TV shows just don't have a chance nowadays, it seems.
FOX is taking its new Juliana Margulies drama Canterbury's Law off of Monday nights and pushing it on over to - wait for it - Fridays. And we all know what that means. Whenever a network wants to dump a show they first put it on Friday nights, traditionally one of the worst nights for television, then it's put on hiatus and then canceled.
The show is averaging 7.7 million viewers, which I would think is not incredibly terrible, except it's doing really badly in the 18 to 49 demographic that networks and advertisers love so much.
The show moves to Fridays on March 28 and is going to be replaced on Monday nights by repeats of House, because God knows we need more repeats of shows right now.
The funny thing is, is there anyone who didn't see this coming? I'm not sure how our brains can predict these things, but if you take the way this show was introduced midseason, the lack of buzz around the show, and the general shrug that TV fans seem to give it, and add to the fact that it's on FOX, and you just knew it wasn't going to see a second season (if it even finished its first).
In a related story, maybe Margulies will now be available for that guest spot on ER.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-20-2008 @ 3:49PM
Christian said...
Great! I didn't even come around yet to watch the first to episodes. And now I won't because I might like them and then feel deep deep disappointment that the show was cancelled...
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3-20-2008 @ 3:52PM
eugene said...
Whew, in a world of increasing uncertainty, it's good to know that Fox will remain consistent.
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3-20-2008 @ 4:08PM
Sam said...
They. ALWAYS. Pull. This. Shit! AARGH!
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3-20-2008 @ 4:17PM
Paul said...
Seriously???? I'm never going to watch another pilot and/or first series show. If it's good I'll just wait until season two and then buy the first season on DVD to catch up. I watched the first two episodes of this show and really was starting to enjoy it.
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3-20-2008 @ 4:38PM
hessian said...
Maybe the fact that FOX cut the order for the show from 13 episodes down to 7 - back in September - should have been a clue to you that they didn't have any confidence in the product.
If it hadn't been for the strike, this show never would have seen the light of day.
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3-20-2008 @ 5:28PM
shrbr04 said...
this is an awful show:the production values are great,but the writing and acting are just so terminally pedestrian and artificial.better to download from fox.com and free up the prime time hour for something else."new amsterdam"by the way,is pretty good.maybe fox could negotiate w/chris carter and come up w/a new spin on "x-files",the greatest show ever.
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3-20-2008 @ 5:59PM
Eileen said...
That's par for the course for Fox, to throw something out there and then cut it off at the knees a week or two later. I refuse to watch anything on the network just for that reason.
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3-20-2008 @ 6:23PM
Oreo said...
Well this was clear from the very start.
The only reason Fox even bothers with it was because of the Strike, otherwise it would have been stuck on Fridays in the first place.
Why do they need this show when the House people are going to be doing the same thing and then Fox can say "From the creators of House".
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3-20-2008 @ 7:01PM
Shawn Harstad said...
Good. The show sucks anyway.
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3-21-2008 @ 2:03PM
eric f. said...
OMG, how retouched is that picture!?!?! That's ridiculous. One of the things that Marguilies has going for her is that she's hot AND not 20.
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3-21-2008 @ 3:37PM
sitruc said...
This isn't a good show being dropped too early. This is a bad show that was only on the air because of the strike. This isn't one of those times where we should be cursing FOX. We should be thanking them. Arguably, they did the right thing(I wouldn't have aired the show at all).
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3-24-2008 @ 11:08PM
Abr8sive1 said...
WHAT????!!!!! I LOVE this show! I dont care what night it is on, im watching it, DVR-ing it, whatever. I hope they dont cancel it. I am on "Reality TV" Overload!
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3-25-2008 @ 12:29PM
mr.orange said...
We don't watch Fox very often. Now we probably will never watch Fox. We liked the show, alot. Of course that is because we are not in the "proper" demographic. I harken back to when Hill Street Blues was yanked. A mass letter writing campaign saved it. Maybe that would work with this show. I have written. Of course, it was a different time.
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3-31-2008 @ 10:57PM
maxi said...
FOX SUCKS-IF A SHOW DOES NOT SEEK TO MAKE FOOLS OUT OF CONTESTANTS, DENIGRATE THEM AS IS DONE CONSTANTLY ON AMERICAN IDOL OR TRY TO TELL PEOPLE HOW AND WHAT THEY SHOULD THINK AS THEIR NEWS AND OTHER "TALKING BOBBLEHEADS" NEWS SHOW DO---THEY DON'T MAKE THE GRADE ON THIS IDIOT NETWORK. TOO BAD OUR AMERICAN POPULACE HAS SUNK TO SUCH A LEVEL. NO WONDER WE ARE APPROACHING 3RD OR 4TH WORLD STATUS.
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4-26-2008 @ 2:12PM
marlyne said...
I don't mind so much that it was cancelled (altho I did enjoy the show), but it rankles that Fox won't let me see the final episode online. All the other episodes are there; just that one has been deleted. Makes me wonder if they've already sold the rights to a cable network...
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