Cheers & Jeers: The Upfronts Edition

Damian Holbrook
20 Comments
Cheers-Jeers
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This week saw the networks unveiling their new lineups and shows to the press and advertisers, so we here at C&J decided to devote some space to what went down.

Cheers150x150Cheers to a Pitch perfect trailer.

Fox’s baseball tale about the Major League’s first female player (Kylie Bunbury) hits a triple play of female empowerment, family drama and male-skewing world of pro sports that, if done correctly, could fill the stands with fans of all demos for the net.

RELATED: Read More Cheers & Jeers

Pitch, Bunbury

Bunbury could be a major win for Fox.

Cheers150x150

Cheers to NBC for trying comedy. Again.

Recently they’ve had a terrible track record with launching comedies, but with promising projects like Great News from Tracey Wigfield and Tina Fey, the true-crime mockumentary Trial & Error and The Good Place, starring Kristen Bell as a horrible woman who winds up in heaven due to a clerical error, the Peacock hopes to finally make us laugh with them, not at them.

The Good Place, Kristen Bell

Bell is in a “Good Place.”

Cheers150x150Cheers to everyone who is about to discover Kaitlin Olson.
For almost a decade, Olson has been killing it as Sweet Dee on It’s Always Sunny and now, she is poised to break big with Fox’s The Mick about a trashy opportunist who inherits her rich, imprisoned sister’s kids. Nobody does low-brow lunacy and physical comedy better, and if they can reunite her with Sunny costar Mary Elizabeth Ellis (late of The Grinder), we could have our new Tina and Amy.

The Mick

Always sunny, always funny.

Jeers150x150Jeers to CBS for playing it safe.

Why go with Drew, the well-tested and welcomely diverse spin on Nancy Drew with Sarah Shahi as the classic gumshoe when you can pack your slate with canned laugh tracks, white male-led shows with occasional pops of color in supporting roles and remakes of Training Day and MacGyver that nobody asked for?

Training Day, Justin Cornwell, Bill Paxton

Justin Cornwell and Bill Paxton’s “Training Day” takes place 15 years after the Denzel version.

Jeers150x150Jeers to the impending reboot-apolooza.

Aside from the above mentioned Training Day and MacGyver, the next season is also bringing us rehashed editions of Shooter, Taken, The Exorcist, Star Trek, Lethal Weapon, Prison Break, 24, Tales From the Crypt, Time After Time and Emerald, a wickedly stylized version of The Wizard of Oz that looks like Fashion Week on poppy seeds.

Star Trek

Going boldy where like, 7 other Trek’s have gone.

Jeers150x150Jeers to The CW for making us wait for Riverdale.

The edgy adaptation of the Archie Comics world has a hot cast, a cool concept (sex and murder amongst the iconically clean-cut teens?!) and, unfortunately, a mid-season slot. Apparently, Jughead got a job in the scheduling department.

Riverdale

They wouldn’t be smiling if they knew how long we have to wait for their show.




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  1. B

    BlueCactus

    It's MacGyver, not McGuyver. None of this looks interesting though I am still hoping for a good Star Trek.

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  2. G

    GreenElephant

    I still don't think I'm interested in this edgy version of Archie Andrews and his gang in "Riverdale"...

    2

    1. C

      CyanCoathanger

      I don't like the idea of such drastic changes in their characters, but I am curious enough to want to see at least one episode.

      2

  3. B

    BluePaw

    Another Jeer to CBS for leaving it's creative, quirky show Limitless in limbo (and almost certain death) by shopping it around to other networks. I was a skeptic when I saw that there would be a spin-off of the movie by the same name, but one episode and I was hooked! Seems every season at least one network leaves me heartbroken by letting a great new show go. I'm still not over losing Forever. And I was looking forward to checking out Nancy Drew. Sigh.

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    1. G

      GoldBattery

      Amen to that. I love Limitless & loved Forever. Hopefully they'll find a home for Limitless, but I'm not holding my breath. I was very skeptical about the Lethal Weapon show, but the trailer is hilarious & I'm cautiously optimistic about it.

      2

    2. B

      BlueDice

      The best show apparently not enough people watched and now it will likely fade away.My dream now would be for it to get picked up at an edgier network like TNT etc. where it could be even funnier and more action packed.

      2

    3. C

      CyanCoathanger

      Add me as another fan of Limitless and Forever!

      4

  4. B

    BlueTooth

    I couldn't have said it better myself about CBS!! Drew had a fresh idea on a legendary character, a great female lead! But they go with a reheated version of McGyver ???

    1

  5. P

    PurpleWheel

    Dancing With The Stars is a big CHEER for me. It is fresh & exciting each year & they try new things each year. People tend to forget that eliminations are from the prior week's scores & votes..... since it's only on once a week now.

  6. P

    PurpleDucky

    No need to give Riverdale a thumbs down for being a mid-season release. As if there's not enough TV to keep you sated out there.

    1. C

      CyanCoathanger

      He didn't give Riverdale a thumbs down. He gave a jeer to CW for making us wait for it.

  7. R

    RedCupcake

    So CBS passed on a remake of Nancy Drew, which would have given us a Nancy who is TWICE as old as the original, for a remake of MacGyver, with a MacGyver who is HALF as old as the original?? Not quite sure what to make of that. (And yes, I realize that "twice" and "half" are a bit of an exaggeration. Maybe. But not by much.)

  8. G

    GreenRocket

    JEERS to Dancing With the Stars? "If Jodie Sweetin and Keo can get a perfect score and still be bumped off before a certain klutzy crooner reached the end of his road"

    Are you insane??? Jodie was a superb dancer and left far too soon but to whine because she left and Wanya didn't??? Ridiculous! The guy slipped on his partner's scarf. It couldn't be avoided. And you're conveniently forgetting that Wanya's scores from the prior weeks were higher than Jodie's scores. Wanya was a fantastic dancer who should be in the finals. Jodie danced beautifully but she was NOT better than Wanya. Wake up, Damian. The man slipped on a scarf and stumbled. How unfair you demand his elimination over Jodie's because of that. Go back and watch the mistakes Jodie make along the way. Or didn't you notice them?

    1. G

      GreenRocket

      And for the record, Wanya got not one but TWO perfect scores Monday night and was eliminated anyway. Yet you're not whining about that, are you?

  9. P

    PurpleRing

    Stupid alphabet networks cancel great and very good shows (Lie To Me. Jericho, Flashforward, The Family, Selfie) and give us crap remakes, crap reality, and just crap shows. No wonder people stop tuning in. Blarg.

  10. B

    BluePaw

    Someone is jeering a new Star Trek?

    1. C

      CyanCoathanger

      I've been jeering the fact that you have to pay for online access to watch it.

      3

    2. R

      RedSeahorse

      Also the fact the CBS is putting the Good Wife spin off on all access and not on the channel is a disservice to all the fans who watch it since the beginning.

    3. C

      CyanCoathanger

      I hadn't heard about that one.

  11. P

    PurpleBattery

    Welcomely?