Idaho Today attended several days of the Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour in Pasadena, California. NBC, ABC, CBS, and PBS offered a sneak peek at the upcoming series. TCA historically has one winter and one summer press tour each year, centering panels featuring the casts, writers, directors, and producers of their new and returning series across broadcast networks and streamers, as well as Q&As with network executives like FX's John Landgraf who coined the term, "peak TV."
Some of our favorite summer 2024 panels included:
ABC
"High Potential"
High Potential, a new ABC crime drama series, will premiere on Tuesday, September 17, 2024 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The show will air on Tuesdays after Dancing with the Stars and will be available to stream on Hulu the following day.
Starring Kaitlin Olson ("It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and "Hacks")
Olson plays Morgan Gillory, a woman with extraordinary deducing gifts and high intelligence hampered by modern single-mother complications.
Inspired by a French series, Morgan is a single mother working as a maid.
The pilot explains that she is a "high-potential intellectual" with advanced cognitive abilities. Morgan cleans a police office and finds a case file. Thanks to her abilities, she figured out that a woman the police think is a crime suspect is a victim. This revelation helps a detective (Daniel Sunjata) and his boss (Judy Reyes) crack the murder case. Olson is one of those amazing, underrated actors who has been around and yet never ceases to nail every role she signs on for; make sure to see her work in HBO/Max "Hacks" and FX's longest-running sitcom "Sunny in Philadelphia."
NBC
"Happy's Place"
Happy's Place will premiere on Friday, October 18, 2024 on NBC at 8/7c pm
Singer/songwriter and actor/producer Reba McEntire is a natural comic sitcom genius, and it shows in Happy's Place, where the TV critics loved her preview of the new sitcom that highlights all of her cast chemistry and comedic timing. "Happy's Place" is about McEntire, who is cast as Bobbie and inherits a restaurant from her father. The twist is that her much younger half-sister (Belissa Escobedo), a virtual stranger to her, is now her business partner. The other delicious detail is that Melissa Peterman, a core cast member, has worked with Reba on past sitcoms.
At the TCA, Reba said: "It's lots of fun. I love all genres of entertainment. But the sitcoms are so much fun cause it's a brand new script every week... It's gonna be that heartfelt, fun, funny, laugh at our silliness. But also, [you'll] be touched with the heart in our show." McEntire and Peterman also appeared together in Reba, Young Sheldon, Working Class, The Hammer, and Baby Daddy.
CBS
"Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage"
CBS's "Young Sheldon" spinoff, "Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage," airs October 17 at 8 p.m. before the season premiere of "Ghosts."
Young love and parenthood meets situational comedy: The series from executive producers Chuck Lorre, Steve Holland, Steven Molaro and Warner Bros Television is about Georgie Cooper and his fiancée Mandy McAllister, played on Young Sheldon by Montana Jordan and Emily Osment, "Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage" is the eagerly awaited "Young Sheldon" spinoff at CBS that executive producer Lorre hinted to the TV Critics that optimistic hopes may be dashed against life's realities when a child comes into the lives of very young parents. Lorre even joked with one wry critic who asked him point blank how his early first marriage fared. The multi-camera sitcom will show a reality with a comedy that resonates with honesty. Lorre said: "Georgie is 19. He dropped out of high school. How smooth is his marriage going to go? Yes, there is pessimism at first, but there is hope, as well, if you are patient with us."
Producers also defended the multi-camera production, adding: "'We've done this long enough and heard multiple times that multi-camera sitcoms are dead," said Holland. "Before The Big Bang Theory, people liked to make these predictions, but all it takes is something the audience connects with, and it's not true anymore."
"Elsbeth" Season 2
"Elsbeth" season two is back on CBS Thursday, October 17, at 10 p.m.
Fans of the 1970s "Columbo" series take note: "Elsbeth" will delight you in every way. Season two of CBS's quirky murder mystery series "Elsbeth" (Carrie Preston) promises to "shake things up" in season two, according to executive producer Jonathan Tolins, who said "things from the past" are going to shake up the new season. Carrie Preston as the character Elsbeth, a "kooky lawyer," previously had appeared on "The Good Wife" and "The Good Fight."
While producers avoided bringing on any characters from those series in the first season of "Elsbeth," Tolins noted "a strong possibility" some of those characters may appear in season two. Fans of Preston remember her standout work on HBO's "True Blood," where her comedic talents shined as Arlene Fowler Bellefleur.
DON'T MISS!
Starz season two of The Serpent Queen
(not suitable for children)
"The Serpent Queen," a witty, high-energy historical drama about the clever Catherine de Medici (Samantha Morton), returned for its second season with new episodes at 8 p.m. Fridays on Starz. Past episodes are available to stream on the Starz app.
This season, actress Minnie Driver joins the cast as Queen Elizabeth I. “The Serpent Queen” tells the story of Catherine de Medici (Morton), who, despite tremendous odds, became one of the most potent and longest-serving rulers in French history and navigated the violent power struggles between France's Catholics and Protestants. It was de Medici's earliest years, dramatized in the first season, that show this regal queen could survive being an orphan and hunted down by those who wished her dead. She overcomes, endures, and bears heirs to the French court, all while managing her late King's ex-mistress (her cousin), her religiously fanatical daughter-in-law (Mary, Queen of Scots), and the infamous and at-odds Bourbons and Gieses who filled her royal court.
Time is running out!
National Geographic's Sharkfest 2024 began Sunday, June 30 and ends Sunday, July 28, 2024. The four-week event features 26 original and enhanced programming hours, including Shark Beach with Anthony Mackie: Gulf Coast. The hour-long special featured Marvel superhero Anthony Mackie, who also served as executive producer, exploring the waters of his hometown in New Orleans with scientists and fishermen
Sharkfest giveaway entry page is here (https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/idaho-today/prize-center/277-28621239)