20 Anticipated New TV Shows for 2011: 'Game of Thrones,' 'X Factor' and more
From 'Game of Thrones' to 'Terra Nova' to 'Chicago Code,' here's what we're anticipating
Intro to 20 New TV Shows We're Looking Forward To in 2011
From Oprah striking out on her own with a new cable network and Simon Cowell striking out on his own with an American version of "X Factor" (plus "American Idol" striking out on its own without Cowell), TV in 2011 promises to feature a lot of individualism, unless you happen to be looking forward to new takes on "Shameless," "Mildred Pierce," "Being Human," "Skins," "The Killing, "Wilfred" or "Camelot."
This gallery is an assemblage of *some* of the new shows (or networks, in Oprah's case) we're looking forward to in 2011, either with curiosity or genuine enthusiasm. [Because of the "new" part, this gallery doesn't include the return of "Breaking Bad" or "Mad Men" or fresh seasons of "Parks & Recreation" or "True Blood."]
And if we left out a show that you're really anticipating, there are several possible reasons:
1) We're curious, but perhaps a bit less interested than you are. That's OK. There's plenty of TV for everybody. We plan on covering shows that aren't in this gallery. We only had 20 spaces to work with here.
2) This is a photo gallery and there are no photos available. Yes, we're pretty psyched for HBO's "Luck" and "Mildred Pierce" and we're vaguely curious about CBS' "Chaos" and "Mad Love," but if HBO and CBS don't want to put out promotional images for the shows in question, there's not much we can do... Again, we'll cover the shows when they come out.
3) We forgot. Always a possibility. [An assortment of apparently less-anticipated new series premieres are in the final slide.]
Click through for 20 New Shows We're Looking Forward to in 2011, listed in chronological order by their premieres...
Photo Credit: HBO
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupEd W
December 31, 2010 at 2:54AM EST Reply to CommentInitial reactions:
- Can't wait for Dan to live-tweet the premiere of Piers Morgan's show.
- Will Terra Nova succeeding doom Fringe?
- I expect most critics will love Light's Out as they do all of FX's shows but to me FX is just Archer plus a bunch of other stuff I'm not interested in.
- Eva Green on Starz!
dan Ed -
December 31, 2010 at 3:00AM EST- Heaven help me if I live-tweet Piers Morgan's first show! Sigh. Now I'm going to feel like I need to.
- Terra Nova already has a place on FOX's schedule for the fall, so I'd guess it probably has no real bearing. "Fringe" will survive by holding its current numbers on Fridays, probably no other way.
- Only watched the "Lights Out" pilot so far. It's terrific. Watching more this weekend...
- Eva Green is the only reason I'm looking forward to Camelot. Or else I'll skip that and just watch "The Dreamers" again...
-Daniel
Shitegeist
December 31, 2010 at 4:04AM EST Reply to CommentYou couldn't include Luck in the article because you didn't have a photo, yet you include X-Factor with a generic Simon Cowell photo? Surely you could have just used a generic photo of Dustin Hoffman?
dan Shitegeist - Just as Oprah is effectively Oprah as the operator of her own cable network, Simon Cowell is Simon Cowell as judge and producer of "X Factor" (heck, the generic picture we used was actually Cowell arriving for the UK finale of "X Factor" earlier this month).
December 31, 2010 at 12:25PM ESTThat was my rationale at least...
Shitegeist Fair enough, just nitpicking!
December 31, 2010 at 12:45PM EST
December 31, 2010 at 4:07AM EST Reply to CommentSeems like you struggled to find 20 shows to fill the list. Some awful looking shows, mostle reality, premiering this year.
Looking forward to Lights Out, Game of Thrones, The Killing and Chicago Code. Will give Shameless and Episodes a lot, but expect the same mediocrity I usually get from Showtime.
Interested to see how Syfy goes with adapting Being Human. Hoping for as little green screen as possible.
Am also very interested to see if Wilfred is as hit-n-miss on American TV as it is on Australian TV. At times the show is hilarious but most of the time it's dull and a little too dark with it's humour. Hopefully Gann brings along the giant Winnie the Pooh stuffed toy with him, because the one great laugh I always get from the show is a grown man in a dog suit humping a giant Winnie the Pooh toy.
December 31, 2010 at 4:08AM ESTMulderism
December 31, 2010 at 5:17AM EST Reply to CommentI wish oprah would just go away. Seriously, does this egomaniac need to have her own bloody network now?
Apologies to her legion of fans. I'm just sick to death of her and I never even seen one episode of her show.
Sareeta I'm not excited about her new network, but just curious how you can hate her if you've never seen an episode of her show?
December 31, 2010 at 11:03AM ESTLJA Cosign.
