black woman to win for comedy writing (“Master of None”)
   3. Riz Ahmed – first asian actor to win for Lead Actor (“The Night of”)
   4. Julia Louis Dreyfuss – at 6 wins she is actress with the most wins for acting
2. Most agreed on most award winners – TV by The Numbers notes leading TV critics got 84% of winners accurate
3. Host did a decent job. Lots of political commentary but with a guest appearance by former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, the show generated a lot of post event buzz

It sucketh not.

“Star Trek: Discovery” will premiere September 24th, 2017 at 8:30 PM on CBS. Following which, the show’s second episode will immediately premiere through CBS All Access, the channel’s new subscription based streaming platform. Following which, the rest of the fifteen episode season will be aired weekly through a traditional TV style block, with the first half releasing week by week to November 5th, followed by a season break that will air its next episode in January 2018.

“Star Trek: Discovery,” set ten years before “Star Trek: The Original Series,” follows the exploits of the crew on the eponymous USS Discovery. A Klingon warlord is seeking to unite the twenty-four great Klingon houses that creates Cold War like tensions between his race and the United Federation of Planets. The Discovery’s crew must investigate this to prevent all-out conflict from erupting between these superpowers.

“Star Trek: Discovery,” the first “Star Trek” TV series since “Enterprise,” was created by cult TV showrunner Bryan Fuller (“Pushing Daisies,” “Hannibal”) and Alex Kurtzman, who produced the first two installments of the newest batch “Star Trek” movies staring in 2009. Following some disagreements and scheduling conflict, however, Fuller left the production, with fellow producers Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts replacing him as showrunner. Among the other major producing credits are Heather Kadin (“Limitless”), Akiva Goldsman (“A Beautiful Mind”) and Rod Roddenbury (son of franchise creator Gene).

“Star Trek: Discovery” has also attracted an enormous amount of talent in front of and behind the camera. The show will have four different creative consultants, including Nicholas Meyer (director/writer of “Wrath of Khan”) as a consulting producer, Vincenzo Natali (“Cube,” “Splice”) serving as a directing consultant and Ted Sullivan (“Supergirl”) as a writing consultant.

Headlining the cast are Sonequa Martin-Green, Jason Isaacs, Doug Jones, Michelle Yeoh, Anthony Rapp, James Frain, Chris Obi, Kenneth Mitchell and a recurring guest role by Rainn Wilson playing the fan favorite character of Harry Mudd from the original series.

The “Star Trek: Discovery” pilot will premiere following a special episode of “60 Minutes” and will be followed by “NCIS: Los Angeles.” It will air in the middle of ABC’s “Celebrity Family Feud,” in the middle of Fox’s animated prime time slot with “The Simpsons” and will compete head to head with NBC’s broadcasting of the Raiders and Redskins game.

This week, I want to focus on how Young Sheldon plans to differentiate itself from The Big Bang Theory.  The Big Bang Theory used multiple cameras and a live audience. Whereas, Young Sheldon will be using a single camera and there will not be a live studio audience. Show creator, Chuck Lorre, uses this technique to give a more “intimate” effect for viewers.

Another reason for removing the live studio audience is to make the set more comfortable for the young actors in the series. It also stops the actors from having to stop and wait for laughter/applause from the audience on set which can be awkward.

Lorre admits he was a “nervous wreck” about the switch to single camera from the multi-camera technique he is used to. He explained how the filming process is much different and slower paced.

Young Sheldon also differs from The Big Bang Theory as it is using narration. Chuck Lorre got much of his inspiration for narration from the show Wonder Years.

Lorre has a great reputation in the television industry and I have no doubt Young Sheldon will be another success for the television writer.

Chuck Lorre, American television writer, producer, and composer. (Daily  Mail UK)