I’ve already picked up the fall TV previews from TV Guide and Sci Fi magazine (yeah, it’s still called that, even though the channel is called SyFy). It’ll be a couple weeks before I get my Entertainment Weekly Fall TV Preview (I haven’t even gotten this week’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm”/”Seinfeld” cover yet), but EW can afford to be last, because it has secured its place as the best.
After I decided to do a blog guessing what this year’s EW Fall TV Preview cover show would be, I discovered that several other bloggers had this same idea. Follow this link to a good one, which also features images of all 19 EW Fall TV Previews so far.
So what show will be on this year’s cover? Well, EW has played it safe in recent years. “Gossip Girl” (2008), “Grey’s Anatomy” (2006) and “Lost” (2005) were hot returning shows. “Private Practice” (2007) and “Joey” (2004) were spinoffs of hit shows.
EW also went with returning hits in 2002 (“Alias”) and 2001 (“Buffy”). “Miss Match,” the 2003 cover, was the last time EW threw its support behind a brand-new franchise, although even then they had Alicia Silverstone as the cover girl, so it wasn’t a huge newsstand risk. And while “Miss Match” wasn’t a hit, it was at least good.
“Titans,” in 2000, with cover girl Yasmine Bleeth, was the last complete misfire, in that the show was neither a critical nor ratings hit. Perhaps that mistake started the trend of going with safer bets.
It should also be noted that EW Fall TV Previews have traditionally featured one person. But last year was an exception that bodes well for the bevy of ensemble shows out there now: “Gossip Girl” duos were featured on three different collector’s covers.
Based on these recent trends — and my gut feeling — here are my guesses (in order of likelihood) for the 2009 cover:
1. “Glee” (Fox). Because the pilot episode aired last spring, we already know it’s good. With an attractive young cast, and a talented, trendy showrunner (the guy from “Nip/Tuck”), and a good soundtrack, everyone’s buzzing about “Glee.” Yet it’s not quite over-buzzed, so it wouldn’t feel like bandwagon jumping if EW chose it for the cover. If only because it’s the first one we saw, “Glee” feels like the defining new show of the fall.
2. “Fringe” (Fox). It’s the big, new hit from the previous year. And, if my memory serves, “Fringe” hasn’t gotten a cover yet. EW has shown lots of love for another J.J. Abrams show, “Lost,” and I bet they’ll get behind this one, too, so a “Fringe” cover is a matter of when, not if.
3. “Melrose Place” (The CW). Historically, EW has been obsessed with “Melrose Place.” The original “MP” was the Fall TV Preview cover in both 1993 and ’94. Also, it’s a spinoff of the hit “90210,” so that helps.
4. “Bones” (Fox). Apparently there’s buzz about what’s gonna happen next with Bones and Booth. That could earn them “cover couple” status, especially if last year’s “Gossip Girl” couples sold well.
5. “The Vampire Diaries” (The CW). EW is obsessed with vampires. “Twilight” was the Fall Movie Preview cover, coming just two weeks after a “Twlight”/”True Blood” vampire-themed cover. But I actually think EW might be ready to tone down the vamp love.
6. “Community” (NBC). Is anyone not rooting for Chevy Chase to have a successful comeback? We all love Chevy, and we want “Community” (a sitcom on which he is the best-known actor in an ensemble cast) to be good, and it looks like it will be good. So “Community” is a sleeper pick for the cover.
7. “Cougar Town” (ABC). I have this strange feeling that EW will put Courteney Cox on the cover, maybe because I was just looking at that 1995 “Friends” cover that featured her. I’ll almost certainly be wrong, but I thought I’d mention this very long shot anyway.
8. “The Mentalist” (CBS). What if EW feels strongly that they want just one person on the cover, and they decide Cox is a little too 1995? And what if the editors suddenly feel bad that CBS has never had a Fall TV Preview cover? Then Simon Baker’s my guess, since “The Mentalist” was last year’s biggest ratings hit among new shows. But this is a very, very long shot that would come about only if EW fires everyone on its staff younger than 60 before this issue comes out.
Share your guesses for the Fall TV Preview cover in the comment thread below. I’ll revisit the topic when the issue comes out. And, of course, I’ll have my own fall TV preview in an upcoming blog.
Comments
And the winner is … “Fringe!”
Got it in my mailbox today.# Posted By John Hansen | 9/11/09 4:58 PM