DRIVE Sputters (but may rev up yet...)

Variety reports on the disappointing performance of the 2-hour premiere of FOX's action serial DRIVE (starring, among others, ONE LIFE TO LIVE's Nathan Fillion, ex-"Joey Buchanan," pictured), which suffered in a debut time-slot placing it directly opposite an original episode of ABC's hit serial DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES.

The auto-race serial, which features a fairly unique premise, may have a better chance building an audience once it settles into its permanent timeslot on Monday nights and has a chance to benefit from word of mouth among its target audience of young men. Read the story here.

FOX and ABC Set to Debut Action-Adventure Serials for Summer

The Hollywood Reporter ran a story this week entitled "Serialized Dramas Hope to Reheat Ailing Genre," but it was less an examination of the industry and more a profile of two new nighttime serials to set to debut as late mid-season replacements. ("Ailing" is, of course, relative, as the pick-up rate of 21% for new serial dramas has already met--and if only one more is renewed this season, it will excced--the average rate for all new shows, of any genre.):

Fox's DRIVE and ABC's TRAVELER -- both heavily serialized dramas -- were developed during the 2006-07 development cycle when the [serial] genre was red hot.

A year later, the genre is in the freezer after the majority of ambitious new fall series with continuous story lines crashed and burned.

Now Drive and Traveler slated for a May 30 launch, will test the airwaves to see if the serialized drama curse has been lifted.

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Indeed, observers note that it was the dark serialized dramas such as VANISHED, KIDNAPPED, SMITH, THE NINE, and DAY BREAK that fizzled, while lighter fare such as the heavily serialized HEROES and the soap UGLY BETTY became the breakout hits of the season.

Drive and Traveler are in the action-adventure genre -- Drive chronicles an illegal cross-country race and its participants, while Traveler revolves around two graduate students searching for their friend Will Traveler, who disappeared after framing them for a terrorist act. That makes the shows a good fit for the summer movie season that kicks in next month....

Read the full article here.

Network Honchos Tackle the State of Nighttime Soaps

Scott D. Pierce writes an absolutely fantastic piece entitled "To Be Continued..." for the Deseret Morning News on the place and future of the nighttime serial on network television. I've included a highly truncated version below, but recommend reading Pierce's full article here.

From the Deseret Morning News:

Last fall, network executives were…declaring this the Season of the Serial — in addition to the [many] shows with storylines that continue from week to week returning—[execs] added 19 more.

By midseason, some critics were declaring the effort a big flop and predicting the end of serialized shows on network TV.

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As with all things in TV, this is cyclical....if the executives were wrong last fall, so were those critics at midseason. The truth lies in the middle. Of those 19 new serials, four — BROTHERS & SISTERS, HEROES, MEN IN TREES, and UGLY BETTY — have already been renewed for next season [a success rate of 21 percent].

A 21 percent success rate is just about [the same] for all new network shows. If one or two more get picked up…this year's crop of serialized newcomers will exceed that average.

Part of the thinking [is] that serials are a risk, but offer a big reward. If they prove popular with [viewers], those viewers will come back week after week.

"Serialization is still one of the biggest hooks that we have into an audience," NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly said. "[It's] rocket fuel when you hit it."

The risk comes because you're asking viewers to tune in to every single episode [and] the risk increases when there are so many serials on the air, because viewers can't commit to all of them.

Fox's Entertainment president Peter Liguori thinks that serials have to be not just good, but better than other shows. "It seems to me that in order to put on a serialized show, you have a higher standard," he said. "If we're going to ask viewers to make that kind of commitment, you better be great."

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It would be nice if quality always wins out [but] some good shows get canceled; some very bad shows succeed.

The thinking is that there were just too many serialized shows on the air at one time...if a viewer is already watching 24 and LOST and GREY’S ANATOMY, how many of the 19 new shows did he or she have time to start watching [also]?

Reilly acknowledged that critics "were right to acknowledge the overabundance of serialized shows." Particularly too many shows that were so much alike in tone….but [that] you can't argue serials don't work, "because there's Heroes, completely defying the logic," Reilly said. "Highly serialized, highly complex and it's the breakout hit of the year."

And ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson believes that "escapism" equaled success, pointing to Betty and Brothers & Sisters.

Liguori postulates that "shows that have a more singular focus and a singular goal may have a leg up. PRISON BREAK — get out of prison; 24 — save the country."

Network programmers…expect to program fewer new serials this fall. "We're...looking and saying. 'How much [of a] commitment can an audience make to an overall schedule?"' McPherson said. As a result, he's looking at more "stuff that is procedural or closed-ended" for next season.

"We're not running away from it," said NBC's Reilly. "But we are balancing it out a little bit more."

Fall Primetime Schedules Start Shaping Up With Additional Cancellations

James Hibberd updates us on how the primetime landscape is shaping up for dramas next season:

In rapid succession, a flurry of struggling shows are being yanked from the schedule. NBC’s THE BLACK DONNELLYS, the CW’s 7TH HEAVEN,” Fox’s The Wedding Bells and ABC’s SIX DEGREES have either been pulled off the air or ceased production early this week as networks reconfigure their schedules for May sweeps.

The David E. Kelley’s dramedy The Wedding Bells has ceased production, but the network plans to air three more episodes. The Friday night drama most recently earned a mere 1.4 rating among adults 18 to 49.

ABC pulled SIX DEGREES last fall, then brought back the show as a March addition to Friday nights. Its last airing earned a 1.1 rating. Repeats of Wife Swap will air in its place.

