As the fall 2011 to spring 2012 TV season draws to a close, it’s time to look over the schedule to see which of the past year’s shows have made the cut to return again in a few months, and which have hit the end of the line.
NBC
- ’30 Rock’ – Renewed
- ‘Community’ – Renewed
- ‘Grimm’ – Renewed
- ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’ – Renewed
- ‘The Office’ – Renewed
- ‘Parenthood’ – Renewed
- ‘Parks and Recreation’ – Renewed
- ‘Smash’ – Renewed
- ‘Up All Night’ – Renewed
- ‘Whitney’ – Renewed
- ‘Are You There, Chelsea?’ – Canceled
- ‘Awake’ – Canceled
- ‘Bent’ – Canceled
- ‘Best Friends Forever’ – Canceled
- ‘Chuck’ – Canceled (final season)
- ‘The Firm’ – Canceled
- ‘Free Agents’ – Canceled
- ‘Harry’s Law’ – Canceled
- ‘The Playboy Club’ – Canceled
- ‘Prime Suspect’ – Canceled
As expected, all of NBC’s Thursday night comedy lineup has survived for another year – even the low-rated ‘Community’, which has been granted another 13 episodes, though without creator and show-runner Dan Harmon, who was fired. What the next season of that series will look like, I don’t know. All I can hope is that it retains some semblance of its identity. The new show-runners are a pair of writers from ABC’s ‘Happy Endings’, which is a really funny comedy with a similar sensibility, so I’ll try to remain optimistic.
I’m pleased to see that both ‘Grimm’ and ‘Smash’ are solid hits (by NBC standards). I look forward to watching more of those next season.
I’ll miss ‘Chuck’, but the show had clearly run its course and was granted a satisfying send-off. Both ‘Awake’ and ‘Prime Suspect’ were promising series, but I don’t have strong enough emotional attachments to either to get really heartbroken that they were canceled.
ABC
- ‘Body of Proof’ – Renewed
- ‘Castle’ – Renewed
- ‘Don’t Trust the B in Apt. 23’ – Renewed
- ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ – Renewed
- ‘Happy Endings’ – Renewed
- ‘Last Man Standing’ – Renewed
- ‘The Middle’ – Renewed
- ‘Modern Family’ – Renewed
- ‘Once Upon a Time’ – Renewed
- ‘Private Practice’ – Renewed
- ‘Revenge’ – Renewed
- ‘Scandal’ – Renewed
- ‘Suburgatory’ – Renewed
- ‘Charlie’s Angels’ – Canceled
- ‘Cougar Town’ – Canceled by ABC, moving to TBS
- ‘Desperate Housewives’ – Canceled (final season)
- ‘GCB’ – Canceled
- ‘Man Up’ – Canceled
- ‘Missing’ – Canceled
- ‘Pan Am’ – Canceled
- ‘The River’ – Canceled
- ‘Work It!’ – Canceled
The most exciting of ABC’s renewals is the hilarious ‘Happy Endings’. ‘Suburgatory’ is also quite good. I have to say, ‘Don’t Trust the B’ isn’t half bad either.
I don’t know that I’m too much in love with ‘Castle’ anymore, but the show is at least reasonably entertaining when it doesn’t try to take itself seriously. (Unfortunately, it took itself seriously a lot during the past season.) ‘Modern Family’ also felt a little flat this year. I let a lot of episodes of ‘Revenge’ pile up on my DVR until I ran out of storage space and the DVR deleted them. I wasn’t caught up so much in that one that I feel too badly about it. I doubt I will watch next season.
‘Pan Am’ was a fun show. It’s a shame that one couldn’t find an audience.
I wonder if the producers of ‘Cougar Town’ will take the opportunity of the network change to TBS to also change the series’ name. As anyone who watches the show knows, the writers routinely make fun of being stuck with that title.
