The fall of 2011 was a virtual bloodbath with how quickly shows were axed en masse by pretty much every network. So I was surprised that we got all the way into the middle of October before I started hearing about shows getting cancelled. Turns out that it was happening – just a little more quietly and in different ways than before.
Let’s start with a traditional axe – ‘Made in Jersey’ got whacked after two episodes due to dismal ratings and abysmal viewership:
We have the first official casualty of the 2012-13 season. CBS has pulled low-rated new drama Made In Jersey off the schedule after two airings. Starting November 2, just in time for the November sweep, unscripted series Undercover Boss will return to CBS’ Friday lineup in the 8 PM slot it occupied last spring.
Effective immediately, CSI: NY will move back to the 9 PM hour where Made In Jersey had aired. In the next three weeks, NCIS and Hawaii Five-0 repeats will air in the 8 PM hour. Undercover Boss, which just won an Emmy for best reality series, performed well on Friday in the spring. Meanwhile, Made In Jersey faltered this fall, opening overwhelmingly and then falling a steep 27% to a 0.8/3 last Friday, prompting our prediction that CBS would likely summon Undercover Boss on the night soon. The move of CSI: NY to 8 PM has hurt the aging crime drama, which posted steep year-to-year declines. It also negatively affected 10 PM Blue Bloods, down in the ratings with the weak Made In Jersey lead-in. CBS had one of its worst ratings finishes last Friday, which likely led to the swift action. Made In Jersey starred Janet Montgomery as a street-smart New Jersey girl working for a top Manhattan law firm.
Another new drama that is struggling mightily this fall, Fox’s The Mob Doctor (0.9/2 on Monday), also is getting off the air, but that is for a three-week baseball pre-emption. It remains to be seen whether it will come back afterward.
Well, that might be a double-axe … but we will have to wait a few weeks to know.
Another show that has been cancelled might be less familiar – because none of the four episodes made ever got aired! The show was Dane Cook’s ‘Next Caller’:
NBC has pulled the plug on midseason comedy series Next Caller. The network in May had given the Dane Cook-starring project a six-episode order. After filming four of them, I hear network brass had decided that creatively the series was not going in the direction they had hoped for. Production on the series, produced by Lionsgate TV and Universal TV, has stopped, and the produced episodes won’t air. Created and executive produced by Stephen Falk, Next Caller stars Cook as a foul-mouthed satellite radio DJ forced to share the mic with a chipper NPR feminist (Collette Wolfe). Jeffrey Tambor, Joy Osmanski and Wolé Parks co-star.
A supposedly returning show – Saving Hope, which ran in the summer off-season – has been cancelled in the US immediately (though picked up in Canada for the second season), with the final two episodes airing online:
There may be no Saving Hope — at least when it comes to viewers in the United States.
Having already shuttled the Canadian-produced, Erica Durance/Michael Shanks-fronted medical drama to Saturdays and postponed its final two episodes from Sept. 1 and 8 to Sept. 8 and 15, NBC now has pulled the show wholesale from its schedule, sources confirm to TVLine.
In its last Thursday outing, Saving Hope delivered for NBC 2.54 million total viewers and a 0.5 demo rating. America’s Got Talent repeats, which last Saturday did barely 2 mil and a 0.4, will stay put in what was to be Hope‘s burn-off slot.
Those who get Canada’s CTV — which has already renewed Saving Hope for a Season 2 — can watch the final episodes, “Ride Hard or Go Home” and “Pink Clouds,” on Sept. 6 and 13. After the episodes air up north, others can watch them online at NBC.com.
For returning series things are in full swing – we have been catching Castle, Grimm, Revenge and Modern Family each week and are fairly pleased(though I don’t think ANYONE knows what is happening on Revenge at this point!).
What about you – are you enjoying the new season? How are your shows going?