As upfront week hits, almost all of the renewals and cancellations have been announced. This week we run through which shows will be returning, and which will be readying those complete series DVD sets.
As we head to the finish line for the season, more renewals are rolling in. CW has given golden tickets to ‘Vampire Diaries’, ‘Supernatural’, and ‘90210’, while HBO has tapped both ‘Veep’ and ‘Girls’ for second seasons.
Last week brought a rare sighting to broadcast television, in the form of the lowest rated dramatic premiere ever. Amazingly, that was followed by a renewal for the lowest rated show on another network. Meanwhile, over on cable, the going was also slow for the latest from HBO.
Things are very good for the denizens of Westeros. HBO’s ‘Game Of Thrones’ returned for season two at series high levels. The news wasn’t so good for the other big cable premiere for the week, ‘The Killing’. That was was down from the end of the first season.
The big story last week was the premiere of ‘Mad Men’, which returned from an extended hiatus to record viewing levels. Over on the networks, week two of ‘Touch’ raises some questions and the prospects for ‘Community’ continue to improve.
Premieres for ‘GCB’ and ‘Breaking In’ came in at somewhat less than ABC and FOX might have been hoping for, falling well short of a repeat ‘Big Bang’ on CBS. Over on cable, the premiere of “Breakout Kings’ did nothing to slow down the ‘Walking Dead’ juggernaut.
Our regularly scheduled programming was interrupted this week by the ‘Academy Awards’, the surprise prime-time appearance of the ‘Daytona 500′, and a triple shot of ‘Idol’. That brought a few unexpected drops to the numbers. On cable, ‘The Walking Dead’ continues to rule.