Monday Bloody Monday
By Sarah Carlson
April 3, 2007
Monday was a dark day in TV land, with several shows getting whacked:
In the infinite stupidity of network TV executives, the ones at ABC brought back struggling drama "Six Degrees" two weeks ago with little fanfare, dumped it in a Friday night timeslot and were surprised when no one watched. Now, "Six Degrees" has been axed, effective immediately. I may have been one of the only ones out there watching the show, happy that my DVR is smart enough to record it again after such a long hiatus (it left around Halloween), but I'd at least like to know what happens. Throw me a bone, ABC. Give me an extra episode to wrap storylines up. I know you taped them: Previews had shown that Josh Charles was going to show up, and that guy could use some work. ABC will show "Wife Swap" repeats in its place. Seriously? You're replacing a series starring Hope Davis and Campbell Scott with reruns of a reality show about people swapping wives for kicks? You're on my list, ABC.
NBC has pulled "The Black Donnellys" from its Monday night pre-"Heroes" rotation after April 16, airing only 8 of the show's 13 episodes and making room for the new hidden camera reality series "The Real Wedding Crashers." "Donnellys" tried too hard to be the Irish "Godfather," and failed quite miserably at getting its viewers to invest any kind of emotion in the two-dimensional characters. I'm not sad to see it go, and I'm vindictive enough to be glad that something helmed by Paul Haggis was a flop.
Fox is pulling the plug on David E. Kelley's "The Wedding Bells," letting the show air once more this Friday. I don't know what would be worse to hear as an actor or worker on a show that's been cancelled: That your show is kaput, or that your network had already decided to preempt it with a showing of the Wayans brothers' movie "White Chicks." Either way, your life sucks, but to have a network prefer to show black men dressing as white women for a few hours than to show your series goes beyond adding insult to injury. Maybe Kelley ("L.A. Law," "Chicago Hope," "Ally McBeal," "The Practice," "Boston Legal") will now devote more of his time to working out the song licensing issues and release "McBeal" on DVD.
In other cancellation news, say goodbye to the Camden family -- again. After the series was brought back from the dead last spring, "7th Heaven" is finally calling it quits May 13, ending its 11th season as the longest-running family drama on TV. "Heaven" was supposed to end last May when its network, the WB, died as well, but media coverage and a touch of nostalgia drew in great ratings and the new CW network decided to pick it up for one last go-around. Big surprise: Not enough people watched.
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