The surprise summer hit has to be the Canadian cop show, filmed in Toronto and exported to the US, by the name of Rookie Blue. As the title implies, Rookie Blue follows a group of young cops who have just graduated from the Academy. Unfortunately, there has been some criticism that the plot is a little unrealistic and revolves too much around the personal lives of these characters who are just a little too good looking to be taken seriously as cops.
“Rookie Blue is Grey's Anatomy in a police station,” writes Rob Owen of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Rookie Blue Instead of Summer Reruns
But given how successful Grey's Anatomy’s has been, the insult isn’t really that insulting. Besides, the show has gotten positive nods from the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. Bottom line, the show isn’t perfect, but is still connecting with viewers nonetheless and that’s just about as good as summer TV usually gets.
- Thursdays at 9/8C on ABC and on Global in Canada.
Hot In Cleveland Instead of TV Land Reruns
TV Land’s first attempt to break out of their all-rerun routine with a first-run prime-time sitcom is Hot In Cleveland. Having said that, the premise also has TV Land poking fun at itself as the cast consists mainly of TV stars from the past and the script has seen at least one semi-inside joke, so far, poking fun of reruns.
The storyline does have a bit of a cheesy-sitcom feel, but even that might be deliberate and the show is still funny. At any rate, what better excuse to bring Betty White back to television. That alone is enough to make it worth watching. The show also stars Valerie Bertinelli of One Day at a Time, Jane Leeves of Frasier and Wendie Malick, who has also appeared in eight episodes of Frasier.
- Mondays at 8/7C on CTV in Canada.
- In the US, the first season is over but will return for a second season in January.
Lopez Tonight Instead of TBS Reruns
This show may have been around since November, but still, what better way to avoid summer reruns than by programming the PVR to record a talk show; unless of course you’re into the whole going outdoors thing. George Lopez is a very funny comedian who’s also pretty good at physical comedy. He makes Jay Leno and David Letterman’s monologue seem stiff in comparison.
Given that there hasn’t been much variation in the late night talk show business, what with it being almost entirely white-male-dominated, it’s nice to see a Latino talk show host trying to stir things up a bit. It’s also nice to see TBS, another channel which used to rely mainly on reruns, willing to take the risk.
The bad news is that, as of this fall, his show will come on an hour later to make room for Conan O’Brien. Aside from that, though, Lopez isn’t going anywhere and hopefully, unlike the other non-white-male talk show hosts of the past, maybe Lopez will stick around awhile. Remember Arsenio Hall, Keenen Ivory Wayans and Magic Johnson? How about Stephanie Miller? Lopez could just be funny enough to last.
- Weeknights at 11/10C on TBS and TLN in Canada.
Expanding TV Universe Means More Reruns Too
Of course this doesn’t mean that repeats no longer exist. These first-run shows have more to do with the expanding TV universe than anything else. But at least now networks have the courage to try something different in those time slots which once belonged exclusively to reruns. Now finding something new on TV is at least a little easier than it was before.
Steve Hatton - Steve Hatton is a Montreal-based freelance writer and journalist who covers the television industry, including TV show reviews and media ...
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