My Planned Viewing Habits: Midseason 2019

It has taken me a while to realize that maybe I should do this post as early as I do it or maybe I shouldn’t write all of it at once. Maybe I should split it up into different sections since not all of the schedule for the midseason is released at once and there could always be changes with it. It is possible that some of what I mention won’t be on until the summer. But I still thought that I would mention what I can for this post about what I plan to watch in the midseason.

What are the shows that I’m still watching that returned this season during the fall? They are the CBS shows of 60 Minutes, NCIS: Los Angeles, Madam Secretary, Bull, NCIS, NCIS: New Orleans, Survivor, SEAL Team, The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon, MacGyver, Hawaii Five-0, Blue Bloods, and S.W.A.T. I still watch the CW shows of Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash, Black Lightning, Legends of Tomorrow, and Dynasty. I plan to watch what I can of Riverdale until Survivor’s return. I still see it online at times.

I still watch the ABC shows of The Good Doctor, Modern Family, Grey’s Anatomy, Station 19, and How to Get Away with Murder. I still see Fresh off the Boat when I can. I’ll be into The Goldbergs for a while. I’ll be getting back into American Housewife when it changes timeslots. I still watch the FOX shows of Bob’s Burgers, The Resident, and The Gifted. I might still watch Family Guy and The Simpsons in the future, but I might not. I still watch the NBC shows of The Good Place, Law and Order: SVU, and Blindspot.

What are the new fall shows that I’m still watching that are on at midseason? I still watch the CW’s new Charmed. I still watch the new CBS shows of FBI, God Friended Me, and Magnum P.I. I still watch the NBC shows of New Amsterdam and Manifest. I still watch the ABC show The Rookie.

What shows am I watching that aren’t on at midseason? Murphy Brown is not on at midseason as it is now over again, possibly for good again. I think that’s probably it this year. Normally there are a lot of these, but not this time.

Here are all of the following new midseason shows that I might watch at least once: Fam on CBS, The Passage on FOX, Roswell, New Mexico on the CW, Schooled on ABC, The World’s Best on CBS, Million Dollar Mile on CBS, Proven Innocent on FOX, Bulletproof on the CW, In the Dark on the CW, Blood & Treasure on CBS, The Code on CBS, and The Red Line on CBS. I might give some NBC show a chance like I normally do, but I also don’t know yet if I will.

Now some shows will be returning at midseason that I’ll be watching. Brooklyn Nine-Nine had moved to NBC for the future and I’ll be watching it like I did when it was on FOX. Another NBC show that I might watch would be Ellen’s Game of Games. As for FOX, I will be watching The Orville and the final season of Gotham. Final seasons of shows will get priority over existing shows that I like in case there are conflicts with scheduling. I’ll be certain to watch iZombie and Jane the Virgin on the CW. As for CBS, I’ll be seeing Instinct and Elementary when they return. I’ll be sure to watch ABC’s For the People and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. when they come back, although Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. won’t be on until the summer.

I now need to mention all of the new fall shows I watched once and didn’t stick around with. They are the CW show All American, the CBS shows of Happy Together and The Neighborhood, and the ABC show Single Parents. With FOX, I had originally planned on watching Rel, but I didn’t stick with it after if first want to commercial. I wound up seeing a rerun of The Cool Kids instead and could watch it again, but probably won’t. It would be if nothing else good is on that I'll see it when it normally airs.

Now I post the usual closing where I point out that plans could change. I might end up seeing more of Chicago Med in the future, but I don’t know for sure if I will. What I do know if that this blog has had its updates alternating on Mondays with my Madam Secretary blog in addition to being published at other, random times. Well, now it will only be posted at random times as I cede Madam Secretary to all of the future Mondays for at least all of January and probably longer. Not sure when I’ll be back yet, just know that it will be sometime in January when I’m hopefully finally done with the cancelled shows post from last season that I’m still not done with yet.

Competitive Time Slots

You probably know by now that some time slots on TV face more competition than other ones do. This is bound to happen a lot. But sometimes, it feels like all of the networks (on major TV, at least) try their best and do whatever they can at the same time instead of competing at times where less people would watch what is on another network.

What’s an example? Well, there are actually tons of different examples of this type of thing. Tuesday at 7 Central is one of the most competitive time slots I’ve seen. I currently watch three things that are on at that time. Well, I might watch less in the future once the schedule changes. Both CBS and the CW are airing shows in a franchise of theirs. FOX is too, technically. NBC airs one of their most popular shows at this time and ABC has aired a highly rated comedy there recently.

But that is hardly the only example. Look at Monday at 9 Central. Despite FOX and the CW not airing shows then, the other networks try very hard at those times. CBS has aired a lot of strong programming then. Both ABC and NBC use the draw of their strong realities shows to create shows that have good lead ins. Despite this, a lot of shows on at this time wind up with lower ratings and have wound up as cancelled over the years.

