Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Primetime Preview

It's 50s night on American Idol. (Barry Manilow -- who just hit #1 with his 50s themed album, performs Wednesday). I predict Pickler will do Patsy Cline. My picks for the Top Five: Hicks, Doughtry, Paris, Mandisa and McPhee. Most everything else from 8 to 10 p.m. is in reruns, except for new episodes of Sons & Daughters (which I sampled about five minutes of) and Scrubs. At 10 p.m., Tom Selleck is still guesting on Boston Legal. Late night, Letterman has the very cool Jenny Lewis performing while Ferguson has Rosanne Cash, whose new album is one of the best of the year.

And -- as others have pointed out -- is CBS purposefully trying to kill its Amazing Race franchise? First they schedule a disastrous family season and keep the globe-trotting series stuck mostly in the US. Now they've put the very family friendly series on at 10 p.m. Genius.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK - You have mentioned two shows my kids love. They are hooked. Personally, I like the race but the Idol is too predictable. Simon is mean, Randy says dawg, and Paula is well, Paula. Why is the race less popular?

Michael in New York said...

Why some shows do well and others become a phenomenon is due to all sorts of intangible factors. Race came first. But Idol has a stronger recurring cast, the three judges and Ryan Seacrest that give it a continuity that Race doesn't. Also, Race is on constantly and thus less "special." Idol wisely only airs once a year (though Fox fought bitterly to run it twice a year, which would have been a disaster. Simon wouldn't reup until they agreed to limit it). Plus Idol is easier to follow and enjoy just watching one episode; Idol goes from comedy (the auditions), to reality (the narrowing down stage with backroom drama) to variety (the final 12 singing and performing, sometimes quite well) each and every season. Finally, no reason. It just happens. Some shows become Dallas, others become The OC and burn out quickly.