Cannes Film Festival 2013

DVR Gridlock 2012-13: Tuesday Nights

Six new shows! Three head-to-head-to-head comedy blocks! Chaos!

<p>Mindy Kaling of "The Mindy Project"</p>

Mindy Kaling of "The Mindy Project"

Credit: FOX
[This week, I'm going to be glancing, night-by-night, at how the primetime schedules have changed after the network announcements at upfronts. I'll be looking at how the various changes will impact the ratings races on each night, as well as my own DVRing habits. Readers can chime in on how their own DVRs will be impacted. And yes, this brief series assumes that anybody still watches TV on their TVs. I'm old-fashioned.]
 
TUESDAY NIGHTS
 
8:00 p.m. 
ABC: "Dancing with the Stars" Results
CBS: "NCIS"
The CW: "Hart of Dixie"
FOX: "Raising Hope," "Ben & Kate"
NBC: "The Voice"
 
 
9:00 p.m.
ABC: "Happy Endings," "Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23"
CBS: "NCIS: LA"
The CW: "Emily Owens, M.D."
FOX: "New Girl," "The Mindy Project"
NBC: "Go On," "The New Normal"
 
 
10:00 p.m. 
ABC: "Private Practice"
CBS: "Vegas"
NBC: "Parenthood"
 
 
What's Changed: Almost everything, actually. Tuesday is probably the most changed night of the week. The completely stable slots -- "NCIS" and "NCIS: Los Angeles" on CBS, "New Girl" on FOX and "Parenthood" on NBC -- are easily outweighed by the whopping six entirely new shows on the night, as well as the slew of of juggled time slots and whatnot (I'm leaving aside the few shows like "Raising Hope" and "Dancing with the Stars" and "Private Practice" that all received try-outs in their new homes, but didn't air the majority of their runs there). Tuesday is basically total anarchy.
 
How the Ratings Race Is Impacted: CBS will win Tuesday in overall viewers. That's the only thing I can say with some confidence. "NCIS" and "NCIS: Los Angeles" will continue to win their time slots by several million viewers and even if CBS' attempt to court male viewers at 10 p.m. after several years of catering to women led to poor retention isn't successful, you can still count on "Vegas" to win the 10 p.m. hour overall. In fact, the evening has been made significantly smoother for CBS, with "NCIS" and "NCIS: Los Angeles" also reasonably likely to win their hours in the 18-49 demo. "The Voice" is the wild card at 8 p.m. but I'm anticipating this second night, rather than the standard Monday block, will be where attrition its NBC hardest, though it's almost guaranteed to outperform anything else the network could have plausibly programmed, providing the 9 p.m. comedy with the best possible chance to succeed. As it stands, that 9 p.m. hour with three different comedy blocks going head-to-head is going to be a bloodbath. It'll be interesting to see who blinks first.  FOX's "New Girl" and "The Mindy Project" will have a weak lead-in, but I think they'll draw OK among young viewers, while ABC's block will draw well among my Twitter feed, as "Happy Endings" begins bucking for a move to TBS sometime around February. NBC's got two comedies that aren't compatible with "The Voice" and aren't especially compatible with each other, so... Yeah. "NCIS: LA" probably wins that hour overall by verging on 10 million viewers. CBS is cackling all the way home. The CW's Tuesday night of pretty fish-out-of-water doctors makes sense and viewers who are watch "Dixie" won't be pained by "Emily Owens," whatever that amounts to.
 
My Predicted DVR: Tuesdays have traditionally been a relaxed night for my DVR and that's not going to change. I'll do "Hart of Dixie" and the FOX comedies at 8 p.m. though with little urgency to watch. I'll go with ABC and FOX comedies at 9 (watching the NBC stuff OnDemand til I decide how I feel about them). And then "Parenthood" and "Vegas" at 10 p.m. Wait. Did I say this was a relaxed night for my DVR? Suddenly I still ended up with a full DVR slate and that's even with screeners for whatever FX drama happens to air. [I watch a lot of TV.]
 
How have the new schedules impacted your Tuesdays?
 
Dan-feinberg-sm
Daniel Fienberg
Executive Editor
A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.
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  • Default-avatar

    Blake

    Nothing to see here. Literally.

