Friday, April 06, 2018
Fri-Yay: Will Roseanne Inspire a New Trend?; The Last O.G. Scores for TBS
by Vincent
It's hard to overstate just how much of a rumble Roseanne has sent through the television industry. The show's ratings remained remarkably high in its second week, earning a 3.9 Adults 18-49 rating and 15.39 million total viewers, still far above the numbers of anything else on broadcast TV right now. And with this news comes news that Fox is considering a Last Man Standing revival after ABC (somewhat surprisingly) axed the series last spring. Last Man Standing's premise was intriguingly similar to the Roseanne reboot, centering around Tim Allen's character's conservative beliefs clashing with his more liberal family members. Last Man Standing never made the cultural impact that Roseanne has, though - it was a decently rated family sitcom that kept the lights on Friday nights that ABC decided to part ways with when it dismantled the Friday night family sitcom block. Still, considering the press and ratings Roseanne has received, it's not hard to see the series getting a second life if Fox decides to bring it back.
It also offers some insight into where networks might be thinking. Although it's a bit late in pilot season for Roseanne's ratings and cultural impact to really effect next year's pilots, it's clear that networks are scrambling to capture the demographic that was apparently ignited by the Roseanne revival. Don't be surprised if you see sitcoms about family members with drastically different political viewpoints filling the airwaves over the next year or two, attempting to strike the iron while it's still hot. It's the same reason you saw endless "young people in big cities" sitcoms after Friends took off, or why so many shows attempted to duplicate Seinfeld's "show about nothing" mantra, or even why so many zombie and fantasy shows popped up after the recent successes of The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones. And yet, very few of these copycat shows, actually succeeded. And frankly, I'm not sure that any Roseanne copycats will either. Even if the media discussion around Roseanne centers around the show's political nature, the truth is that the actual show features less of that material, and that much of its success likely stems from the love for its original characters. It seems unlikely that Roseanne's revival would be such a big hit if it existed in a vacuum and wasn't a continuation of the massively popular original series.
Still - when you have a breakout success as huge as the Roseanne revival, there's always an inevitable impact on the television landscape afterwards. Whether it's an increase in political sitcoms, an increase in revivals, or both, it's likely this will be seen as a "moment" for sitcoms going forward (even if, frankly, shows like One Day at a Time, Superstore, and black-ish were already beating the political drum before Roseanne). Whether or not those shows succeed, of course, is a totally different story.
The Last O.G. starring Tracy Morgan, Tiffany Haddish and executive produced by Jordan Peele has claimed cable's top comedy slot with Tuesday's premiere generating 1.8M total viewers and 882K 18-49 viewers in Live + Same Day and is expected to hit a Live +7 projection of 1.252M. The series is tracking as #1 among all cable comedies this year, including premium services. This marks the biggest cable comedy premiere since 2016, the largest scripted cable comedy premiere since 2015, and the strongest TBS original debut ever. More than 6.9M total viewers (3.3M 18-49) tuned into the show over a three-night, five-telecast launch on TBS and TNT following the NCAA Final Four tournament.
The Last O.G. centers on Tray (Morgan), an ex-con released from a 15-year prison stint to a changed and unfamiliar world. Returning to his newly gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood, Tray discovers that his former girlfriend Shay (Tiffany Haddish) is married to another man and has been raising Tray's twins, who he never knew existed
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
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