One of the tougher tricks to pull off when attempting to watch all the new shows that I want to sample is figuring out how to fit them into an already overstuffed television viewing habit. For example, here’s what my DVR was set to record last night:
8:00 – New Girl
8:30 – Ben & Kate
9:00 – New Girl
9:30 – The Mindy Project
10:00 – Vegas
11:00 – The Daily Show
11:30 – The Colbert Report
Even taking out Ben & Kate and The Mindy Project (whose pilots I watched early and wrote about here), with only limited time to watch television, that still left me with the question of watching shows that I already enjoy, or taking a chance on a pilot.
All of this is to say that I didn’t watch Vegas last night.
But that brings me to a larger point about the difficulty of launching a new show – not only do you have expectations heaped upon you after being chosen, selected for survival after all the pilots and scripts and pitches that came and fell before you, but you also have to compete with other shows that are already within the viewing rotation of the public (and in the DVR age, you’re not just competing against your timeslot, but against all of television, even reruns of Yes, Dear).
It’s certainly a daunting task.
I should note, however, that I don’t anticipate this becoming the type of site where I do weekly reviews or recaps (there are much more qualified and talented writers who can handle that), but I will say that I think my choice of sticking to what I know (The New Girl and The Daily Show) proved to be sufficiently entertaining for one evening.
Tomorrow: we discuss more comedies, including The Neighbors, which people have already derided (but whose script I enjoyed reading).
