"The Game": an hourlong dramedy?
With the CW expected to complete its exit from the half-hour comedy genre at the end of this season, the creator/executive producer of one of the network's two remaining comedies, "The Game," is mulling turning it into an hourlong series. Mara Brock Akil is expected to pitch the idea to the CW brass this week, according to THR.
A show switching genres is extremely rare. (In 1999, Fox launched the short-lived "Ally," a half-hour version of David E. Kelley's hit hourlong dramedy "Ally McBeal.") However, for "Game," such a transformation would actually make sense creatively. As a hybrid multi/single-camera series with no live audience, "Game" has a single-camera feel and already plays like a half-hour dramedy as it mixes comedy with drama more than a traditional sitcom does.
Still, keeping the three-year-old "Game" on for another season is considered a long shot. Once a promising newcomer airing behind "Girlfriends," the series that spun it off, "Game," as well as CW's comedy "Everybody Hates Chris," have been relegated to the low-rated Friday night, where "Game" has averaged 1.9 million viewers and a 0.8 rating in adults 18-34 this season.
Additionally, an hourlong "Game" wouldn't necessarily mesh well with CW's other dramas, which are skewing younger and far less urban, and a format switch after three seasons also would complicate a potential syndication run of the show.
With the CW expected to complete its exit from the half-hour comedy genre at the end of this season, the creator/executive producer of one of the network's two remaining comedies, "The Game," is mulling turning it into an hourlong series. Mara Brock Akil is expected to pitch the idea to the CW brass this week, according to THR.
A show switching genres is extremely rare. (In 1999, Fox launched the short-lived "Ally," a half-hour version of David E. Kelley's hit hourlong dramedy "Ally McBeal.") However, for "Game," such a transformation would actually make sense creatively. As a hybrid multi/single-camera series with no live audience, "Game" has a single-camera feel and already plays like a half-hour dramedy as it mixes comedy with drama more than a traditional sitcom does.
Still, keeping the three-year-old "Game" on for another season is considered a long shot. Once a promising newcomer airing behind "Girlfriends," the series that spun it off, "Game," as well as CW's comedy "Everybody Hates Chris," have been relegated to the low-rated Friday night, where "Game" has averaged 1.9 million viewers and a 0.8 rating in adults 18-34 this season.
Additionally, an hourlong "Game" wouldn't necessarily mesh well with CW's other dramas, which are skewing younger and far less urban, and a format switch after three seasons also would complicate a potential syndication run of the show.
And folks here we go again with yet another struggling network that uses black themed shows to find an audience and then abandons that audience once it finds some success with non-black themed shows. Can we say Fox in the 90's?...sigh...
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