Posted Oct 8th 2008 6:00PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: News, Industry, Programming, Cancellations, Reality-Free
This was bound to happen. When NBC Universal decided to purchase The Weather Channel earlier this year I'm sure there were some questions as to how this would affect the network's Weather Plus operation. You mean you don't know about Weather Plus? Sure you do! It's the 4-year old digital content operation that paired the network with their affiliates to air its content on their digital channels. It's also what MSNBC and CNBC have been using the last few years during times of severe weather.
Well, the answer to if both Weather Plus and The Weather Channel would be run simultaneously has been answered: they won't. NBC News President Steve Capus said Weather Plus operation would be phased out in stages through the end of the year, affecting both on- and off-air staff. There is no word if any of the Weather Plus technology or staff will be integrated into other aspects of the News division or into TWC in general.
Continue reading The forecast for NBC's Weather Plus: darkness (because, you know, it's being shut down)
Posted Oct 8th 2008 9:03AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Cancellations, The Riches, Reality-Free
The Riches was one of those shows that suffered from the p-word: potential. With an interesting story -- a family of Travelers settle into a stolen life as an upper-middle-class suburban family -- and excellent acting performances from Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver, the show had the same breakout potential as any of FX's other dramas.
But the show's potential was never realized, either creatively or in the ratings. The show always had trouble balancing dark comedy and intense drama, and it strained to make the audience care about the Malloys, who were dealing with the consequences of stealing the American Dream. At the end of its aborted second season, FX had not committed either way to bringing the show back. Well, now we know: Mike Ausiello of
EW confirmed yesterday that
The Riches has been cancelled.Continue reading FX cancels The Riches
Posted Sep 29th 2008 3:02PM by Kelly Woo
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Cancellations, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free

If you didn't watch
Swingtown this summer, you're not alone.
The CBS drama posted low ratings over the summer, despite buzz over its salacious topic. Still, the show gained some fans (including me), who have been waiting on word of its renewal or cancellation.
Now comes news that Bravo will air reruns of the show this fall.
The Hollywood Reporter says the deal "essentially closes the door" on the show, with CBS unlikely to produce new episodes and Bravo uninterested in doing so.
Continue reading Is there hope for Swingtown?
Posted Sep 26th 2008 12:02PM by Kelly Woo
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Cancellations, Reality-Free

Another new TV show bites the dust.
EW's Michael Ausiello reports that Fox has cancelled
Do Not Disturb. The network won't confirm anything, telling
TV Guide that the critically-panned sitcom is "pre-empted" next week.
This comes on the heels of the show's producers apologizing for
"perpetrating bad television," but asking critics and viewers for a second chance. Guess they'll never get it.
Continue reading Fox cancelling Do Not Disturb?
Posted Sep 17th 2008 12:02PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Music and Variety, Cancellations, Reality-Free

I guess the real news should be "MTV's
Total Request Live is still on", because I -- and anybody else that is over twelve years old and/or doesn't listen to the Jonas Brothers -- had definitely forgotten about it. Really, what can be said about a program that started going downhill
after Carson Daly left? The show will attempt to go out with
some semblance of a bang in the form of a two-hour Saturday afternoon special next month. I'm not sure if anyone will cry, but I can almost guarantee plenty of unnecessary gyration and poorly-wailed lyrics.
Continue reading MTV's Total Request Live is totally cancelled
Posted Aug 28th 2008 10:02AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Cancellations, Reality-Free

It looks like HBO is just TV after all. After airing such intense fare as
The Sopranos and
Carnivalé, the new
head of production, Sue Naegle (or at least that's my guess on who pulled the plug based on the quotes) is
pulling the plug on the in development HBO adaptation of DC/Vertigo's Preacher. The Garth Ennis-Steve Dillon comic book series was controversial for its intense violence and handling of religious subjects, but it was also a huge sales and critical hit.
There was talk of adapting the series with each episode comprising exactly one comic issue. Dialogue was lifted almost exactly from the book with the comic art used as the storyboard. Fans were incredibly enthusiastic about it, but "the new head of HBO felt it was just too dark and too violent and too controversial," according to Mark Steven Johnson (
Daredevil, Ghost Rider). Naegle loves
In Treatment,
Big Love and
Tell Me You Love Me, so that tells you where here tastes lie. These aren't bad shows but they're also not going to jump out and grab headlines, and headlines are exactly what HBO needs for its original series.
Continue reading HBO chickens out; Preacher too much
Posted Aug 26th 2008 11:23AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Cancellations, Celebreality

