PREDICTION: The next batch of flashbacks, featuring Elysia Rotaru as a woman whose relationship with Oliver in the past mirrors Felicity’s now – will reveal that Oliver almost walked down the aisle once before.
OUTCOME: As with most everything about Season 4’s flashbacks, this prediction was a big ol’ MISS. (STARTING SCORE: 0-for-1)
PREDICTION: The NBC drama will struggle to find a place for Ryan Eggold’s Tom Keen in Season 3, leading him to be killed off during February sweeps.
OUTCOME: Not only did Tom survive the season, Eggold is set to costar on next season’s spinoff. (0-for-2)
PREDICTION: ABC’s rookie Chace Crawford drama will spring a ratings leak right out of the gate and become the first cancellation of the season.
OUTCOME: After debuting to 6.4 million viewers and a 1.4 rating, B&O fell below 4 mil, with a 0.9 rating, by Week 3, once The Walking Dead entered the mix. It would, however, finish out its initial 13-episode order. (0.5-for-3)
PREDICTION: Skeptics, be damned. The Oct. 29 crossover event will lift both shows to their highest ratings in more than a year.
OUTCOME: Both shows drew their largest audiences in about a year, while Bones matched its best demo number in… 11 months. (0.75-for-4)
PREDICTION: Just as Jake and Amy are settling into a romantic groove, the precinct will bring in a new (and female!) recruit that spurs a major love triangle.
OUTCOME: Lock us up for criminally awful predicating — Jake/Amy stayed strong all season long. (0.75-for-5)
PREDICTION: We will – finally — see Beckett on a motorcycle during Season 8.
OUTCOME:
Hey, we didn’t say you’d see her ride it. ‘Twas a happy coda to a very bad news day. (1.75-for-6)
PREDICTION: American Horror Story: Hotel will give Lady Gaga the acting bug, leading to a February sweeps guest spot on fiancé Taylor Kinney’s firefighter drama.
PREDICTION: Lady nada. (1.75-for-7)
PREDICTION: A series-regular character — Lucious, Andre, Rhonda, Jamal, Hakeem, Becky, Porsha or Anika (but not Cookie) — will be killed off by the end of Season 2.
OUTCOME:
The season ended with Rhonda and Anika in a brutal battle up against a 30-or-so-story balcony, followed by a shriek, then Andre’s horrified “NO!” And show boss Ilene Chaiken’s post-finale comments have us pretty certain we nailed this prediction. (2.75-for-8)
PREDICTION: Donal Logue will part ways with the series by the end of Season 2.
OUTCOME: Cop not out. Rather, Bullock is currently large and in charge at the GCPD! (2.75-for-9)
PREDICTION: Before Season 12 fades to black, grieving widow Meredith will get her romantic groove back — with Martin Henderson’s incoming MD.
OUTCOME: Order a chem-7 and update our tally, stat! (3.75-for-10)
PREDICTION: The coming Wesen war will have a lasting impact — via death or a permanent, life-changing injury — on a member of the gang.
OUTCOME: If we’re using the term “gang” loosely, then yes — Black Claw operatives took out Meisner, leaving the Scoobies (and Hadrian’s Wall) without a key strategic thinker. (4.25-for-11)
PREDICTION: Despite being billed as a “limited series,” decent ratings and renewed creative strength will earn the NBC drama a second season.
OUTCOME: A limited series, indeed.
(4.25-for-12)
PREDICTION: With Rebecca out of the picture — permanently — Wes will finally succumb to that weirdly Oedipal chemistry he exhibited with Annalise on and off during Season 1. (Suggested episode title: “How to Train Your Puppy.”)
OUTCOME: Annalise cradled Wes’ head in her lap — but not in that kinda way. (4.25-for-13)
PREDICTION: Being forced to work together will lead Liv and Blaine to have an uncomfortably romantic moment, with — choose your preferred reference point — shades of Spike/Buffy or Veronica/Logan.
OUTCOME: It was Blaine and Liv’s BFF Peyton‘s late nights, working to build a case against Mr. Boss, that led to a steamy moment. (4.25-for-14)
PREDICTION: During the Season 2 finale, the titular heroine will get hitched — we’re still torn between Rafael and Michael, so don’t ask us to whom — and lose her virginity as the title becomes Jane the Virgin.
OUTCOME: Jane did finally wed… but before she and her new hubby Michael could have sex, he was shot by Rose. (4.75-for-15)
PREDICTION:
Season 4 guest star Eliza Coupe will be promoted to series-regular status.
