NYC Arts and Entertainment Business News

Photos (L to R): Barbara Nitke/CBS Broadcasting Inc., Framegrab/Warner Bros. Television, Heather Wines/CBS Broadcasting Inc., Patrick Harbron/ABC

The 2011-2012 TV season premiere week just finished with a record number of series filmed in NYC on the slate.  Four of them made their broadcast network debuts: CBS’s A Gifted Man, Person of Interest, and Unforgettable, and ABC’s Pan Am.  The Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting claims film and TV shoots contribute $5 billion (or $1 billion, depending on who you read) and 100,000 jobs to the city’s economy each year, though that doesn’t take into account the hundreds of millions the city spent on Brooklyn’s Steiner Studios, the $420 million worth of state tax credits productions receive every year, or the exemptions and incentives the city gives out — all of which were necessary to lure the productions here and which some have called corporate welfare.  The better the four new primetime series are and the better their ratings, the longer they’ll last on the air and the more the city and state’s efforts to bring them here will pay off.  Here’s how they look after one week:

Unforgettable was the first of the four to debut on Tuesday, September 20th at 10 pm.  Poppy Montgomery, who recently told the New York Post how much she loves shooting in the city, stars as a former police detective/current NYPD consultant with a perfect memory.  Reviews have been lukewarm so far; Neil Genzlinger at The New York Times had good things to say about Montgomery and her character but called the show itself formulaic and only “competent enough,” while Hitfix.com’s Alan Sepinwall called it “plodding and serious.”  Metacritic.com, a site that synthesizes prominent critic reviews into one score, gave it an “average” 58 out of 100.

Audiences were curious enough about the premise to give it the win in its timeslot with 14.09 million overall viewers against ABC’s Body of Proof (9.41 million) and NBC’s Parenthood (5.28 million).  It was also one of the most watched shows of the entire night, behind only CBS’s NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles and ABC’s Dancing with the Stars results show, and won its timeslot in the all-important 18-49 demographic, making it the most promising of the four series ratings-wise.

Person of Interest premiered on Thursday, September 22 at 9 pm to high expectations, thanks to the talent both in front and behind the scenes: J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan serve as Executive Producers, while the cast includes two-time Emmy winner Michael Emerson and Oscar and Emmy nominee Taraji P. Henson, along with Jim Caviezel, who was nominated for an MTV Movie Award for his portrayal of Jesus in The Passion of the Christ (he lost to Johnny Depp).  Emerson stars as Mr. Finch, a mysterious billionaire who built a tracking system in New York City that can predict crimes but can’t tell if the people being tracked are the perpetrators or the victims or when the crime will happen.  He pulls in former CIA agent, now homeless alcoholic John Reese (Caviezel) to figure it out and stop the crime, and his actions get the attention of an NYPD detective (Henson).  TV Guide’s Matt Roush liked it, saying “Michael Emerson’s aura of inscrutability is well-matched with Jim Caviezel’s whispery, explosive intensity.”  AOL TV’s Maureen Ryan, on the other hand, wasn’t such a fan, saying the leads didn’t have the necessary spark in the pilot, and “the show’s writers will have to compensate for that going forward.”  The show fared better than Unforgettable on Metacritic, which gave it a “generally favorable” score of 64.

Ratings, however, were disappointing.  While the show won its timeslot in overall viewers with 13.33 million, it sank to fourth out of the five broadcast networks in the 18-49 demographic with a 3.1, beating only The CW’s The Secret Circle. 

A Gifted Man bowed at 8 pm on Friday, September 23 starring Patrick Wilson as a successful yet personally unavailable surgeon who can suddenly see and interact with his dead ex-wife.  The show received mildly favorable reviews from most critics: USA Today’s Robert Bianco said the show had “moody potential” but credited that to the talented cast more than the premise or the writing, and The Hollywood Reporter’s Tim Goodman could not stop talking up actress Margo Martindale (who plays Wilson’s assistant), saying her very presence could help the show become “better than very average.”  Metacritic scored the show one point higher than Person of Interest at 65.

Audiences were willing enough to check it out to give the show a decisive win in its timeslot with overall viewers at 9.31 million, beating second place Modern Family by 5.41 million.  Despite the impressive gap, however, A Gifted Man was only able to take second place (to Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares) in the 18-49 demo, scoring just a 1.4.  

Pan Am is the last of the four to premiere on Sunday, September 25, in the 10 pm slot.  The period drama about the titular airline’s crew at the height of its 60s popularity also scored a 65 from Metacritic.  Slate.com’s Troy Patterson called it “the best-looking thing on network television,” while acknowledging that its substance might not match its style, a sentiment echoed by Salon.com’s Matt Zoller Seitz, who said “if production values equalled [sic] artistic quality, “Pan Am” would win a Nobel prize.”  Audiences were intrigued enough to give the show a shot; it placed second in its timeslot (behind Sunday Night Football on NBC) with 10.73 million viewers and a 3.0 in the 18-49 demo, handily beating former CBS powerhouse CSI: Miami.