Fall TV logjams: The Good Doctor season 2 vs. Bull season 3 vs. Manifest
Are there going to be some really big TV logjams on the schedule this fall? You better believe it. The fall is a competitive place and thanks to the places in which certain shows are sorted out, it is going to be even more competitive than ever before in certain spots.
Over the course of this TV logjams series, we’re going to take a look at some of the most competitive, interesting timeslots, starting with our focus today on Mondays at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time. There are three interesting shows here in Bull, The Good Doctor, and Manifest that are all bringing something interesting to the table. It’s going to be rather interesting see what viewers respond to them most when they actually air.
In terms of ratings, The Good Doctor got off to a tremendous start on ABC this past fall. It also generated a good bit of critical acclaim, especially when it comes to Freddie Highmore. Throughout the first season he was a revelation as Dr. Shaun Murphy. The problem now moving into the second season, though, is that it does have that inevitable fear of a sophomore slump. It happens sometimes to the best shows, and we are hoping that the presence of executive producer David Shore, who has been here before on House, is going to be able to assist in keeping that from happening.
The biggest thing working against this show is simply the fact that there is so much more competition in this time slot than there was last year, when it was up against Scorpion and The Brave. Well both of these were very good shows, neither one of them generated massive viewership.
If you are basing the performance of the shows based on what they did last year, Bull is an absolute winner. The Michael Weatherly series performed extremely well on Tuesday nights following NCIS, and at some point came close to equaling its total viewership. While it’s demo numbers are not tremendous and they probably will not surpass The Good Doctor, there is a very good chance that it could win total viewers week after week. We do expect its numbers to be down somewhat thanks to it being at 10 as opposed to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays. Yet, we imagine that CBS is also prepared for this.They just want to show it to perform very well in this time slot and they haven’t had that in a while.
Finally, we turn to Manifest over on NBC. This is an ambitious, high-concept series that has some vibes that are fairly similar to Lost on ABC. It also has a fairly familiar face in Josh Dallas, and it is airing following The Voice. There are very few times out there more lucrative for NBC. It’s possible that this show will get off to a good start thanks to its timeslot and promotion for it; the big question here is whether or not it can maintain it over a season.
Which one of these shows are you planning to watch live on Monday nights this fall? Let us know right now in the attached comments.