NBC’s mob drama THE BLACK DONNELLYS filled a Monday night hole vacated by STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP, and has bled viewers nearly ever airing. Last night’s episode earned a 2.0 rating. Donnellys will be replaced by the reality series The Wedding Crashers.

The 7th Heaven will finish its final season, with a finale to air May 13, but will not return this fall.

Additional Serials Tapped for Early Renewal by Networks

Though its future had been in question, FOX's twisty prison serial PRISON BREAK, starring Wentworth Miller, has been selected for early renewal, along with episodic dramas HOUSE and BONES.

Additionally, NBC has renewed freshman serial HEROES, though the supernatural soap's combination of high ratings and buzz had essentially guaranteed its return.

(More on the expansive list of early renewals handed out by ABC earlier this month here.)

NBC, FOX Announce Deal With Internet Leaders AOL, Yahoo! To Create Online Video Site

Proposed venture set to rival YouTube.com, and be eventual web home for NBC and FOX programming (short- and long-form content), including current NBC serials. More details here.

Television & Diversity: Progress (and the lack thereof)

A pair of excellent stories in The Morning Call on race, diversity, and interracial relationships on-screen focus on nighttime dramas, but could easily apply to the advances (and lack thereof) on daytime today (click on the titles to read the full stories):

Interracial Romances Flourishing on TV with Little Fanfare

and

Diversity on TV Up, but Stars, Producers, Writers Still Mostly White

Writer McFarland Handicaps Primetime Faves Ripe for Cancellation

In her article, Spring Can Be the Cruelest Season for Favorite Shows, Melanie McFarland of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer handicaps the mid-season status of primetime network shows in the cancellation crosshairs, including several serials.

Including each net's point-of-contact information for the action oriented, MacFarland runs down her list, which includes:

CBS: JERICHO

"Proving how fickle fortune and audiences can be, the post-apocalyptic drama had momentum and buzz on its side last fall, only to be crushed by American Idol when it returned in February. CBS could move it, but finding a suitable fit is going to be problematic. Besides, why shift JERICHO if replacing it with a show potent enough to fend off the Idol threat makes more sense?"

ABC: No serials/no dramas

"Only a few seasons ago, ABC had no luck landing a decent drama. Now that it's lousy with 'em, including a couple that are among television's highest-rated, it can't score a decent sitcom to save some development executive's neck. No one could blame the network if it scrapped the lot and started completely fresh..."

NBC: FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, Crossing Jordan, Studio 60

"The Peacock is facing a bit of a dilemma as is flies into May. HEROES became a hit, but other freshmen such as FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS suffer from a mismatch between acclaim (high) and ratings (low); and veterans, even [the original] Law & Order are barely treading water. NBC fumbled the promotion campaign for [LIGHTS] last summer, but it can make up for that in the run-up to season two....there's less hope for the likes of Crossing Jordan and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which might be pushed on top of the cancellation grenade to preserve the mother ship L&O—and save the cost-cutting NBC some money."


FOX: PRISON BREAK, Standoff

"PRISON BREAK has yet to be renewed, but it's safer than Standoff, which is getting a last chance to justify its existence by turning around the Friday night death slot. (Not gonna happen.)

THE CW: VERONICA MARS, GILMORE GIRLS, 7th HEAVEN

"VERONICA MARS fans are used to hearing gloomy predictions about its survival odds this time of year, but now they really have to be worried. First, its season order was shortened. Then, hiatus replacement The Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll drew in higher ratings. Another whammy: The stars of GILMORE GIRLS haven't decided whether to extend their contracts for another year. Without GILMORE, Neptune's finest might be done. If those shows go down, they had better take [HEAVEN] with them."

(Read the full story, including McFarland's sitcom pics, here.)

MyNetwork-who? "Big 4" Broadcaster FOX Poised to Re-Join the Traditional Soap Game (with AMERICAN IDOL's Fuller on-board)

MyNetworkTV's recently announced intentions to abandon their attempts at daily "telenovela"-style programming, combined with the cancellation of NBC's PASSIONS have left many fans of the traditional soap-format concerned for the future. However, a series of recent industry moves (including news of an NBC-backed relaunch of PASSIONS on an alternate platform and the announcement of cable GENERAL HOSPITAL spin-off, NIGHT SHIFT, on SoapNet) may indicate that the aches being felt by the venerable genre as of late, have merely been growing pains...

In a new piece by Variety's Michael Schneider, the publication's web site reports that, years after their last stab at daytime soap programming, FOX is looking to return to the traditional soap business, ordering a 1/2 hour pilot thematically similar to the very popular, long-running British soap EASTENDERS.

The full text of Michael Schneider's Variety piece:

"FOX is getting into the half-hour soap opera business, pacting with 'American Idol' producer 19 Entertainment to adapt the popular U.K. genre for auds across the pond.

Net has ordered a pilot from 19 Entertainment that revolves around a blue collar family. Sudser comes from 19 Entertainment's Simon Fuller, as well as the shingle's head of drama, Mal Young.

Young joined 19 Entertainment at the end of 2004; before that, he served as controller of continuing drama series at the BBC, overseeing production on shows including long-running half-hour drama EASTENDERS. He also co-created another entry, DOCTORS. As head of drama at Pearson, Young also created Channel 5's FAMILY AFFAIRS.

If ordered to series, the Fuller/Young sudser could potentially air several times a week on Fox.

Fuller and Young will serve as co-creators and exec producers of the Fox pilot, which is currently untitled. CAA packaged the project."

With the already in-the-works adaptation of the British nighttime soap (and national guilty pleasure) FOOTBALLER'S WIVES (to be retitled FOOTBALL WIVES, with the titular "football" converted from soccer to American NFL-style football), may a clue to the future of American soaps lie across the pond?