LITTLE ROCK — Here we are in the last half of November sweeps and that means the layoffs have begun.
By November, the networks believe they have a pretty good idea of which shows are going to succeed and which aren’t.
Some series have earned good enough ratings to already be rewarded with a full-season pick-up. That means in addition to the initial 13 episodes, an additional nine episodes have been given the green light, bringing the season up to the usual 22 episodes.
Several series failed early. They arrived reeking of doom and despair and imploded at the starting line.
NBC axed Southland before a second season could even get on the air. That series has ambled over to TNT, where last season’s seven episodes plus the second season’s six will air.
Also DOA was The CW’s The Beautiful Life: TBL. Sure, the hip Ashton Kutcher was a producer, but the series wasn’t worth it.
And NBC has announced it’s dumping Trauma after the 13 ordered episodes air. At least all 13 get to see the light of day. Too often cancellation means production screeches to a halt and fans (even if they are few) are left hanging.
Now we come to the latest casualties.
Dollhouse. What does Joss Whedon have to do to have a hit on Fox? The network keeps giving him magnificent places to play (Firefly, Dollhouse) and then manages to somehow mess things up.
Dollhouse, the sci-fi thriller about “actives” who have their personalities wiped out and implanted with others, may have been hobbled the moment Fox scheduled it on Friday night for Season 2. The targeted audience is off with their video games or something at that hour.
And then Fox took the series off the air during November sweeps. In my 15 years on the TV beat that has always meant the impending death of a series.
So Dollhouse has been canceled. At least Fox is allowing Whedon to play it out. There are nine episodes left and they’ll kick in beginning Dec. 4. The good news is that the final two episodes are still in the works, so Whedon will have the opportunity to wind up the story.
Sorry, guys. You’ll have to get your weekly dose of Eliza Dushku somewhere else. Perhaps you can rent the boxed set of Tru Calling or a copy of Bring It On and play them over and over until she pops up in a new series.
Hank. It’s strike two for Kelsey Grammer. ABC has euthanized Hank, the freshman sitcom that tried to wring humor out of Grammer playing a former CEO who had been fired and “downsized” from the good life in Manhattan to the sticks in Virginia.
The show stank to high heaven. It was bad. The writing was bad. The supporting cast was bad. The premise was bad and Grammer was, well, once again not Frasier Crane.
Ten episodes of Hank were produced and only five have aired. There is no word on whether the unseen episodes shall ever see the lightof day.
Grammer’s most recent series was 2007’s Back to You co-starring Patricia Heaton. The Fox comedy made it 14 episodes before crawling off to the bushes to die.
Eastwick
What was the problem here? Did we have a tough time imagining Rebecca Romijn as a witch? Perhaps the show suffered from anti-witch bigotry backlash. Who knows?
Whatever the problem, ABC has canceled Eastwick, the series loosely based on the John Updike novel The Witches of Eastwick.
Thirteen episodes are already in the can and after they air, that’ll be it. Several story lines will be left hanging at that time with no closure.
It’s not surprising that Wednesdays on ABC have suffered some casualties. The network gambled when it threw an entirely new lineup on for the night: Hank, The Middle, Modern Family, Cougar Town and Eastwick.
The middle three programs have all been given a full-season order. Three out of five isn’t a bad average.
What’s on the horizon? ABC once again goes to the reality well with Find My Family. The series debuts at 8:30 p.m. Monday following the final performance edition of Dancing With the Stars.
The new show, from the producers of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, reunites scattered families.
It’s supposed to be heartwarming, but I suspect it’ll be cloying and overly sentimental. Bring hankies.
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Weekend, Pages 34 on 11/19/2009