Ask Matt: Who Gets a Super Bowl Boost? ‘Boroughs’ Cancellation and More

Welcome to the Q&A with longtime TV critic — also known to some TV fans as their “TV therapist” — Matt Roush, who’ll try to address whatever you love, loathe, are confused or frustrated or thrilled by in today’s vast TV landscape. (We know background music is too loud, it’s the most frequent complaint, but there’s always closed-captioning. Check out this story for more tips.) 

One caution: This is a spoiler-free zone, so we won’t be addressing upcoming storylines here unless it’s already common knowledge. Please send your questions and comments to [email protected]. Look for Ask Matt columns on every other Tuesday.

What Will ABC Launch After the Big Game?

Question: What show do you think ABC might air following the Super Bowl in 2027: one of their hits like High Potential or a new show like The Rookie: North and the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff? — Fabio

Matt Roush: Remarkably, it has been two decades since ABC aired the Super Bowl (this time with an ESPN simulcast), and in 2006, the network followed the big game with the first of a two-part Grey’s Anatomy episode at the height of its popularity, with an audience of nearly 40 million, a record for the show. (This fact is so remarkable I initially wrote it down as 2016, not believing this was already 20 years ago.)

It’s always fun to speculate how a network will take advantage of the huge Super Bowl platform, and for ABC, I could see it going one of three ways. For me, it would make the most sense to see them seize the promotional opportunity to launch either of the new series spinning off from their popular franchises, but I’d also understand if they wanted to give a huge boost to launch the new season of one of their returning midseason hits to welcome them back off of the shelf, either High Potential or Will Trent or The Rookie. (Airing a very special blockbuster episode of one of the 9-1-1 series, or maybe a crossover, could also happen.) The third option would be to launch the latest round of The Bachelor in that coveted time period, though you’d think a more action-oriented procedural would be more compatible. The longest shot, seems to me, would be to produce a Very Special Episode of an ongoing comedy like Abbott Elementary, Scrubs, or the midseason return of Shifting Gears (though the Tim Allen demographic would certainly dig it). The best-case scenario would be to offer something that’s neither too heavy nor too light and delivers the best all-around long-term dividend.

The Boroughs Was a Great Place to Visit

Question: I’m rarely surprised anymore when a show I like gets canceled, especially on the traditional networks in their current diminished state. But I admit to being stunned when Netflix pulled the plug on The Boroughs after just one delightful season. What a terrific cast of veteran performers and a refreshing premise putting characters of a certain age (roughly my age, as it happens) in the spotlight. The reviews (including yours) were solid, and there even seems to be some Emmy buzz, considering the caliber of talent. Once again, the elderly are being sidelined amid an onslaught of insipid teen and young-adult romances. What were they thinking? – Sandy

Matt Roush: It’s often hard to discern what’s behind a decision like this, and I’m just as disappointed as anyone that we won’t see more of these actors and characters in this fantastical and whimsical world. I almost wish they’d presented the show as a limited series, a category that’s particularly weak this year, and the story of The Boroughs was so complete and, in most regards, self-contained that while we might yearn for a sequel, we might be more satisfied if it had been sold as a one-off.

An analysis by The Hollywood Reporter that the show’s high price tag (upwards of $10 million an episode) relative to its performance may have doomed it — again, it might have made more sense to consider this a limited series and not give viewers false hope. But while Netflix regards the cancellation as a business decision, there’s also speculation that the termination of The Boroughs had at least as much to do with the fact that the Duffer Brothers, the Stranger Things wunderkinds who were executive producers of the project, recently signed a four-year deal with Netflix’s rival studio at Paramount. We may never know for sure, but I’m hoping we can couch our dismay in a bit of karmic payback should the series, and especially its A-list cast, earn a few Emmy nominations in July.

Feeling Left Out

Comment: I was dismayed in one of your recent columns to learn that ABC wasn’t planning on broadcasting Season 2 of Paradise like they did with last summer with Season 1. That is a real bummer. Some people just can’t buy every single streaming service and actually still watch broadcast TV. Fingers crossed that they change their minds! — Dava S.

