Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming summer viewing season.
Gone are the days when broadcast networks experimented with new episodes of scripted shows in summer.
Due to the decline in linear TV viewing and media executives choosing to prioritize programming for streaming services, networks simply can’t afford to put on expensive scripted shows year-round, opting instead for low-cost options in summer, mostly game shows and reality programs, including …
ABC
ABC’s gotten decent ratings out of reviving game shows of the past, so why change what’s working?
At 8 p.m. July 9, “Celebrity Family Feud” is back for its 12th season, followed at 9 by the seventh season of “Press Your Luck.”
The network will premiere a new spin-off series, “Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro” (8 p.m. July 13, WTAE), hosted by season 34 champion Robert Irwin. This show will feature 12 up-and-coming dancers who move into a house together and compete in an audition for one slot as pro dancer in season 35 of “Dancing with the Stars.”
“Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” is back for its fifth season (in this iteration) at 8 p.m. July 22.
CBS
Aside from one-off specials (“American Music Awards,” 8 p.m. May 25; “Tony Awards” telecast, 8 p.m. June 7), CBS’s big bet for summer is the return of “Big Brother,’ which will have its greatest number of programming hours ever, including the show’s 1,000th episode.
“Big Brother” debuts with a 90-minute episode at 8 p.m. July 9, followed by “Big Brother: Unlocked” (8 p.m. July 10) and another 90-minute “Big Brother” episode at 8 p.m. July 12.
After that, the show will air at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.
Paramount subscribers and Pluto TV viewers can see feeds from the Big Brother house (live for Paramount with Showtime subscribers; next day on demand for Paramount Essentials subscribers).
Fox
Although Fox is down to one live-action, scripted comedy series, network executives are quick to point to the comedic elements in Fox’s unscripted shows, from host Joel McHale on “Crime Scene Kitchen” to its new celebrity game show, “Nation’s Dumbest” (9 p.m. July 15, WPGH).
Host Jack Whitehall (“The Burbs”) features celebrities confronted by physical challenges, tests, pop quizzes and attempts to avoid being named “Nation’s Dumbest.”
Hilaria Baldwin, Carmen Electra, Anthony Michael Hall, Jon Heder, Chase Hudson, Ice-T, Elle King, Matt Leinart, Dr. Drew Pinsky, Steve-0, JoJo Siwa and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang enrolled to compete in the show’s first season.
NBC
New seasons of competition series “America’s Got Talent” (8 p.m. June 2, WPXI) and “American Ninja Warrior” (9 p.m. June 8) will air along with new seasons of game shows “Password” (10 p.m. June 2) and “The Wall” (9 p.m. Aug. 19).
NBC goes a little outside the box with a new natural history docuseries, “Surviving Earth” (8 p.m. June 4), about how life survived and thrived through Earth’s most catastrophic environmental crises. Reruns of “The Americas” will follow at 9 p.m. Thursdays.
PBS
PBS is not immune to the economic downturn impacting broadcast networks, especially after it lost all federal funding last year.
So it’s no surprise that public TV is touting “encores” (re: reruns) of “Downton Abbey” on “Masterpiece” (season two repeats at 10 p.m. Sunday, June 14-July 26, WQED-TV) and “American Experience” documentaries (select weekdays, 9 p.m. June 9-Aug. 7, many on Friday nights).
There’s just one original scripted series on PBS’s “Masterpiece” on linear TV this summer, the final season of “Grantchester” (9 p.m. Sundays, June 14-Aug. 2). PBS will also air season two of the imported drama “Patience” (8 p.m. June 14-Aug. 2).
PBS will lean into the celebration of America at 250, the nation’s semiquincentennial, with programs such as “Declarations: Black Americans and the Revolutionary War” (10 p.m. June 29), about enslaved and eventually freed Black Americans who fought for the tenets of democracy; “America Made in Virginia: 250 Years Together” (8 p.m. July 4), a two-hour live broadcast from Colonial Williamsburg featuring live performance, music and historic interpretations and “The American Southwest” (10 p.m. July 8), featuring a ride down the Colorado River.
Other PBS specials include “The Last Twins” (10 p.m. June 15), the story of Holocaust hero Erni “Zvi” Spiegel, who protected twin boys targeted by Dr. Josef Mengele at Auschwitz; a biography of the heralded Washington Post publisher in “Becoming Katharine Graham” (9 p.m. June 16) and “Once Upon a Time in Space” (9 p.m. Tuesday, July 14-Aug. 4), which examines the personal experiences of astronauts (from the makers of “Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland”).