December 31, 2010 at 11:04AM ESTMulderism Sorry. I don't *hate* her - I never said I did. I'm just tired of hearing about her all the time and seeing her face at the checkout counter.
December 31, 2010 at 6:13PM ESTI'm sure she has done a lot of good and people love her show/magazine/books. But it seems it's all about her. She names her magazine after herself and has her picture on every cover. Why not call it "Women of Inspiration" or something instead of naming it after herself?
Anyway, end of rant. Apologies if I have offended fans.
velocityknown
December 31, 2010 at 9:14AM EST Reply to CommentFirst off, how many new shows are they going to give Christian Slater before they realize he's not a star?
Really looking forward to "The Cape" and "The Killing". Summer Glau has enough of my respect to buy at least a few episodes from me, not to mention the trailer for the show is fairly intriguing.
Have seen nothing but promotional images and synopses from "The Killing", but it's an AMC original series so how could I not get excited?
I could take or leave "Terra Nova", Spielberg and his animation projects tend to annoy me. I might watch, but it'll take an captivating trailer to draw me in now.
I'm also excited for the possible demise of American Idol (fingers crossed!).
cletus van damme
December 31, 2010 at 10:16AM EST Reply to CommentYou have time to include reality crap and Oprah thingies in this list, but you don't have the time to watch Spartacus? Despite that you know that a lot of viewers and critics say that it started to become really good with episode 5 and that it delivered one of the Top 5 season finales of 2010. Watch it, lazy ass and you will weep in shame for including Vampire Diaries in your Top 10. ;)
Actually you should weep in shame already ...VD better than Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy, True Blood, Fringe, Dexter, Modern Family, Archer, The Office, Entourage, How to make it in America, Parks & Recreation, Hung, Rescue Me, How I me your Mother, Bored to Death, Eastbound & Down, Nurse Jackie, US of Tara, Louie, Southland, V, Weeds, Treme, South Park, Futurama... unbelievable. SHAME on you, Mr, Fienberg. Shame on you!
my personal most wanted:
1.Game of Thrones
2.Luck
3.Lights Out
4.Falling Skies
without order but still really high hopes:
Camelot
Outcasts (BBC America)
Terra Nova
The Borgias
Mildred Pierce
Shameless
Enlightened
The Chicago Code
Mr. Sunshine
Episodes
The Cape
Harry's Law
Alphas
The Killing
and if they start in 2011 Hell on Wheels, Locke & Key, Powers, Homeland, Hulk, Veep, Tilda, Battlestar Galactica: Blood, Chrome and Sand, Magic City (Starz Boardwalk Empire meets Mad Men) and Boss (the Starz show with Kelsey Grammer).
dan Cletus - Once you mentioned "Entourage" as a show I should be ashamed to have left off my Top 10, I tuned you out. And I watched six or seven episodes of "Spartacus," believe. I absolutely get why some people like it -- some people continued to love "300" -- but I never felt my overall opinion swayed. And of the non-"Entourage" shows you listed, the only one I don't watch regularly is "Southland" and yet I stand by my list...
December 31, 2010 at 12:23PM ESTAs for the "if they start in 2011" list, we excluded anything that didn't have at least a tentative 2011 premiere already, so things that haven't even been ordered to series -- "Veep," "Tilda," the "BSG" prequel, "Magic City" -- certainly wouldn't have counted...
-Daniel
cletus van damme Come on, even if you really like Vampire Diaries (for some kind of reason) you can't see it than more as a guilty pleasure. While it seems to be en vogue to bash Entourage it's still highly addictive entertainment for a lot of people. Piven, Dillon and co. are as good as always (or as bad as always when it comes to Grenier).
December 31, 2010 at 2:38PM ESTActually I wouldn't even call it guilty pleasure because this season they didn't just repeat the same ol concept and started to push the characters from self caricature into new directions in their lives. Still a great comedy.
As for Spartacus. It started like a low budget version of 300 meets Caligula in it's first episodes but it did have a lot more in common with Rome on crack in the second half of the season. John Hannah was brilliant as Batiatus and Xena was a real surprise.
P.S. I forgot In Treatment on the shame on you list. Shame on me. I would even put Glee, Human Target and Grey over Vampire Diaries. Really can't stand that guy from Lost. The male lead is even worse and I hate everything that uses Vampire kitsch and/or Teenie-Soap-elements without a lot ...a lot... of irony or as biting satire ...like True Blood.
P.P.S.
Like "Boss" "Magic City" got a direct series order (10 episodes), but it seems to aim for a 2012 start.
dan Cletus - You're correct on "Magic City" getting that 10-ep pickup, but as you say, it's not going to be ready before 2012, since it currently has no cast and whatnot...
December 31, 2010 at 3:11PM ESTAs for "Spartacus," I've seen "Rome on Crack." It was called "Rome" and I preferred it to "Spartacus," though I even grew tired of its affectations...
