Tag Archives: ABC

ABC’s Of Kings and Prophets – Post 1

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king and prophets

Of Kings and Prophets is a new ABC biblical saga premiering Tuesday March 8th at 10:00 pm. The show’s plot is based on the Old Testament story of Saul, the first king of the Israelites dating from 1000 B.C. It is prophesized by Samuel that God wants Saul to destroy an ancient Israeli army in order for him to keep his throne. With his refusal, Samuel then prophesizes that Saul will lose his power and it will be given to another: David the shepherd (from the story of David and Goliath). The show stars Ray Winstone as King Saul, Olly Rix as David, and Mohammad Kari as the prophet Samuel.

With this show being based on characters from the Bible, it was only right for two of the executive producers to be Bill Collage and Adam Cooper who are also the creators of the show. They were also the writers and executive producers of the recent biblical film Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) which told the story of Moses starring Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton. Other executive producers include Chris Brancato, Jason Reed, Reza Aslan, and Mahyad Tousi.

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As far as promotion goes, there is a dramatic trailer that is available on ABC.com along with a blog post from November 2015 by Aaron Welsh. There are also many promotional videos that includes cast videos, behind the scene looks, and 30 second clips of episodes. The cast is full of new faces so having detailed videos available is important for potential viewers and fans. It allows them to do a bit of research and gain a connection with the type of actors they will be watching.There is a Twitter page with only 962 followers but executive producers Collage and Tousi have been tweeting heavily about the show with a combination of 4,000 followers. There is also a Facebook page that has 9,466 followers and it has the same videos that are found on the ABC website.

 

ABC’s The Catch – Post 2

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On February 11th, the official version of the preview for The Catch was released on its Facebook page. Its previously noted that another preview was released on Imdb.com that did not feature Peter Krause from NBC’s Parenthood. In the false preview, the character Keiran Booth is played by Damon Dayoub. The two previews are very similar. They both portray Mirelle Enos as a PI who searches for people who have committed high profiled fraud and that her fiancé embezzles millions from her then disappears. This questions the credibility of Imdb.com as a source for it does allow access for anyone to update the information similar to Wikipedia. Another website that premiered the promo video was tvseriesfinale.com which has articles about cancelled, new, and renewed shows. They published their information about The Catch from ABC.com and had the same promo video that Facebook had. Peter Krause has been confirmed to play Keiran Booth on this site as well. Under The Catch blog on ABC.com, there is the official trailer for the show as well published by Derek Wong.

Further research revealed that there was a major recast of the show back in May 2015 where Damon Dayoub and Bethany Joy Lenz were no longer part of the show. This was confirmed by variety.com, usmagazine.com, and tvwise.com.uk. The trailer on imdb.com has not been updated since the change last year which has been giving viewers old content.

The Grinder: Post #7

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Fourth week in and The Grinder is demonstrating a slowly decreasing slope in viewership. If charming Rob Lowe isn’t attracting a large audience like usual, I am led to believe the various other competing prominent series airing at the same time are taking a chunk of the audience.

TVSeriesFinale reported ABC’s Toy Story of Terror, (air @ 8:30P) raked in almost twice as many viewers as The Grinder. Although Toy Story possesses a strong fan base as their foundation, Fred Savage and       Rob Lowe maintain a steady audience from their previous performances.

Looking at all networks across the board for the 8:30 PM time slot, The Voice prevails as the primary show consistently favored among its viewers. The renowned series saw a 1.6% demo. increase, 10.99M viewers, and 2.9 rating with A1849. In CBS’s 8PM slot, NCIS overshadowed The Voice with a whopping 16.87M viewers, yet a 2.1 rating (viewers A1849).

Although the numbers reveal a somewhat dismal future for the newbie comedy, FOX has placed orders for six more scripts from both The Grinder and its lead-in Grandfathered according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

Also worth noting, the back-to back series improved Fox’s numbers 70% since last season’s series, one being Utopia.

Blood & Oil: Post 2

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In addition to a fairly star-studded cast, Blood & Oil‘s off-screen talent provides insight on the quality that viewers may expect come its premiere later this month. For the writers: Josh Pate, whom has had relative success in film bearing titles as Deceiver and The Grave, pairs with Rodes Fishburne, a novelist whom makes his TV writing/producing debut with the premiere of Blood and Oil.

The show, which has gone through multiple name changes, from tentatively “Oil” to possibly “Boom” to finally Blood & Oil, could be potentially defined by the talent and ambition of its producers.

Tony Krantz, the man behind the success of 24, could be the game changer for Blood & Oil. While his latest broadcast venture Dracula with NBC was canceled after its first season, Krantz has brought heart and ambition to Blood & Oil.  Don Johnson, arguably the show’s most recognizable and experienced actor, claims he originally said no to the series. However, after meeting with an insistent Krantz, Johnson claimed he was taken by “the passion that everyone had with the project” (Source: Entertainment Weekly, Sept. 18-25 issue #1382).

 

TCA SUMMER PRESS TOUR 2015 - "Blood & Oil" Session - The cast and producers of ABC's "Blood & Oil" address the press at Disney | ABC Television Group's Summer Press Tour 2015 at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. (ABC/Image Group LA) JOSH PATE (CREATOR/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER), RODES FISHBURNE (CREATOR/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER), TONY KRANTZ (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER), AMBER VALLETTA, DON JOHNSON, CHACE CRAWFORD, REBECCA RITTENHOUSE

TCA SUMMER PRESS TOUR 2015 – “Blood & Oil” Session – The cast and producers of ABC’s “Blood & Oil” address the press at Disney | ABC Television Group’s Summer Press Tour 2015 at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. (ABC/Image Group LA)
JOSH PATE (CREATOR/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER), RODES FISHBURNE (CREATOR/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER), TONY KRANTZ (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER), AMBER VALLETTA, DON JOHNSON, CHACE CRAWFORD, REBECCA RITTENHOUSE

Grandfathered Blog #2

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Grandfathered – Blog #2

As Grandfathered prepares for its premiere on Tuesday September 29th, Fox must consider this show’s competition for the upcoming season. Unfortunately, Grandfathered will be directly competing against the CW show, The Flash. The Flash is known for being one of the first Superhero TV show hits in recent years. This along with Jane the Virgin helped boost ratings on CW Network last year. This show and network are targets younger viewers in their teenage years, so Grandfathered might lose some younger viewership to this program.

