Grandfathered Post #10

Tonight is the sixth episode of Fox’s Grandfathered. After being picked up for a full season the show is beginning to find it’s groove and that character are working together more efficiently. For the past six weeks, excluding October 27th due to the World Series, Grandfathered shows at 8PM on Tuesday evening, but starting in January the show will be moved to 8:30PM on Tuesday evenings. Currently, The Grinder, starring Rob Lowe, is in that time spot and it will be interesting to see how Fox will shift around it’s January lineup. The Grinder will be moving to 9:30PM on Tuesday nights to be closer in the lineup to Brooklyn Nine-Nine, currently one of Fox’s most successful comedies.

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This week, one of the show’s leading cast members, Josh Peck, sat down with LA Confidential Magazine and discussed the dynamic of the Grandfathered cast. He gushed about John Stamos and it was evident he was working to bring some positive attention to this new show. Grandfathered has become pretty stable in the ratings averaging about a 1 week to week and around 3.17 million viewers in 18-49. Hopefully, with more positive PR, the show’s fan-base will start to grow.

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Grandfathered Post #9

Last week, Grandfathered got the full season order from Fox which followed their Tuesday night partner in crime, The Grinder’s, pick-up, as well. According to Deadline, it has always been the plan to give full season order to these freshmen Fox comedies. All of the fates of Fox’s fall lineup have been decided. Minority Report was the only show to receive a reduction, which shows the Fox overall had a strong Fall Primetime lineup. Interestingly, Grandfathered is a co-production between 20th Century Fox TV and ABC Studios, which is important because the content is shown on Fox.

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The mixed reviews are in for Fox’s Grandfathered.

According to Critics reviews MetaCritic, many feel that that show is extremely similar to the comedy Raising Hope. I initially did not make this connection, but now I definitely see where those critiques are coming from. Also, many viewers feel that John Stamos’ character Jimmy is strong, but it is the supporting characters that need work. The characters portrayed by Josh Peck and Christina Milian are definitely in need of some tweaking according to the critics, but fortunately the show will now have time do develop these characters during the remainder of the season.

Grandfathered Post #8

Grandfathered is reaching the mid-season mark and the question is raised for Grandfathered staff, “Do I Stay or Do I Go?”. A recent article from TV By the Numbers placed Grandfathered as teetering on the line between renewal and cancellation.

grandfathered-renew-cancel-wk-5Although, its ratings are not as blatantly successful as Fox’s Empire or doing as poor as Fox’s Minority Report, they fall right on the cusp between success and failure. Last week’s ratings demonstrated that the show is beginning to level out at approximately at a rating of 1 and reached about 3.3 million viewers in the 18-49 demographic. These numbers appear pretty stable, but the question is raised, whether or not Fox thinks these ratings are worthy of keeping the show going.

Although the show’s future is unknown, show executives are trying to secure ratings by locking in guest stars for future episodes. Currently, John Stamos’ longtime co-stars on Full House, Bob Saget and Dave Coulier are set to be appearing on the show. Their episodes are expected to air in late 2015 or 2016, which will hopefully give the viewers something to look forward to. john-stamos-bob-saget-dave-coulier-1Another guest star, expected to show up will be Dr. Phil, who will play John Stamos’ doctor.

Grandfathered Post #7

This has been a huge week for Fox’s comedy Grandfathered because Fox has requested six additional script orders for both Grandfathered and The Grinder. This shows the network, that the show is worthy of continuing production and showing episodes. On the contrary, Fox’s show The Minority Report’s episode order has been reduced from thirteen to ten, which shows Fox’s lack of faith in that show. Grandfathered has remained relatively consistent in the ratings and appears stable enough for Fox to grant the okay on the continuation of production.

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Unfortunately directly correlating with this positive accolade for the show, Grandfathered lead John Stamos was charged for a DUI coming from an arrest that occurred earlier this year. Although, Stamos could face up to six months in jail, Fox keeps reassuring the press that this incident will not affect future production for the show.

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Rob Latour/Variety/REX Shutterstock (5120784fg) John Stamos 67th Primetime Emmy Awards, Arrivals, Los Angeles, America - 20 Sep 2015

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Rob Latour/Variety/REX Shutterstock (5120784fg)
John Stamos
67th Primetime Emmy Awards, Arrivals, Los Angeles, America – 20 Sep 2015

Even with reassuring remarks the question still remains, how this charge and possible sentencing will affect the rest of the season and future production of this new comedy.

