I'd speculated this morning that based on Wednesday night's performance Chopping Block couldn't be long for the world. It wasn't. From James Hibberd:
NBC is pulling cooking competition series "Chopping Block" from primetime after three weeks, sources say.
The network informed affiliates tonight the reality series starring renowned chef Marco Pierre White will be removed from Wednesday's lineup.
NBC is fortunate to have Jay Leno's 10 p.m. talk show in the fall considering how many slots are getting cleared out this season. Counting "Chopping Block," six series are definitely not returning -- "Knight Rider," "My Own Worst Enemy," "Crusoe," "Lipstick Jungle" and "ER." A couple midseason reality shows, "Superstars of Dance" and "Momma's Boys," are also almost certainly gone. Four others are looking pale and shaky -- "Friday Night Lights," "Kath & Kim," "Life" and "Kings."
I think Chopping Block will move on Saturdays!
I enjoyed this show. They should air the remaining episodes on Bravo. That is probably where this should have been all along. By the way I think they were nearing in on all time low viewership for a non-rerun program on NBC. The all time low rating for a primetime program on NBC, I believe was the Saturday night XFL games.
so does this mean its gone starting this upcoming wednsday or what?
any idea whats going in that slot?
CHUCK FANS REJOICE!!!
If you read that article he lists all the NBC shows that are canceled and all the ones that look like they’re going to get canceled and HE DOESNT MENTION CHUCK!!!!!!!
Hibberd listed shows that either have been canceled or almost certainly will be (FNL will surely be canceled unless DirecTV writes another check). Chuck’s numbers aren’t pale and shaky, and you could by no means say it will certainly be canceled (as you could with Life), but sadly, Hibberd’s phrasing doesn’t at all increase the certainty that it will be renewed.
Friday Night Lights is repotredly renewed for two seasons.
http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/03/ask-ausiello–3.html
*reportedly
I can’t say that I am surprised this got the axe. I am no expert on TV programming. but after seeing the ratings of the first two shows this comes as no surprise.
To the life of me why doesn’t NBC move Chucks last few shows to Weds. They are putting L&O from the USA network on instead. If NBC states it going to renew Chuck who care if they move the night, but if they said they are going to wait and see move the show and give it a chance. Robert does NBC have many pilots in the works for the fall? If not I think Chuck is safe!
JR1234 — changing the timeslot of a show mid-stream and without warning can hurt its audience. People tune in on Monday, don’t see Chuck and go “what happened?” Then they miss an episode or two and before you know it, they’re gone.
Terminator’s ratings were cut almost in half when they moved it from Monday to Friday.
Outlander the Terminator comparison is a bad one because Fox announced the move well in advance and promoted it. The Terminator audience died (further) on Friday because its Friday not because it moved midseason.
But NBC aren’t going to move Chuck now because it throws up all kinds of problems for them. And Chuck fans should be doing everything in their power to make sure it doesn’t move because if, for example they put Law & Order CI on Monday at 8 instead and it does better than Chuck what are you going to do then?
On a Chopping Block note the show being pulled isn’t surprising and it seems NBC aren’t completely ignoring ratings just yet. You do however have to wonder if now was the time to try something like Burn Notice on NBC to see how it does. Its not as if you have anything to lose at this point.
It would be foolish for NBC to change Chucks timeslot at this point. I think there are only 5 or 6 episodes left this season. Not to mention, what if it fails in that time slot too?
I continue to say I think Chuck will come back with a reduced episode list next season. Chuck is a ratings problem but on the long list of problems NBC has with it’s other shows , Chuck is much further down on the list.
yaddo, that still says “any day now” which is basically what Ausiello has been writing for what seems like months.
Bill and Robert
With Jay Leno going to 10:00PM for 5 days a week, what do you think NBC will take as a successful rating for Jay in that time slot? I realize the show will be cheap to produce but what is your opinion is the rating that will keep it in that time slot. I am curious if they have a backup plan if it fails, knowing NBC they don’t but curious on what you think will make NBC panic.
I continue to agree with Alex on this, Chuck is best right where it is. You don’t want NBC to move it. You want NBC to promote it, and Chuck fans need to do as much as possible to get the ratings up. Look the show survived the Fall onslaught, and actually crept UP in the ratings. It took a hit with Dancing, but it didn’t crater. With a nice run of highly promoted episodes and the high profile guest spots coming in, I think the show can creep up again to the finale.
I think NBC was really set on trying this year to get the show to break out. I mean at least they gave it the Super Bowl promotion they did, and it did get good ratings for that episode. I think if the show can hold its own the rest of the season, NBC may (as Silverman seemed to indicate in that article, saying he knew the schedule changes hurt the show) be willing to give another season a shot.
Steve, Leno’s average tonight show 18-49 demo rating last fall was a 1.4. Since it is so relatively cheap to produce, it’s not clear to me at what level it’s a financial disaster. I think an average demo rating over the week of somewhere between 1.5-2.5 is likely. No word of any “backup plan” has reached me, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
The backup plan is probably running old Law and Order episodes every night of the week…
One wonders what kind of programming mastermind would decide to put this show on at the same exact time that “Hell’s Kitchen” is running.
One also wonders what took NBC so long to put Craig Plestis on the chopping block. Most of us figured out years ago that he couldn’t develop a reality show unless the other networks had already developed it first.
About the backup plan- how can they have a backup plan? It would involve having five extra shows waiting in the wings in case Jay fails.