OUTCOME: No happy ending here. (4.75-for-16)
PREDICTION: We’ll first take to New Joe the way we first took to New Lily (in that we didn’t), but by season’s end he’ll be stealing the spotlight from Jay and Gloria’s older son, Manny.
OUTCOME: New Joe had nearly as many lines as Manny, and wrapped up a season’s worth of insufferable mumbling by reciting an entire Casablanca monologue. (5-for-17)
PREDICTION: Rayna will relent and sign daughter Maddie as a Highway 65 artist.
OUTCOME: While Rayna did sign Maddie — and Daphne — to her label, the teen saw it as a move to rein her in… and it factored in her eventual emancipation from her parents. (6-for-18)
PREDICTION: Hetty will give DiNozzo a head slap during NCIS star Michael Weatherly’s October crossover appearance.
OUTCOME: We won this slap bet. (7-for-19)
PREDICTION: Michael-Raymond James will put in a cameo as Neal, in some way or form, as Emma battles the Darkness inside of her.
OUTCOME: MRJ filmed a cameo, though Emma’s battle with the Darkness was done by then. Still, we’re claiming 1/4-point credit. (7.25-for-20)
PREDICTION: Mia Maestro will recur as a high-powered lobbyist who ardently lobbies to (ahem) fill Fitz’s dance card in Mellie’s absence.
OUTCOME: Nope, Maestro played a spy who once filled Jake’s dance card — as his wife. (7.25-for-21)
PREDICTION: Ryan Murphy’s slasher comedy for Fox will be the first renewal of the 2015-16 season — though CBS’ Supergirl, which doesn’t bow until Oct. 26, may earn the quicker pick-up after its premiere breaks a CBS ratings record.
OUTCOME: Scream Queens would not get renewed until January (and Supergirl scored its own Season 2 even later — in mid-May, and on The CW). (7.25-for-22)
PREDICTION: Jenny and Joe Corbin will hook up.
OUTCOME: Called it! (8.25-for-23)
PREDICTION: A special one-hour Big Bang Theory will score the coveted post-Super Bowl 50 timeslot on Feb. 7.
OUTCOME: Bazinga! (Stephen Colbert tackled the cushy berth instead.)
(8.25-for-24)
PREDICTION: After much speculation and pleading (by fans), Jeffrey Dean Morgan will slip away from The Good Wife to return as John for a multi-episode arc.
OUTCOME: JDM indeed slipped away from The Good Wife — not to bust ghosts but bust skulls, as The Walking Dead‘s Negan. (8.25-for-25)
PREDICTION: NBC’s Mark-Paul Gosselaar sitcom will be replaced by new episodes of the buzzed-about Carmichael Show before the close of the calendar year.
OUTCOME: Who can even remember? (Was this a show??) But yeah, a miss. (8.25-for-26)
PREDICTION: It won’t be long before Justin and Candace try dating. It also won’t be long before Nicki (played by Briga Heelan) returns when her marriage goes south, throwing Justin for a loop.
OUTCOME: Nicki never returned to Black Eyes Bar before the live comedy’s last call, and Justin and Candace lived happily ever after, getting engaged in the series finale.
(8.25-for-27)
PREDICTION: Despite its extreme Vitamin D(obrev) deficiency, the long-running drama will catch a creative second wind; Season 7 will not be its last.
PREDICTION: Though TVD‘s creative resurgence is certainly up for debate (we enjoyed all the time-jumping in Season 7), the latter half of our prediction was irrefutably solid: Bring on Season 8! (8.75-for-28)
PREDICTION: Despite this fall’s (umpteenth) reboot, the venerable ABC chatfest’s ratings will continue to nosedive, prompting ABC to pull the plug.
OUTCOME: Takes a lickin’, keeps on tickin’. And is renewed for Season 20. (8.75-for-29)
PREDICTION: Gwen Stefani will become the first female coach to win NBC’s reality singing competition — leading to a Spring 2016 cycle featuring both herself and Christina Aguilera (with Adam Levine on the sidelines).
OUTCOME: Well, Christina Aguilera managed to grab the gold one cycle later (Season 10) — leading to a Fall 2016 installment of the NBC juggernaut with two ladies in the red spinning chairs (Miley Cyrus and Alicia Keys). So we got the concepts right, if not the exact details. (FINAL SCORE: 9-for-30)