Thursday, December 15, 2016
TBS Brings Back More Comedies; TNT Orders Claws
Turner's TBS ends an impressive and transformative year with renewals of all six of its 2016 scripted comedies. The network announced 10-episode season 2 renewals of its two most recent critically acclaimed comedies, People of Earth and Search Party, which join the network's previous 2016 renewals of Angie Tribeca, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, The Detour and Wrecked, in addition to comedy mainstays Conan and American Dad! To reach younger viewers Search Party launched with a unique binge of the entire first season over Thanksgiving week, drawing more than 1.1M viewers per episode across all platforms over five days and growing. The show performed especially strong with millennials with 18% of its audience in the adults 18-34 demo. On VOD Search Party was the fastest TBS original to reach 1M views and delivered the youngest, most diverse audience of any TBS original. The dark comedy about a group of 20-something New Yorkers has garnered a 100% Fresh rating on RottenTomatoes.com, and landed on best of 2016 lists including Vanity Fair, Vulture, Yahoo!, Daily Beast, The Guardian and more. The complete first season of Search Party is now available on tbs.com, TBS On Demand and the Watch TBS mobile app. Another binge of the entire first season is scheduled to premiere during the week between Christmas and New Year's.
Since premiering Halloween night, People of Earth has ranked one of the year's Top 10 new cable comedies among adults 18-49 and is currently reaching 4.3 million viewers per episode across all platforms. The series has continued to grow throughout the season, with episode seven hitting a season high up 28 percent vs. the season average. People of Earth, airing Mondays at 9 p.m. (ET/PT) from Emmy® winners Conan O'Brien and Greg Daniels, along with creator David Jenkins stars an ensemble cast led by Wyatt Cenac as a reporter investigating a support group for alien abductees. Looking ahead, The Detour is set to start its second season in February, followed by the third season of Angie Tribeca in the spring, the second seasons of Wrecked and Search Party in the summer and the second season of People of Earth later in the year. In addition, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee will continue its weekly look at news and issues as it moves to a new night, Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. (ET/PT), starting January 11. Those shows will be joined in 2017 by the new comedy anthology The Guest Book.
Sticking to Turner news. Turner's TNT has given a series greenlight to Claws, a midnight-dark, wickedly funny meditation on female badness set in a South Florida nail salon. Niecy Nash (Getting On, The Soul Man), Carrie Preston (True Blood), Harold Perrineau (Lost, OZ), Jenn Lyon (Justified), Judy Reyes (Scrubs, Devious Maids), Jack Kesy (The Strain), Karrueche Tran (The Nice Guys), Kevin Rankin (Dallas Buyers Club, Friday Night Lights) and Jason Antoon (Famous in Love) star in the hour-long dramedy from executive producers Rashida Jones (Angie Tribeca), Will McCormack (Toy Story 4) and Janine Sherman Barrois (ER, Criminal Minds), who also serves as showrunner.
Claws follows the rise of five diverse and treacherous manicurists working at the Nail Artisan of Manatee County salon, where there is a lot more going on than silk wraps and pedicures. At the center is salon owner Desna (Niecy Nash), who lives with and cares for her mentally ill twin brother, Dean (Harold Perrineau). Desna's staff includes best friend Jennifer (Jenn Lyon), a tenuously sober ex-party girl raising two children from previous relationships; Quiet Ann (Judy Reyes), Desna's enigmatic driver who also provides security for the salon; Polly (Carrie Preston), a mild-mannered preppy who recently served time in prison for identity theft; and Virginia (Karrueche Tran), who makes no effort to hide her boredom and impatience with her job.
Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows
Wednesday, January 22
Shifting Gears - "Job" (ABC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Riley, desperate for work, reluctantly takes a job at Matt’s shop. Meanwhile, Gabriel and Stitch secretly stray from Matt’s vision on a high-stakes restomod project.
Abbott Elementary - "Strike" (ABC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
City buses have stopped running due to a strike, resulting in many students being absent from school. The teachers at Abbott try to find creative solutions and adapt to hybrid learning. Meanwhile, Gregory and O’Shon strike up a friendship.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of January 20)
Wednesday, January 22
- Lucy Liu (Joey/Pearl) - Watch Lucy on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC. She also chats with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
- Ronny Chieng (Young Rock/Ronny Chieng: International Student) - Ronny hosts Comedy Central's The Daily Show at 11pm.
- Utkarsh Ambudkar (Ghosts/White Famous), Betsy Sodaro (Ghosts/Duncanville/Disjointed/Animal Practice) and Punam Patel (Ghosts/Return of the Mac/Kevin from Work) - Utkarsh, Betsy and Punam are guests on After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
- Morris Chestnut (Out All Night) - Morris talks about Watson on CBS Mornings sometime between 7-9am, on CBS Mornings Plus in the 9am hour, and on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your local listings.
- Andrew Rannells (Girls/The New Normal) and Nick Kroll (Big Mouth/The League/Cavemen) - Andrew, Nick and Lin-Manuel Miranda are chatting with Drew about their Broadway show All In: Comedy About Love on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings. They're also talking to Drew about parenting advice, how they were raised and how comedy brings people together.
New on DVD and Blu-ray
10/08 - Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete Twelfth Season / The Complete Series
10/22 - Veep - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
11/05 - I Love Lucy - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
11/12 - The King of Queens - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (2024 Release)
11/19 - SpongeBob SquarePants - The Complete Fourteenth Season
11/26 - Looney Tunes Collector's Choice - Volume 4 (Blu-ray)
12/03 - Angel (1960-1961) - The Complete Series, Volume 1
12/17 - Seinfeld - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (4K UHD)
01/28 - Wait Till Your Father Gets Home - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/04 - Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray)
02/04 - The Wayans Bros. - The Complete Series
More Recent and Upcoming TV DVD and Blu-ray Releases / TV Shows on DVD, Blu-ray and Prime Video / DVD Reviews Archive
Recent SitcomsOnline.com News Blog Posts