Which broadcast sophomore shows will be canceled? 2013

[PhoenixHope]

Soooo, I'm gonna do something a little extreme (for me) and take a guess about which sophomore shows (i.e. shows in their second season) will be canceled/renewed at the end of the season (or sooner) - I don't usually do this, because some of said shows haven't even aired an episode yet, and I at least like five or more episodes worth of data (unless ratings are bad outta the gate) before I start guessing. Just in case it bears repeating - the following are guesses nothing except Sleepy Hollow (renewed), Lucky 7 (canceled), How I Met Your Mother (final season), Glee (renewed), Nikita (final season) is official at this point in the season.

ABC

Nashville - renewed
The Neighbors - canceled

Both of the above squeaked by last season, but I think with some of the early failures of ABC dramas Nashville is poised to pull off another renewal, while my poor The Neighbors was pushed to Friday and even if ABCs other new comedies fail/flop it's still likely to be gone - it would take a full failure of ALL (not just new) comedies for The Neighbors to survive again, I think, and that isn't very likely at all. In fact it wouldn't entirely surprise me if ABC pulls The Neighbors before this season finishes. *sad face*

CBS

Elementary - renewed

Granted with its move to a latter time it's not doing gang-busters (though it didn't exactly do gang-busters in season one either), but I think there's at least four shows CBS will aim their ban-hammer for before Elementary, so unless E drops more I believe it'll be safe.
(For the record, those are Hostages, Hawaii 5-0, The Good Wife, and The Mentalist and aside from maybe Hostages I expect all of them will air their full season.)

CW

Arrow - renewed
Beauty and the Beast - renewed
The Carrie Diaries - canceled

By the CW standards Arrow was a hit last season, and while it probably won't come back as strong this season it's still likely to hold among the tops of the CW. Beauty and the Beast should not have based on ratings been given a second season, but rumors are this show is really cheap to make, so I'm leaning towards renewed - once it airs I might have to adjust my guess here, but I think if it holds at or within a tenth of where it was last season it'll be renewed for a third season. The Carrie Diaries really should've been canceled last season, but apparently the CW needed it for schedule spackle, but the move to Friday this season should effectively kill it dead, unless (I guess) all three new shows tank entirely.

FOX

The Following - renewed
The Mindy Project - renewed

If you'd asked me before ANY new FOX shows had aired I'd have said The Mindy Project would be canceled, but the new FOX comedies haven't taken off and The Mindy Project has held steady-ish so The Mindy Project has a real chance. As for The Following it did pretty great last season and while I expect it won't come back as strong I do expect it to come back strong enough to be renewed for a third season.

NBC

Chicago Fire - renewed
Hannibal - canceled
Revolution - canceled

Chicago Fire is an easy call - it maybe didn't start well last season, but it also grew all through last season, and it's airing behind The Voice currently so it's still on the rise. Hannibal pains me since I like the show, but I have to admit I was a wee bit surprised NBC renewed it last season so I think it's only hope this season is if NBC decides it's cheap enough to hang around as a summer show. And I think it has to be fairly cheap, as shows go, otherwise I doubt it would've been renewed after it's first season. Revolution may limp to a season three, but at the moment I doubt it - it did start this season about where it finished last season, but unless all the new NBC dramas fail it's unlikely Revolution will see another season.

So that's my guesses for now.

[PhoenixHope]

AAAAAAND Beauty and the Beast has now premiered and it couldn't beat an Arrow clip/recap show nor could it beat a Friday encore of The Originals (it did tie, but couldn't beat), so at this point it would have to be really really (and I do mean REALLY) cheap to be renewed for a third season.

But to be fair the Hart of Dixie premiere couldn't beat the Arrow clip/recap show either, though it did at least (barely) beat The Originals Friday encore.

However, this is about second season shows, so back to Beauty and the Beast - in addition to needing to be cheaper than cheap it'll also need the rest of the CW line-up (new and old) to tank to live beyond it's current season at this point.

And for those counting it's still not looking good for The Neighbors either, but then I was already saying that one likely wouldn't be back after the current season, so at the moment the only swing and miss for me is Beauty and the Beast.

[PhoenixHope]

Not amending just yet, but I may end up being wrong about Revolution as well as I was Beauty and the Beast, though for different reasons. You see, I was expecting B&tB to at least come back around a 0.5/0.6 not a 0.3. However, Revolution came back and is holding about where I expected (1.5 thru 2.0) - what I didn't expect here was the general tanking of several other NBC shows, which means as long as the ratings-bottom doesn't fall out from under Revolution it could stand a real chance of coming back for a third season.

[RJDiogenes]

When is Beauty & The Beast on? They should pair it with Supernatural. Or did they try that already last year?

