After attending the networks' upfront presentations all week, the Biz has this analysis of the coming season. (Click here for next fall's grid and new-show descriptions.)
CWYou've got to wonder what went wrong in CW's new-series development process if the network had to bring back 7th Heaven — even though the show lost a reported $16 million for WB this past season.
But the decision to have CW's inaugural schedule made up of established shows from WB and UPN may end up being a blessing. Many of the shows have small but rabid followings, and promoting new shows on a new network will be tough. The fans of shows like One Tree Hill and Veronica Mars will track them down on their own. Viewers in the 18-to-34-year-old demographic that CW targets don't watch networks, they watch shows. (According to recent survey, only one in four 1
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For complete minute-by-minute Watercooler coverage of the Academy Awards ceremony and of Joan and Melissa's live preshow, click here.
ConvictionI've had many obsessions in my life — love, shiny jewelry, chocolate — but none as devastating as Law & Order. My addiction to Dick Wolf's franchise (save for the deservedly short-lived Trial by Jury) has distracted me from finishing freelance assignments, deprived me of adequate sleep and even chased away a boyfriend or two. That said, Wolf's new series Conviction — which technically isn't part of the L&O family, even though it stars Special Victims Unit's cast
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Conviction, a series about hot young New York prosecutors, is not, sorry to say, the next great legal drama. It’s merely the next — as in (sigh) yet another.
What a weird little mutant this show is, too, with Law & Order’s Dick Wolf shifting gears, trying to mimic David E. Kelley’s style. It’s not a good fit. A far cry from Boston Legal or even The Practice, this is so clumsy in its mix of the procedural and the personal
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