Logo

Fall Death Watch Begins: Which New Series Are Poised for Early Cancellation, and Which Show Signs of Becoming Hits?

Sep 26, 2011  •  Post A Comment

Even though the new fall television season has just started, it’s possible to get a sense of which shows are on the cancellation track and which ones will survive, writes Joe Adalian in New York Magazine’s Vulture blog.

On the cancellation front, NBC’s "Free Agents" and the CW’s "H8R" "are already dead, even if no decisions about their fates have been made," Adalian writes. The former show "dropped dramatically" from NBC’s new "Up All Night" both times it aired, while an episode of "Dora the Explorer" tied "H8R" in viewers 18 to 34, the story notes.

"Up All Night" "is doing surprisingly well and will almost certainly be picked up for more episodes," the story notes. Additionally, the early success of comedies "New Girl" on Fox and "2 Broke Girls" on CBS “indicates that, at the very least, we’re a nation ready for unconventional sitcom leads," Adalian notes.

NBC’s ratings struggles across the board could benefit its hot-button show “The Playboy Club,” which opened to weak numbers. The story points out: “NBC has lots of problems and may want to be a little patient with this show, perhaps even trying it on another night.”

“The X Factor,” while generally considered a ratings disappointment in its debut week, did retain its audience from night one to night two and is likely to continue to be an important anchor show on two nights for Fox.

CBS has another new show with hit potential in “Unforgettable,” the story adds, while ABC’s “Revenge” is also off to a good start.

3 Comments

  1. Free Agents has aired, what, twice? Barely enough time for people to sample it, and already it’s dead?
    And the networks wonder why we think they’re run by a bunch of dunderheads.

  2. All you have to do is watch the first episode of Free Agents and you can say cancelled real quickly. The show simply is not funny. The dunderheads, well all they had to do was watch it for the 30 minutes of the premiere and see you later Free Agents.

  3. I personally think The Playboy Club and Pan Am will be on the chopping block soon; neither held up to the hype or, the biggest factor, as decent television.
    New Girl‘s strength to date has been exclusively on the charm of Zooey Deschanel, so coming weeks will determine whether the show has legs beyond Zooey’s magnetic personality.

Leave a Reply to david Cancel Reply

Email (will not be published)