[PhoenixHope]

Actually, Beauty and the Beast aired behind The Vampire Diaries last season, so it's already had its shot at the big lead-in and now seems clear the lead-in was carrying it rather than B&tB holding its own. Meaning that the CW would/will rather use The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, Arrow to help new shows instead of using one to help a show that already had its chance.

Plus, from what I understand Supernatural will be getting its own spin-off next season, so I'm pretty sure the CW would use the tenth season (and yeah it'll get a tenth) of Supernatural to aid/help its own spin-off rather than (as I said) a show that's failing but already had its chance at a big show helping it.

[RJDiogenes]

RIP, Beauty & The Beast.

Do we know what the Supernatural spin off will be? Charlie? The kid with the Golem?

[PhoenixHope]

Do we know what the Supernatural spin off will be? Charlie? The kid with the Golem?

None of the above, from what I understand. If what I've seen/heard is correct it will be something new and will have a back-door pilot during an episode of Supernatural later in the season as happened with The Vampire Diaries/The Originals last season.

[PhoenixHope]

*holds hands*

*again, some more!*

So, I'm gonna hijack this thread for a moment rather than making a new one just for this, because this is about a sophomore show that could be canceled by the end of the season, but mainly this is probably the only thing I'll say about this show all season and it seems silly just to make a thread for that.

Because apparently like last season I have a Revolution post in me that simply must be made. At least, I suppose it makes sense why it's trying to come out of me now. Why? Well, I'm thisclose to giving up on the show, and when I really really think about it I can't figure out why I didn't actually give up on it after mid-season last year really.

From the beginning this show really wasn't what I'd hoped it would be. Instead of living up to the premise Kripke skipped fifteen years, and then apparently the entire point of the first season was the not-so-epic quest to turn the lights back on, which led to many thoughts, because that whole idea is problematic at best. First, most people were attracted to this show because of the idea of a world without power - not the "epic" quest to turn it back on, especially since that shouldn't have worked like this show tried to make it work anyway.

Seriously, ignoring the no doubt stealing or otherwise taking apart of parts of the grid after the outtage there's still the problem of nature itself. Dust and rust doth and will corupt. Therefore it was a stupid idea that the characters could build a magic (but supposedly not magic) machine which could make things work, which isn't bad, because plains, trains, and stuff can be built to be ready to come right back on without that whole pesky having to rebuild the entire grid. No the truly stupid idea here was that the characters could push a magic (but again supposedly not magic) button and then magically the lights come back on and everything is as it was the moment the lights went out SIXTEEN years ago - NOT POSSIBLE. At least certainly not without an actual magic button.

But what you need to remember is that all of last year this show was touted as something that was possible to happen in the real world, and despite those office supply ads I have yet to see an actual magic button in the real world.

Anyway, I've seen lots of people talking about how Revolution is better this season, but why do the ratings keep doing down. Well... NO, no, it's really not getting better. I mean sure Kripke has addressed some of the problems with characters, but has actually doubled down with the more stupid aspects of the plot. And even with the characters... Well, I liked Aaron last season, but this season I'm finding him greatly annoying, and while Monroe is/was great as a bad guy I think rather than trying to turn him into not a bad guy the show probably should've killed him off.
(Oh, and did I mention the character of Aaron dying, but being brought back by the magical things (he's calling them Nanites and still trying to pretend the whole thing isn't magically) that can not just keep the lights off but pull of resurection!)

Basically, I think what all this really says/shows is that Kripke needs to avoid setting anything in the real world period and just accept that his inclinations and ideas lend themselves to paranormal/supernatural and set his future stuff accordingly, because at this point I think this show might improve if it stopped trying to pretend all the magical shit going on could totes happen in a real world context.
(Because I remember last year where several interviews with Kripke kept claiming the stuff in his show could totes happen. Nope, you just need to accept that your ideas lend themselves to being at least ten degrees off reality.)

Because the bigger issues last season for me at least wasn't the characters (like it clearly was for others), but related to the less than epic quest to to turn the power back on with the idea that after fifteen/sixteen years the grids, wires, and all would still be there and in working order just as they would've been when it first went down. Just no!

And to be honest this season has just doubled down on all the crap that bothered me last season. So, while it has fixed some things for some people it clearly hasn't been enough to stop the bleeding ratings. Though with the overall ratings trouble NBC keeps having it is certainly possible that Revolution will be back for a third season, but I know I certainly won't be watching a third season, because it's unlikely I'm gonna finish this season, and honestly I probably should've been one of those that left at mid-season last year, but I kept thinking maybe Kripke would pull something out of his ass that would make all this make sense.

