The TV season that is.
If you've been watching coverage of NCAA March Madness (on CBS, TBS, TNT, and whatever TruTV is). or one of the other broadcast networks you've no doubt seen promos for exciting new shows premiering this month.
Except in a few rare cases, these are the shows that networks are just burning off. Don't expect to see anything great.
When networks buy shows for the Fall Season in May (the Upfronts) they also buy mid-season back up shows. They don't know where they're going to put them, but supposedly they like them and want them ready to go.
Actually, in some cases a network will hold back a show they really love until mid-season because there will be less competition than in the Fall when everybody is rolling out tons of new product.
Once a network picks up a series the production company usually goes right to work making them. That way they'll be available should the network need it sooner than expected (there's usually one or two new Fall series that crash and burn immediately after take off), and in such a case the network might order more episodes of yours than just the initial six or thirteen or whatever they gave you.
What that means is by November a network has a pretty good idea of how good all of their back-up shows are. And invariably they fall out of love with one or three of them. So those don't get scheduled in January; they get launched in March/April when the TV season is effectively over. As a result these March shows have very little chance of getting renewed. They have to spark like say THE MASKED SINGER (although that premiered months ago) or they're gone.
So good luck to the shows premiering now. You'll notice that sometimes networks will play "two brand new episodes back to back!" That's a dead giveaway for burn-off.
Many of the actors in these March shows are already landing pilots for next season because it's a good bet their current show isn't coming back. Like I said, it's a clearance sale.
The networks are just marking time until the summer when they can load up their schedules with reality shows, cheesy game shows, and anything that can be hosted by Steve Harvey. It's the cycle of life.
from By Ken Levine
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