Also, Grandfathered will be competing against NCIS, which has long-standing viewers that tend to be older. NCIS, draws in a solid following, but their viewers could be becoming bored with their average content and might look to some new programming like Grandfathered. Completely different genres, but hopefully Grandfathered can steal some of this viewership.

ABC will also be premiering a new show at this time, The Muppets. The Muppets, always a fan favorite might cause some shifting in this Tuesday night lineup and it will be interesting to see what age demographic ABC will be targeting.

Blood & Oil – Post #1

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ABC’s Sunday Primetime lineup will have two new additions: one being Blood & Oil, a soap drama with high stakes scheming and ruthless ambition. The series, which boasts the tagline “Millionaires are made everyday”, follows a hopeful young couple as they move to modern-day North Dakota on the heels of America’s greatest oil discovery.

The classic “striking gold” storyline may fare well for younger audiences craving a rag to riches story with plenty of edge. ABC’s hugely popular Once Upon a Time, which got top ranks for the 18-49 broadcasting demo, acts as the lead in for Blood and Oil, and seem to target the same younger viewers.  Based on the choices for on-screen talent, “Blood and Oil” has a lot of potential to carry some of the “Once” numbers at its 9 o’clock slot. Lead protagonist Billy Lefever is played by Chace Crawford, who will certainly create interest amongst the 18-24 demographic following his fame on the hit series Gossip Girl.  Playing the other half of the new-chance seeking couple as Cody Lefever is Rebecca Rittenhouse; who is set for a hopeful splash on ABC after her role as Brittany the short-lived Fox teen drama Red Band Society. Also starring are TV vet Don Johnson (Miami Vice) and supermodel-turned-actress Amber Valletta from ABC’s recently finished series Revenge. Johnson and Valletta will play opposite Crawford and Rittenhouse as ruthless oil tycoons Hap and Darla Briggs. 

 

Blood and Oil premieres at 9/8c September 27th on ABC.

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Last Man on Earth- Week 6 *RENEWAL*

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Fox has renewed Will Forte’s Last Man On Earth for a second season. Following the good debut demo rating, rising to a 3.3 in L+3, and the premiere attracting 1.3 million streams in the first three days, Last Man On Earth had followed a ratings course consistent with a episodic series, falling to, 3.0, 2.6 and 2.7/2.4 in L+3 (18-49) for the most recent back-to-back originals. But those are good numbers, Last Man does very well in the younger/male demos, ranking as the N.1 new comedy this season in adults 18-34 and men 18-49. It wins its Sunday 9:30 PM slot in adults 18-49 and 18-34, repeatedly builds onto its Family Guy lead-in, and the network brass had been happy with the Forte’s creative direction.

This announcement was huge because Last Man and other comedies like Weird Loners were ordered direct-to-series last spring. Fox has renewed three new winter series including Gotham, Empire and now Last Man.

David Madden president of Fox Broadcasting Company entertainment was quoted saying, “It’s one of those rare shows that continues to add depth and dimension to its unique premise, week after week. We are so thrilled that this incredibly bold, original and inventive series has been embraced by both fans and critics, and we cannot wait to see where the creative genius and inspired vision of Will, Phil and Chris take us in season two.”

Secrets and Lies – Post Eight

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            Secrets and Lies was preempted on Sunday, April 5 for ABC’s annual airing of The Ten Commandments. It is the first time since the show began that a new episode was not aired. The show returns to its regularly scheduled 9:00 p.m. time slot on Sunday, April 12.

ABC is yet to renew Secrets and Lies for a second season. The show seems to have a solid following, as week in and week out the viewership remains at about 5 million people. Much like the expert reviews, which greatly vary, audience opinion does too. The show has a Metascore of 48 on Metacritic based on 22 critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the Secrets and Lies has a 36% score, with 21 people deeming the show rotten.

American Crime- Slight Dip in Ratings, Renewal Up in the Air

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As American Crime enters its fifth week on the air, its ratings are holding fairly steady with just a slight dip in the April 2nd episode. The show posted a 1.1 rating among adults 18-49, which is below the 1.3 rating it had been hovering around for the previous couple of weeks.

The media has given this show very little buzz in the last couple of weeks, which might suggest that it simply doesn’t have enough fanfare to really move forward. Nonetheless, USA Today has not totally given up hope on the series yet, and says that its status for renewal is currently “on the bubble”. 

Secrets and Lies – Week 7

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March 29 saw Secrets and Lies match its lowest rating of the season with a 1.3 in the key 18-49 demographic. On social media the show has a stable following. The verified Facebook page boasts more than 185,000 likes while the verified Twitter account has a greater than 14,000 followers. The show has a consistent presence on both major social media outlets posting content at least once a day. This results in audience engagement. Over the last week, more than 5,000 tweets contained the show’s name. Additionally, Melissa Gilbert, who stars in the show leverages audience engagement by tweeting about Secrets and Lies from her own personal account.

Additionally, the show will take a two-week hiatus from new episodes and show re-runs on April 5 and April 12.