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Renewed: Covert Affairs, White Collar, Royal Pains.

Three shows by cable network USA have been given the greenlight for more.

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Three shows by cable network USA have been given the greenlight for more: Covert Affairs, White Collar and Royal Pains.

USA has finished the US summer as cable’s No. 1 network across all key demographics for the seventh year. All three series rank among the top 10 scripted shows on cable networks in the all-important 18-49 demographic.

Covert Affairs, currently airing in Australia on Seven, has won a fourth season of 15 episodes.

Royal Pains, another Seven brand, will return for two additional runs of 13 episodes each, totalling a 26-episode order for seasons five and six.

White Collar, which airs here on TEN, wins 15 more episodes for its fifth season.

“All three of these series have found ways to stay creatively fresh and culturally relevant” USA co-presidents Jeff Wachtel and Chris McCumber said in a statement. “The execution in writing, acting and production is among the best on television. In an increasingly competitive landscape, these series got new-season pickups the old-fashioned way, they earned it!”

Yet to be determined are other USA shows Common Law, Fairly Legal, Necessary Roughness and Political Animals.

Burn Notice was renewed for its fifth and sixth seasons in 2010.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

21 Responses

  1. @josh – I am not saying that the moving of shows is not disrespectful or rude. In fact, I agree that it is, and wish that the stations would show more courage in allowing shows to garner an audience.

    All I was saying was that the shows rated poorly before the moves, which you basically agreed with me. That’s all 🙂

  2. @ unclepete – I just found the interview by TV Tonight and it was with Charlie Pickering, not Shaun Micallef (I Googled him to make sure I spelt his surname correctly this time =p) Here is a link to the article: http://tvtonight.com.au/2012/03/charlie-pickering-on-the-rubiks-cube-of-network-programming.html
    Charlie’s words were: “there are very few lives where people change their lives to be able to watch a show. Maybe you aren’t treating your audience as well as you should. If they’re a faithful, loyal audience and you then move off somewhere else I think maybe audiences find that a bit disrespectful”

  3. @ unclepete – you’re right that the show wouldn’t be moved if it was getting “good” ratings, but moving seems to only reduce it more. I am yet to see a series moved actually get better ratings from it. I remember there was a TV Tonight article with Shaun McAullife (don’t know if that is spelt right sorry) and he said that Your Gen was in multiple timeslots over its time on TEN and viewers aren’t revolving their lives around TV and won’t follow the shows (although this isn’t the case for myself and other TV addicts on this site it is true for most TV viewers).

  4. @josh – don’t get me wrong, I actually thoroughly enjoy Burn Notice, Covert Affairs and some of the other shows mentioned. (not White Collar though). But the moving of them doesn’t explain the initial poor ratings they garnered. Sorry.

    Both Burn Notice and White Collar for example, were given many weeks in their initial slots. While I like them, I also understand that not everyone does. A network (any network) does not move a well-rating show, while it is rating. The ratings are the cause of the move, not vice versa **shrugs**

  5. @ nik c – I just had a look at the TV guide and the ONE White Collar page (which you have to manually search for as opposed to it being listed on the Series tab) and by the looks as if White Collar will continue being shown in double episodes after the Thursday night HD Movie. Definitely a good idea by ONE to get the country up to date while also having some good competition to the late night talk shows and repeats on other channels.
    @ unclepete – yes and no. If networks left a series in one timeslot for an entire season then we would be able to better compare the U.S. and local ratings, but as Australian FTA networks are in the business of bumping shows it is impossible to say how they go here. Covert Affairs is currently holding up in double eps on a Wednesday (winning it’s timeslot this week) and other Seven series (Fairly Legal, Suits and Royal Pains) do well in their 10:30pm late night slot. However, Burn Notice and White Collar which have varied in timeslots from anywhere between 8:30pm to 10:30pm on varying days for premiere episodes have produced poor ratings (simply because TEN thought “if they moved it they would come”). However, premiere eps of Burn Notice on ONE gets over 150,000 which is pretty good for a multichannel.

  6. Great news for Covert Affairs, I’m glad Seven has played it consistently this season.

    Wish I could say the same about Ten with White Collar. Hopefully they either start playing new eps or handball new series to a Foxtel channel ASAP if they really don’t want it.

  7. I am so glad Covert Affairs has been renewed for a fourth season, great storyline.

    However, I really hope Common Law gets renewed. Such a hilarious cop show and many great scenes. Will be sad if they say goodbye to the fantastic on air friendship of Travis and Wes.

  8. If I am not mistaken all these shows rate fairly poorly in Australia?

    Just goes to show that what is successful over there does not necessarily transfer to here I guess.

  9. Little strange that USA didn’t include Suits in the renewal, you would have to think it would be a certainity for a 3rd season given it’s outrating Burn Notice

  13. @ TasTVcameraman – season two of Suits is split into two, with 10 episodes airing up till 23rd August then 6 episodes airing from January next year. Any renewal news for it will unlikely come out till next year during it’s second half.

  14. Meanwhile there’s been reports from TVLine that Fairly Legal and Common Law are both likely to be axed.

    The only USA show I watch is Suits. I used to like Covert Affairs but stopped watching, it was the same thing every episode

  16. Yeah, that’s true, Channel 10 needs to get it’s act together and start screening White Collar, it’s a huge hit in the US and is a great show but is never given a fair go here, we are so far behind here.

  18. @ nik c – couldn’t agree more. Fortunately for me, I live in NSW so I got to see the second half of season two and half of season three before they pulled it off the air. This just in- ONE will be showing repeat double episodes (S01E01,E02)tomorrow night from 10:35pm-12:35pm. Hopefully this is a sign that they are tying to let the entire country see every episode before picking up where they left off.

  20. This is brilliant news. Absolutely love all these series. Wish that an Australian network would show Necessary Roughness (currently in it’s second season) and Common Law (currently in it’s first season) as they both look fantastic.
    And David that should be “White Collar, which used to air here on TEN” as it has been on the back burner for over 6 months with ONE since removing it from it’s Series website page and not replying to emails or tweets. Now only repeats are shown on SoHo until TEN finish airing the series which seems will never happen. Same with Burn Notice which is repeated when new episodes are available. At least every USA Network series that Seven shows is shown from beginning to end, even if it’s in late night slots (Royal Pains, Fairly Legal, and Suits all aired after 9:30pm)

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