And honestly, yes, I do see "Vampire Diaries" as more than just a guilty pleasure. I've watched plenty of bad teen soaps for long periods of time without ever feeling anything more than just that "guilty pleasure" sensation. "Vampire Diaries" is far better than that and I have no trouble hailing it as the best piece of popcorn storytelling on network TV. There's a place for that on a Best of list.
And it's been en vogue to bash "Entourage" for three or four seasons now, largely because it's awful. I'll grant, though, that this past "Entourage" season was less bad than the two or three that preceded it. Absolutely...
-Daniel
cletus van damme While I don't think Vampire Diaries deserves that much praise I find it perfectly fine to include "the best piece of popcorn Tv" in a Top 10 list.
December 31, 2010 at 4:27PM ESTThat's why I don't have a problem to put Spartacus or True Blood over Mad Men in my Top 10 of 2010. (Sons of Anarchy, Breaking Bad and Boardwalk Empire would be my Top 3). While I like the look and feel of Weiner's show and admire it for it's ambitions I don't really care about the characters and oftentimes it tries so hard you could call it the most pretentious show in TV since Tell me you love me (which wasn't bad either).
speaking of Popcorn Tv. Just realized you didn't include Lost in your Top 10. Of course it did have some problems(not for me personally, though. Never expected a lot of answers and I loved the emotional finale. The (in retrospect) pointless Temple arc was at least entertaining and an excuse to have John Hawkes in a series can never be bad.), but if there ever was a show that deserved some bonus for the entire run it's Lost.
I really can't imagine that there will ever be a network series as original, ambitious and powerful as Lost. Even the start of promising new shows and old favorites in January can't make up for the fact that this will be the first midseason since 6 years without that perfect rollercoaster ride. Hardest cancellation/series end since Deadwood. After The Shield went out on top there was at least a show that would soon proof itself as a worthy sucessor (SOA). I like V and Fringe, but the first one will be cancelled before it can grow from a good to a great show and the letter one had way to many mediocre episode..and will soon be cancelled too. Ok, there actually is one show that could mop the floor with Lost, but I don't have a lot of hope that The Dark Tower cinema/TV-series hybrid will be a long running success.
LJA
December 31, 2010 at 11:00AM EST Reply to CommentI'm so sick of Off The Map ads, I want to punch that damn show in the throat. There's not a chance in hell I'll tune in to another Shonda Rhimes crapfest.
So is Chicago Code more like Terriers, The Shield, or something else? The ads make it look like mindnumbingly car chase/shoot-em-up, but I'm willing to give a Shawn Ryan show a shot if you guys recommend it.
dan LJA - "Chicago Code" is probably more like "The Shield" than "Terriers," but it isn't especially like "The Shield" either. It's a cop show for people who like cop shows, but also a cop show for people who, like me, aren't inclined to like strictly procedural cop shows...
December 31, 2010 at 12:30PM EST-Daniel
LJA Hmmm... I'm someone who doesn't like cop shows at all, but then, I didn't like private detective shows either, until Terriers came along.
January 1, 2011 at 3:07PM ESTSareeta
December 31, 2010 at 11:41AM EST Reply to CommentI'm most interested in (and most likely to watch):
1. Game of Thrones (The books are awesome and Sean Bean is in it. Need I say more?)
2. Camelot (Even though the only Starz show I have enjoyed has been Spartacus, I'm curious about this one. I'm also impressed that Starz is not afraid to do genre shows. Plus I love a good medieval fantasy story with magic and pretty costumes. Maybe Joseph Fiennes has finally found a redeeming role since that awful Flashforward. Interesting tidbit: Jamie Cambell Bower was supposed to play a role in Game of Thrones but had already committed to Camelot when his scenes from GoT ended up being reshot)
3. Lights Out (Boxing + the network that created The Shield & Sons of Anarchy sounds like a winning combination for an intense, brutal drama)
4. The Killing (I trust AMC and the promos look really good)
5. Spartacus: God of the Arena (It won't be the same without Andy Whitfield, but thankfully this show has other equally interesting characters. I'm still hoping they just focus on one of these characters for season 2 (Crixus!!!) rather than recast Spartacus)
Not mentioned but interested in:
1. Hell on Wheels
I'm vaguely interested in:
1. Shameless - but since I don't have Showtime, I'll have to wait for DVDs.
2. The Cape
3. Being Human - the original wasn't perfect and I'm still bitter about the Caprica cancellation, especially since I've heard the final episodes were very, very good), but the premise sounds good. Hopefully they take the best of the original (character relationships) and improve on the worst (terrible werewolf transformation effects, too many different genres stuffed into one show)
4. Terra Nova (ditto on Spielberg + dinosaurs... hopefully there's great characters and story mixed in with pretty FX)
5. Falling Skies (Even though this sounds like V meets The Walking Dead, I like Spielberg and am craving a good alien story)
6. Wilfred (Elijah Wood! I'm not big on comedies, but this one sounds pretty goofy in a good way. I'm hoping for a dark comedy with the kind of quirky humor from Flight of the Conchords)
7. The Chicago Code
dan Sareeta - If "Hell on Wheels" had even a tentative 2011 premiere, we'd have included it here in some way, I'm sure. It's unclear if AMC is even going to need it this year if "The Killing" and then "Breaking Bad," "Mad Men" and "The Walking Dead" all air alone of Sundays through the spring and fall and then winter...
