A year’s reign was enough for Paramount Domestic Television’s “Queen of Swords.”
The Chris-Craft Industries stations opted not to renew the weekly action hour, and the plug will be pulled on the series. “Queen of Swords” holds a 1.3 season-to-date household rating and a 0.7 score in adults 18 to 49. Most recently the series pulled a 1.1 weekly rating for producer Mercury Entertainment and distributor Paramount.
“We always enjoyed the series but felt that the effort required to wait for audiences to find the show would consume too much time and resources to justify bringing it back for another year,” said one program director of a Chris-Craft station in a major market.
The move increases the number of holes the Chris-Craft station group needs to fill in weekend scheduling. Earlier in the year, Pearson Television pulled the plug on “Baywatch Hawaii”; Columbia TriStar Television Distribution opted to take “Battledome” to cable; and Paramount sold the sophomore year of “Maximum Exposure” to another station group. The Chris-Craft group has, however, signed on the upco ming Mercury/Lions Gate hour “Tracker” to fill one spot.
“Queen of Swords” starred Tessie Santiago as a masked heroine in early California. The series was shot in Spain in conjunction with Fireworks Entertainment. Episodes will continue to run through the end of the season.
“It is highly unlikely that the series will return for another go-round,” confirmed one Paramount executive.
Additional hours that once may have been available have also been axed from next season. Studios USA opted not to bring back “Xena” or “Back2Back Action.” Meanwhile, Pearson pulled “Colisseum” and “Lean Angle” because of rising production costs.
Still in the books are Paramount’s “Relic Hunter” and Columbia TriStar’s action duo “VIP” and “Sheena.”