FOX trailers are up on the website.

http://www.fox.com/programming/shows/?sh=lonestar

New Drama:
Lonestar
Ridealong (midseason)

New Comedy:
Running Wilde
Raising Hope
Mixed Signals (midseason)
Bob's Burgers (midseason)

Deadline reported the following feedback from the presentation:


I'd pretty much agree with that. Raising Hope does look cute, I'm not sure that's the best thing to say about a comedy and I'm not really sure how much of a match it is with Running Wilde. Where I would disagree with the account above is that "mildly amusing" is extremely flattering to Bob's Burgers based on that trailer.

Lonestar is the one that interests me most from a ratings perspective. In the development stages some FOX execs were apparently viewing it as "awards material" (which often means it won't get high ratings!). At the upfront presentation, they pitch seemed to be "like Dallas, but sophisticated".

I watched the trailers of all the new FOX shows and I have to say Lonestar was the best of the bunch but it's a little hard to sell to a UK audience, the comedies look alright, Bob's Burgers looks like yet another attempt for FOX to try an animated comedy that isn't The Simpsons or made by Seth MacFarlane. It would be easier for them to bring back Futurama but that's going to Comedy Central.

I can see Ridealong getting picked up by a UK broadcaster and one or two of the comedies, Terra Nova is probably the most interesting but I can see it being a Fringe replacement on Thursdays as there isn't really a slot for it.

have to agree, Bobs Burger does not look good, I hope they improve the animation for when it makes it to TV.

Outside of The Simpsons, & Seth MacFarlane shows, FOX have been unable to find a 5th for the Animation Domination line up.

King of the Hill was the last animated show in that block that wasn't The Simpsons or a Seth show although I suspect American Dad! would probably be axed if they did find a new hit animated show.

true, but King of the Hill was around along time before Family Guy, and in some ways The Cleveland Show replaced it, but yeah im betting FOX would love to find an animated hit that isnt from Seth MacFarlane.

Very impressed with these shows. Ten times better than NBC.

Mixed Signals looks mildly promising. A few good laughs.

Raising Hope is a good concept, looks like a good pilot, but I wonder how long they can stretch it out.

Ride-Along reminds me of The Shield. But I don't think its going to take off mid-season.

Lonestar is probably the best of all the FOX and NBC show trailers. If they market that well it could find an audience - but I think that is where they will have some problems. Mind you, FOX had Glee at this time last year which was a good show, but difficult to get people to buy into - everyone was "high school musical"-ed out, but they pushed it and the word of mouth spread.

Running Wilde could be great, depending on where they take it. Seems fairly funny, but maybe a little over the top.

Bob's Burgers - No good at all.

The Good Guys - Sounds like this is a summer show that FOX has ordered extra episodes for in the fall. They must have some faith in it. Strange there is no clip though.

Terra Nova - Sounds interesting, especially given that most episodes will be closed-ended. Anyone know where its going on the schedule?

It will follow House so it does have a good lead-in, but as you say, I'm not entirely sure what audience it is pitching at. Also, the lead character being an adulterer and con artist is a potential stumbling block (again, the kind of thing that may win awards but not always mass appeal). Almost seems like it might work better on cable.


Kevin Reilly said something about launching it "strategically" in the spring, which several blogs have taken to mean that it's getting an Idol lead-in (Wednesdays @ 10pm when Glee takes a break?).

One alternative is to launch it after Idols 3 Thursday semi-final episodes in February and then keep it at 9pm when Fringe takes its mid season break.

Lonestar is a risk but it could pay off, Glee is different as it has the songs and the offbeat humour that make different from any high school drama.

Ridealong could do well and it's from the creator of The Shield, Kevin Reilly was the head of FX when The Shield and Nip/Tuck were commisioned and helped brand the network so it is unsurprising that both Shawn Ryan and Ryan Murphy got pilots and pickups at FOX. NBC should consider doing the same with the creators of the USA shows.

Interesting thet decided to show on Thursday rather than Sunday, it is not a great film but given how well 3.10 to Yuma did, I think they should have swapped Cradle 2 the Grave on Sunday with The Invasion.

I'm surprised Five haven't repeated The Da Vinci Code, I'm sure it would do well as filler during the summer.

