Fall TV Winners & Losers (2017)
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LOSER: AMAZON
Just weeks after sexual harassment allegations led Roy Price to step down as the head of Amazon Studios (and in doing so put Good Girls Revolt's cancellation in a new light), award-winning Transparent star Jeffrey Tambor was prompted to quit his role on the acclaimed series, after being accused of sexually harassing both his personal assistant and a costar.
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LOSER: CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM
...this revived comedy lost some spring in its step during its time on the bench. A super-rich, elderly curmudgeon yelling at people when he doesn't get his way suddenly isn't so funny when you have someone doing that, daily, at 1600 Penn. What's more, the extended episodes — sometimes clocking in at 35 to 40 minutes! — sure do drag.
fall tv losers inhumans
LOSER: MARVEL'S INHUMANS
No matter how you slice it — looking at ticket sales for the IMAX release (under $3 million worldwide), terribly unripe RottenTomatoes scores or its Nielsen numbers (only Fox's The Exorcist draws a smaller, non-CW audience) — it was not at all super.
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LOSER: KEVIN CAN WAIT
The corpse of the shameful Season 2 premiere — in which Erinn Hayes' character was dispatched via gym coupon — was barely cold when Kevin James dug the knife (or however Donna perished!) even deeper by suggesting that the TV death was "needed" because they were "running out of ideas." After one season. According to the guy who played a husband for 200-plus episodes of King of Queens.
Megyn Kelly TODAY - Season 1
LOSER: TODAY
The mind-numbing inanity of what Fox News alum Megyn Kelly (awkwardly, stiffly) brought to the morning show's third hour wound up being dwarfed by longtime, $25 million/year co-anchor Matt Lauer's swift, abrupt termination in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations.
Saturday Night Live - Season 43
LOSER: SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
Nary a single water-cooler moment has been born of this fall's run, which lost so much of the sketch series' momentum following an Emmy-winning Season 42. Not helping matters is the suddenly toothless political satire being led by Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump, whose impression already feels stale less than a year into POTUS' first term.
KYRA SEDGWICK
LOSER: TEN DAYS IN THE VALLEY
After just four increasingly lower-rated outings, the Kyra Sedgwick starrer was yanked from its time slot — where it capped ABC's admittedly discombobulated, new Sunday slate. It will burn off its final six episodes across four Saturday nights, starting Dec. 16.
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LOSER: THE WALKING DEAD
Season 8's war hasn't just been hell, it's been — as its waning ratings will attest — hella dull, rehashing Morgan and Carol's to-kill-or-not-kill debate with Jesus/Maggie and Rick/Daryl while the walker-slow plot is stretched across so many characters that viewers can go weeks without seeing their favorites. (And you know a season's a dud when its most heart-wrenching casualty is a CGI tiger!)
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WINNER: AMERICAN HORROR STORY
After several uneven seasons, FX's anthology horror seies finally got its groove back in 2017, delivering a well-plotted, suspenseful and eerily relevant story in Cult.
The Good Place - Season 2
WINNER: THE GOOD PLACE
After introducing a shocking and creative twist in its Season 1 finale, the NBC comedy pulled off something in-forking-credible: It avoided the sophomore slump by way of innovative storylines (#TeamCockroach4Ever) and riotous performances from its ensemble, particularly a top-of-his-game Ted Danson.
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WINNER: RIVERDALE
Milkshakes all around! The retro-noir teen drama has surged in Season 2, with a flurry of social-media buzz fueling a ratings spike that has made it The CW's third-highest rated series, trailing The Flash and Supernatural.
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WINNER: THE GOOD DOCTOR
The highest-rated and most-watched freshman drama by a massive margin, the med series also delivers ABC's biggest weekly audience while placing second right behind Grey's Anatomy in the demo.
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WINNER: GREY'S ANATOMY
Not since the ABC drama's early days have its creative vitals been as good as they've been since Krista Vernoff returned for Season 14. The co-showrunner/miracle worker immediately prescribed the series a double dose of cheer — reuniting Jolex, rebooting Amelia and giving Nathan and Megan a happy ending — without sacrificing its ability to shock ("OMG, it's Jo's ex!"). In fact, the show's been so good that we're willing to give Vernoff a little more time to sell us on that polarizing Jackson/Maggie pairing.
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WINNER: HULU
Deep-pocketed rival Netflix may have amassed more total Emmys (20 vs. 10) this September, but The Handmaid's Tale (with eight grabs of gold, matched only by the HBO drama Big Little Lies) proved that Hulu is very much to be reckoned with. Weeks later, super buzz for Runaways — the fall's only new Marvel hit out of four — would underscore that point.
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WINNER: GREAT GOOD-BYES
Wrapping a long-running series isn't easy, yet three niche gems — Showtime's Episodes, AMC's Halt and Catch Fire and Netflix's Longmire — managed to make it look effortless.
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WINNER: STRANGER THINGS
It was worth the 15-month wait to catch up with Mike, Eleven et al, as the 1980s-themed, supernatural series returned as crowd-pleasing as ever (well, save for that Episode 7 side trip). And if you subscribe to Nielsen's take, many agreed, with nearly 16 million people watching the premiere during the first weekend.
Will & Grace - Season 1
WINNER: WILL & GRACE
This comedy revival, which garnered near-universal raves and continues to draw strong ratings, has given NBC's Thursday lineup a shot in the arm. Whereas...
Poker, Faith, and Eggs
WINNER: YOUNG SHELDON
Many a CBS comedy over the years has enjoyed a strong launch out of The Big Bang Theory aka TV's No. 1 comedy. But this outright spinoff prequel delivers unparelled 93 percent retention, and currently ranks No. 3 among all scripted series in the demo (behind Bang and This Is Us) while nipping at its sire's heels for TV's largest weekly audience. A-plus, Shelly.
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WINNER: 'CRISIS ON EARTH-X'
Wherehas previous Arrowverse crossovers offered up the intrinsic, "Hey... it's her from that other show on this show" factor, this year's truly four-way event made good on its promise of a seamless "movie," pitting a veritable army of leather-clad heroes against personally resonant villains. Where was this IMAX release?