Welcome to the Q&A with TV critic — also known to some TV fans as their “TV therapist” — Matt Roush, who’ll try to address whatever you love, loathe, are confused or frustrated or thrilled by in today’s vast TV landscape. (We know background music is too loud, it’s the most frequent complaint, but there’s always closed-captioning. Check out this story for more tips.)

One caution: This is a spoiler-free zone, so we won’t be addressing upcoming storylines here unless it’s already common knowledge. Please send your questions and comments to askmatt@tvinsider.com. Look for Ask Matt columns on most Tuesdays.

Is Sunday a Death Sentence for Garden Society?

Question: I’ll sum up my thoughts in one line: WTF is NBC doing!? To explain: I’m drastically worried about the future of Grosse Pointe Garden Society. It’s a serialized drama on NBC, airing Sundays at 10/9c in 2025 – that’s a lot of factors that could contribute to its downfall. It’s a great show already, too, and I would really hate to see this beautiful concept get lost in the Sunday night death slot. The series premiere got 1.8 million viewers live, I read. I totally predicted the numbers would be somewhere around the low [2 million] range, but this is an abysmal performance for a PREMIERE. I can only imagine it will go downhill from there. And I believe that NBC should have known this from the get-go. Why would they invest money and time into a show like this just to treat it to a disastrous timeslot!? So, do you have any thoughts on what NBC’s thought process was when scheduling the show? Do you think that they might show some mercy when considering it for a renewal? Maybe a move to Peacock? — A frustrated Shirley

Matt Roush: It’s interesting to see Sunday referred to as a “death slot,” when traditionally it’s among the most watched nights of the week. But that’s back when broadcast network TV ruled the industry, and that’s not the case anymore. CBS continues to do well by its scripted Sunday shows, and Fox has its animated lineup, but ABC has mostly abandoned the night for half of the year — which is about to change when American Idol returns, not the phenom that it was but still a known quantity. For NBC, the challenge is to start from scratch once football season is over. I applaud them for attempting a full night of new original programming, but unquestionably it’s a risk, and the show airing at the end of the night (in this case, Grosse Pointe Garden Society) is typically the most vulnerable. I wish that Suits LA was as much fun as the original series, which might help give Grosse Pointe a bigger boost.

I’ve said repeatedly in this space that I don’t pay a great deal of attention to same-night ratings numbers, because that’s just part of the metrics a network uses to determine a show’s success. If it pops on Peacock and does well in delayed viewing, a show can survive puny linear ratings as long as the demographics and buzz are strong. And by at least one account I saw, NBC’s new lineup was determined an early success in delayed viewing across all platforms, with Grosse Pointe‘s pilot episode building to 3.3 million views, growing 90% in total viewers and 216% in the preferred demo. I’d like to see NBC give a long leash to Grosse Pointe, which as Shirley rightly notes will find it hard to build an audience if people don’t latch on from the beginning (the way they did back in the day for a soapy Sunday night hit like Desperate Housewives). It’s way too soon to predict its future, but I doubt that if NBC drops it, Peacock would swoop in for a renewal. Still, you never know these days.

Competing Against the Oscars

Question: I was surprised that against the Oscars other networks were showing new episodes. During any of the awards or big shows, don’t the other networks usually save new episodes and go with reruns? — Scott S.

Matt Roush: There was a time when the Oscars show was such a powerhouse that most competing networks would play dead. That time has largely passed. I’m answering this without knowing how well (or badly) this year’s show fared in the ratings, but without a blockbuster film like Barbie and Oppenheimer to command attention — I’d like to think the first half-hour drew a crowd with the Wicked/Oz medley and Conan O’Brien‘s monologue — the Oscars aren’t as big a draw as they once were. And given how many major events disrupt the status quo on Sundays through February — this year including the Super Bowl (where everyone else does mostly go dark), the Grammys, and even Saturday Night Live‘s 50^th-anniversary celebration — I’m not surprised that the competing networks decided not to concede yet another Sunday night to a big show that isn’t that big, offering plenty of room for alternatives. I get that NBC had just launched its new Sunday lineup the week before (see the last question) and wasn’t willing to risk losing whatever momentum they had, and CBS and Fox didn’t blink from their regular schedule. Given the meh nature of this year’s show (here’s my review), I’m thinking the other networks were smart to stick with originals for when viewers began to feel the urge to drift away.

