It’s the one with Chandler from Friends. Again.
CTV announced last week that it has picked up 11 new series for its 2014-15 lineup, including a companion show to Arrow called The Flash, the Batman backstory Gotham, and an update to the 1970s sitcom The Odd Couple, with Matthew Perry in the Oscar Madison role made famous by Jack Klugman (funny, he seems a bit too fastidious to play a slob).
Other additions to the schedule include the mid-season show CSI: Cyber, yet another iteration of the long-running CSI franchise starring Patricia Arquette (any discussion on which Who song will serve as its theme should begin here). Another new addition—and, judging by some initial reviews, a bona fide contender for first-fall-show-to-be-cancelled—is The McCarthys, which was originally conceived as a single-camera comedy, but retooled as a multi-camera show. On the plus side, it stars the typically reliable Laurie Metcalf (Roseanne, The Big Bang Theory).
Phil King, president of CTV, sports and entertainment programming, said The McCarthys was the funniest comedy network brass saw at the L.A. Screenings, which, if those early reviews are to be believed, could mean a real dearth of laughs for viewers next season.
New series How to Get Away with Murder is from Shonda Rhimes
King said dramatic programming was “particularly strong,” with several potential break-out hits, including How to Get Away with Murder, the new series from hit-maker Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal) and the Captain America spinoff, Marvel’s Agent Carter.
“We were very impressed by the quality of programming at the screenings this year, and feel confident we’ve come home with the best TV programs available,” said King.
Other additions to the CTV lineup include mid-season dramas American Crime, written, directed and produced by John Ridley—who wrote and produced Oscar winner 12 Years a Slave—and starring Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives) and Timothy Hutton, as well as the murder thriller Secrets and Lies, starring Ryan Phillippe and Juliette Lewis.
CTV will unveil its complete fall schedule, as well as that of CTV Two, on June 5.