In terms of compelling celebrity reality shows, Denise Richards thought she had a great story to tell. Her life seemed very complicated, what with her fights with ex-husband Charlie Sheen and their legal wrangling over their children, it seemed like a compelling product.
Umm...no, it wasn't.
Today,
E! pulled the plug on Denise Richards It's Complicated, her attempt to keep up with the Kardashians and outdo the Hogans. The bottom line with Denise's show was that it really wasn't that complicated. It was dull.
Her family appeared as her supporting players, including her father who -- like his children -- is still mourning the loss of his wife, Denise's mom. Those moments in the show were sad, but a little went a long way.
Denise's getting in the middle of the employment issues with her assistants was hardly great TV, nor was watching Denise driving in Beverly Hills. And, yes, the ratings were declining week after week.
Continue reading Not so complicated after all - Denise Richards' show axed
Posted Aug 21st 2008 9:22AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Industry, Stargate, Cancellations, Reality-Free

Well, this is just all kinds of disappointing, and a little surprising. Season five of
Stargate Atlantis will be
the end of its run on Sci Fi. That's a surprising bit of news considering that ratings are actually up for season five, compared to season four. Unfortunately, the economics of making the show are catching up with it. As the show goes beyond season five, salaries go up, and the exchange rate bonus of shooting in Canada isn't what it once was.
It might mark the end of the series, but we will hear more from our friends in
Atlantis. The network has ordered a two hour movie and says the show will live on as a network franchise. I'm not sure if that means they hope to do more movies, or they are just confirming that they will continue to fill out the schedule with copious
SG-1 and
Atlantis reruns. The movie will be written by
Atlantis showrunners, Joe Mallozzi and Paul Mullie. As you would expect, there are no details about casting or the story at this point.
Continue reading Stargate Atlantis canceled, kind of
Posted Aug 15th 2008 10:39AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Programming, OpEd, Grey's Anatomy, Short-Lived Shows, Criminal Minds, Cancellations, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free, Army Wives

I can't decide if this is good news or bad news.
Moonlight star
Alex O'Loughlin is staying at CBS.
Unless you've been in another galaxy for the past year, you know that the Aussie actor cultivated an enormous fan base with his role as vampire P.I. Mick St. John on CBS'
Moonlight. The uproar caused by the cancellation of the show in May can still be heard, well, in another galaxy.
At the
Television Critics Association press tour in July,
CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler said the popularity of
Moonlight was
due in large part to O'Loughlin's fan base. So I can appreciate the fact that CBS wants to keep him around. But it's what they'll do with him that has me worried.
Continue reading Alex O'Loughlin inks deal with CBS...now if they could just create a show like Moonlight...
Posted Aug 6th 2008 2:23PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Cancellations, Reality-Free

Perhaps the strangest soap opera of all time has come to an end now that
Passions has been canceled by DirecTV. The gothic, modern psycho-drama set in a small Maine town replete with witches, elves, zombies and even some regular people, lasted nine years on the air. In primetime terms, that would be a hell of a run. For soaps, it characterizes
Passions as a noble -- to some -- failure.
I never cared for
Passions. It turned me off in the first season, 1999, but it wasn't because of the outre elements. I was actually interested in the gothic stuff because I'd grown up enjoying
Dark Shadows with Barnabus and Quentin and Angelique and all those horror classic reinterpretations on a next-to-nothing budget -- furniture provided by Stern's Department Store, as I recall -- including werewolves,
Frankenstein's monster and
The Innocents, and parallel universes.
Dark Shadows remains a vivid, happy memory.
Continue reading TV Squad Soap Report: Passions played out
Posted Aug 5th 2008 3:23PM by Debra McDuffee
Filed under: Cancellations, TV Squad Lists, Moonlight, Reality-Free

