Trivia Club Fall TV Death Pool 2014-2015

October 25, 2014


Ladies and gentlemen, we have our first 86’d show of the television season. With that in mind, Trivia Club wanted to debut a new show. Before the start of the 2014-2015 fall television season Trivia Club asked a select group of participants to take part in our very first FALL TV DEATH POOL!

Don’t get the wrong idea, we LOVE TV, and we want it all to succeed but we also love a good game, and have a critical eye for pop culture. Also, our Summer Movie Wager needed a sibling within the silver screen world.

The idea is that our participants would choose four new shows and one returning show from ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and the CW!

They get one point per episode aired (not ordered).

Eventually they'll want the LEAST amount of possible points. It's like televised golf (while actually making you invested in television shows you still won't watch)! So with all that in mind, enjoy they lists and the thoughts given for each choice!

The following picks were made before September 15th, 2014.


PATRICK, 61 episodes - WINNER
Patrick is a three-time Golden VHS at Lou Dawg’s Ryerson with The Bastards, and won Trivia Club’s 2014 Summer Movie Wager.

NEW SHOWS
ABC: Manhattan Love Story (5 EPISODESCANCELLED)
This show promises a peek inside the minds of shallow, neurotic and awkward white people. I already watch a show like that. It's called, "Every Goddamned Day of My Life." Manhattan Love Story will earn the distinction of having the lowest-rated episode of the 2014 fall lineup.

CBS: The McCarthys (11 EPISODESPULLED DURING PARTIAL ORDER)
I don't know about the rest of you, but reveling in the ill-fortune of others is what gets me out of bed in the morning. After enduring a mirthless 3-minute trailer of The McCarthys, I will take pleasure in watching them tank mid-season. Not literally. I'd never actually watch it.

NBC: Bad Judge (13 EPISODES – CANCELLED)
To this participant's surprise, Bad Judge is not at all related to the Cameron Diaz film and subsequent TV adaptation, Bad Teacher, despite sharing nearly identical premises. After this season they will have even more in common; Bad Teacher was cancelled after three episodes and Bad Judge is poised for an equally dismal run.

FOX: Red Band Society (10 EPISODESCANCELLED)
Unlike ABC and NBC, there aren't a lot of shows on FOX that are destined to fail. Red Band Society isn't a sure bet as much as a roll of the dice. It could go either way. You could say I'm giving this cancer-themed show a 50/50 chance! Geddit?!

RETURNING SHOW
The CW: Reign (22 EPISODES - FULL ORDER)
I'm going to be perfectly honest here: I don't watch a lot of new TV. In fact, composing these Death Pool selections has required me to do more homework than a perennial underachiever like me is comfortable doing. I kind of just fizzled out when it came to examining which returning show was least likely to succeed. I don't watch Reign, and I'll probably never start. But it looks kind of like Merlin, and I hated that show.


ROBB, 71 episodes
Robb is a ten-time Golden VHS winner at Hitch, as part of the Toliet Roll Dynasty of teams.

NEW SHOWS
The CW: Jane The Virgin (22 EPISODESFULL ORDER)

ABC: Selfie (7 EPISODES – CANCELLED)

CBS: The McCarthys (11 EPISODES - PULLED DURING PARTIAL ORDER)

NBC: Bad Judge (13 EPISODES – CANCELLED)
Have you seen the previews? oy.

RETURNING SHOW
FOX: Sleepy Hollow (18 EPISODES - FULL ORDER)
John Mulaney is my parallel universe boyfriend who will never ever ever be cancelled, ever, Sleep Hollow from Fox.


MATT, 78 episodes
Matt is a nine-time Golden VHS winner at Cardinal Rule with BITCA?, the Sexy Dumpster Teens (the 2014 Trivia Club Grand Champions), and the Electric Mayem. He has also won the 2013-2014 Oscar Confidence Pool, and is the inaugural winner of the SNL Fantasy League’s Phil Hartman Trophy with the Ignorant Sluts.

NEW SHOWS
ABC: Manhattan Love Story (5 EPISODESCANCELLED)
Sounds terrible.

