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Networks’ love of familiar titles was not rewarded with viewers this season

CBS

Networks’ love of familiar titles was not rewarded with viewers this season

For the 2015-16 TV season, TV shows with familiar titles were the big bet by the major broadcast networks, but it’s one that didn’t pay off.

With next week’s debut of CBS’s “Rush Hour” (10 p.m. Thursday, KDKA-TV), based on the 1998 Chris Tucker-Jackie Chan movie, we’ve pretty much made it through all the series based on IP (aka “intellectual property” in Hollywood speak).

A paint-by-numbers action-comedy starring relative unknowns Justin Hires (“21 Jump Street) and Jon Foo (“Tekken”) in place of Mr. Tucker and Mr. Chan, “Rush Hour” feels like a ghost of CBS action-procedurals past (think: “Martial Law,” circa 1998-2000). But no matter, it has a familiar title, which is the sort of life preserver network executives love.

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But this TV season proves that if a TV show doesn’t have the goods, having a familiar title alone is meaningless. Or worse, it can hurt a series because a known title comes with too-high viewer expectations.

Fox’s “Minority Report” flopped right out of the gate last fall, and ABC’s “The Muppets” saw its audience dwindle, leading to a creative retooling midway through the season.

Perhaps that’s why scanning the network development charts for the 2016-17 TV season there appears to be less emphasis on known titles. To be sure, there are still some: ABC has another Marvel series (“Marvel’s Most Wanted”); CBS offers a new “Nancy Drew” and NBC may add a fourth Chicago-set series from producer Dick Wolf, “Chicago Law.”

So what trends can we ferret out from the pilot orders for 2016-17? Family comedies are big (again!), and “Making a Murderer” and “The Jinx” have inspired a raft of crime drama pilots.

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Of course, these are just pilot trends. We won’t know if these pilots actually become TV series trends until the networks announce their 2016-17 schedules in May. That’s also when viewers will learn the fates of TV shows in limbo, an increasingly smaller number of prime-time series that have been neither kept nor canceled.

One locally made pilot is in contention for broadcast networks’ fall schedules.

ABC will make a decision by May whether to move forward with the comedy series “Downward Dog,” about a woman (Allison Tolman) and her talking dog. “Downward Dog” filmed its pilot locally in December with the intent to return to Pittsburgh to film the series. What are the odds of a pickup? Probably less than they were before ABC executive Paul Lee, who ordered the pilot and has a penchant for offbeat shows, was forced out last month.

Even if “Downward Dog” gets ordered to series, there’s another potential wrinkle that could impact its return to Pittsburgh: If there’s no state budget in the offing for 2016-17, that means no approval for projects through the state’s film tax credit program, which could force TV and film projects to look to film in states with more reliable/​secure film tax credit programs.

Walking ‘The Path’

Streaming service Hulu debuts “The Path,” its latest original scripted drama, Wednesday and it stars “Breaking Bad” alumnus Aaron Paul as a member of a religious cult who develops doubts about the faith after venturing to the group’s retreat in Peru.

In the #PeakTV era, it can be a challenge to find a drama whose focus topic hasn’t been covered by a previous program, but “The Path” manages to tread some new ground as it explores a religion that seems inspired by both hippie communes and Scientology. The first hour lacks drama — a lengthy, uninvolving sermon by the group’s No. 2, Cal (Hugh Dancy, “Hannibal”), doesn’t help matters — but the second hour ups the tension in a way that suggests series creator Jessica Goldberg (“Parenthood”) heeded network notes for added stakes. (A federal investigator begins looking into the Meyerist faith; viewers get answers about the group’s leader, who’s supposedly holed up somewhere writing the last books in the faith’s bible.)

But the show’s primary dramatic conflict rests on Mr. Paul’s Eddie refusing to level with his wife, Sarah (Michelle Monaghan), who was born into Meyerism. He’d rather have her believe he’s having an affair than know the truth: He’s beginning to lose faith in Meyerism after a vision and meets with a former member who’s being hounded by the group’s thug enforcers.

It’s frustrating when a series hitches its drama to a lack of communication as its primary conceit because the solution seems so simple: Just ’fess up! The addition of new sources of dramatic conflict in episode two helps explain Eddie’s choice but doesn’t completely eliminate the show’s weak dramatic raison d’etre.

‘Masterpiece’ returnees

Turns out 2016 isn’t just the year of the “Downton Abbey” swan song, it’s also the end for one of the lesser lights in the “Masterpiece” constellation. “Mr. Selfridge” returns Sunday at 10 p.m. on WQED-TV for what PBS bills as the show’s final season, which runs through May 22.

The Jeremy Piven-starring drama will be preceded by the second season of “Masterpiece Mystery!” entry “Grantchester” at 9 p.m., which airs new episodes through May 1.

Kept/​canceled

History renewed “Vikings” for a 20-episode fifth season to air in 2017 with Jonathan Rhys Meyers (“The Tudors”) joining the cast.

Showtime renewed docuseries “Dark Net” for a second season.

Sundance will air a second season of “Top of the Lake” in 2017 with Elizabeth Moss returning to star, joined by Gwendoline Christie (“Game of Thrones”).

Channel surfing

Swissvale native Billy Gardell lined up a post-“Mike & Molly” role this week: He’ll play Elvis Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, in CMT’s “Million Dollar Quartet,” about the recording sessions of icons Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. It’s expected to air in November. ... PBS’s “Peg + Cat,” produced by the Pittsburgh-based Fred Rogers Company, will debut a one-hour special Monday (10:30 a.m., WQED-TV) followed by four new episodes the week of April 4. … For its latest edition of “Chronicle” (8 p.m. April 1), WTAE goes to Pirates’ spring training for “Bucs in Bradenton.”

Tuned In online

Today’s TV Q&A column responds to questions about “Lucifer,” “Crossing Lines” and local TV news. This week’s Tuned In Journal includes posts on “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” “Peg + Cat,” “Outsiders” and “Crowded.” Read online-only TV content at http://​communityvoices.post-gazette.com/​arts-entertainment-living/​tuned-in.

Tuned In podcast has the week off.

TV writer Rob Owen: rowen@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2582. Follow RobOwenTV on Twitter or Facebook for breaking TV news.

First Published: March 25, 2016, 4:00 a.m.

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