By
Marisa Guthrie and Lacey Rose
| Posted Oct. 28, 2011, 10:37 a.m.
Photo Source: Fox
Five weeks into the new television season, and a consensus has emerged: Comedy is king. Whatever has sent viewers to the tube in search of a laugh -- the dire economy and stubbornly high unemployment or simply the cyclical nature of primetime programming trends -- a preponderance of freshman shows getting full-season orders have been sitcoms. Fox and CBS, the Nos. 1 and 2 networks, quickly ordered full seasons of "New Girl" and "2 Broke Girls," respectively. NBC followed suit with "Whitney" and "Up All Night." ABC already has given "Suburgatory" a full-season order, and Tim Allen's pricey "Last Man Standing" -- which bowed to strong ratings Oct. 11 and brought men to the female-skewing network on a night when Fox had Game 3 of Major League Baseball's American League Championship Series -- is a shoo-in to score a pickup.
Conversely, only three dramas have made the cut: ABC's campy soap "Revenge" and CBS' J.J. Abrams/Jonathan Nolan drama "Person of Interest" and "Unforgettable," starring Poppy Montgomery. NBC also has ordered additional scripts of the Maria Bello starrer "Prime Suspect." But none of the new dramas has been burning up the ratings charts, and ABC canceled its ill-advised reboot of "Charlie's Angels" while NBC axed its derivative "The Playboy Club" after three episodes.
Of course, not every comedy the networks threw at the wall stuck. CBS' critically excoriated "How to Be a Gentleman" was shunted to Saturdays, where it aired for a week before getting yanked. And a Twitter campaign by star Hank Azaria did "Free Agents" no good; NBC pulled it after four episodes.
– The Hollywood Reporter
