It’s Saturday, I’m bored as hell and as you all know I’ve been talking about how upfronts are in a couple of weeks and you will start to see a bunch of decisions regarding all your favorite broadcast shows. So to ease my boredom I’ve decided to run down a list of the current (that means as of May 5th, 2012 because no decisions will be made today and I’m not updating this post when the updates start rolling in) status of every primetime show (including reality and news shows) that have aired or are airing on broadcast TV since September.

When I wrote this earlier the intention was to put everything in one big post. 2 basketball games, 3 chores, 6 hours and 2500 words later I see that won’t be possible so I’ll split this up into 5 posts (by network) and try to get them up in the next 2 hours or so.

For the undecided/still airing shows I will give the popular guess as to what will happen to most of those shows based on what I’ve been reading on other sites and what I’ve seen regarding their ratings.

Undecided/Still airing: 20/20, America’s Funniest Home Videos, Castle, Cougar Town, Dancing with the Stars, Don’t Trust the B In Apartment 23, GCB, Grey’s Anatomy, Last Man Standing, The Middle, Missing, Modern Family, Once Upon a Time, Primetime Nightline, What Would You Do?, Wipeout, Private Practice, Revenge, Scandal, Shark Tank, Suburgatory, The Bachelor, Body of Proof, Happy Endings, Million Dollar Mind Game, Celebrity Wife Swap, You Deserve It and Saturday Night Football

Renewed: Nothing

Canceled: Pan Am, Charlie’s Angels, Man Up! and Work It

Final Season: Desperate Housewives, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Thoughts: It’s true, ABC has done nothing so far and with things being this late in the season and having made not one renewal decision it’s clear that ABC is going into their upfronts with the buzz being focused on what shows they keep or cancel rather than what new shows they unveil (this is usually a sign that they don’t like their pilots).

This would be a good strategy if ABC were in CBS’s position but they are not. ABC only has 2 sure hits on their schedule (Grey’s Anatomy and Modern Family) and quite a few problem areas to deal with (Sundays at 9 &10pm, Tuesday nights except DWTS and Thursdays at 8pm). Fortunately for ABC this won’t be a year where they have to save face and renew rookie shows that didn’t flop out the gate because Once Upon a Time and Revenge have been solid for them and both will be back (There are some Revenge detractors out there but what they don’t realize is ABC has no need to move Revenge because it’s in a spot that was another major problem area for them).

Other shows that are looking like locks for next season are 20/20, America’s Funniest Home Videos, Castle, Dancing With the Stars, The Bachelor, Saturday Night Football, The Middle and Suburgatory. Wipeout has been pretty good at filling holes for them when needed so it’s probably coming back. What Would You Do? Is also good at filling a hole on the schedule and it is a good show to stick on Fridays so that will probably be back as well. Shark Tank does well on Fridays and it would be no surprise if that returns. I don’t expect to see renewals for You Deserve It and Million Dollar Mind Game and Celebrity Wife Swap will only come back if ABC can find people to do it (it was a schedule filler between DWTS seasons anyway)

The River and Missing are not coming back and with GCB and Scandal not flopping Body of Proof may be dead as well. It’s highly rumored that Private Practice will be renewed for a final season (possibly 13 episodes) but it may not air behind Grey’s Anatomy. GCB doesn’t have very great ratings but when a new Desperate Housewives airs in front of it its ratings perk up to being on the low end of being worth saving. The same is true for Scandal as well but Scandal has a slightly better chance than GCB of being renewed (Reason being fewer episodes aired and all have aired behind new Grey’s Anatomy episodes).

The comedies are also a mess with 4 shows fighting for renewals of their own. Happy Endings and Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23 are shows in which their ratings are not bad, they just look bad because both shows aired behind Modern Family. It’s unlikely either show will air behind Modern Family next season but it’s also not very likely that both shows get canceled, which one is hard to call (Chances are both get renewed but one stays on Wednesdays while the other gets paired with Last Man Standing and/or a new comedy on another night).

Last Man Standing started well but it’s ratings over the last month have been sad. Still ABC may renew it and try to give it a chance in their Wednesday block. Cougar Town is a show with horrendous ratings but it’s a show in its 3rd season. 3rd season shows more often than not get renewed for syndication purposes but Cougar Town needs more than 20 episodes to reach the ideal syndication number so it may still get canceled.