Whenever a television show gets lucky enough to catch on with a large viewing audience, the networks clamor to find a "perfect" show that will be compatible enough to retain some (if not all) of those hefty numbers. ABC has yet to find a companion show for
Lost – they've tried to match it with another sci-fi show (Invasion), then another serialized show (
The Nine); both failed to hold onto their lead-in audience and were subsequently canceled.
The same goes for
Studio 60, which followed
Heroes last season; though that situation was different in that both
Heroes and
Studio 60 were brand spanking new in the Fall of 2006. NBC did not appear to be trying to match two shows that had the potential to find favor with a similar fan base, but rather seemed like they threw two newbies in the ocean to see who would float. Coming this Fall,
Heroes will be keeping its time slot, while getting a new dance partner at 10 p.m. ET –
Journeyman. Will
Journeyman fair better in this cushy post-Heroes time slot than Studio 60? Well, that is hard to say without seeing the show; but it already seems to have a few more sticks in the compatibility fire.
For one, it is "sci-fi" without being "sci-fi heavy" –
Heroes is dense with sci-fi elements and comic book serialization; Journeyman is "sci-fi lite." Hiro from
Heroes and Dan Vasser from
Journeyman are both time-travelers who have the ability to affect the future in both positive and negative ways. However, Hiro is just one of many characters with sci-fi powers in a tangled and sometimes complex network of storylines on
Heroes – Dan is the lead of
Journeyman; the cornerstone from which the show's storylines revolve.
Journeyman viewers will have less than half the number of characters to get to know and storylines to try to follow after their brains explode from the preceding
Heroes episode.
Some other fiery sticks in favor of
Journeyman succeeding would require you to look no further than the two big "who's": Who's in charge? and Who's playing the lead? The answer to the former is Executive Producer/Writer Kevin Falls (The West Wing, Sports Night – 4-time Emmy winner) and Executive Producer/Director Alex Graves (The West Wing, The Practice – 2-time Emmy winner). These guys are not plebes – they know what it takes to put on a successful and entertaining show. As for the actor who will be handling the lead role? That would be
Kevin McKidd, the intense redhead who lit up the screen in HBO's original series
Rome. A lot will be riding on Kevin's shoulders, but early buzz is that he is more than capable of bearing that weight.
Will
Journeyman fair better than
Studio 60 in that post-
Heroes time slot? Tune in this Fall and find out.
- Amy J. Johnston, BuddyTV Features Writer
(Image © 2007 NBC)
(Sources: NBC.com & IMDB.com)