Welcome to Sound Off!, TVRG's newest interactive feature where community members talk TV in the comments about ANYTHING relating to television or streaming shows. Feel free to talk about TV from now, from the past or how you wish these dunderheads running the networks would schedule some entertaining shows. Hell, if you know of a good film as they are rare to find nowadays, drop a line about that too.
Face it, TV in the 2020's sucks ass compared to past decades! We poor viewers were forced to suffer through a thin Pandemic-induced 2020-21 season gave us thin episode counts and schedules chock full of Reality TV and Gameshow froth. We hoped things would improve the next season, but suddenly sitcoms became an endangered species by the end of the 2021-22 season. The next culled CW's scripted lineup in 2023, leaving behind second hand thrift only suitable for daytime television or late night drunks. Because apparently, most viewers are not savvy enough to stream these shows online? As if that wasn't insulting enough, why not shake it up with concurrent Actors' and Writers' Strikes, brought to you by the lovely letters of A-I? If viewers thought they were cheated during the 2020-21 season, networks doubled down with even more Reality TV and gameshows invading like silverfish, ultra-reduced episode orders for scripted series and cancelled longstanding shows and shows produced by other production companies. Because we'd rather watch such quality shows such as Golden Bachelor, Raid the Cage, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and Farmer Wants a Wife.
Flash Forward to 2025, and it appears there is something to talk about again. Yes, CW is still a walking corpse, and FOX is on track to become one in two seasons with scripted series becoming rarer and with diminished quality. NBC has little to nothing to write home about, and sitcoms remain fleeting on most networks. However, there are some bright spots broadcast has to write home about.
After a spotty fall which it battered its prized sitcom Abbott Elementary in a 9:30 timeslot in favor of the dreadful Bachelor delight Golden Bachelorette, ABC gave Abbott a worthy companion with Shifting Gears. Yes, this series is not mammoth, but it indicates positive signs that ABC is working to repair its tarnished sitcom brand. And selecting Kat Dennings as a flagship star was a stroke of genius as she delivered sarcasm at its finest years ago on 2 Broke Girls. 9-1-1 is helping rebuild Thursday nights with a Nashville spinoff in order (they seem to love that city as they aired a soap about it for 4 seasons), and Tuesdays are showing promise with solid compatible dramas.
Most grand of all, CBS seems to be operating as though it is 1999. They have the most scripted shows among the networks, regularly schedule 2 nights of sitcoms, and most baffling of all, they just released a daytime soap! For an industry actively trying to kill off the genre for decades, it was shocking and welcome they launched Beyond the Gates, a soap which pioneered a predominantly Black American cast to great fanfare. And they even registered an impressive 0.25 demo average for their first week, easily beating most of FOX's lineup and half of the shows on NBC including their mammoth hit, Grosse Pointe Garden Club which delivered laughs with a 0.09 rating on March 2. Now all CBS needs to complete the 1999 nostalgia is a Tuesday Night Movie of the week, soon to be sold to Lifetime's women in peril and bruised branding of entertainment.
Weeks earlier, CBS did their annual mass renewal of several worthy shows, allowing us viewers to be excited they shall be back starting in September and can feel free to invest in them. However, they left a shallow pool of scripted series now fending for survival. Just today, they dropped a TV into the pool (likely a giant box TV keeping with the 1999 theme), electrocuting FBI: International and FBI: Most Wanted into cancel culture. Most Wanted getting fried like a catfish was hardly a shock as it is 6 seasons old, but International shocked viewers as it only registered 4 seasons, one of which was the insultingly short 2023-24 thanks to strikes. Taking out two shows within a franchise was bold for CBS, and leaves scrambling viewers wondering which of the remaining shows on the bench will survive as CBS is cleaning house like an 80's slasher movie.
Diehard fans hope shows such as Equalizer, Watson, The Neighborhood, Poppa's House or SWAT will survive. But the truth is likely only one (if any) will see the 2025-26 season as CBS needs the shelf space. Which shows do you believe will make it or face CBS' ax? And how will the other networks fare with sparing or dispensing of shows, even ones as embarrassing as FOX who can barely scrape together enough scripted programming for a Renew/Cancel article?
Sound off, and let the opinions rip! TVRG wants to hear your thoughts. Talk ratings, talk characters, hell even talk historical TV as the site has those ratings posts in the banner of the site. Let's discuss TV as though it's 1999...
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