by J. Max Robins , Featured Columnist, October 7, 2015

Have we finally arrived at the death of the fall TV season? It’s genuinely hard to remember if there’s ever been a worse lineup — a lackluster roster of rookie shows. Nothing is truly resonating with ratings or buzz.

Network press release machines may be churning out what passes for good news these day about series like the solid NBC drama “Blindspot,” ABC's reboot of “The Muppets” or the CBS comedy “Life in Pieces.” But PR efforts can’t disguise an obvious — yet unmentionable — ennui.

None of these shows, or any other freshman series that jumps to mind, looks like a breakout on its own. “Blindspot” has benefited immeasurably from the megawatt “The Voice” as a lead-in, where the new show is heavily promoted.

“The Muppets” will get sampling just on the strength of the brand -- meanwhile, it has a median viewer age of 49. As for “Life in Pieces,” it may be the highest-rated new network comedy, but it loses more than half of the audience for “The Big Bang Theory,” which proceeds it.

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Just a year ago, ABC was scoring big with Shonda Rhimes' latest effort, “How to Get Away with Murder,” featuring breakout star Viola Davis. A year before that, NBC scored big with “Blacklist,” with its screen-chomping, tour-de-force star turn from James Spader. Anything coming close to that this fall?

The rise and rise of Netflix and other streaming services, and the growing strength of quality on cable, begs the question of if the fall season has any meaningful resonance. Is it still an asset for a new series to debut in autumn — or is it better to launch during a less-cluttered time of the year?

Some of the fallout for newbies this fall, no doubt, is due to what FX President and General Manager John Landgraf and others have decried as an overall glut of original series. By Landgraf’s estimate, in 2010 there were 280 original series, compared to 400 this year — which makes launching anything an increasingly difficult challenge.

Look at last year's monster breakout “Empire,” for example, which debuted on Fox in January and became the network's most buzzed-about show in years. It returned this fall to an even bigger audience and seemed to drown out all the new stuff on Fox.

Still, all may not be all doom and gloom for the fall's crop of newbies. My longtime pal Brad Adgate, Horizon Media’s senior vice president/director of research, notes the absence of a breakout hit, but cautions that there may be a frosh success waiting to happen in a world where DVR numbers are factored in, social media mentions build buzz — and there may be a lucrative secondary market deal in the wings with Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime.

A good candidate for sleeper series breakout status is “Scream Queens.” The heavily promoted Fox series drew a disappointing 4 million viewers in its debut, but ratings grew by 83% when Live+3-day ratings were counted.

Still, with the rising price of Netflix stock, the aging up of broadcast network audiences and the growth of non-broadcast programing options, I can't help but think we have come to the fall of the fall season.

Not that anyone noticed. There are too many shows left to binge on.