Though I guess also part of what kept (keeps) me hanging on is that not everything about the show is hopeless, but it is getting to the point where I spend more time annoyed while watching instead of just enjoying.

Now I'm starting to understand how cops, doctors, and csis probably feel when trying to watch TV.

[RJDiogenes]

So are they saying that nanotechnology is responsible for the mega-blackout?

[PhoenixHope]

That may have been what they was going for originally (I base that off of Kripke's early comments about how this could really happen), but after the end of last season and the hijinks this season - NOT REMOTELY, because while nanotechnology can do a whole lot they aren't actually magical - i.e. they can't revive the dead or turn someone into a psychic.

Though I think the bigger problem for me may be that unlike most of the rest of the online audience anyway I didn't hate Charlie. I won't say I loved her, but I didn't find her as annoying/bad/whatever as the rest of the audience, and that leads to my problem this season. I loathe Charlie's mother (seriously I loathe her in the way most of fandom loathes Charlie), but I didn't in season one when she wasn't around that much. When she wasn't on screen all the time she seemed like a potential character of interest, but now I'm like "nope, kill her off!"

And I believe I mentioned Aaron above who I loved last season but am just finding him tedious/annoying this season. The only character that's holding up well with increased screen time is Neville, really, and sadly one character can't carry a show, but especially when he's not around to over-shadow the annoying ones.
(And they've turned Monroe from psycho bad ass to woobie they can (no doubt) bring into the main circle.)

So I think for me this show benefitted by lots of Charlie because with the focus on her it sorta hid how annoying the rest of the characters are. I mean, yes, Charlie was at times bothersome (even tedious at times), but at least it kept the focus off the (for me) more annoying characters.

[RJDiogenes]

Hmm. Another woman named Charlie. That's interesting. I used to have a girlfriend named Charlie.

So this sounds like another show that has abandoned its original premise. That never works out very well.

[PhoenixHope]

I'd say most certainly, from what I've heard/seen anyway. It would seem when the lights was turned on briefly at the end of last season that was meant to apparently be the end of the lights out faze of the show, because apparently that was the point of last season the epic quest to turn the lights on. It was not epic in fact I'd say boring and tedious not to mention whiny would be a much better way to describe it.

Now I honestly have no idea what the plan would've been with the lights back on for this season - a general rebuilding of society or something, except society wasn't doing that badly without power.

But from what I understand people was saying much the same things I have - you know that it doesn't make sense that the lights would just come back on and stay on after sixteen years off as though they hadn't been in disuse for SIXTEEN years.

Well, it would seem the creative team behind the show took that to mean the audience didn't want the lights back on when all most (from what I could see) was saying that it might make sense for the lights to come briefly back up before going out again, not because of the magically wanna-be science thingies, but because after sixteen years the entire grid would basically be shot to hell! And so they decided the answer was to use the magical wanna-be science thingies to turn the lights off again. And for some reason bring Aaron back from the dead and also make him psychic, because apparently even magical wanna-be science thingies need their chosen one.

I honestly have no idea how they could've made the story interesting with the lights back on, but they ain't making it that interesting with the lights still off, so who the hell knows. I think what I'm trying to say is that at the end of the day I have no damn idea what story/point Kripke was going for with this show, and at this point it kinda looks like Kripke doesn't either.

[RJDiogenes]

Did everybody leave their lights plugged in and turned on for sixteen years in hopes that they would come back on any minute now?

Come to think of it, that sounds like me during the blizzard blackout last February.

[PhoenixHope]

Basically that is what the show is selling. Which is pure BS, because even if you left things plugged in after sixteen years of just sitting there never once having been turned on most of them wouldn't be able to just come back on because they would no longer be in working order.

I remember the Ice Storm of 2009, yes, everything stayed plugged in, but as much as I could (with the power off) I tried to turn things to the off switch. The problem is that only lasted a week - after sixteen years I wouldn't have a PC or a TV in my house, because I'd need the prime spaces (near windows) for growing food (and after sixteen years - well, I don't know what magic equipment people in the RevolutionVerse have, but in my world after sixteen years neither my TV nor my PC would work anyway), and I think after a year even I'd start to accept that it's probably not coming back and therefore I'd have to almost rearrange my entire living space. Though I suppose I might still have a few light bulbs in places after sixteen years, though even that's doubtful, because skylights would help growing plants - also rain holes in roof so rain could fill barrels, but it would happen inside rather than outside for more difficult stealing.

Basically, what I'm saying is neither me nor anyone else is just gonna have everything up and ready to go after sixteen years, because you'd at the very least need the space for survival things rather than things that are useless without power.

[RJDiogenes]

It would actually be very dangerous. If power started flowing into houses with neglected wiring after sixteen years it would probably cause a lot of fires.