CBS
- ‘2 Broke Girls’ – Renewed
- ‘The Big Bang Theory’ – Renewed
- ‘Blue Bloods’ – Renewed
- ‘Criminal Minds’ – Renewed
- ‘CSI’ – Renewed
- ‘CSI: New York’ – Renewed
- ‘The Good Wife’ – Renewed
- ‘Hawaii Five-0’ – Renewed
- ‘How I Met Your Mother’ – Renewed
- ‘The Mentalist’ – Renewed
- ‘Mike & Molly’ – Renewed
- ‘NCIS’ – Renewed
- ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ – Renewed
- ‘Person of Interest’ – Renewed
- ‘Rules of Engagement’ – Renewed
- ‘Two and a Half Men’ – Renewed
- ‘CSI: Miami’ – Canceled
- ‘A Gifted Man’ – Canceled
- ‘How to Be a Gentleman’ – Canceled
- ‘NYC 22’ – Canceled
- ‘Rob’ – Canceled
- ‘Unforgettable’ – Canceled
I don’t watch a whole lot on CBS, so my investment in any of these shows is minimal. I’m still with ‘How I Met Your Mother’, even though the series is a shell of its former self. The next season will officially be the last, so I might as well stick it out.
Mrs. Z is very excited about ‘The Good Wife’ being renewed. I really need to watch more of that show.
I’m a little surprised that CBS canceled ‘CSI: Miami’ while keeping the other two. I was under the (apparently mistaken) impression that the ‘Miami’ branch was the most popular of those stupid shows.
I gave up on ‘Person of Interest’ early. It did nothing for me.
Fox
- ‘American Dad’ – Renewed
- ‘Bob’s Burgers’ – Renewed
- ‘Bones’ – Renewed
- ‘The Cleveland Show’ – Renewed
- ‘Family Guy’ – Renewed
- ‘Fringe’ – Renewed
- ‘Glee’ – Renewed
- ‘New Girl’ – Renewed
- ‘Raising Hope’ – Renewed
- ‘The Simpsons’ – Renewed
- ‘Touch’ – Renewed
- ‘Alcatraz’ – Canceled
- ‘Allen Gregory’ – Canceled
- ‘Breaking In’ – Canceled
- ‘The Finder’ – Canceled
- ‘House’ – Canceled (final season)
- ‘I Hate My Teenage Daughter’ – Canceled
- ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ – Canceled
- ‘Terra Nova’ – Canceled
‘Fringe’ will get one more half-season to wrap up its storylines. Although I wasn’t impressed with the way that this past season played out, I will see this through.
Will a cast shake-up next season revitalize ‘Glee’? (Many of the existing characters are being graduated off.) I think that I’ve been over this show for quite a while now.
A person I work with is an enthusiastic fan of ‘Touch’. The first episode didn’t grab me, and I never got around to watching more. Can anyone else recommend this?
CW
- ‘90210’ – Renewed
- ‘Gossip Girl’ – Renewed
- ‘Hart of Dixie’ – Renewed
- ‘Nikita’ – Renewed
- ‘Supernatural’ – Renewed
- ‘Vampire Diaries’ – Renewed
- ‘The L.A. Complex’ – Canceled
- ‘One Tree Hill’ – Canceled (final season)
- ‘Ringer’ – Canceled
- ‘The Secret Circle’ – Canceled
Wow, I don’t watch anything at all on The CW. I honestly had no idea that ‘One Tree Hill’ was still on the air. I thought that got canceled years ago.
I caught a few early episodes of ‘Ringer’, but found it pretty dumb. Some of our readers may be fans of ‘Supernatural’, ‘Nikita’ or possibly ‘Vampire Diaries’, all of which will return.
[Source: TV by the Numbers]
Shayne Blakeley
Despite it’s awful beginnings, I was starting to really enjoy Finder. Too bad.
Drew
I’m sad that ‘Unforgettable’ is going to be cancelled. It’s a fun and interesting show, and Poppy Montgomery is hot.
Scott
Thanks for this list, it’s very handy to have it all in one quick reference place! I’m sad at a handful of the cancellations, but life goes on… Cheers!
William Henley
I am really happy to see Happily Ever After made another season. You know, when the show started, I thought it was going to suck, but I kept watching, and it turned out to be my favorite show of the year.
Pan Am and Terra Nova I was really excited about when they started, but Pan Am I lost intrest in after about five episodes, and let’s not even talk about Terra Nova.