Let’s get to the most competitive night of all: Thursdays. Thus, like Tuesdays at 7 Central, Thursdays at 7 Central, as the lead-in to everything else, is the most competitive of all. ABC airs their longest running drama at this time while CBS airs its longest running comedy. FOX is going to air the last season of their longest running drama at this time while the CW is also airing its longest running drama then. And you often don’t put the show that’s been on the longest at a competitive time slot for no reason, even if it is still ending in the future. It is getting a better send off that way.

You might wonder what the least competitive time slot is. I’m not entirely sure if there is on. Although, the 9 Central slot on Friday has practically nothing and the 9 Central slot on Sunday is unique in that for the fall, only two networks are airing shows then, the least of any time slot.

I think that’s about it for this post. I don’t know what else there is to say outside of this closing. Know that there will be an update in the next blog post about when updates of this blog will be. I hope that I am not offending anyone by these unusually timed updates. It can get confusing for me too, in addition to everyone that’s reading this as well.

Top Ten Christmas Specials

Well, I haven’t yet gotten to the part where I mention all of the cancelled shows from the previous TV season, but I hope to have that ready before the year ends. I do have something more timely that I am bringing you now this post. There isn’t too much to mention in terms of rules here. All you need to know if that if you don’t see something mentioned, it could be because I would rather mention it in the top TV Christmas episodes that I might do in the future. This is a list of all of the best specials in my mind that have aired in the past. I’m familiar with all of these, even if you aren’t. I hope that you enjoy the list and all of the choices that I put on it.

#10 The Story of Santa Claus: I’ve only seen this once and might only have this on the list due to a lack of other good choices to make this a list of ten choices. But this is a story that seeks to give the origins of Santa Claus in an interesting way as well as explaining how he got immortality. It’s not as good in my mind as another choice on this list, but I like it enough, if only because I realized something else I was going to put on this list was an episode and not a special.

#9 Claymation Christmas Special: While this is worthy of the list to me, it is nothing more than just some Christmas songs done to claymation works. I liked the songs in it and wish that it was aired still on TV. I might not have even known about it were it not on a tape of recorded things that I would watch.

#8 The Tangerine Bear: Here’s another more obscure one that I’m putting on the list. There aren’t that many that are notable in my mind. But I do like this special about an oddball stuffed animal who learns about how to be accepted in life. We don’t get as much from the toy’s perspectives in a lot of shows, but I do like how this person learns that he was always where he belonged, even if he didn’t know it at first and it took him until the end of the special.

#7 The Wish that Changed Christmas: In a very short amount of time, everyone gets what they want to in this special. It is such a nice special about finding purpose in life and has everything about family and friends, with everyone’s wishes fulfilled.

#6 The Christmas Toy: This special is largely set on Christmas Eve and then the next day. It features the jealousy of one toy over the introduction of a new toy. And they learn good lessons in the end about what to expect in life.

#5 Frosty the Snowman: It is kind of hard not to like this special and root for the snowman as he gets to live at the North Pole at the end. There are some realism issues with this, but that’s bound to happen when cartoons like this exist. There’s a reason that this has aired for quite a long time. I just wish that this didn’t keep airing with the awful Frosty Returns.

#4 Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer: There’s a reason that this has more or less aired every year after it first aired over 50 years ago. There have been attempts to recapture the magic of this by doing movies or sequels based off of this, but the original will always shine in a good place on TV with very little in it that makes it outdated.

#3 The Garfield Christmas Special: Here’s another possibly random one, but it annoys me that a lot of people will not know about the greatness of this special. There are a lot of good references in here over what really makes Christmas so good and enjoyable. I wish that everyone could remember these words about the true meaning of Christmas: “It’s not the giving, it’s not the getting; it’s the loving.”

#2 Santa Claus is Coming to Town: It was a long time before I saw this special and still think that I have only seen an edited down version. Still, I like how this creates a good story about who Santa Claus is for all of the kids to enjoy. It is very iconic in my mind and deserves to be shown every year like it is.

#1 A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Peanuts gang brings us their first and most iconic of all of the specials that they have done. While loving can be agreed upon as the meaning of Christmas for all religions, this one gets the number one spot for actually mentioning the story of Jesus in it. So many people might not have any idea what the Christ story is were in not for this special. But it is good in other ways, such as keeping the whole Peanuts aspect to the story and using actual children for the voice work. It may seem awkward in some places, but I don’t think that fans would have it any other way.

There’s not much to add in the closing, except saying why some specials aren’t on here. I didn’t put the PBS special Arthur’s Perfect Christmas on here as I felt that it was more of TV show episode than it was a true special. I didn’t put either of the Smurfs Christmas specials on here as I felt that they didn’t have enough Christmasness in them. I didn’t put How the Grinch Stole Christmas on here because I honestly prefer the Jim Carrey movie to it and figure it is along the lines of why watch the regular edition of The Lord of the Rings when you can watch the extended edition? I think that’s all for this post now.