NBC banishes 'Kings'; ABC pulls 'Samantha,' 'Motherhood'
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NBC had already exiled "Kings" to Saturday nights, and now the show has been dethroned until the summer.
The critically acclaimed but little-watched show has been taken off the Saturday schedule effective this week. Reruns of "Law & Order: SVU" will fill the 8 p.m. Saturday spot for the next few weeks.
ABC has also pulled its comedies "Samantha Who?" and "In the Motherhood" a week earlier than expected.
The show, a modern-day retelling of the biblical story of David that stars Christopher Egan and Ian McShane, will at least get a chance to play out its final episodes, but that won't happen until well after the TV season ends. It will return to the schedule on Saturday, June 13 and air its final episode in late July.
Despite mostly positive reviews, "Kings" struggled in its initial Sunday-night timeslot, averaging only about 5 million viewers over four episodes. That number predictably dropped when the show moved to the dead zone of Saturdays; last week's episode brought in only 2.4 million viewers.
ABC's decision to yank "Samantha Who?" and "In the Motherhood" from Thursday's lineup caps rough week for the two comedies. On Monday, the network announced that "Ugly Betty" would return April 30, a week earlier than previously scheduled. Now it's decided to air a "Grey's Anatomy" rerun at 8 p.m. Thursday.
There's no word yet on when the comedies will be back on the schedule.
Related:
'Ugly Betty' returns to ABC one week early
This season's canceled shows
I tried watching KINGS and couldn't get into it. I think the casting of David is too blame. That actor is just too bland to be at the center of the action.
That said, I think the major networks need to come up with a new ratings standard because under the conventional ratings model, only shows that post incredible, above 10 million viewers in the first two episodes, will get a shot. And there are plenty of good shows out there that aren't going to immediately find their audience in the first two episodes. They're going to need time to build a following and to build interest. Just how many TV hours a week are currently devoted to police/forensic science procedurals? That seems to be the only type of show that is one these days. That and dumb "Who's the Biggest Loser Dancing With the Stars" reality TV shows.
I tried watching KINGS and couldn't get into it. I think the casting of David is too blame. That actor is just too bland to be at the center of the action.
That said, I think the major networks need to come up with a new ratings standard because under the conventional ratings model, only shows that post incredible, above 10 million viewers in the first two episodes, will get a shot. And there are plenty of good shows out there that aren't going to immediately find their audience in the first two episodes. They're going to need time to build a following and to build interest. Just how many TV hours a week are currently devoted to police/forensic science procedurals? That seems to be the only type of show that is one these days. That and dumb "Who's the Biggest Loser Dancing With the Stars" reality TV shows.
Oops! Meant to type "to blame."
Or maybe Iggy you just invented a new word:
blame (adjective) - a combination of bland and lame.
Example: The reason the show Kings doesn't work is actor cast as David is too blame.
I think your point about new shows is so spot on. Now-a-days shows get so little opportunity to mkae it. If Seinfeld had premeired in the current attmosphere it never would have made it either and that show has made people millions. Unfortunately, noone seems to have any patience these days.
lol that is awesome sac. way to turn a grammatical error into a new word, I love it.
In the Motherhood was about as funny as that Parks and Recreation show on NBC. Both a waste of time and talent.
Might as well just run a video of fish swimming in an aquarium or a fireplace roaring. That might be funny to see and better than any reruns ABC could show.
I think part of it is the way they do the shows any more. I was thinking about checking Kings out, but since they just pull shows any more without letting them finish the story lines, I figured why bother. Looks like I was right. After the way ABC did "Pushing Daisy's" I won't watch anything put on by the Big 4 networks any more.
On the bright side, with SamWho now yanked, Chuck, 24, and Scrubs are all I have left on network TV. Scrubs is gone in 2 weeks and Chuck is likely having its series finale Monday, so it looks like there is no more time wasted watching the "big networks" for me. I'll stick with USA, HBO, Showtime, TNT, etc. Better stuff there, anyway.
The networks really need to adopt some ideads from cable. Give a show a short uninterupted run. Allow it to build some sort of following. If it fizzles it fizzles, but this deciding after 2 weeks if a show is viable or not is ridiculous. Also the starting and stopping of a show like Fringe doesnt allow it to gain viewers. In this day and age a regular viewer may ***ume that a show has been cancelled if its pulled for multiple weeks. I am so done with new shows on network, I have invested in shows in the past only to be burned when they dont draw the right numbers because they never get a chance. How about 2 13 episode seasons: Fall and Winter.
I would actually watch those fish.