Monday 17th May Overnights
BBC One [inc. HD]
18:00- BBC News at Six: 3.9m (24.6%)
18:30- Regional News and Weather: 5.3m (29.4%)
19:00- The ONE Show: 4.3m (22.0%)
19:30- A History of the World: 3.4m (16.7%)
20:00- EastEnders: 8.7m (38.9%)
20:30- Panorama: 2.1m (8.9%)
21:00- High Street Dreams: 2.2m (9.7%)
22:00- BBC News at Ten: 3.9m (19.8%)
22:35- The Graham Norton Show: 2.5m (18.3%)

BBC Two
17:15- The Hairy Bikers' Food Tour of Britain: 1.1m (9.4%)
18:00- Eggheads: 2.1m (12.9%)
18:30- Great British Menu: 1.9m (10.4%)
19:00- Coast: 1.3m (6.6%)
20:00- Springwatch Signs of Change with Chris Packham: 2.0m (8.7%)
21:00- Royal Wedding: 1.6m (7.4%)

ITV1 [inc. HD]
18:30- ITV News & Weather: 3.3m (18.1%)
19:00- Emmerdale: 6.9m (35.8%)
19:30- Coronation Street: 8.6m (41.5%)
20:00- Countrywise: 3.6m (16.1%)
20:30- Coronation Street: 8.7m (37.7%)
21:00- Wormwood Scrubs: 5.1m (22.2%)
22:00- ITV News at Ten & Weather: 2.6m (13.6%)
22:35- Magnum Force: 1.1m (13.8%)

Channel 4 [inc. +1]
18:00- The Simpsons: 1.6m (8.1%)
18:30- Hollyoaks: 1.2m (6.5%)
19:00- Channel 4 News: 0.7m (3.1%)
20:00- Trafalgar Battle Surgeon: 1.0m (3.9%)
21:00- Time Team Special: 1.9m (7.7%)
22:00- Derren Brown Investigates: 1.5m (8.1%)

Five
17:30- Neighbours: 1.2m (9.4%)
18:00- Home and Away: 1.0m (6.2%)
18:25- Live From Studio Five: 0.2m (1.2%)
19:30- Top Trumps: Helicopters: 0.3m (1.2%)
20:00- The Gadget Show: 1.2m (5.3%)
21:00- FlashForward: 1.5m (6.5%)
22:00- Dave and Nick: Where Did It All Go Right?: 0.3m (2.0%)

BBC HD
18:30- Doctors: 0.004m (0.02%)
19:00- Countryfile: 0.005m (0.02%)
21:00- High Street Dreams: 0.051m (0.22%)
----------------------------------------------------
The raw numbers for the big three soaps are lower than what we've usually seen in the past few months on Mondays but some of the shares are great, such as Emmerdale's 36% which is as high as it's been this year (iirc). On the whole, BBC1 had a pretty bad night - Panorama really sunk to ultra-low levels and High Street Dreams slipped. Even BBC News at Ten rated quite badly relatively-speaking as it's usually over 4m.

Some good figures for ITV1. Emmerdale and Corrie did well, and Wormwood Scrubs didn't lose any viewers. I don't think it's the last we've seen of it or another prison documentary on ITV1 - clearly there's an appatite for this kind of thing, after last year's success as well with Holloway.

I thought Royal Wedding would rate better on BBC2, especially with pretty weak competition on BBC1. Looks like Derren Brown dropped quite a bit from last week, though I think that usually happens with his shows. Funny that 'Where Did it All Go Right' on Five did no better than Bad Times!

Apart from ITV, a dismal night for everyone else. Extremely poor for High Street Dreams - only one can imagine how low it will fall next week and the week after against the England friendly and Britain's Got Talent. Surely it'll be near to 1m? Can't see it going under 1m though - would be funny if it did though!

BBC Two had a poor night by their usual standards of near 3m as well, the Royal Wedding did poorly. Channel 4's Time Team Special did well compared to the usual ratings for its slot. The Gadget Show looks slightly down on Five, with FlashForward appears to be limping to an end.

Great night for ITV1. Wormwood Scrubs is doing suprisingly well considering it's a documentary of sorts. The shares for the soaps are great for the main three particularly CS hitting 41% for the 7.30 episode.

BBC1 had a poor night. The schedule is so weak with shows that really shouldn't be on that channel. Jay Hunt needs to go fast, I can't really think of any major and decent commissions during her tenureship of the channel.

David Dickinson won the 3pm slot yesterday on his chat-show debut, albeit with under 1 million viewers.