December 31, 2010 at 12:27PM EST-Daniel
Chrissy
December 31, 2010 at 12:39PM EST Reply to CommentI'm looking forward to Lights Out and Terra Nova (and Game of Thrones, but Comcast has so far proved themselves incapable or unwilling to work out the issues with our line that prevent us from getting HBO. So I'm not holding my breath.)
How sad am I, though, that my first thought upon seeing that Noah Wylie has a new show was chagrin that this might mean he doesn't have time to make any more Librarian movies?
December 31, 2010 at 1:58PM EST Reply to CommentAm I the only one at least intrigued by X-Factor?
Shitegeist I'm very intrigued to see how closely it hews to the UK original, and to see how Americans take to the format.
December 31, 2010 at 2:30PM ESTI suspect Americans would enjoy the extra competitive element of each judge having their own stable of acts to mentor.
Quimbos
December 31, 2010 at 5:07PM EST Reply to CommentAs a fan of the book series I've been following the production of Game of Thrones for a while. While I knew that Starz has the similarly genred Camelot in production I had no idea that it would be debuting days to only a couple weeks immediately before Thrones. What impact do you guys think having another cable fantasy series debuting immediately before Thrones could have? Will casual TV viewers be turned off by a second fantasy series in a month? Is there enough casual tv interest to support two large scale fantasy epics? Is Starz enough of a niche network with only limited original programming ratings success to have little to no effect on an HBO fantasy series with a built in fan base?
December 31, 2010 at 5:08PM EST Reply to CommentSmall nitpick here, but why does Showtime feel the need to tack on the "s" in "The Borgias" when "The Borgia" would be plural on its own? Just my Assassin's Creed fanboyism here.
jdtvi
December 31, 2010 at 8:07PM EST Reply to CommentDan have you read A Game of Thrones?
dan JDTVI - I've read the first book. I rushed through it and went straight into the second and hit fatigue. I should probably pick up the second book and start again, though I know that I'm ahead of the game for the purposes of the first season of the TV series...
December 31, 2010 at 8:27PM EST-Daniel
Guesser
January 1, 2011 at 1:13AM EST Reply to CommentWith its budget and cast, I have complete faith that "Game of Thrones" will be a must-watch of high quality in season 1. Hypothetically, should it get renewed, I'm more curious to see how the TV series will end. No spoilers here, but those who have read all four books will understand.
George R. R. Martin has basically lost interest in the series (he candidly admits to writer's block on his website, book 4 was the equivalent of "Stranger in a Strange Land" relative to the first three installments, and book 5 was supposed to be out in 2005). I am curious as to if there will be some sort of alternate ending to wrap it all up or if it will strictly adhere to the books.
Guesser I should add though, it surely speaks to the quality of this author's work (at least through the first three books) and potential of this story as a TV series if HBO is willing to put up such a large investment to televise a series of novels which remains unfinished.
January 1, 2011 at 1:20AM ESTRyan
January 3, 2011 at 1:30AM EST Reply to CommentCan't wait for the sex scene.
jedioptimus420
March 23, 2011 at 10:11AM EST Reply to Commenti dont think shameless is going to do that well in america
Meghan
March 30, 2011 at 8:35AM EST Reply to CommentWhere's "The Borgias"? That's my most anticipated new show of 2011.
euthanize the feckless
May 26, 2011 at 12:18AM EST Reply to Comment"Next ad" layout is very gay!
euthanize the feckless
May 26, 2011 at 12:21AM EST Reply to CommentGreasemonkey to the rescue
Chris
May 30, 2011 at 7:33AM EST Reply to CommentI see no mention of the Borgias! A most fantastic show just out!
john
June 5, 2011 at 8:35PM EST Reply to Commentthings are looking up.
matt
August 11, 2011 at 11:54AM EST Reply to CommentSpartacus got 100x better... so much so that I loved it and now im sad i have to wait for more...
Stephanie
September 29, 2011 at 11:30PM EST Reply to CommentOMG! Game of Throne looks so HOT! I wish they would make more shows that are the same medieval quality as Lord of the Rings! There is a mass audience for this when it's done well!