There will always be
Buffy,
Angel,
Quantum Leap and
Magnum, P.I. on my "Oh Man I Want New Episodes of These Shows" list, but what about the more recently canceled shows of the past few years? Are there any worth mourning?
Maybe not in the same way I mourn my culty loves and classic '80s shows, but there are a few worth mentioning....
Moonlight Yep, I know, I am one of Those People -- a fan of
Moonlight. Though I agree it was weak when it returned after the writer's strike, there were lots of things to love about this show: the vampire lore, the episodic mysteries, the way they could have taken the love story (had they not muffed it up in the last four episodes), the actors (
Jason Dohring and
Alex O'Laughlin; not Sophia Myles). I can't believe that I won't find out more of the back story with Joseph's family and Coraline.
Continue reading Recently canceled shows I mourn
Posted Jul 27th 2008 9:02AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Programming, OpEd, Cancellations, Reality-Free

I watched
Tell Me You Love Me a few times, but it never had enough
oomph to bring me back every week. I guess a lot of viewers felt that way, because
HBO decided not to renew it for a second season.
The sex-drenched show followed the lives of couples in therapy and was probably one of the most sexually explicit shows on TV. I have friends who watched it religiously, and some say they felt uncomfortable not so much with the sex, but because it felt like they were eavesdropping on peoples' darkest secrets.
Continue reading HBO canceling sex-drenched Tell Me You Love Me
Posted Jul 11th 2008 2:01PM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: TV on DVD, TV on the Bigscreen, Cancellations, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free

There's such a thing as beating a dead horse and then there's beating a dead horse, chopping it up into tiny bits, and flinging it around like a monkey flings poo. The fact that we're still reading news items about
Deadwood nearly two years after it aired its final episode just goes to show you how much it's missed. Well get this - as if we didn't already know - those two final "wrap-up the series with a neat little bow" movies are as dead as Wild Bill Hickok.
Continue reading Non-story of the day: Deadwood movies are dead
Posted Jul 4th 2008 12:23PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Grey's Anatomy, Short-Lived Shows, Cancellations, Casting, Journeyman, Reality-Free

Like many people, I was
miffed that Journeyman wasn't picked up for another season. But maybe we'll get our fix of
Kevin McKidd at Seattle Grace next year.
Entertainment Weekly is reporting that the Scottish actor, who blew (some of) us away as the time-traveling journalist Dan Vasser on
Journeyman, is in talks to join the cast of
Grey's Anatomy. The rumor is that McKidd would play a doctor who scrubs in at the hospital after a stint in Iraq.
Continue reading Kevin McKidd Joining Grey's Anatomy?
Posted Jun 13th 2008 7:02PM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: OpEd, Arrested Development, Video, Retro Squad, Cancellations, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free

Do not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of classic TV shows.
(S03E13) Originally aired February 10th, 2006 -- I could roll out about a dozen clichés when describing the series finale of Arrested Development, but I'm honestly not sure that saying "this was the end of an era" does it enough justice. For those that own the DVD sets, take a look at the cover for season two. There's a quote from Entertainment Weekly on it: "Once in the history of time comes a sitcom like Arrested Development."
Too bad FOX never saw it that way. Not only did they delay the airing of the final four AD episodes, but when it came time to show them, they got bundled together and aired 'em in a row - on a Friday night in the middle of winter! As I've said before, it sucks that Emmy wins don't dictate a show's future. But we really can't blame FOX because those Emmys are arguably why we were lucky enough to get three seasons period. Blame the people who watched Skating with Celebrities (AD's time-slot replacement) instead.
Continue reading Arrested Development: Development Arrested (series finale) - VIDEO
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