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)

Moving Back Home Could Make 9JKL Relatable

If anyone has ever had to move back into their parent’s house, this show could be relatable, which could either help ratings or hurt them depending on your attitude and feelings regarding the Great Recession.

It is also interesting to note, that most people that moved back in with their parents were of the Millennial generation, not those from Generation X, that Mark’s character Josh, is from.

It may have been more relatable for a Millennial to head this show during the height of the Great Recession in 2010 where many of that age, myself included, had to move into a multi-generational household for a period of time to weather the storm.

Though there are more jobs popping up, many of that generation still live with their parents though now it’s not clear why. Perhaps there’s a comfort or stability factor causing them to not be too risky in obtaining their own place. They realize that place could be lost again with the unpredictability of the job they are in or the job market itself. This is a full assumption. Or the job they may have may not be bringing them enough income to live independently or with roommates in safe areas.

A study done by Pew Social Trends expands more on the numbers.

The other factor is relationships. As stated in this Pew article, one in four may never marry and very few are in relationships that usually breaks them from the nest.

It is important to note though that “9JKL” is different in that he lives in the same building, but not the same house. However, his parents treat this space as their own adding to the comedic conflict. This, in turn, makes it feel like they share one space.

If this had been 2010, the peak of unemployment for most, this show may have been more relatable and possibly funny, especially if there would’ve been a Millennial as the lead as already mentioned. It could still be, but also has the potential to turn people off showing this, in some ways, as the new ‘norm.’ For some U.S audience members, they may find it fatiguing that this show is continuing to normalize the multi-generational household and therefore making it more acceptable to live this way in western society. Many past generations, where the economy did not affect them financially, are not comfortable with this as they feel their sons and daughters should live independently as they did when they were their age.

Others, who may be either more open-minded, coming from a different culture or socioeconomic status may find it humorous and enjoy the positive tidbits that come from getting to know your child at a mature age as well as learning to treat them like an adult. A couple prior comedies have touched upon this already such as “Mike and Molly” and “Last Man Standing.”

In other cultures, such as in Asia or South America multi-generational households are considered the norm and not looked down upon as it is here and so “9JKL” may fare better internationally as well.

Time will tell if America finds the clash of the generations funny or a reminder of what was and, for some, still is a reality.

“9JKL” Boundaries Clip

Photo courtesy of CBS.com

9JKL does Not Review Well

After logging out of my Hotmail account, the newsfeed window on MSN featured an Insider article, “RANKED: The 25 best shows on TV this fall you should watch.”

Great, I thought, I wondered where the new Mark Feuerstein comedy, 9JKL would rank.

It didn’t.

A simple Google search brought up several options for reviews.

A couple are featured below. A few more results emerged, but like, Rotten Tomatoes did not have a review yet as the show does not premiere until October 2^nd on CBS.

The overall view seems to lean on nice set up, but bad delivery.

We’re nearing a stage or a wave where perhaps dirty jokes are passé, Two Broke Girls where those type of jokes flew back and forth has been replaced by 9JKL and perhaps the writers are hoping to retain some of the Girls viewers.

Though they have a good lead in to start with the The Big Bang Theory on Monday night, it will change once Thursday Night Football comes to a close and the shows bookending 9JKL, Me, Myself and I and Kevin Can Wait are added to the lineup. Kevin Can Wait is the only one where there are ratings available and they weren’t great according to Variety. This may be part of the reason for the drastic casting change in Kevin’s wife from Erinn Hayes to the familiar King of Queens co-star Leah Remini. This casting and story change could either pick up Monday night or pull it further down the ratings hill taking 9JKL with it.

The potential lift could come from Me Myself and I, which did land on Insider’s top 25 list, ranking at number 20. SNL alum. Bobby Moynihan and comedic vet John Larroquette lead that show and could keep 9JKL above water.

The Hollywood Reporter

Daniel Fienberg very cautiously jumps into a review-making note that he is the lucky viewer of not-yet-aired pilots and that stories could adjust some from the airdate. His response is brief. The gross humor is not appealing and he interestingly makes a case for David Walton and Liza Lapira who may have signed up for, yet again, another failing sit-com where he feels they deserve more.

TV Line

9JKL is not Two Broke Girls and the surface jokes leave a bad taste in reviewer, Mitovich’s mouth. He points to a potential “charm”, but was immediately turned off by the “crassness” of character in John’s parents. These two are the undeniably talented actors Gould and Lavin. He’s hoping the show and the actors themselves put their comedic skills and humanity to good use and perhaps change the tone of the show for the better.

The only positive review is the recently promoted actor Albert Tsai, a Critic’s Choice Award nominee in 2014. Apparently, this 13-year-old could steal the show, or at least make it float a little longer.

Overall, on a more positive note, 9JKL may highlight comedic actors for future work where they are the star and not continuously supporting the lead and put more eyes on Tsai, which will be beneficial for the young actor career wise.