What’s in Store for Medium at CBS?
If you are a Medium fan, you already know (and are relieved!) that the series is moving to CBS this fall instead of being dropped by NBC. In fact, CBS has already started airing reruns just to make sure we’re all caught up before the new season starts.
So far it looks like the main difference we’ll see with the move is more attention to and promotion for this engrossing series. CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler and showrunner Glenn Gordon Caron talked about this recently in a press conference at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Pasadena, CA.
Caron emphasized that he was “incredibly grateful to NBC,” yet was repeatedly pressed by critics to talk about the subject. “CBS has already run more promos than NBC has in the whole five years,” Caron said. “For the first time in three years we’re going to do 22 episodes…there were times along the way even a couple inside NBC thought maybe if we gave the show a little more attention — that’s no great secret there. Could things have been done differently? Sure.”
CBS’s fall lineup will have Medium following the well-established Ghost Whisperer on Friday nights. Together the two shows carry a supernatural theme, with both Medium star Patricia Arquette and Ghost Whisperer’s Jennifer Love Hewitt playing characters with the power to communicate with the spirits of the dead. For now, that is where the similarities will end, but Tassler remained open to the possibility of crossovers in the future. “It’s never too soon [to consider],” Tassler said. “Their mythologies are different, and we haven’t talked about a crossover, but it’s possible. I think right now the shows have a different language. They have a different skill set, different rules, etc., but once we get the show launched and comfortable in its time period, we could certainly talk about it.”
Caron has also given a bit of insight into the show’s Halloween episode this year, airing just before Oct. 31. He has aquired the rights to the original Night of the Living Dead, into which the show will insert Allison Dubois (Arquette). “It’s going to be the landscape of her dreams in that particular episode,” Caron said. “It’s actually the vestige of an idea I had back in Moonlighting. We bought the rights to this old AIP movie, Mothra vs. Godzilla. We were going to matte Bruce and Cybill into it. We never got around to it. This year we actually got the rights to the original Night of the Living Dead, and we’re going to insert Patricia into it.”
Arquette also commented on her excitement for the Halloween episode. “I was so excited about it, because I love that movie,” she said. “When I was a teenager, it was kind of like you start breaking away from the establishment and your parents, you find these jewels. After school, it’d be on at a weird time. [You'd escape from] the hot California sun watching this weird movie. Also, I started out in horror films, Nightmare on Elm Street 3. I love a good monster movie. I’m here in a monster show. I’m the monster, but it’s exciting.”
Caron offered a few spoilers for the upcoming season. The cliffhanger of Allison’s coma will resolve when Medium returns: “She comes out of the coma and she’s on a different network,” Caron deadpanned. “It’s the damnedest thing.” CBS will also feature some big-name guest directors on the show, including Marc Webb, director of the indie hit (500) Days of Summer. “Marc Webb, one thing he wants to do is direct an episode of Medium,” Caron continued. “He’s going to come play with us.”
Medium premieres on CBS Sept. 25 at 9 p.m. Eastern.
SOURCES: Sci Fi Wire & THR Feed
