Battlestar Galactica did it. Desperate Housewives did it. And now yet another popular show is considering utilizing the increasingly-familiar plot device known as the time warp and fast-forwarding all of its stories! Which one? I’d love to tell you, but this is a blind item. So all you’ll get out of me are the following clues:
1. If it happens, the time shift will occur between this season’s finale and next season’s premiere.
2. If it happens, it’ll be because, I’m told, the network wanted to shake up the show and its characters, opening doors to new stories and closing doors on old ones.
3. If it happens… I’ll (hopefully) be telling you about it in the next few weeks.
Sorry, that’s all you get. Well, that, and the chance to speculate below. What still-popular program needs the kinda shot in the arm that only being shot forward in time could provide? Hmm…
TV scoop is best served instantaneously, so follow me on Twitter at @michaelausiello
Flash Forward – if it is renewed?!
LemuelG, that made me laugh out loud!
Seriously, though, I say Brothers & Sisters. Calista will get pregnant, Rob will die, we’ll flashforward to her being an established senator, and the kids being toddlers. That way, Rob gets out of the show to go to Park & Rec, and Calista gets her reduced workload with her character spending most of her time in DC w/her kids. Ta dah!
P.S. If I’m correct on this, I’m officially done watching B&S. It’s just gotten too ridiculous. What they need is a Maldovian massacre to thin out the cast.
That was my first thought, as well. I’ll probably always watch B&S, though. It requires so little of me lol.
plus they get new dramas by aging up those kids, especially Sara’s.
I lurve this idea-Kitty as a senator is ideal.
Rob will NOT die..his rep already confirmed it on people magazine that they are not going to kill off his character.
It could work, but I sure as hell hope they don’t pull that trick. B&S is supposed to be straight-up drama, not like Housewives. Also, wasn’t the faux-cest with Justin and Rebecca enough?
Robert, the Brothers & Sisters guess is perfect. And, bonus points for the Dynasty reference!
I stopped watching Brothers and Sisters at the start of this season. Just got too painful and boring. I would probably hit it up again if they FF.
Brothers & Sisters and i think it would be interesting if it happened to house
^^^ Above comment made me laugh.
“1. If it happens, the time shift will occur between this season’s finale and next season’s premiere.”
Now that WOULD be a twist ending to lost: it’s not actually ending! :O
This is old news Ausiello. Brothers and Sisters. They intend to make Sarah and Frenchie the focal couple. I heard that this change was also to help with the budget cuts that the show much make for next season.
GAH!!! IT DIDN’T WORK FOR DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES!!!
its gossip girl the whole university thing is getting old and never works with teen dramas
Hm… I don’t think so. One Tree Hill already did it, and these series are both CW’s. Very unlikely.
Not to mention the last episode of Dawson’s Creek, which shot ahead five years.
Something big is going to happen to get Jenny gone…maybe this is it.
Please God, let it be Gossip Girl!
Sounds like Flash Forward since the last episode ended with focusing on the date 12/12/16
which only means that they realized they F’d up using a date within the season and wanted to push the final date way into the future. just not as way as the book did
Yeah, I agree with lucas here. They are just trying to build up suspense because they screwed it up. I wonder if they think Flash Forward will make it that far. Sorry guys, but Flash Forward is definitely no Lost.
They didn’t screw up. The plot of the flashforward was always going to be ended by seasons end and as the recent plot has shown a second flashforward was going to occur, presumably similar events would occur over time as they series progressed. The 2016 date isnt necessarily a date where the series would end but instead a date when Dyson Frost stopped flashforwarding past.
NO.NO.NO. It’s “Heroes.” That show is a hot mess.
Actually I did not even realize Heroes was still on?!!! I thought it had been euthanized long ago.
Gotta be something else, yeah.
Im thinking its house md, because i know the producers wanted house and cuddy together by the end of the season
Its obviously Glee because of the baby
Doubtful. Ryan Murphy has said they’ll (meaning the students) will never graduate. I doubt they’ll be any kind of time jump when they’ve said that every season is not going to be a year in “real life.”
Its Brothers & Sisters, TV GUIDE have already reported this sory.
I’m guessing “still popular” takes Heroes out of the running … besides which, that would just be too obvious.
I would not put that out of the bag. I mean it would fast forward a while after the season finale and show us how society is now that they know about them.
