There are three main thematic areas for the U.S. TV series’ next season. The Upfronts, the most important four days of the American television during which broadcast networks announce their primetime schedules to advertisers, couldn’t help reflect the zeitgeist represented by an extraordinary event such as the election of Donald Trump. The increasing number of ‘patriotic’ titles leveraging traditional values of national identity (NBC’s The Brave, CBS’s Seal Team and CW’s Valor) goes hand in hand with the opposite topic, such as in the next season of American Horror Story (FX), set during a harsh election campaign.
The number of remakes is substantial as well. Dynasty is back: the queen of soap operas during the era of Ronald Reagan told the events of a Texan family in the oil business. The series revolved around the patriarch Blake Carrington (John Forsythe, who passed away in 2010), his wife Krystle (Linda Evans) and his ex-wife Alexis (Joan Collins); the reboot will focus on the rivalry between the young Fallon Carrington (Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll’s Elizabeth Gillies) and the girlfriend of her father, played by Melrose Place’s Grant Show.
We’ll watch Will & Grace revival, the beloved sitcom about the friendship between an interior designer and a gay lawyer broadcasted until 2006. Two famous spin-offs have been announced: one from Grey’s Anatomy, the other one from The Big Bang Theory. From the latter, CBS has announced Young Sheldon, starring Iain Armitage as young Cooper, while ShondaLand (that’s the name of the company founded by Shonda Rhimes, one of the most beloved screenwriter in America) has renewed Grey’s Anatomy for the 14th season and has announced a spin-off about Seattle firefighters.
ABC also revives an American working-class classic: Roseanne, broadcasted from 1988 to 1997 and starring Roseanne Barr and John Goodman, will come back with 8 episodes in 2018.
Although the Upfronts announcements, expectations suggest a reduction of investments in advertising. With a decreasing TV audience and the diffusion of digital video recorders that make it possible to skip commercials, this represents only a share of networks’ profits, especially because television consumption is different than it was a few years ago. As a result, the future of a series is decreasingly tied to ratings and increasingly tied to commercial agreements with streaming platforms and foreign partners. Netflix, Amazon and Hulu pay huge sums to networks to broadcast a series right after its first season and the international market is hungry as well.
