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Television

10 Reruns Networks Should Show Instead of Their Current, Low-Rated Series

By Jason Bailey on

Here’s one of those instances where you have to remember that The Onion and A.V. Club are separate entities, so when you see a headline like, “Things are so bad for NBC, The Office and 1600 Penn are being bumped in favor of Matlock reruns,” you realize that this is not a parody story, but a thing that actually happened. Yes, WKYC, the Cleveland affiliate for NBC (which finished the last sweeps period in fifth place, behind CBS, Fox, ABC, y Univision) preempted last Thursday’s reruns of The Office and Law and Order: SVU, and a new episode of 1600 Penn, to air a two-hour Matlock episode from 1992. And here’s the best part: in the first hour, WKYC got better ratings for a show old enough to be a drinking human than it did for brand-new programming from the struggling Peacock. The Cleveland station may be onto something: what if networks replaced new shows dwelling in the ratings cellar with reruns of classics that would appeal to the same (or a larger) audience? We’ve got some suggestions after the jump. … Read More

Television

Why ‘Community’ and ‘Go On’ Look So Similar But Feel So Different

By Jane Hu on

When Go On – NBC’s new sitcom about a community of misfits – aired its pilot this season, it brought comparisons with, well, Community. Todd VanDerWerff and Alyssa Rosenberg were two of many TV writers who noted the similarity from the start. Go On and Community involve ensemble casts, and both ensembles contain a mishmash of outsiders. Where Community had a community college study group, Go On featured a therapy group (that meets, it seems, at some sort of community center). These two comedies play on outsiders that never really fit in, until now. They’re not so odd when brought together, as we come to discover. Together, they even one another out. Go On and Community are predominantly character-driven sitcoms, asking viewers to care about the communities they portray, and prompting viewers, even, to join them.

Now ten episodes in, Go On has been doing relatively well this season (it’s certainly faring better than NBC’s Guys with Kids). It’s been picked up for a full 22-episode season, and while it hasn’t retained the 16-something million viewers that tuned in for its pilot, it still consistently bats a better average than NBC’s other Tuesday-night sitcom, The New Normal. Hovering just above six million viewers per episode, Go On is still reaching about two million more than its so-called predecessor Community. So, could Go On be the next Community? It doesn’t look like it. But it could be, in a sense, the more popular (populist?) Community. … Read More

Television

Watch the First Episode of Matthew Perry’s New Show

By Caroline Stanley on

Alas, poor Matthew Perry. We’d argue that out of all of the former Friends, with the possible exception of David Schwimmer, he’s had the toughest time of it since the hit show wrapped back in 2004 — which is odd, because we always found him to be the most likeable member of the cast. Luckily, it looks like things could finally be turning around for good ol’ Chandler Bing. Last night, NBC aired the pilot of Perry’s new show, Go On, a comedy about a radio talk host ordered into grief counseling by his boss, in a prime, post-Olympic coverage spot. Over 16 million viewers remained tuned-in to the preview — not too shabby, given the fact that it was after 11pm on a Wednesday night. The network is currently streaming the first episode online; if you’re curious, take a peek, and let us know in the comments if you think this show will fare better than Mr. Sunshine when it officially debuts in September. … Read More