    May 29, 2012 at 9:00PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Jared K

    I’ll be watching Happy Endings and New Girl, flipping back and forth between which one gets the live treatment and which one gets the DVR. I may check out Go On and the new Fox comedies at some point, probably on Hulu or OnDemand, before I make a decision on whether or not to add them to the rotation.

    10:00 is reserved for cable – Sons of Anarchy in the fall, and Justified (provided it stays on Tuesday) in the spring. Vegas might get a look later in the season, if it turns out to be slightly more than just CSI in 1960's trappings (the cast looks great, but a great cast unfortunately doesn't guarantee it will be a good show).

    May 29, 2012 at 9:14PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    DanaK

    Watching DWTS results and Voice results as usual, and I'll be checking out new shows Ben & Kate, The Mindy Project, Go On, The New Normal, and Vegas. Of those new shows, only Vegas is high on my list of what I'm looking forward to seeing

    May 29, 2012 at 10:57PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    troopermsu

    "I watch a lot of tv."

    At least you get paid for it. :)

    May 29, 2012 at 11:59PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Zoidberg_talkback_profile

    mrbilliam

    I think I'll record the Fox block, since they don't put their shows on Hulu until a week later, but I have slightly higher affections for Happy Endings than New Girl (and am also glad to see Apartment 23 returning). ABC can't imagine that Happy Endings and 23 will gain in the ratings when paired against an established comedy, can they?

    May 29, 2012 at 11:59PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      Liz Honestly, ABC is probably just hoping that Happy Endings and Apt. 23 don't tank after being moved out from behind Modern Family.

      I am a huge Happy Endings fan and a moderate Apt. 23 one, but I can't image either of them growing significantly anywhere on the schedule. They're very acquired tastes.

      May 30, 2012 at 11:52AM EST
  • Default-avatar

    Greg

    Only the ABC comedies and Parenthood for me (and Justified and Southland on midseason). Though Vegas and Ben & Kate (and maybe The Mindy Project and Emily Owens, M.D.) could turned out to be something quite good, I'll wait for the coments to see if they're really worth the time.

    May 30, 2012 at 12:00AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Danae_happy_talkback_profile

    Oaktown Girl

    The only returning shows I watch on this list are "Dixie" and "Apt. 23". Dixie is my one go-to lightweight show. Rachel's Bilson's embarrassingly unrealistic clothing choices are mitigated by many truly likeable characters in the show. As for "Apt. 23", I'm surprised that it's a decent show - I almost didn't give it a chance based on the title!

    Question for the experts: How the hell did NBC let Mindy Kaling get away?

    May 30, 2012 at 12:16AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Puss_in_boots_320_talkback_profile

    JedyKnight

    I also watch a lot of TV (lol) so I usually dont try a lot of new (network) shows to allow me the chance at having a social life away from a screen, and even though i was bullied by (female) coworkers into catching up with the WB's Secret Circle, i never even tried Heart of Dixie (even though i did watch the OC, and really like R.Bilson).
    Dan, Is Heart of Dixie really worth catching up to ?

    May 30, 2012 at 10:19AM EST Reply to Comment
    • Puss_in_boots_320_talkback_profile

      JedyKnight *Hart of Dixie

      May 30, 2012 at 10:21AM EST
  • Mastershake_talkback_profile

    War Chief Shake Zula

    Little change at 8 and 9. NCIS franchise returns, and Raising Hope's switch doesn't shift much. 10pm is where things get thorny. I'm interested in Vegas, and that'll give Sons of Anarchy a couple issues. But the real problem will be mid-season (assuming Vegas, and my interest in it, gets that far) since I have both Southland and Justified on the DVR already.

    May 30, 2012 at 2:34PM EST Reply to Comment
  • A_talkback_profile

    belinda

    big pile up of comedies for me!

    Happy Endings, New Girl, Apt #23, Mindy Project.

    Then Parenthood.

    June 1, 2012 at 7:11AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Annie8bit_talkback_profile

    Stormshadow4life

    New Girl will most likely be a Live watch...i'll test drive Mindy. Don't Trust and Hart are DVR shows (even though i LOVE Hart)

    June 2, 2012 at 1:03AM EST Reply to Comment

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