10 OCTOBER 9, 2017|^ ADWEEK
PHOTOS: JEFF NEUMANN/CBSTRENDING
T
his season, several returning
series feel more like brand
new shows, after undergoing
signifi cant casting and storyline
overhauls to give their ratings
a jolt. Kevin James’ CBS sitcom
Kevin Can Wait added Leah Remini as a cast
regular for Season 2, reuniting him with his
King of Queens spouse—and killing o his
new TV wife (Erinn Hayes) to make room.
Season 7 of Once Upon a Time features a
complete storyline reboot and the departure
of six cast members, including stars Jennifer
Morrison and Ginnifer Goodwin. And when
NBC’s Taken—a prequel to the Liam Neeson
fi lms—returns in midseason for its second
year, it will have jettisoned six regulars, with
only Clive Standen (who plays the younger
Neeson) and Jennifer Beals returning.
Big cast changes are a regular part of
television—like when Ashton Kutcher
successfully stepped in for Charlie Sheen
on Two and a Half Men in 2011—but buyers
approach each series upheaval di erently.
“You have to look at what the replacement
is. It really depends on the casting. For me,
that’s the best way to make a decision,” said
Carrie Drinkwater, svp, group director of
investment activation, Mediahub. “George
Clooney left ER, and it went on for many
years without him. There certainly is life
after a lead character goes.”
Drinkwater applauded Remini’s addition
to Kevin Can Wait, noting that she and James
“have great chemistry,” which made CBS take
notice when she guested on the show last year.
“Everybody looked at each other and said,
‘This was neat, and gave the show a real joltReturning
Shows Get
Extreme
Makeovers
KEVIN CAN WAIT AND ONCE
UPON A TIME HOPE CAST AND
STORYLINE OVERHAULS WILL
BOOST RATINGS AND WOO
ADVERTISERS. BY JASON LYNCHFALL T V
Kevin Can Retool
Leah Remini (above)
joined Kevin James’
sitcom, displacing his
TV wife, Erinn Hayes.are holding the show back and rejigger it. And
you still have the essence of the show.” With
only 10 Taken episodes aired so far, “you’re
still fi guring out what the show is,” added
Greenblatt, who helped develop The X-Files
and recalled, “it took us 22 episodes to fi gure
out what that show was.”
Buyers are more cynical about the
prospects of ABC’s Once Upon a Time’s
reboot so late in its run. “It’s dead in the
water,” said one. “The ratings were dying, and
when you have to retool a program that much,
it’ll be a Friday-night program”—its new
home this season—“and then it will be gone.”
Last season, Fox attempted a similar—and
unsuccessful—overhaul of Sleepy Hollow.
“It’s pretty rare that you’re just trying to
squeeze another year out of a show” with a
big cast overhaul, said Fox Television Group
chairman and CEO Gary Newman. “We have
a longer-term view than that. We’re looking
for our shows to be long-running assets.
When we make a change, it’s because we’re
looking to infuse a new energy or dynamic
that will extend the lifespan of these shows.”
That is what Once’s co-creator Adam
Horowitz is hoping to pull o with his show’s
reboot, which has been in the works for a
year. “Like anything that is successful, it’s
a risk,” he said. “If it works, this show could
go on for another six years. If it doesn’t, we’ll
wrap it up, and seven years is a great run.”of energy.’ Between Kevin and the producers,
it was something people wanted to recreate
going forward,” said CBS Entertainment
president Kelly Kahl. “That necessitated a
tough decision” regarding Hayes’ fi ring, but
the idea to fl ash-forward a year “lets us move
forward fairly quickly.” So far, it’s worked
out just as CBS had hoped: Kevin Can Wait’s
Season 2 premiere drew 10.3 million viewers,
and a 2.3 rating in the 18-49 demo, better than
all but its fi rst two episodes last season.
NBC is hoping a similar change to Taken
can reset that show for the long haul as well.
The title “means something to a lot of people,”
said NBC Entertainment chairman Robert
Greenblatt, who loved his two leads, but “we
all said, let’s get rid of these characters that‘You have to
look at what that
replacement is.
It really depends
on the casting.’
Carrie Drinkwater, svp, group director of
investment activation, Mediahub