‘Traveler’ finally shows up
It was almost a year ago, at New York’s Lincoln Center, that ABC dazzled its audience of advertisers, station managers and the media with a mesmerizing clip from a new serial thriller that it had picked up for the 2006-07 season.
The show was called “Traveler,” and in its opening episode, three best friends, all in their early 20s, are footloose and having fun in New York when a bomb goes off.
Two of the friends realize that the third member of their party, Will Traveler, has vanished – but not before framing them in the terrorist attack.
On Thursday – 359 days after “Traveler” was unveiled, and just 12 days before the TV season’s end – the show finally arrives on the network’s schedule.
“Traveler” will get one juicy hour in the post-“Grey’s Anatomy” time slot. Then ABC isn’t going to air another episode until May 30, after the regular season ends.
Mind you, this is from a network that just promised “Lost” will air next season without taking a week off as it tries to hold onto that show’s dwindling fan base.
Why is a worthy effort like “Traveler” getting such shabby treatment? For the same reason that “Drive,” “The Black Donnellys” and “Day Break” all got the bum’s rush this season: The networks overindulged in serials, the novelty wore off, and a trend that became a fad turned into an expensive headache for the industry.
“Traveler” was the umpteenth program to be sold in recent years based on the remarkable success of serial dramas like “24,” “Lost,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Desperate Housewives.” The fact that three of those shows aired on ABC should have given “Traveler” the inside edge to land a plum time period.
But that didn’t happen, and it’s clear the network’s entertainment chief, Stephen McPherson, was having doubts about “Traveler” even as he was showing it off to the sponsors.
McPherson didn’t ask the cast and producers of “Traveler” to attend last summer’s TV critics’ press tour. And when given a second chance to parade the show before critics in January, McPherson again passed.
Meanwhile, the new season had fewer bright spots than black holes. Though viewers flocked to “Heroes” and “Ugly Betty,” audiences were less patient with other equally promising serials.
“Kidnapped” was whisked into the back of a van and driven off, never to reappear. “The Nine” quickly became The Zero.
“The Knights of Prosperity” was gone quicker than you could say, well, “The Knights of Prosperity.” As for “Smith,” I hear it’s living in Aruba under an assumed name.
As the carnage mounted, “Traveler” creator David DiGilio must have known he was running out of luck.
“Poor creators of serialized shows waiting in the wings had to bear the effects of that time,” he told Variety last month.
It surely didn’t help “Traveler” that “Lost,” the show that was most like it in tone, was floundering all season long. And there weren’t a lot of time slots available, given the success of “Brothers & Sisters,” which settled in nicely as a companion to “Housewives” on Sundays, and “October Road,” which has done well following “Grey’s” on Thursdays.
So after “Lost” is finished for the season, “Traveler” will inherit its time slot: Wednesdays at 10 p.m.