I don’t know. I think the initial media/political frenzy would have too much good potential to skip over.
i could perhaps buy it. but in truth I”m thinking Grey’s Anatomy. in fact I”m shocked no one said it first. seems like GA is the first answer to all Blind Items these days
It would be a good move for Heroes, and (if it works) NBC could extend the now-expected 13 episode order. However, as much as I still like the show, it may be too little too late. That, and when’s the last time this column paid much attention to Heroes?
Is it Brothers and Sisters?
This is what I was thinking. Easy way to wrap up all the departures.
Giles Marini said the same in an interview a few weeks ago – that they were thinking about jumping ahead on B&S and Sarah and Luc would be married.
Yep, but I don’t get why this is a blind item since it’s been mentioned a couple of times that the producers were considering this. It’s definitely Brothers & Sisters.
Agreed. It’s definitely Brothers & Sisters. The show has gotten stale lately and I could definitely see ABC pushing for this to, as Aussie put it, give the show a much-needed shot in the arm.
Sounds about right. I think it’s either Brothers and Sisters or Private Practice.
Private Practice?
Although that would put an end to crossovers w/ Grey’s
Doubtful its PP couldnt imagine them have 3 different timelines over two shows
Maybe it is Grey’s.
I hope it is Grey’s.
they could do the crossovers still… they would just be flashbacks on PP. talk about a show that needs to move forward. especially since they are probably going to kill off Del.(most underutilised character ever) unless, they flash forward to cancellation and take Sam and Pete and Cooper to their own show… lol
They already did fast forward nine months of Violet’s pregnancy in very few episodes.
As much as I literally despise this show, I am first to admit that if they time jumped it and took themselves off the Grey’s crossover bandwagon they could make the show pretty decent.
But if Grey’s did it, so we could get rid of the crap that was left in Izzy’s wake. The idiotic “the chief is a drunk” story line. As well as other stupidities that have come up recently… The show could be good again.
I still love grey’s but I do agree that it would get rid of all the crappy drama… maybe jump into all of their fellowships and meredith could be pregnant… that’s how it is a gamechanger… because Meredith doesn’t want a baby now but in a couple years (aka the ff) she will… and then tada! we finally get a McBaby!
Chuck?
Fail. not a drama
reverse FAIL it is
Double reverse fail. It’s both a comedy and a drama. It’s like new “Shimmer” – a floor wax AND a dessert topping!
Triple fail action comedy
Quadruple Fail!!! This line of commenting is pointless…it doesn’t matter how you categorize Chuck, it is too good to need to pull such a stunt.
It is not popular -it ratings are small.
Quintuple fail its action comedy drama
I would fall out of my chair if it was Chuck. That’s what I thought of too, though.
the blind item is calling a DRAMA not a DRAMEDY get real guys. Just so we’re clear I LOVE CHUCK!!!!
Eitherway, Chuck would be a stupid thing to time jump. Much of the “drama” on the show revolves around him learning to be a spy and trying to be with Sarah. Jumping ahead to when he has done that really doesnt make sense for the comedy aspect of the show.
Actually, you all are wrong. The classification of whether a show is a comedy or a drama is how it’s categorized at the network itself and not how the show comes across and what the media calls it. For example, there’s a drama development dept and a comedy development dept, but there’s no dramedy development dept. Chuck would have been “classified” as a drama. THAT being said, as Ausiello is the media I was referring to, I doubt he’s referring to Chuck as HE would call the show in question a dramedy, I believe. Of course, that would also narrow down the field considerably and I doubt he would do that. So really, who knows. Chuck would never work as a fast forward.
I could see people saying it’s Smallville. But I don’t think a jump in time would be the right choice for that show. Most likely, Season 10 will be the last season. And at this point, the show if FINALLY getting to the end of Clark’s journey. To jump ahead in time would be a huge CHEAT.
Exactly. So much word.
Absolutely agreed.
And a time-jump completely defeats the purpose of Smallville (to SHOW Clark becoming Superman).
Yea but I think most fans would love seeing Clark as Superman for the entire final season.
He looks old enough now and it would be just like the original movie, they can say he was in the fortress for 5 yrs or so and he flies out as Superman in the premiere.
That “run off to the Fortress for several years” in the movie was stupid. How’s he supposed to remain connected to the world after being removed from it for so long? Besides, on Smallville, the training/data can be downloaded in seconds, so years in the Fortress is purposeless (not to mention all the people that would die while he’s…doing nothing).
