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Kathy Bates on NBC’s Canceling of ‘Harry’s Law’: ‘I think they treated us like s–t!’

Aug 2, 2013  •  Post A Comment

One of the most talented and acclaimed actresses of our time, who is both an Oscar and an Emmy winner — Kathy Bates — blasted NBC today, Friday, Aug. 2, 2013, reports Lisa de Moraes at Deadline.com.

Writes de Moraes, "NBC cancelled ‘Harry’s Law’ in the spring of ’12, at the end of its second season, even though it was the network’s most watched drama series — because its audience skewed older and Warner Bros owned the show, not NBCU."

Moraes then explains that a critic during a session this afternoon at  the TV Critics Association’s tour at the Beverly Hilton hotel asked Bates — who was at the press tour to talk about her upcoming role on "American Horror Story: Coven" — about the NBC cancellation.

According to the story, Bates replied, "I think they treated us like shit. They kicked us to the curb. They disrespected us; they disrespected our 7-11 million viewers. I think they’re getting what they deserve this year, Thank you.”

8 Comments

  1. I SAID IT A 1000 TIMES AT LEAST THAT IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GO TO THE NOBODY CARES NETWORK THAS nbc

  2. Why doesn’t Warner Bros bring the show back on another network? Maybe even TNT. An extremely stupid move to not transfer it to cable; especially seeing that TimeWarner owns TNT.
    If it had an audience of 7-11 million it could at least get an audience of 2-3 million on cable.

  3. I was heartbroken when Harry’s Law was cancelled. 7-11 million of us can’t be wrong – NBC BLEW IT!

  4. Mr Ross,
    What happened to Ms Bates and the talented cast of “Harry’s Law” is a indication of the future of scripted television. Most telling is it is no longer about over all ratings but about demographics. Baby Boomers ( I am 64 ) will have political power in the years ahead because of our numbers but less economic power to influence entertainment and creative decisions. — By the way I enjoyed CNN Contributor Bob Green article today on cnn.com about you as a young writer “The Man Who Turned Rejection Into a Career” How manuscripts are rejected without regard to the quality of the writing. Something Ms Bates would certainly understand today. —PB –Cardiff California

  5. A similar fate befell A Gifted Man a couple of years. Here you had a show on CBS that consistently had 8 million viewers a week. Get this . . . A Gifted Man won its time slot, in total viewer, each and every week beating every other show on any network, sometimes by a much as 2 to 1. A Gifted Man even beat its competition, in total viewers, when it was airing REPEATS against new programming on the other networks.
    But, since its DEMO ratings were lower (18 to 49 age group), it was cancelled. So, in this case, being #1 in your time slot in total viewers only got A Gifted Man cancelled.
    That’s what irritates me about this. Consistently, week after week, more people watched A Gifted Man, in its time slot, than any other TV program on the broadcast networks or cable/dish. Cancelled . . .
    So being #3 or #4 in a time slot with 1 million viewers and a 2.0 Demo gets you renewed while having 8 million viewers and 1.2 or 1.4 Demo gets you cancelled.
    Sorry, but that seems somewhat screwed up to me.

  6. I loved Harry’s Law, but it also shows the limited view of people who try to get shows on the air. They come up with a great pilot, it gets on, then they run out of ideas for future episodes. So, they revamp the show. Some fail, others are adapted by the viewers. Harry’s Law starts out as a neighborhood lawyer working out of a shoe store in a shady neighborhood. Then they are a full fledged firm upstairs, lose one of their stars (Miss Snow) and it’s a completely different show. In one of the episodes, I think they even made a joke about how they should have stayed in the shoe store. I think it was when they received the news about their impending cancellation.
    If you are trying to get a show on the air, plan for ten years of storyline. It’s what sunk the rogue submarine show and many others that couldn’t stay with the original premises. I don’t know how another favorite, “Revenge” can continue much longer with a storyline. I think Miss Bates deserved something better – even if I did watch every episode and anticipated many more.

  7. I loved this show it had class and a great story line. I don’t care where just bring it back!

  8. David Lefforge: there is no such word as “thas”. No one can take you seriously when all you do is bash NBC and type nonsense words. I bet you spit in your soup, too.

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