All through ‘upfronts’ week, TMINE will be revealing the new shows that are going to be hitting US TV screens from September 2019
It’s that time of year again – the ‘upfronts’. What’s that, I hear you ask?
What are the upfronts, TMINE?
It’s when all the US networks reveal to advertisers the new shows that are going to be hitting the TV screens some time from September 2019 through to nowish 2020. However, this isn’t the same as the international screenings, where buyers from TV networks around the world turn up to see what they’d like to acquire, so we won’t know what will be heading our way for quite some time.
This weekend, US TV networks killed off a whole bunch of existing shows (prompting howls of protest from their fans) and are about to commission a whole bunch of new shows (prompting howls of ‘you cancelled x for this rubbish?’ from said-same fans).
4. Freeform’s upfronts
As Freeform is the network formerly known as ABC Family, naturally enough it has it Upfronts on the same day as ABC’s. However, the lesser networks never normally announce many new shows, as they don’t really have much of a schedule to mention. Last year, for example, all Freeform had to announce at its upfronts was:
- Besties, which is now called Unrelated and still hasn’t aired yet
- Pretty Little Liars spin-off The Perfectionists: The Perfectionists, which only started airing two months ago.
However, this year, three is the magic number, with ABC, Fox and NBC all announcing three new shows for the Fall. And now Freeform’s doing the same:
- Motherland: Fort Salem
- Everything’s Gonna Be Okay
- Party of Five
How many of these will we end up seeing and when? Who knows? But welcome to the big leagues, guys.
Want to know more, as well as take a look at trailers for all of them? And do you want to get TMINE’s hottest of hot first takes? Then follow me after the jump…
Motherland: Fort Salem
Alternative-reality show in which the witches of Fort Salem turned out to be real witches and agreed to put magic to work defending the US from other magicians. Three hundred years later, they are the new US military, defending the country from magical terrorists.
TMINE’s hottest of hot takes: The main concept looks mildly interesting, but “girls go to military school” doesn’t. Might go either way, depending on which metaphor they go with, but we can do without Pretty Little Liars: The Exorcists.
Everything’s Gonna Be Okay
A neurotic 25-year-old (Josh Thomas) is visiting his single dad and two teenage half-sisters, one of whom is on the autism spectrum. But when their dad reveals that he is terminally ill, the girls have to cope with not only a devastating loss but also the realisation that Nicholas is the one who will have to rise to the occasion, move in and hold it all together.
TMINE’s hottest of hot takes: Nope. No thank you. Please burn it to the ground.
Party of Five
Remake of the classic 90s drama that follow the five Acosta children as they navigate daily life’s struggles to survive as a family unit after their parents are suddenly deported to Mexico.
TMINE’s hottest of hot takes: Screams “I’m so relevant” in your face, but still manages to look reasonably interesting. And relevant.
