Recently it was reported that FOX was picking up ‘Til Death but taking a pass on Back to You (FOX also decided to pass on New Amsterdam). Now TV Week is reporting that CBS is taking a look at picking up Back to You.
From a ratings perspective, Back to You did not perform much better than ‘Til Death. It had more viewers and households, but on an 18-49 basis both shows were tied for 104th through the week of May 4th. Back to You was #107 in overall household rating compared to 122 for ‘Til Death (ironically, tied with Jericho, but alas, Jericho was 137th in the 18-49 demo).
But production costs for Back to You may be much higher, especially given its two stars, Kelsey Grammer (of Cheers/Frasier fame) and Patricia Heaton (King of Queens Everybody Loves Raymond). CBS has been rumored to be considering a second night of comedies, and if they stuck back to you on Monday nights following Two and a Half Men it would no doubt perform considerably better than it did on FOX.
TV Week reports that CBS boss Leslie Moonves has received five episodes of Back to You to screen, and to be honest, I’m a little surprised to find that’s falling on Moonves as opposed to CBS Entertainment president, Nina Tassler. I imagine Ms. Tassler is less surprised than I am.
Update 9:25pm PDT: Here’s a Variety story from tonight that discusses CBS is considering adding another comedy block.
May 11th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
FOX is stupid to let NA go.
May 11th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
I think Patricia Heaton is actually from Everybody Loves Raymond. She was in King of Queens, but only for one episode.
May 11th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Back to You is one of the most promising shows of the year with two of the best comedic actors on TV .Heaton & Grammer have terrific chemistry together. Hope CBS gives it a chance!
May 11th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
I love Heaton and Grammer and they have chemistry………but the show is a typical sitcom with predictable laughs. I would compare it to Christine and Rules of Engagement, which are pretty bad compared to the others. Not all laugh track comedies are predictable (by predictable, I mean- I can pause it and say the punchline). Although I prefer clever non-laugh track shows- HIMYM, Two and a Half Men, and Big Bang Theory are much better choices.
May 11th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
This is a brilliant idea, IMO, because Grammer and Heaton alone represent a majority of Two and a Half Men's audience. It's extremely likely that the pair could attract high ratings depending on its placement in CBS' crowded lineup.
If you bring in Back To You, though, I don't think there's enough room to bring back both Rules of Engagement AND Old Christine. I think it's safe to say that both are great comedies, but Rules of Engagement wins here because it has held more of 2.5 Men's 18-49 demo audience than Christine has. Another factor is that ABC is ready to pick up Old Christine and probably will, seeing as though they can't find too many hits with comedies besides Samantha Who.
This raises the question, to me especially, of whether CBS will introduce another comedy block in a saturated one-hour or elongated two-hour form. They've done this in the recent past, one time on Sundays at 8:00pm before Cold Case began running and on Wednesdays at 8:00 and 9:00 separately. The pros are that it clears up more space to allow other comedies to run their entire season without being interrupted with the risk of losing viewers. The cons are that it potentially alienates one block of shows, leading to lower ratings.
An extra block would probably find itself most reliably on Thursdays. This is a night that CBS can win and I think they even have the potential to win the 18-49 demographic on there, even with LOST and Grey's Anatomy. They should place, I think, two big 18-49 cash cows (perhaps HIMYM and BBT) on Thursdays at 8:00pm and move Survivor to Wednesdays at 8pm. The Thursday at 8pm slot isn't particularly crowded: Ugly Betty has been underperforming ever since its first season, even in the demo; Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? has bright but mostly dull nights, and Earl & 30 Rock don't attract large amounts of viewers at all. Such a move would clear up room for two new comedies, perhaps allowing CBS to spread out their comedies.
A more sensible option (at least for CBS) is to swap out comedies: Rules of Engagement and Back To You splitting episodes over mid-season and such, etc. I think we can all agree, though, that either Rules of Engagement or Old Christine will not be returning. For me, I'd put a wager on Old Christine getting canceled and then moving to ABC.
May 11th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I'm not so sure, Shane. If CBS wants to add a second comedy block to the week it's not only possible that both Christine and Rules comes back, it's probable. I'm not sure that taking a flyer on Back to You would make any sense *unless* they were looking to add an additional block, but we won't have to wait long to find out.
May 11th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
I haven't watched all the back to you eps, but from what i saw i was baffled. It had a great cast, decent premise, and the jokes weren't half bad, but add it all up and it was less than the sum of its parts. Not a great show, but than again neither is rules.
May 11th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
I'm sad that New Amsterdam didn't make the cut- not really surprised, but still sad. I enjoyed the show. If it wasn't for Family Guy I wouldn't even be watching Fox. I just can't depend on Fox to give a good show a chance (RIP Firefly, Wonderfalls, the list could go on and on).
May 14th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I loved Back To You. It was refreshing and the jokes were not all about Sex, like in Old Christine. It had class, style and genuine humor. It was the first comedy our household looked forward to watching in quite a while! I'm sorry they won't give it a chance. All those reality shows are really getting ho hum.