I’d love to see Clark as Superman too, but I want to see the rest of the journey there. Skipping ahead now would be cheating.
I was thinking the same thing.
Although I agree, it would be a cheat, however if done right within the span of 3-4 episodes it could work nicely considering season 10 is the last we get.
If I was guessing a CW show- I’d say Supernatural. This finale is supposed to be the final showdown and Eric Kripke the producer had wanted to end it this year but the CW is going ahead with a new season.
Makes sense to jump 5 in the future and see what is going on now. They are constantly going back and forth in time recently.
Although I think ABC’s Flash Forward is the best guess- it will flash forward fives year ahead
Supernatural (favorite show on tv) doesn’t need to do the flash forward though, every ep has always been about hunting demons and some new story each week. After the finale, things just go back to normal, no need to jump ahead.
Yeah, flash forward is the best guest though It’s doubtful it will be renewed.
That’s what I was thinking too! I dont watch FlashForward though. Supernatural has been all about the Apocalypse,which I know some fans have been complaining about, for two, let’s face it, long seasons, and the show could use a revamp.
Bones?
I was thinking Bones also. Finally get Booth and Bones together and Angela and Hodgins together.
Not to bust your bubble but I doubt they would get B/B together. They are not going down that road, just yet. Angela/Hodgins, are. And, in the season finale, they have Booth contemplating going to train Army Rangers and Brennan has an opportunity to go on a dig in Indonesia. Separate, not together.
I think they’d get B/B together for the fans, then split them up, which although painful, (for b-b shippers), would give them way more room to explore.
i think once they do eventually get booth and bones together they will keep them together. a la jim and pam.
Yep, that’s my guess as well.
That would be a MAJOR cheat…..
I agree! I can see why a show would consider doing this, especially in the position that Bones is in, but to think that we might miss some really key moments in the relationships on this show is disheartening. I care a lot about getting to see Angela and Hodgins back together and to think that we might return to the show and it’s already happened is sad. As for Booth and Brennan, yes they are teasing us mercilessly with putting off their get together, but they just do it because once it finally happens, a lot of the sexual tension may die off. I still want to see them get together. The idea they might go their separate ways and somehow get together in the future when no one is on the same page anymore just plain old sucks to me.
I hope so.
Agreed. All the spoilers and HOW the cast and crew have been saying things about characters going different places, everything is left up in the air and changing the what “Bones” was, etc. All signs seem to be pointing to it. This show definitely needs it. HH has been babying the viewers too much. This will definitely shake everyone up.
Seriously? Babying?
I would cheerfully give up a romance between the two of them if we could get back to having smart cases and characters who don’t behave schizophrenically from one episode to the next. Unfortunately, we’ve been promised even more endless shipblocking and angst.
I don’t think they’ve gone easy on viewers at all. I think they’ve gotten terribly, terribly lazy.
This would seem logical and good at the same time. The B&B stuff needs to be decided some how and now.
This would do that and reboot the show.
I was thinking that Booth would go train Army Rangers and Brennan would go on the dig, and they would skip through all of that.
Where did you hear the split up thing? I never heard about that!
I think I heard it in an interview or something like that…maybe it’s just a rumor…or maybe I’m just making things up in my mind.
i think its bones too. they are both separating in the finale and theres speculation that SOMETHING will happen between them. and they will pick up next season like a year later when the both return
I thought “Bones” too. Hm, a time-warp could very well be on the cards and it’s something I could see happening.
NO NO, please NO!!!!
I don’t think they would ever do that on Bones. There’s no real point to have them speed up the time line. The show has not become stagnant or in need of any reboot. If anything it has become more interesting as of late then last season.
There was a lot of speculation surrounding sides about this. Personally, I like the plane crash idea better, but this would shake it up like a singing bartender shakes drinks.
I don’t see how any procedural would need a kickstart. My guess is more character drama-Grey’s, Brother’s & Sister’s, generally the crap i don’t watch.
Oh no! I think separating them feels worse than having a new love-interest >< dunno
Yep – with the spoilers that are out in the wild, people have been predicting a one-year jump between the S5 finale and S6 opener for like a month now.
Phew. Not Bones.
I say…Grey’s Anatomy.
I agree. Shonda did mention a game changer.
Yeah, it sounds like Grey’s Anatomy…although yeah, it would screwup any future Private Practice crossovers
that’s ok graeme, the crossovers suck!
