Axiom's Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

By John J. Joex

ABC's reboot of V debuts at mid-season.

The broadcast networks have all announced their schedules, and now with the current season just about wrapped up, it’s time to sit back and wait for three and a half months for the new season to begin. Next season’s Fall Science Fiction and Fantasy lineup from the networks is a bit slimmer, than last year. There are ten shows in the genre vs. the twelve that bowed in Fall last year (that’s excluding The Mentalist which I am no longer counting as a Science Fiction and Fantasy show and never should have in the first place). An additional six are on the schedule for mid-year bows, bringing the total to sixteen, still pretty respectable when you consider this does not include the off-network entries. Of next season’s shows, nine are returning and seven are new.

Among the returning shows, Dollhouse was the biggest surprise with its miracle renewal. I’ve heard others say it across the internet and I will say it as well, count this as the first time that DVR viewing and Internet downloads helped keep a network show alive. This could represent a turning point in the way network executives think, but we will see how things shake out next season. You could also consider the renewals of Heroes and Chuck a surprise based on the poor rating performance for both, but that was mostly a factor of NBC being in fourth place among the networks. Had either of these shows been on one of the stronger performing networks, they would have been history. And before Chuck fans come after me with torches and pitchforks, know I think that show deserved its renewal, I’m just noting how this bucks the trends of previous network executive decisions.

In the Fall, DVRs will be busy on Thursday and Friday nights as eight of the ten shows air across those two nights. FOX’s decision to move Fringe to Thursdays at 9 PM will pit it against some pretty strong competition with CBS’s CSI and ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy. But then it did held its own this season against CBS’s freshman hit The Mentalist. The Thursday 8 PM slot seems a bit strange for ABC’s new serialized drama Flash Forward, so it may struggle a bit there. And I really would have liked to see FOX move Dollhouse into a better slot than the Friday 9 PM hour where it struggled this season. But maybe that will mean that expectations will remain low for its ratings next year.

NBC is breaking up Chuck and Heroes next season with their new strategy of “timeslot sharing”. Heroes will take the Monday 8 PM hour the first half of the season, then Chuck will return to that slot after the winter hiatus. This keeps costs and episode orders down, but I’m not sure if it will do much to help the ratings for either.

Check out the full schedule for the networks’ Science Fiction and Fantasy offerings for next season at this link: axiomsedge-scifi.com/wordpress/fall-2009-sci-fi-tv/

We will augment this with the off-network shows when we receive the information on that scheduling and will run a full preview of next season later in the Summer. You can check the final status of all the 2008-09 season Science Fiction and Fantasy shows at our Cancellation Watch page. Also, over the next two weeks I will issue my network report cards and final wrap-up of the 2008-09 season and give you the chance to cast your vote on this past year’s shows as well.

Also, don’t fret about the end of the season. The Summer shows are just around the corner with quite a number of decent offerings on the way. We will post a full Summer 2009 preview later this week.

Also, check out Sci Fi Wire’s take on the upcoming season: scifiwire.com/2009/05/fall-tv-which-sci-fifanta.php