When we last saw the hot teens of The O.C., Seth
was sailing off into the sunset, Ryan had left town, Marissa was
moving in with her mom, and Summer was in therapy. All were heartbroken.
The Fox show returns for
a second season (8 ET/PT) after six months off the air. And
the network, despite a baseball boost, has bombed with early-fall
reality shows, so it's depending on returning hits such as
The O.C. to regain its footing.
The teen soap, with its doubly appealing
cast (sexy teens and sexy adults) and story lines filled with
witty quips, brooding lovers, crazy brawls and constant problems,
was a huge draw for Fox on Wednesdays last season. The show
averaged 9.7 million viewers and was the No. 1 new drama among
the treasured 18-49 audience.
Now, in a fall filled with hit dramas, The O.C.
will try to muscle into a crowded Thursday, facing NBC's Joey, CBS'
Survivor and ABC's Extreme Makeover. There is obvious opportunity:
Those shows combined last week attracted just 38% of young adults
watching TV at the 8 p.m. hour. And Joey, not even close to Friends
fever, has been fading.
"Years ago, Fox put The Simpsons opposite
Cosby, and everyone said, 'Oh, my gosh, what are they doing?' "
says Brad Adgate of Horizon Media. "I think it's worth a gamble.
There's a lot of money to be made Thursday night; it's a good night
for cinema advertising. And The O.C. is one of the few hits coming
back."
Fans,
the network hopes, are ready.
"I
get the sense people are frustrated it's been gone so long,"
says Alan Sepinwall, author of Stop Being a Hater and Learn to Love
The O.C. "But they're excited it's coming back."
At TheOCshow.com
fan site, Webmaster Matt Rigney of Dallas says traffic never faltered.
"I don't think it matters how long the show has been off; fans
will be tuning in to see what happens."
The
biggest challenge for the new season: "Changing the show up,"
O.C. creator Josh Schwartz says. "Last year we really had something
to prove, and we wanted to make a big splash and get seen. That's
happened, and this year we wanted to slow down the storytelling a
little bit." There won't even be a fistfight in the first two
episodes.
A few
things viewers will find:
• Linda Lavin returning as "the Nana" in a spring
Passover episode; Kim Delaney showing up in February as an old girlfriend
of Sandy's (Peter Gallagher).
• A new rock club called The Bait Shack; Seth will work there.
• Seth's dad, Sandy, singing.
Schwartz won't say whether characters Luke, Anna or Oliver will
be back, but he does say the core couples — Seth and Summer
(Adam Brody, Rachel Bilson), Ryan and Marissa (Benjamin McKenzie,
Mischa Barton) — always will be the foundation of the show.
But this season will be more about growing up and less about debauchery.
That's fallout from Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction,"
he says.
"That became the straw that broke the camel's
back, and everybody was asked to clean up their act a bit."
