Wondering when, exactly, your favorite shows are returning? I made a gallery for that.
I’m just going to save you the frustration right now and tell you that we still don’t know when, exactly, Game of Thrones is returning. Winter is coming sometime this summer, that’s all we know. I can tell you that Better Call Saul returns on April 10th, so there’s that, right?
Here’s a Bunch of Stuff about This is Us:
This is Us has been renewed by NBC for two more seasons, demonstrating that NBC has finally learned that they shouldn’t let go of a good thing.
Will there be a This is Us spinoff? The short answer: no.
Here are two very confusing headlines about This is Us:
- This Is Us Creator: You Won’t Find Out How Jack Died for a While
- This Is Us Will Begin to Reveal How Jack Dies Very Soon
WELL, WHICH IS IT?
In Other Television News:
NBC’s upcoming mockumentary comedy, Trial & Error, is going to focus on a new criminal case each season. (Assuming it is renewed for more seasons.)
And the new Tina Fey Robert Carlock comedy, Great News, is basically 30 Rock but with a whole mother subplot.
As for Powerless, the upcoming superhero comedy, it’s been going through a lot of creative changes to place the DC comic world much more front and center. A friend of mine from high school, her husband Ben Queen developed the show originally with the idea that it would be about an insurance company that deals with damage claims caused by superheroes saving the world, and they would use DC heroes, but minor ones. Ben was then removed as showrunner a month after Comic-Con and suddenly the insurance company became a research and development lab for Wayne industries, as in Bruce Wayne and now the Justice League is a whole part of the story and basically NBC wants some of those comic book dolla dolla bills, y’all.
NOT COOL, STEVE CARELL:
Ugly Betty’s father is going to be Amy’s father on Superstore.
I guess Jimmy Fallon will probably be the host of the Golden Globes next year. Super.
NBCUniversal is going to rebrand the Esquire Channel, having finally realized that TV audiences don’t give a shit about magazine brands.
Game of Thrones just isn’t going to have enough time for all the flashbacks that book nerds hope to see. Personally, I’m cool with that as long as — and this is HUGELY important to me — as long as Bran’s ability to manipulate the past (as seen by the whole Hodor incident) comes into play again. If that’s the last time we see Bran shaping the past, I’m going to be HELLA MAD.
Cersei isn’t the only dangerous queen on television. Reign’s final season begins next month. (I actually love this silly historical drama, but would not go out of my way to recommend it.):
Uh-oh, sounds like Damon Lindelof might be making another controversial series finale over at The Leftovers. Please don’t make me have to explain it to people, Damon.
Here are just a bunch of American Horror Story theme suggestions. Personally, my favorite is American Horror Story: Sarah Paulson Plays All the Characters.
Netflix does not need live sports, guys, stop trying to make live sports happen for Netflix.
Sherri Shepherd and The View are never ever ever going to get back together.
It’s Always Sunny is maybe the best meta-comedy about the television business out there. Last night’s episode was a revelation. For a comedy that is in its 10th season, it is as vital and hilarious as ever.
In Development News:
Monica Lewinsky very well might be the subject of an upcoming season of American Crime Story. The producers optioned Jeffrey Toobin’s book about the scandal. Fun fact: it was also Toobin’s book that The People vs. O.J. was based on.
Amazon is going to turn Good Omens, a HILARIOUS novel about the apocalypse by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, into a limited series and I. CAN. NOT. WAIT.
This is Us might not be getting a spinoff any time soon, but Scandal is. Gladiator: Wanted will broadcast exclusively online.
Renewal News:
Major Crimes, a show I have never seen a single second of, has been renewed for a 6th season.
After 51 seasons (!!!!), NBC couldn’t say that Days of Our Lives is safe. It’s hard out there for a soap opera.
Your TV Donald Trump Dump:
The President-Elect (for ~gulp~ one more day) was quiet over the last 24 hours, fortunately for my brittle sanity. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t any news:
Kawasaki will no longer advertise on The Celebrity Apprentice thanks to Trump’s ties to the show. Shockingly, the Twitterer-in-Chief hasn’t had a meltdown about it yet.
Billy Eichner went after Jimmy Fallon for normalizing Trump: “Moving forward, with how potentially dangerous these guys can be, you can’t be fluffing a Nazi sympathizer’s hair on television.”
