10 New Pilots Headed For A Crash Landing

marketing-shift-logo.pngIt’s not very politically correct, but I’ve always been fascinated by dead pools. I’ve never actually participated in one, but there is something about wagering on life and death that appeals to the degenerate gambler in me.Since I’m pretty sure that participating in a dead pool is illegal in San Francisco, I suppose that I will have to live with the next best thing, dead TV pools. Marketing Shift is putting on a contest where they are asking readers to try and pick ten of the new shows, that you think will be off the air by the end of the fall season.

The winner of the contest will be the first person to have all ten of their picks canceled. The winner will receive a little bit of link love from MarketingShift.com, but the loser ends up with an internship at Cat World the CW ;)

If you want to see a list of all the candidates for the pool, you’ll find it on Marketing Shift’s website, but here are my picks for their first annual TV dead pool contest:

1.) K-Ville – I already have a season pass for this, but even though I think I’ll like it, I don’t see it taking off. Hurricane Katrina may be something that people feel connected to, but I don’t think that it will be enough to keep this show on the air, two years later.

2.) Chuck – I caught the pilot on this one and it seems like too much of a niche program to catch on in the mainstream. I’ll be tuning in until they kill this one, but I think this will be one of the first victims of poor ratings and too little patience by the studios.

3.) Pushing Daises – Admittedly, this one looks intriguing to me, but I think that Disney’s family angle will keep this show from being popular. If it was on HBO, I’m sure that this dark comedy would be very successful, but on the Disney Channel ABC it will end up too watered down to survive.

4.) Kitchen Nightmares – I can’t understand why any of the food shows are popular, but this wannna be Wolfgang Puck will go no where with his temper tantrums and scripted outbursts.

5.) Life – This one is just a little too quirky for me to believe that it will survive. If this was on the USA Network or FX, I could see them carving out a niche cable audience, but even NBC won’t be desperate enough to keep this around for too long.

6.) Caveman – This is one of the shows that I’m really looking forward to. The Geico ads were creative to begin with, but I’m also a fan of product placement over the 30 second ads. There seemed to be a lot of initial interest in the show, but I’m worry that it will get pulled after reading some sub-par reviews. I hope I’m wrong about this one, but only think the Caveman joke will go so far with primetime audiences.

7.) Life Is Wild – Between The Office and the upcoming US adaption of Coupling, we’ve seen strong interest in US based versions of UK programmes. Even though this will be an adaption of the hit UK drama Wild at Heart, I’m still not convinced that it will translate well for US based audiences. Since this one will be on the CW, it could always stick around even if no one watches, but I think that the CW can get better ratings with King of the Hill reruns and we’ll see them drop it.

8.) Viva Laughlin – This is another UK based show that is being produced for a US audience. It does have the very popular Hugh Jackman in the show, but somehow I don’t think the US is quite ready for a musical dramedy. I understood when Comedy Central picked Reno to make fun of Cops, but does anyone really believe that people want to watch a show based out of Laughlin?

9.) Samantha Who? – I’ll admit to having tuned into Married with Children episodes just to see Christina Applegate (Heck, I’ll even admit to watching her movie Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead), but now that she is starting to get older, I don’t see this one having the sex appeal to keep bringing audiences back.

10.) Moonlight – I’m a HUGE horror movie buff, but even this one looks cheesy to me. To make matters worse, CBS has put the show on their Friday night spot. This isn’t a bad time slot if you’re Numbers and are appealing to a baby boomer audience, but horror fans tend to go out on the weekends and aren’t going to stick around for something that looks this flimsy.

As a special bonus pick, I’m going to name Carpoolers as the season’s surprise hit. There may be other shows that end up getting better ratings, but I think that this one is going to do much better than the expectations. In about two to three years, it will be just as popular as the Office.

Davis Freeberg is a technology enthusiast living in the Bay Area. He enjoys writing about movies, music, and the impact that digital technology is having on traditional media. Read more of his musings at www.davisfreeberg.com.

12 thoughts on “10 New Pilots Headed For A Crash Landing”

  1. Davis,
    I don’t want you to think I’m hating on you every time you post, but Caveman? Really? You’re looking forward to it? A lot of interest in the show? Really? The only interest in the show that I’ve seen is how bad of an idea it is. and how quickly it will fail. Can I list that as all ten of my deadpool picks? Where’s Jim Carrey when you need him?

  2. Watch all 6 Previews !!!!!!!!!! Viva Laughlin Preview – New Series From CBS. I know what I like, and I like this Show. You decide if you like Viva Laughlin:

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=FDVpwO4fWb0
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=k41ys4hjFT4&mode=related&search

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=pbg1VHjCOQ4&mode=related&search
    http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/3325824/
    http://www.upn.com/primetime/viva_laughlin/

    VIVA LAUGHLIN, the new mystery drama with music, will have a special preview on Thursday, Oct. 18 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) following CSI before moving to its regular Sunday (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) time period on Oct. 21 to take advantage of a two week window in the schedule without football overruns.

    Thursday, Oct. 18
    10:00-11:00 PM VIVA LAUGHLIN (Special Preview)

    Sunday, Oct. 21
    8:00-9:00 PM VIVA LAUGHLIN (Time Period Premiere)

  3. When I first heard those GEICO Cavemen were going to end up in a show, I thought it would be pretty clever and entertaining. But at some point, I started wondering what they were thinking. Can 30 seconds of creative and entertaining content probably be transformed into 20+ minutes of good content each week? Doubtful. The only short that I can think of that became a good show (or movie) is the Simpsons.

    I’ll check out Kitchen Nightmares. I enjoy watching Ramsey flip out, he’s very entertaining and seems authentic if somewhat over the top.

  4. Talk about a one-joke premise…

    Get it–they’re CAVEMEN!–in today’s world!

    boy, would I have loved to be in that pitch meeting.

  5. and don’t get me wrong, I like Pauly Shore just as much as the next guy. How are these new cavemen going to stack up against Brendon Fraser? (now that’s an actor!)

    wow, I am in a foul mood today.

  6. Pol Pot Pie do not think you are hating on me. Believe me I know that I’ve got eclectic tastes when it comes to television. I still watch Matlock reruns whenever I can. I like Caveman in part because I think the dead pan commercials are funny, but also because I want to see product placements replace the 30 second spots. If Geico can make this funny, it’d prove that you don’t need commercials to fund a sitcom. I haven’t heard if they are going to have a commercials, but the first program to go commercial free will get lots of buzz.

    I think I would choose Pauly Shore over Brendon Fraser anyday.

  7. Both of the Mummy’s were pretty bad. I can’t think of a single movie that he’s been in that I liked. Just look at some of his winners. Bedazzled, Dudley, Do Right, Duckman!, give me a break. His only good role was in Airheads and even Adam Sandler could not save that.

  8. OMG, I forgot about Dudley Do Right, I should have referenced that instead. He’s like a real-life Fred Flintstone–and we’ve come full-circle back to cavemen.

  9. Brendan Frasier was in School Ties and With Honors wasn’t he? I didn’t think those were half bad. Although I have been told before that my taste in movies is a bit off.

    Cavemen though? Good gosh I hate those freaking commercials. There’s no way I’d subject myself to watching a full episode!

  10. Just watched Viva Laughlin…or “Cop Rock on the Colorado” as I call it. I began laughing when the main charecter began singing Viva Las Vegas, halway through I was wishing to be struck deaf. What a turkey. Oh, I live 20 minutes out of Laughlin and I have never seen that many hot chicks in the area. What a fantasy, and a bad show.

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