Listen to even a half hour of ABC primetime television and you’ll hear them boast that Selfie is, “the best new comedy on Tuesday nights.”
Photo: ABC
But you have to examine that language. Because you can make anything sound amazing if you detail it enough. Is it the best show on Tuesday nights? Is it the best 30 minute comedy on Tuesday nights? (Not as an opinion, but in ratings.) Probably not…which is why ABC is careful to say it’s the best <i>new</i> comedy on that particular night. (Not the best new comedy on TV. But Tuesday.)
…I say all this even though I’m prepared to still watch the show. Not just because I love Karen Gillan and John Cho, but because you can’t judge a show by its pilot. If you did, even 30 Rock wouldn’t have looked as promising. (It’s okay, even Tina Fey admits that it was kind of a mess.)
I like ABC, and I like ABC comedies a lot. (Hello, Modern Family.) In fact, I think I like ABC comedies more than ABC does…because they canceled Happy Endings and Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23, even though they were both amazing series. (And I’m a hard person to win over!)
Photo: CBS
It’s not just ABC that promotes with this kind of loose language, so let’s not pretend that NBC, FOX, CBS, The CW… aren’t all doing it, too. Those big networks always do. Cable shows tend to rely more on the quality to sell the show, which is interesting…but a tangent I won’t get into right now.
Selfie airs Tuesday nights at 8 pm EST. I encourage you to keep watching. (Even though the pilot was not incredible.)
Selfie Poll
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