Everyone is talking about Full Frontal with Samantha Bee‘s piece on Trump’s “Spokescobra” Kellyanne Conway last night, which was great and you can watch it right here.
But if you want to watch something truly terrifying, you need to watch this segment with Masha Gessen, a woman who was forced to flee Putin’s Russia:
C-SPAN is pretty sure Russia didn’t hack them the other day. OK.
Will a Trump Presidency affect Super Bowl ads?
And in anti-Trump news, President Obama mentioned how important Ellen was to the advancement of LGBT rights in his final press conference as President yesterday.
And Ellen honored them right back:
But perhaps more importantly, President Obama discussed at length the importance of a free media:
I want to thank all of you. Some of you have been covering me for a long time. […] Some of you I’ve just gotten to know. […] Even when you complain about my long answers, I just want you to know that the only reason they were long is because you ask six-part questions. But I have enjoyed working with all of you.
That does not, of course, mean that I’ve enjoyed every story that you have filed, but that’s the point of this relationship. You’re not supposed to be sycophants, you’re supposed to be skeptics. You’re supposed to ask me tough questions. You’re not supposed to be complimentary, but you’re supposed to cast a critical eye on folks who hold enormous power, and make sure that we are accountable to the people who sent us here. And you have done that, and you’ve done it, for the most part, in ways that I could appreciate for fairness, even if I didn’t always agree with your conclusions.
And having you in this building has made this place work better. It keeps us honest, it makes us work harder. You have made us think about how we are doing what we do, and whether or not we’re able to deliver on what’s been requested by our constituents. […]
I spent a lot of time in my farewell address talking about the state of our democracy. It goes without saying that essential to that is a free press. That is part of how this place, this country, this grand experiment in self-government has to work. It doesn’t work if we don’t have a well-informed citizenry, and you are the conduit through which they receive the information about what’s taking place in the halls of power. So America needs you, and democracy needs you. We need you to establish a baseline of facts and evidence that we can use as a starting point for the kind of reasoned and informed debates that ultimately lead to progress.
And so my hope is that you will continue with the same tenacity that you showed us, to do the hard work of getting to the bottom of stories and getting them right, and to push those of us in power to be the best version of ourselves, and to push this country to be the best version of itself. I have no doubt that you will do so. […]
I want to thank you all for your extraordinary service to our democracy.
WATCH THIS
The Good Place: The one-hour finale, ALREADY?! Didn’t we just get this BACK? 7 p.m., NBC
Baskets: “Chip chooses between a tarp and snacks.” Sounds hilarious. Season premiere. 9 p.m., FX
Mom: Hey, Chris Pratt is going to be on this episode against opposite of his wife Anna Faris. 8 p.m., CBS
Through the Fire: The Legacy of Barack Obama: I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT. 8 p.m., BET
Late Night: Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Aziz Ansari, Carrie Brownstein, Panic! at the Disco Late Night with Seth Meyers: Jim Parsons, Ben McKenzie, Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer, Leah Shapiro The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Johnny Galecki, Chris Matthews, Bash & Pop The Late Late Show with James Corden: Chris Hardwick, Nina Dobrev, Fitz and the Tantrums Jimmy Kimmel Live: Priyanka Chopra, Maren Morris Conan: Ted Danson, Gad Elmaleh, Josh Abbott Band The Daily Show: Scott Conroy, James McAvoy Watch What Happens Live: Idina Menzel, Rachel Bloom
| WEDS. | 7:00 | 7:30 | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 |
| ABC | Grey’s Anatomy (repeat) |
Scandal (repeat) |
America’s New First Family (new) |
| CBS | The Big Bang Theory (new) |
The Great Indoors (new) |
Mom (new) |
Life in Pieces (new) |
Pure Genius (new) |
| CW | DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (repeat) |
Supernatural (repeat) |
News/Local |
| FOX | Hell’s Kitchen (new) |
My Kitchen Rules (new) |
News/Local |
| NBC | The Good Place (new) |
Chicago Med (new) |
The Blacklist (new) |
TOO SOON! THE ANSWER IS TOO SOON! I HAVEN’T CAUGHT UP ON MY RECAPS YET! THANKS OBAMA.