I think it would be pretty cool (and tough to coordinate) if they fast forwarded either Grey’s or PP and kept the other one in the present. Imagine a character being married to one person in one show and to another in the crossover episodes…they could have a lot of fun with that.
I like the crossovers!
Haha I love the idea of only one of Grey’s/PP moving forward and one show kind of having spoilers on the other =) That would be funny. And if Grey’s character went to LA, and showed up 3 seasons later on PP. Haha. Don’t think it’s them though. I’m thinking Brothers & Sisters
i agree. first thing that came to mind.
Grey’s would be nice, cause they could dump those Mercy Westers except for Harper’s grandson who seems the only useful one. Also we could have Meredith already had a child without subjecting her to a TV pregnancy storyline. I agree with someone earlier about keeping PP in present.
That actually makes sense, considering how the time span of the show has been structured in the past, with two or three seasons making up just one year. Otherwise, how would we know what the residents are going to do after their residency ends?
Yeah, Grey’s popped into my head while I was reading this. How far ahead would they go?
“Shot in the arm” sounds like a medical drama. Grey’s.
The Office?
it’s more a drama than a comedy nowadays
Smallville
That would defeat the purpose of the show…
Not really. He needs to go away for training for a few years…the breakup with Lois and his return would be a great storyline for them.
Smallville’s last season finale involved time traveling to the future. I don’t think they’d repeat it.
Why does he need to train for years? Cutting off humanity obviously isn’t the answer to him becoming Superman (or else he would’ve been at the beginning of season 9)…it’s going to be a balance of both his human and Kryptonian sides that will make him fly and be Superman, not isolating himself in the Fortress for X number of years.
Brothers and Sisters?????
I did hear somewhere that brothers and sisters was going to jump ahead a year so thats probably it.
It’s Brothers & Sisters. Next
I agree. Brothers & Sisters
Its totally brothers and sisters!
Has to be House. This season has been brutal… it needs a shot of something, STAT
I agree. The only show that needs to take this risk is House. I’ve thought about it myself two seasons ago. Right now, it’s very stale. It would be refreshing if we could jump three years in the future and see if the characters are happy or disappointed at how their lives turned out.
As much as I hate Desperate Housewives, at least they had the guts to do it.
if it’s House I hope they jump to the funeral of Thirteen
No way. It’s not House. Period.
Amen.
Not House. The charfacters have absolutely nothing to gain by a jump. Nothing leads them there like B&S or Grey’s which would easily adapt to a few years passing within the story lines.
Gossip Girl seems like the perfect candidate for this.
That’s what I was thinking.
Me too.
me three! They basically behave like adults anyway. They got bored with college plot lines in October. I mean have we ever seen Nate at Columbia? Are they going to find ANOTHER excuse for Serena to postpone Brown?
oh please be gossip girl – its starting to get boring. <- feel so bad for saying that.
That would also explain why Jenny may or may not be in many episodes at the start of next season.
That would make a lot of sense. And it could be their way of writing Taylor Momsen out of the show.
How would fast forwarding the show write out Taylor?
As much as I hate to say this they don’t want to write her out, they are going to keep her in the shadows for a big return later, and my money is on her being the object of the pregnancy blind item, I just hope Nate’s not the father!!!
I hope it’s Gossip Girl. College is the most boring place to revolve a TV show. I can’t even think of any successful shows where the main characters were in college for more than one season…
Um hello! felicity.
haha
…and Greek.
um hello, Felicity, beverly hills 90210, dawson’s creek….
Gilmore girls – 4 seasons of Rory at Yale.
Certainly 90210 and arguably Gilmore Girls but Felicity, Dawson’s Creek, and Greek are/were not successful shows (in the Dawson’s Creek’s case, at least not while they were in college).
If you count a show lasting more than three seasons successfull Felicity disproves your argument.
Fail – Felicity was not successful. It ratings were always at the bottom.
Successful is a matter of opinion at this point. The shows mentioned all lasted quite some time. Felicity may not have had huge ratings but it had a following and lasted for several seasons. I would count that as a success. DC pretty much ditched the college bit for the last season and got better. Greek has been fairly successful for ABCFam. They have been quick to cancel shows that dont perform for them (that Alexa Vega nightmare) and canceled shows with better followings but worse ratings (KyleXY).
Either way, College hasnt really been a focus for much of the second half of the season of GG and I would assume that the only references to it will continue to be with Dan.
Boy Meets World.
Greys? Shonda said it was a game changer?
that or Gossip Girl?