Tuesday, October 23, 2007

CBS pulls the trigger on first Cancellation!

Remember when I said that because of the looming writers' strike, it was likely that no scripted shows were going to be canceled.

Well, scratch that. We have our first victim of the year.

Viva Laughlin!

Yes, the setup sort of worked with David Tennant on the BBC's Blackpool, so I can see why Hugh Jackman wanted to do it.

Of course, you could just knock me over with a feather, you really could because we all know that musically driven scripted dramas have been Nielsen gold. Just ask Stephen Bochco. And putting it on after the hard as nails, blood and gore of CSI was also a stroke of genius on the part of CBS.

Put it this way, if I was playing a TV series death pool, I would have probably picked this one #1.

I think the math goes something like this:

Hugh Jackman + Singing + a Nevada city in the title + A British series import that doesn't have some Ricky Gervais juice in it = 1 packet of insta-cancellation.

I am betting the CBS execs are really kicking themselves because they didn't pick up that Zombie drama. Now that would have been something worth singing about.

2 comments:

AG said...

You know what? I love musicals and drama -- I think The Singing Detective is one of television's greatest achievements, and loved the most recent Harry Potter movie for reuniting Staunton and Gambon. And I think Hugh Jackman's incredibly fun to watch. So I tried that first episode, and you know why I didn't come back? Because it was just dead inside, that show. I hated everyone in it, hated the schizophrenic personality shifts, hated the plot contortions, hated the paper-thin backstory, hated the whole thing. The music was the *least* of that show's problems.

MC said...

I still stand by my statement that from a ratings point of view, musical drama doesn't really fly on American network television.