Grandfathered Post #6

After opening up to a decent audience, Fox saw a decline in all three of its Tuesday night programming including Scream Queens, The Grinder, and Grandfathered. Grandfathered in the second week dropped 26%
in viewership, which is staggering and probably very disheartening for Fox Executives. The show received a 1.1rating/4 share and reached only 3.8 milli
on viewers in the key 18-49 demographic.

 

Grinder-Grandfathered-1       The show is already working to generate more fans by tying in some of John Stamos’ previous successes such as Full House, which is in the works as a sequel, Fuller House. Grandfathered will be having Bob Saget guest star on an episode. This is a perfect example of cross-promotion between different shows, but interestingly the shows are not on the same network. Fox’s Grandfathered and Netflix’s Fuller are sharing their talent pool to generate more viewers for hopefully both of the programs.

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Grandfathered really needs to improve its fan base not only in the viewership, but also on social media. Currently, the show’s official Twitter has less than 10,000 followers, which compared to Fox’s Scream Queens that is on an hour later, which has about 266,000 followers. This juxtaposition shows that Grandfathered really needs to improve its social media especially in this multifaceted industry, which is integrating more and more social media into television programming.

 

Grandfathered Post #4

Is John Stamos involved in too much?

A simple Google search of John Stamos provides you with millions of results. Unfortunately for Fox, most of the links relate to the Full House spinoff, “Fuller House”. Although the extensive publicity for Fuller House cannot be blamed on Stamos, it could cause some worry for Grandfathered executives who appear to be having difficulty spreading the word about this new show. John Stamos went on the Today Show and had a one-on-one interview with Matt Lauer, but the highlights from the interview revolved around Stamos’ rehab stint and Fuller House. Stamos’ social media platform is also not focused around Grandfathered, which might damage the premiere ratings on September 29th. On the contrary, Josh Peck, the younger star of Grandfathered has been covering his social media accounts with posts about Grandfathered to help create buzz for the show.

John Stamos on the Today Show

John Stamos on the Today Show

 

Also, Grandfathered reviews have arrived from a multitude of sources praising John Stamos for his performance and claiming that he fits really well into television narratives. This positive critical acclaim and lackluster social media presence could lead to unpredictable viewership for the premiere.

More Reviews: Yahoo ReviewNew York Times, & Deadline

 

 

The Grinder – Post 2

As reported in late August, a new face officially joined the team of The Grinder for Fall 2015. Ben Wexler, from The Comedians, signed an overall deal with 20th Century FOX producers.

As Wexler joins The Grinder, Greg Malins gets swapped out. Malins is said to have exited the series for creative differences. I found it interesting to read on The Hollywood Reporter (THR) website that this is not the only show that has experienced its share of new showrunners for the upcoming season. On that same note, The Grinder has actually become the fourth first-year series to change its showrunner.

THR makes note of the increased pressure for new shows to make their mark fast, and gain as many ratings as possible. As the growing landscape of television viewing continues to change, ratings are scarce and hard to hold on to.

These types of decisions come as production heats up in August and cuts start being made to find the clearest pathway to success for a new series. If creative differences get in the way for showrunners or a cast doesn’t seem quite right anymore, it’s likely networks will make whatever changes need be.

Scream Queens – Post #2

Scream Queens is set as FOX’s anchor on its all-new Tuesday programming schedule, following Grandfathered featuring John Stamos and Rob Lowe in The Grinder. This is a bold move for the network, but they continue to exude confidence with these adjustments. Tuesday night’s schedule overall is highly focused on female content, leaving Ryan Murphy with the slight hesitation as to whether men will tune in, or not. It’s not a concern for Scream Queens creators, but it is a curiosity to see if men will become a fan of the show’s combination of horror-like elements, comedy and drama.

Pertaining to the show’s pre-production, it was interesting to read in Variety that Jamie Lee Curtis initially turned down her role, despite Murphy writing it specifically for her. Curtis’ primary reasoning was that she had bigger responsibilities back at home. Not taking no for an answer, Murphy created a shooting schedule for Curtis, grouping workdays into four-or-five day periods at a time and limiting her travel. There was no way she could pass this opportunity, and Curtis now considers it the role of a lifetime.

The show airs next week, so let’s see how the ratings pull through in next weeks blog!