TV Quick Hits: ‘Scandal’ season 6 hype; ‘Match Game’ and others renewed; Mariah Carey bashes ‘American Idol’

In this edition of our TV Quick Hits series, we are effectively talking about anything and everything that has to do with the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour over the past couple of days. We’ll start over with ABC before getting over to Fox.

“Scandal” season 6 hype – Clearly, programming head Channing Dungey really wants people to feel good about what lies ahead. Per Entertainment Weekly, she made it clear that there are reasons to be excited about what Shonda Rhimes and the writers have planned:

“It was the fifth season this year … Long-running shows, there’s always a little bit of ebb and flow. We have read the first script for the new season and it’s fantastic. It feels very much like a return to form.”

From our vantage point, we didn’t necessarily think that the sixth season was terrible. Was it somewhat polarizing? Sure, but the Presidential election stuff was good. We could just do with all of the Jake / Rowan stuff at this point, at least on this show. It feels better suited for a spin-off.

As for some other news from the day.

More “Sunday Fun & Games” – All three of the game shows that air on the night, including “Match Game,” “$100,000 Pyramid,” and “Celebrity Family Feud,” are being brought back for another run. No real surprise there, given they are cheap to make and have drawn a decent audience.

Mariah Carey bashes “American Idol” – While the singing icon has already made it clear that she hated her time on the Fox reality show, while promoting her E! series at TCA this week she referred to it as an “abusive experience” before drinking champagne and claiming that the mere question of it “drove her to drink.” In other words, there’s no love lost.

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