Matt Roush: I get it. Especially given the pitiful state of broadcast TV during the summer months, a replay of a show as good as Paradise would be most welcome. But expecting this kind of sharing to be the rule and not the exception is asking to be let down. My advice, now that the entire season is available, is to subscribe for as long as it takes you to watch and then cancel. These streamers are just happy to get you inside the door. (The networks have so given up on summer programming that isn’t either reality or game shows that I’d advise anyone stuck with such a blank slate of options to pick a streamer to sample on the cheapest plan available until the networks come back to life in the fall. The free FAST streamers also have robust libraries to watch during this hiatus.)

Restore Stabler to the Law & Order Franchise!

Question: Why not bring Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) back into his own show? He has the chops to carry his own show, away from Paramount+. It seems to me Paramount+ divides successful shows from longtime fans with the inane idea they can romance them away from local channels. They are doing it with Criminal Minds as well as the new spinoff of Yellowstone. — Susie H.

Matt Roush: I’ll make the appropriate corrections here not to embarrass the writer but to illustrate how confusing the current TV/streaming landscape is for so many. To be clear, when NBC shifted Law & Order: Organized Crime to streaming, it was to the network’s streaming platform Peacock, not Paramount+, which is associated with CBS programming (and picked up castoffs including Evil and the Evolution extension of Criminal Minds). I understand the skepticism, and when a network moves a show from the network to its streamer, there is a degree of corporate strategy in play that expects some of the fan base to subscribe to keep watching a favorite show or character. (To suggest they’re doing this to woo them away from the broadcast mothership may be stretching it a bit.)

Regarding Christopher Meloni’s future (or not) as Elliot Stabler, I’d take them at their word that Organized Crime is over, but you’re hardly alone in hoping they’ll bring him back into the SVU world on special occasions if not more regularly. Whether and when that will happen remains to be seen, but I don’t think anyone doubts his ability to carry a show or that he’s an asset to the Law & Order brand.

Regarding Dutton Ranch, the latest Yellowstone spinoff, it has been available on cable (Paramount Network) as well as on Paramount+, where the Yellowstone prequels were exclusive during their original runs. If for whatever reason you missed it, the episodes are available On Demand if you’re a cable consumer, and you can catch up before Friday’s cliffhanger finale.

And Another Thing!

Comment: I totally agree with Aaron F in your last column about TV pet peeves. I have a few myself. For example, in a car chase the cars speed down a narrow road or alley and as the lead car passes a certain point, a large truck will pull out into the path of the second car stopping it. And a speeding car won’t just crash. It always hits something and becomes airborne.

Also, when a person is pushed, falls, or jumps off a building they almost always land on a car parked directly below. And it seems like every Asian character is an expert in the martial arts. Or a law enforcement officer will confront a suspect who has a gun and the two of them just stand there pointing their guns at each other. No officer would ever do that. And finally, one I find a bit amusing, in older TV shows when a phone rings during a scene, the characters will turn and look at the phone like it’s some sort of alien technology. I think today’s writers need to be a bit more creative. I can only suspend belief to a certain point. — JC

Matt Roush: And yet we keep watching. And shaking our heads. Go figure.

And Finally …

Question: So, I saw that episodes of Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent had started up, and we recalled really enjoying them last summer. Fortunately, my DVR remembered to record them. About 10 minutes into the first one I had the feeling that I had seen it before and, sure enough, a little light Googling told me that The CW was going to show the same season that it had broadcast last year. I know it’s Canadian, and the CW just licenses it (as their actual production days are long past), but there have been three full seasons produced and shown by the Canadians. Why would the CW repeat the one it had already shown? The broadcast TV business is struggling, and perhaps the CW more than most, but this is a world’s record for frugality, even for them. — Tim K., Indiana

Matt Roush: By all accounts, The CW will air the second season (and for all we know, license the third) at some point. Trying to understand this sort-of network’s programming or scheduling philosophy is either beyond me or beneath me, I’m not sure. I figure they may want to hold back new episodes for a time when viewership levels for broadcast TV go up, although where The CW is concerned, that’s all relative.

That’s all for now. We can’t do this without your participation, so please keep sending questions and comments about TV to [email protected]. (Please include a first name with your question.)