I am actually surprised to hear The Cleveland Show is still on the air, or that it got renewed. I liked Cleveland on Family Guy but I could not stand the spin off.
I was surprised they even made a show off of Napoleon Dynamite. Maybe if the show had come out seven years ago, it might have been relevant. Truthfully, I hated the movie when it came out, and the show wasn’t even up to par with that.
Also surprised Bob’s Burgers got another season. The show is alright, but Fox has killed better series than this. I think the only reason people watch the show at all is that it is nestled in between The Simpsons and Family Guy.
Also surprised about CSI Miami. I can’t believe that was canceled and yet Hawaii Five-0 got another season.
Also, I am a bit surprised that Two and a Half Men is still going. I used to really like the show, but to me, Charlie Sheen WAS the show, and everyone else was just back-up to him. I can’t stand the show anymore.
You have any data on the Cable Network shows? Hell on Wheels, Dance Moms, The Universe (I can’t believe there have already been six seasons of that show), Doctor Who, Tourchwood and the HBO and Showtime shows?
BTW, Red Dwarf X is finishing production now. I sure am hoping that some American Network will pick it up. Really getting pissed that BBC America doesn’t show more British shows. They actually don’t even carry much of the news anymore, just reruns of Top Chef and Gordon Ramsey and Star Trek: TNG (which I like, but why the eff is it on BBC America) with an ocassional Doctor Who thrown in here and there.
Josh Zyber
AuthorHell on Wheels was renewed. I’m pretty certain that Doctor Who and Torchwood were (or will be) as well.
HBO renewed Enlightened, but canned Hung and Bored to Death. Game of Thrones is of course a massive hit and will be back.
Julian
‘Napoleon Dynamite’? Hmm, I was under the impression that the series was a) popular and b) good. I haven’t seen it, though.
“Pan-Am” is a huge hit in Belgium. Really HUGE! Hundreds of thousands of Belgian women will be sad to see the show cancelled. Nowadays, movies can become solid hits thanks to international audiences. I wonder if the same theory will and can be applied to TV: can a series be uncancelled/renewed because of its immense success abroad?
Josh Zyber
AuthorAncillary income, such as DVD sales, syndication and foreign market licensing, is sometimes taken into condsideration and may save a lowly-rated series. That’s how both Fringe and Community got renewed this year. However, I think that Pan Am was too expensive a show. Episodes required extensive visual effects to sell the period setting and the various international locations that the plot took the characters to.
Josh Zyber
AuthorConsider also that Community is produced by Universal (which owns NBC) and Fringe is produced by Fox, whereas Pan Am was produced by Sony for air on ABC (a Disney-owned network). The ABC network doesn’t have as much vested interest in seeing the production arm make a profit. There’s no pressure of “corporate synergy” mandating that they cut a poorly-rated show some slack in hopes that they’ll make it up on the back-end. And Sony isn’t likely to continue production of the series without a guaranteed major market network committment.
Julian
Very interesting, thanks for clearing that up. Then again, both Disney and Sony are stupendously wealthy. They could afford a second Pan-Am season if they wanted to.
Josh Zyber
AuthorThey’re wealthy, but they’re not charities. They’re not going to invest in something they don’t see a profit from.
Bryan
I’m most upset with the way things went at Fox. I really like Keifer Sutherland, but “Touch” lost me after 2 or 3 episodes. It just seems completely implausible – and this coming from someone who is totally OK with a concept like “Terra Nova” or “Alcatraz” 🙂
Speaking of which, I’ll really miss both of those shows … “Terra Nova” especially – it started off kind of slow, but really picked up the pace and story in the 2nd half of the season.
Strangely, the show I find myself missing the most is “The Finder.” Didn’t really have any expectations for it when it started, but it was quirky enough to kind of break the mold of the “case of the week” shows, and Geoff Stults has a very likable persona. This show would work much better on cable (TNT/USA/etc…) Don’t know if there’s even the slightest possibility of it continuing in that way (I doubt it) … but I’d be there if they did.
Alex
They kept “Whitney” and cancelled “Awake”? Honestly??!!! I mean I know it’s cheaper, but danged if you don’t get what you pay for.