NBC Is Greenlighting Promising New Scripted Dramas, but I Don’t Trust It

If you’re one of our readers who get annoyed when we wallow in doom or express our frustrations through complaints that aren’t necessarily connected to statistical facts and figures, by all means, avert your eyes!

Because, as someone who is still deeply crushed by the loss of Found, I can’t help but feel frustrated over the latest news coming from the network.

Apparently, after utterly decimating most of its scripted content just a few months ago, leaving us with little beyond reality competition shows, Dick Wolf series, and sports, NOW the network seems interested in bolstering its scripted content again.

However, it’s challenging to feel any real excitement when, outside of legacy series with backing, they’ve proven time and again that there’s no space, no interest, and no effort to really support new scripted content and allow it to blossom fully.

At this point, the comedies seem to fare better.

We have St. Denis Medical, The Paper, Stumble, and Happy Place on the roster. And The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins will surely do well when it debuts. But there’s also a strong possibility that we’ll lose one or two of those by the end of spring.

As for scripted dramas, at this point, most of us are prepared for the impending loss of Brilliant Minds, and it’s still too early to say how The Hunting Party will fare.

But that’s all part of the frustration.

After gutting most of the scripted dramas on the network for sports, now, they’re circling back around to trying to bolster the scripted drama content, and how else are we to feel about this development than uneasy?

For one, that could lead to the loss of one or more shows that audiences do like to make room for these new series. But also, by now, the network and its streaming counterpart have fallen into a pesky habit of axing their own often underpromoted content after two seasons, tops.

It’s not a sustainable process to keep viewers interested or maintain an audience. They’re chasing viewers temporarily rather than looking to keep people coming back long-term.

Unfortunately, the oversaturation of content and streaming has shifted content creators’ thought process, where they’re constantly chasing the hottest, buzziest thing in the moment without fostering a foundation and some roots with real staying power.

Ultimately, it burns many viewers in the process, and then where does that leave us? Hell, look at how many passionate Magnum P.I. Fans still refuse to give the network the time of day after their cancellation.

The first of NBC‘s recent greenlights is, oh, what do you know? It’s a reboot.

Yeah, apparently, networks haven’t tired of those. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news on that front. We’ve really oversaturated the market with them.

The Rockford Files will get the shiny reboot treatment, with a vibe that ultimately aligns with NBC: crimefighting and investigation procedurals.

The Rockford Files is a contemporary update on the classic series. Newly paroled after doing time for a crime he didn’t commit, James Rockford returns to his life as a private investigator using his charm and wit to solve cases around Los Angeles. It doesn’t take long for his quest for legitimacy to land him squarely in the crosshairs of both local police and organized crime.

It reads as we’d expect, and it comes from the creative forces of writers and producers from The Village and Elementary, which sounds promising.

It also marks the first pilot pickup for NBC, aligning with its newfound plan that could signal the return of having actual content to get a peek at by May Fronts.

Apparently, NBC is aiming to pick up three to four dramas and two to three comedies. And we’d have a better feel for those, and it may very well result in the network having the most year-end pilot pickups on broadcast since the pandemic.

Sure, that’s nothing to sniff at, and kudos to them, but how are we supposed to feel when more often than not, it seems like the network doesn’t have direction or better yet, its finger on the pulse when it comes to understanding its own audience and viewership?

Are we just in another loop of getting excited for things that always have an axe dangling over its head before it even properly comes to fruition?

NBC has also announced that it’ll pick up a series called Protection. If you can’t tell by the title, yes, it’s a law enforcement agency series, and even hilariously, it’s one that centers on the Marshals.

I guess the Marshals are the newest subgroup to fixate on, as CBS also has an upcoming Yellowstone spinoff, “Marshals,” hitting the airwaves soon.

Quantico creator Josh Safran joins forces with Jenna Bush Hager (yes, George W. Bush’s daughter) to bring forth this drama about a fallen US agent. Marshal who gets wrapped up in a conspiracy.

A U.S. Marshal falls in the line of duty, a seemingly cut-and-dry case turns into a deadly conspiracy as a family of law enforcement agents become the target of a mysterious assassin. Bridging personal differences and crossing professional boundaries, the Thornhill family must use the expertise from a lifetime of protecting civilians and politicians to protect one another and bring the killer to justice … even if it means betraying their sworn code.

It all sounds fine. They’ve even so far opted for content that fits a particular demographic — the predominant one they seem to know best.

But after so many times of getting burned and the absolute slaughter of shows it had on the books last season, what’s the incentive for viewers to invest?

It’s like they’ve shifted their focus for the next season, hoping to dive into the scripted drama game that they never should’ve abandoned in the first place, and the back-and-forth and what feels like a lack of direction isn’t a vote of confidence anymore.

The other elephant in the room is that rebooting a classic TV show from decades ago for 2026 is already coming too late, as it seems like we’re on the tail end of that particular fad, with CBS’s hit Matlock devolving into a mess during its sophomore season.

And again, NBC certainly didn’t handle one of its previous reboots well.

There’s also the fact that Protection already sounds like something better suited to a limited series, but by not simply opting for more of those, the network often leaves us with drawn-out storylines, filler, and cliffhanger endings when they don’t wrap stories properly, as shows await renewals that never come.

Viewers have resorted to tuning in only after the season has wrapped, knowing renewal is guaranteed as a safeguard for their viewership.

It just feels like we’re in the same pattern of a network teasing new content without a fundamental understanding of its audience, and we’ll be lamenting the (impending) cancellation of these shows by Fall Finale time.

But maybe I’m just frustrated and bitter. So, I’ll turn it over to you. How do you feel about NBC’s upcoming series?

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