TV Nerd News #6

That’s right folks, iGR‘s TV Nerd News is back and it’s better than ever because now I’m just going to call it TVNN. Yes, I’m shortening things. Why am I doing it? Who the hell cares, it’s just easier to write! Besides, it’s my article and I can what I want! I do apologize for how late this week’s edition is but like I said in FNN, I got held up in Westeros for awhile. Which reminds me: Game of Thrones is awesome! If you’re one of the three people in this world that hasn’t seen it yet, go and do it now and you’ll be so thankful that you’ll name your first born son after me!

Anyways, on with the news:

3/25 - TBS renews COUGAR TOWN for a Season 5

Say what you will about the quality of the show but Cougar Town‘s successful transition from ABC to TBS is something all TV fans should be rooting for because it means that more cable channels will follow suit and gamble on other quality shows canceled by one of the networks too quickly. The fact that the show was able to pull in good enough numbers to warrant a renewal after the move indicates a certain amount of success, opening up another avenue for shows to continue existing. This is something that I will go into more detail about when I discuss the future of TV in the editorial I’m working on but let me just say: this is great news.

3/27 - NBC considering bringing you LAW & ORDER: CHICAGO with CHICAGO FIRE spinoff

I’m a little more cynical about this than most because I find the Law & Order shows to be utterly boring and Chicago Fire looked to be about the same but with firefighters instead of cops and lawyers. Now, apparently NBC is desperate to basically create Law & Order: Chicago as the potential Chicago Fire spinoff would center on a unit of cops. I guess the procedural cop show won’t be dead until NBC beats the corpse into dust.

3/27 - CBS renews pretty much all of their current shows

The only shows CBS didn’t renew are: Criminal Minds, Two and a Half Men, CSI: New York, Rules of Engagement and freshmen series Golden Boy and Vegas. And the only reason both Criminal Minds and Two and a Half Men haven’t been renewed is because the network and studio are working out new deals with the castmembers. The rest of them (that means four) appear to be some amount of trouble. Still, CBS clearly demonstrated how strong it’s lineup is by basically only having four openings on its schedule for the upcoming TV season. Say what you will about the network (I certainly have) but they’ve been successful.

3/28 - FX announces launch of new channel, FXX; renews shows and moves some around

This was the most interesting piece of news all week because the cable channel outlined an interesting approach to its future at its upfront presentation last week. Basically, the channel is splitting into two different channels: FX and FXX. The new network, FXX, will be replacing the Fox Soccer channel and will focus on younger (18-34 vs. 18-49 for FX) demographics. That focus means that it’s moving a couple of its current properties to the new network, including staples It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The League (which has already been renewed for two additional seasons) with newcomers Legit and Totally Biased with Kamau Bell (which is expanding to five nights a week like typical late night shows). The new channel will debut on September 2, 2013. In addition to the news about FXX, the channel has also renewed the Timothy Olyphant (Live Free or Die Hard) series Justified which is especially great news for yours truly since I believe Justified to be the best drama on TV right now. Other news to come out of the upfront was a renewed focus on limited event/mini-series, with a bunch of new projects being lined up with names like The Coen Brothers (Fargo) and Stephen Gaghan (Syriana).

3/29 - Matthew Broderick gets into the TV game with CBS pilot

Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) has made a couple of guest spots on sitcoms recently but this is his major TV role. The sitcom pilot, from writer Tad Quill (Scrubs), centers on a recently widowed single father entering the dating world again. The premise sounds pretty boring and the fact that it’s on CBS doesn’t exactly ease my mind but Quill is a pretty good comedy writer so it could be decent. Still, I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

That’s it for this week’s edition of TV Nerd News! Be sure and follow me on Twitter at @kyle_igr and the site @igresponsibly.