Upfronts 2011--ABC, CBS and The CW

The 2011 Upfronts ended yesterday afternoon following The CW's presentation of their fall schedule. Naturally, I waited until late Friday night to write about the new schedules for CBS, ABC and The CW. Between the three networks' new schedules, there's plenty to write about but I don't plan on writing 10,000 words about the fall schedule--that kind of word count can wait until my week-long television preview in August.

-ABC ordered thirteen new shows for the fall and mid-season. The network certainly needs fresh blood because their hit shows are aging fast. Desperate Housewives finished its seventh season. Grey's Anatomy finished its 7th season as well. Brothers & Sisters won't return. Nearly every show they developed last year failed. Paul Lee and the rest of the ABC brass need a new hit or two. I imagine ABC wants Shonda Rimes' new series, Scandal, to have as much success as both of her doctor shows. At 10PM on Wednesday nights, Emily Vancamp stars in a nighttime soap titled Revene about a girl who returns to the Hamptons after her family's lives and reputations were destroyed by the wealthy, powerful residents in the Hamptons. On Sunday nights, ABC will air Pan-Am--one of two series in the fall hoping to find the success as Mad Men. Of course, as Feinberg and Sepinwall pointed out, Mad Men's ratings would be disastrous on ABC. I'll write more about other potential hits in August.

-I watched ABC's trailer for Once Upon A Time, the series created by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (former writers and executive producers on LOST). The duo hired Jane Espenson as a staff writer so hopes remain high despite a lackluster preview. The collision of the modern world and the fairy-tale world looks sort of lame. Jennifer Morrison stars as the protagonist though, and I adore Jennifer Morrison--not even Carter Bays and Craig Thomas' horrible writing for Morrison's Zoey character in HIMYM can tarnish her in my eyes. It's silly to anticipate anything from a 2 minute trailer though. I'll have more of an opinion and insight into the show once August rolls around.

-CBS' trailer for the Jonathan Nolan/JJ Abrams series, Person Of Interest, kicked ass. I have a bad habit of writing off CBS series immediately because it's CBS and so many of their shows disinterest me; however, I enjoyed the first season of Hawaii 5-O and I write about HIMYM. Person Of Interest just seems like an awesome series. It's about a presumed-dead CIA agent who teams up with a billionaire to prevent violent crimes by using their own kind of justice. Michael Emerson stars in the series. Word is, this is the highest testing pilot in CBS history. Christopher Nolan's brother, Jonathan Nolan, created the show and wrote the pilot. JJ Abrams produces it. Again, it's silly to have high hopes for a series after a 3.5 minute preview but I have high hopes for the series.

-I'll probably watch four CW shows in the fall. I'm 24 years old and male by the way. Why? First, The Ringer went from CBS to The CW. I would've watched The Ringer on CBS because I also adore Sarah Michelle Gellar. In fact, I adore her even more than Jennifer Morrison. Seven seasons of Buffy will make any man fall for Sarah Michelle Gellar. Second, I already write about The Vampire Diaries on a weekly basis. The CW will air its sister series, The Secret Circle, after TVD. Kevin Williamson's an executive producer along with Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain. I'm most loyal to TV writers who entertain me on a weekly basis, which is why I watched Hawaii Five-O (because two former LOST writers wrote the show).

-The Secret Circle seems terrible from the three clips I watched at thefutoncritic.com. The Vampire Diaries had a dreadful beginning, though, and now it's among the best shows on television. Will The Secret Circle come closer to TVD's weekly quality? We'll see. The series stars yet another blonde actress I adore--the lovely and beautiful Britt Robertson, who last portrayed Lux on Life Unexpected. I wrote about the Life Unexpected series finale only because of Britt Robertson. So, yeah, it's about witches in a place called New Salem.

-Josh Schwartz compared his new series, Hart Of Dixie, to Everwood. Of course I'm gong to give the show a chance with that kind of comparison. The series resembles Everwood too, except without the family drama aspect. Rachel Bilson portrays a doctor who moves from Manhattan to a small town in the South.

Check out thefutoncritic.com for summaries and videos for every new series for each network. The website's a wonderful resource. Also, it's official--every new series I wrote about were one season and done. Hopefully, I don't doom any new shows by writing about them in a few months.

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK