What May Cause Pitch to be a Hit?
Competition should have little effect
Notorious, Mom, Life in Pieces, and Chicago Med are the shows that Pitch will be up against. The CBS comedies and Notorious may have some crossover audience with Pitch, but the comedies don't get huge ratings, and the crossover audience likely won't be that large, and Pitch's trailer was more liked than that of Notorious, according to the trailer-watching article.
World Series promotion
FOX airs the World Series in October, which would be the perfect place to advertise a show about baseball. This could bring new viewers to Pitch, helping the show find its audience.
What May Cause Pitch to be a Miss for FOX?
Hardly anyone watched the trailer
According to the article on trailer views, Pitch's trailer is the least-watched of any of the new fall shows, far behind any of the other FOX shows. People have to know a show exists to watch it; this is a big problem.
Incompatible and weak lead-in
A police procedural with a male lead is far from the best lead-in for a baseball-themed comedy-drama with a female lead. This makes Rosewood an incompatible lead-in for Pitch. But, even worse, Rosewood scored low ratings airing without Empire on Wednesdays, so I don't expect them to improve when it moves to Thursday.
Lack of success for Back in the Game
Back in the Game is the only sports show to have aired on the broadcast networks in the last five seasons. It was also about baseball and featured a female lead, though it was a half-hour comedy instead of an hour-long comedy-drama. Despite airing in the Wednesdays at 8:30 timeslot on ABC, it was pulled from the schedule after 10 episodes.
What to Expect for Pitch?
I think that the factor of its lead-in will have an effect much bigger than any of the other factors listed here. Maybe it could be a successful show on Wednesdays, but not on Thursdays.
Which factors do you think will be most in play causing Pitch to be a hit or a miss? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
New Show Hit/Miss Articles
The Good Place
This is Us
Timeless
Lethal Weapon