BBC One
15:05 - CBBC: I Can Cook: 0.3m (5.7%)
15:20 - CBBC: Zigby: 0.2m (3.9%)
15:30 - CBBC: Dennis & Gnasher: 0.2m (3.7%)
15:40 - CBBC: Big Babies: 0.3m (3.9%)

BBC Two
15:00 - Diagnosis Murder: 0.5m (8.2%)
15:45 - Flog It!: 1.0m (13.9%)

ITV1
15:00 - The David Dickinson Show: 0.9m (14.0%)

Channel 4
14:55 - Coach Trip (R): 0.3m (5.5%)
15:25 - Countdown: 0.7m (11.0%)

Five
14:50 - Extraordinary Animals: 0.3m (4.9%)
15:20 - FILM: A Gunfighter's Pledge: 0.5m (6.1%)

The promotion of Countryfile and thats about it. Her main tactics are cheap filler docs that wouldn't be out of place on Channel 4, and endless New Tricks repeats.

Oh I think her biggest commission was probably Totally Saturday with Graham Norton (which sums up her tenure completely)

I remember Lorraine Heggessey's tenure as BBC1 controller and despite recommissioning Doctor Who, she largely introduced reality and docusoaps such as "Clampers" "Hotel" "The Cruise" "Changing Rooms (from BBC2)" "Ground Force (from BBC2)"

Drama has decreased substantially under Jay hunt as it did with Lorraine Heggessey, but that just be a coincidence considering the BBC commissioners have reduced the drama budget.

I don't think Jay Hunt is a particularly outstanding controller.

Wormwood Scrubs has a macabre quality about it. We love to see people less well off than ourselves. Other ITV documentaries can barely scrape half what this is getting which I think proves it. Ironic also that it's a crime genre documentary of sorts and that's also where ITV have found success with their drama in recent years. Maybe the way forward for them is to stay away from anything other than Soap, Crime (docs and dramas) and Reality.

Just a couple of comments from TV Forum:


Also C4 have now pulled Iron Chef and are giving Come Dine with Me a rare outing in the slot instead.

P.S. Paul Marquess's plans for Hollyoaks sound really promising, so let's hope it brings the viewers back to it.

How so? It was up 130k and 0.8 share points on last week!

The Gadget Show was up by over 200k and 1.2 share points.

During its second run it has been very consistently rating at 1.5m an episode and with large timeshifts so I agree limping doesn't apply. But is 1.5m a strong enough rating for FIVE in comparison to CSI and the Mentalist? In hindsight they would have probably have been better off acquiring NCIS:LA.

Wasn't Lorraine Heggessey responsible for Spooks, Cutting It, Hustle, Waking the Dead etc... I think she did quite a lot to restore a reputation for drama on BBC One.

In the officials it's not far off CSI, which has been a bigger disappointment for Five this year given it was previously capable of delivering around 4m with Grissom.

I agree though that NCIS:LA would have been a fantastic pickup for the channel.

Pretty poor all round with the exception of ITV, where Wormwood Scrubs has performed very well for them. If High Street Dreams is barely scraping 2m now, then I dread to think how low it's going to go in the next two weeks, firstly against England vs Mexico then Britain's Got Talent. It's just as floptastic as Fantasy Lives and Dining Stars!

Meanwhile, another ITV one-off drama, Come Rain Come Shine. Just by having David Jason in it it should do quite well, although they still haven't got round to airing Albert's Memorial, David Jason's other recent one-off, which was actually praised when it was aired in Australia last Christmas.

ABC Upfronts:

Link 1: http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=14&cs=1

Link 2: http://www.abcmedianet.com/specials/...10/index.shtml

Monday:

8pm - DWTS
10pm - Castle

Tuesday:

8pm - No Ordinary Family (new)
9pm - DWTS results
10pm - Detroit 1-8-7 (new)

Wednesday:

8pm - The Middle
8:30pm - Better Together (new)
9pm - Modern Family
9:30pm - Cougar Town
10pm - The Whole Truth (new)

Thursday:

8pm - My Generation (new)
9pm - Grey's Anatomy
10pm - Private Practice

Friday:

8pm - Secret Millionaire (new)
9pm - Body of Proof (new)
10pm - 20/20

Saturday:

College Football

Sunday:

7pm - AFV
8pm - Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
9pm - Desperate Housewives
10pm - Brothers & Sisters

Midseason: Off The Map, Happy Endings, Mr. Sunshine, V, Supernanny

Wasn't some of that under Peter Fincham?

All Lorraine Heggessey is remembered for is deciding the globe wasn't inclusive enough and that the BBC would be better off represented by various dancers.

Nope, Peter Fincham became controller in 2005 and all of those series started before he came in. The only one that possibly wasn't commissioned under Lorraine Heggessey is Waking the Dead, which had a pilot episode in 2000 I believe.