The Shows We Forgot Were Still on TV
With television upfronts season comes the exciting news of new shows that could potentially be our next must-watches. It also brings news that certain shows will remain on the air—shows we may have forgotten were on the air in the first place. These aren't the Law & Order: SVUs of the world that have been on the air forever and will cause us to gasp when they finally finished, even if we haven't tuned in for ages. They aren't the CBS comedies, whose detractors wish were not on the air. No, these are the shows that registered once way back when in the TV schedule portion of our cerebral cortex but we (and we assumed TV) had moved on. So while we're anticipating what the future holds, let's tip our hats to some of the shows that will be returning we thought were already long gone.
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Gordon Ramsay's Fox Empire
We remember Gordon Ramsay brought his yelling-at-cooks show to America from the U.K. in 2005, and 11 seasons later Ramsay has found so many other things and people and places to yell. There were already three other Gordon Ramsay shows on Fox—MasterChef, Hotel Hell, and Kitchen Nightmares—and now they are adding another Junior MasterChef. There will be two more seasons of MasterChef (its fifth and sixth) and the flagship Hell's Kitchen as well. We're not as outraged at this news as Deadline's Nikki Finke, who roared: "This now brings to five the number of stale Ramsay shows which Fox will air, demonstrating how unscripted TV czar Mike Darnell is utterly devoid of new ideas and new faces." We know Ramsay gets angry, but you know, it's just a cooking shows.
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Burn Notice Continues A Slow Burn
Burn Notice is immensely popular, so much so that in its report that it will have its seventh and final season this year, The Futon Critic called it a "ratings juggernaut." So, what is Burn Notice? Don't ask. Please. We can tell you about a Saturday Night Live sketch which suggested that no one knows anything about Burn Notice. We still couldn't tell you the logline in one sentence.
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CBS' Crime Fighting Teams of Criminal Minds and The Mentalist
Did you know Greg from Dharma & Greg was currently on television? We didn't! But he's in Criminal Minds, which was renewed for a ninth season last night. Criminal Minds might be best known as the show that Mandy Patinkin (the angel-voiced Saul on Homeland) called his "biggest public mistake" in a New York interview. And then there's The Mentalist going into its sixth season. What has become of you Simon Baker? No, serious question.
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The CW is Still Supernatural
Being a Gilmore Girls fan, I was always wary of this CW brother monster-hunting show starring Rory's most boring boyfriend, Dean. It has its fans though, and is coming back for a ninth season.
24
Fooled you! 24 is not still on the air, but it might be coming back. Yes, Fox is interested in bring back Jack Bauer for a 13-episode limited run, James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly reports. Homeland crossover, perhaps?