Why Not Just Let Nature Sing?

Question: My husband and I thoroughly enjoy the scenery in The Americas with Tom Hanks. We are senior citizens and our hearing is good, but the music in the background is so loud that sometimes it is difficult to hear what he is saying or said. Why do they do that? It almost came to a point that we wanted to quit listening and just watch the segments without any commentary. — Pauline T.

Matt Roush: Hans Zimmer‘s score for this dazzling nature series isn’t subtle, that’s for sure, and this is just one of so many complaints I regularly field on this issue of loud music. With The Americas, there are worse fates than hitting the mute button and just enjoying the scenery, I suppose, and I imagine exercising the closed-caption option could clutter the screen. Here’s where I typically steer readers to a story we did a while ago suggesting ways to enhance the sound coming out of your TV, because producers are addicted to these loud soundtracks, and that doesn’t appear likely to change.

Gone But Not Forgotten

Question: Now that Rochelle Aytes is no longer portraying Hondo’s wife on S.W.A.T., do the writers and producers think fans don’t notice her absence? Her character and their new baby girl were a huge presence in most of the storylines. Now all of a sudden there’s no wife and daughter? I know it was mentioned once that they were visiting her mother, I believe?? So are they planning on casting a new actress for the role of Hondo’s wife? Or just leave the fans guessing and thinking we are stupid? — Melinda

Matt Roush: Such things happen when a show lives on the bubble from year to year, and in the case of Rochelle Aytes, when S.W.A.T. was unexpectedly renewed for an eighth season, but her character of Nichelle would have been demoted from regular to recurring status, she chose to pursue a different series-regular role in CBS’s new show, Watson. Instead of killing her off or recasting her, S.W.A.T.‘s producers have written the character out of the show for the time being, with the option of bringing her back should her schedule or the storyline allow. This won’t appease S.W.A.T. fans, but that’s how the business works. And should Watson not get a second season and S.W.A.T. continues, chances are you’ll see more of Aytes as Nichelle in the future. Just not right now.

Characters Playing Hide and Seek

Question: One week I noticed that OA was missing from FBI. The next week, Maggie is missing. The same thing happens on Ghosts when one or more of the ghosts are not on. I’m just curious — is this a cost-cutting thing or are the actors taking a vacation? — Tom in Baltimore

Matt Roush: For FBI, and several other TV ensembles (Grey’s Anatomy most famously and visibly), shrinking budgets have led the producers to write certain characters out of a few episodes this season. That hasn’t been reported to be the case about Ghosts, at least not that I’m aware. The explanation usually given when a ghost character is missing is that there wasn’t room to service all of the characters, depending on what the story of the week is. It’s a fairly large cast and having them all stand around as a Greek chorus with maybe one or two lines may not be worth the effort. This could be a cost-saving move, but those actors are contracted for a full season, so that seems to be mostly a creative decision, though I suppose you could look it at like the actor gets a week off when that happens.

Worrying Mindfully

Question: Have you heard anything about whether Brilliant Minds will get a second season? My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed the first season and hate to think we won’t know how everything plays out. — Gary

Matt Roush: Haven’t heard anything and probably won’t until NBC makes its plans known for next fall. Brilliant Minds aired a complete 13-episode first season, and its fate may depend on how well the Monday time period’s new occupant, The Hunting Party, fares and whether NBC chooses to have two dramas share the time period next season or go another way. I’d like to see more of the Zachary Quinto medical drama as well, so am choosing to stay optimistic for now.

And Finally …

Comment: My wife and I watched the first season of Prime Video‘s The Sticky and are so disappointed there will not be a second season. Any chance that Netflix or someone else might step up to the plate and produce a second season? We thought it was the best Canadian export since Schitt’s Creek. — John C., Denver, N.C.

Matt Roush: Don’t I wish! This maple syrup caper wasn’t just great fun but also gave the great Margo Martindale one of her fiercest and most entertaining roles in a long while. (And let’s not forget Jamie Lee Curtis going over the top as the show’s Big Bad.) It’s a shame that we won’t see more of this, but it seems beyond a long shot for another streamer to pick up a rival’s castoff.

That’s all for now. We can’t do this without your participation, so please keep sending questions and comments about TV to askmatt@tvinsider.com. (Please include a first name with your question.)

 

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