CBS: Scorpion (22 EPISODES - FULL ORDER)
Sounds unremarkable.

FOX: Mulaney (13 EPISODES – CANCELLED?)
Sounds niche.

NBC: The Mysteries of Laura (22 EPISODESFULL ORDER)
Sounds Messing.

RETURNING SHOW
The CW: The 100 (16 EPISODES – CANCELLED)
CW never cancels anything mid-season, so I might as well burn off my returning show there.


ROB, 72 episodes
Rob was a part of the 2014 Grand Championship winning Sexy Dumpster Teens, and has also won a Golden VHS at Lou Dawg’s Ryerson with Definitely Not 3 Kids Hiding Under a Trenchcoat. He is the host of the Trivia Club Network podcast Deep Thoughts on SNL.

NEW SHOWS
NBC: Bad Judge (13 EPISODES – CANCELLED)
I expect none of NBC’s new shows to do well, even if I wish talented people such as Casey Wilson and Cristin Miliotti nothing but success. But the high-concept sitcoms of Wilson, Miliotti et al. seem limiting in a way where the show will likely abandon the concept almost immediately and turn into a hangout sitcom that lives or dies by cast chemistry (I expect Marry Me to follow the couple’s perfect engagement as closely as Happy Endings followed the fallout of Elisha Cuthbert leaving Zach Knighton at the altar). By contrast, Bad Judge will have big, expensive courtroom sets that you just know some whiny producer won’t let them abandon just so we can watch Kate Walsh and Ryan Hansen chill out. Instead, they’ll probably run out of ways for Kate Walsh to be wacky-yet-sexy by week 3 and be put out of their misery.

ABC: Manhattan Love Story (5 EPISODESCANCELLED)
When considering the longevity of a 2010s-era ABC series, one must consider: how dumb is the title? Is it long and unwieldy, esoteric, and/or immediately off-putting? As proven by Happy Endings, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, Trophy Wife, How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life), and more, a dumb title means you’re likely to get at least a season out of the alphabet network. In contrast, Manhattan Love Story, with its simple, straightforward title that actually gets across what the hell the show is about, is clearly doomed to end by Christmas. Long live Selfie/How To Get Away with Murder/Black-ish is.

CBS: The McCarthys (11 EPISODES - PULLED DURING PARTIAL ORDER)
Word is this show is actually funny. So CBS will cancel it.

The CW: Jane the Virgin (22 EPISODESFULL ORDER)
What is this show? Sure, let’s go with that.

RETURNING SHOW
Fox: The Mindy Project (21 EPISODESADDITIONAL EPISODES)
A slight hedge bet. Fox ordered 16 episodes of Mulaney, but 15 episodes of The Mindy Project. Even if Fox is happy with Mulaney’s performance, it seems likely to end season 1 after its initial order and take spring off before a season 2, a la Sleepy Hollow last year; I honestly don’t know where Fox plans to broadcast The Last Man on Earth come 2015 if not Mulaney’s time slot after Family Guy on Sundays. Mindy seems on the verge of cancellation, but since A) it’s their third season, B) it’s paired with their only other female-led sitcom, New Girl, and C) they already got a weird number of episodes ordered, I expect every episode to air as a courtesy. So, yeah. TL;DR: neither show gets more than what’s already ordered, and Mindy has one less episode ordered than Mulaney, so boom.


UPDATED: 02/04/15

We can call it! With every show either being picked up, either partially or fully, or cancelled... the results are in... and adding the first annual TV Death Pool to his list of accomplishments, next to his Summer Movie Wager victory in 2014, as well as now being part of SEVEN Golden VHS winning teams...

PATRICK is our 2014/2015 Trivia Club TV Death Pool WINNER!


Russel Harder hosts Trivia Club at Cardinal Rule (5 Roncesvalles Ave) every WEDNESDAY, at Hitch (1216 Queen St East) every SECOND and FOURTH MONDAY of the month, Handlebar (159 Augusta Ave) on the FIRST TUESDAY of every month, and Lou Dawg's (76 Gerrard St E) on every other TUESDAY!

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