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NBC's The Listener Is Canceled

Categories: Broadcast TV

Written By

July 15th, 2009

When you wonder how low ratings have to go on broadcast television for a cheap summer show to get yanked, here's one answer, a 0.7 18-49 demo is too low for NBC.

"The Listener" will no longer be heard from on NBC after this month.

Peacock said Wednesday that the drama will leave the air to make way for "Law And Order" repeats, which will take over the Thursday 10 p.m. slot starting July 30.

Five episodes will remain in the can; "Listener" was originally scheduled to keep airing through August. But it hasn't been much of a ratings performer for the Peacock; last Thursday's episode posted just a 0.7 rating and 2 share among adults 18-49.

via Variety.

(68) Comments - Add Yours!

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  1. The1337

    Is CTV going to continue airing the show? The season ends on a pretty big cliffhanger.

  2. Riley

    CTV will probably continue airing the series, it does relatively well for Canadian programming, pulling in above five hundred thousand viewers.

  3. Nick M

    I was wondering the same thing. I’m not sure how much of an audience they need/needed in the States but it’s doing well internationally.

  4. Ray

    I hate nbc for not showing the remaining episodes of listener. Its only fair for the people who did tune in and watch the show every week. Why do they always have to rely on rerun procedural shows such as law and order as their (savior) replacement. Now how am i going to catch up?

  5. Alex

    Why not burn off the remaining episodes you paid for nbc.

  6. 0megapart!cle

    Ray, why don’t you get the episodes online? I’m sure they’ve all been available for awhile now.

    I watch many of my shows now on a cheap, $100 dvd player with a usb port on the back and divx support. I do a Google search for the shows, like “The Listener s01e09 megaupload”, and the relevant link is almost always on the first page of results. (I have an account with Megaupload which makes the downloads very fast, but that’s not required). Then I stick then on a USB memory key and play them on the dvd player on my HDTV. They don’t look perfect but the quality is perfectly acceptable.

  7. Michael

    Why did they keep Kings on? It was getting much lower ratings.

  8. MNIS

    YAY this is great news!!!!!! this piece of garbage NBC used as an excuse for television is the worst show i have ever wasted two hours on!

    thank God

  9. Holly

    @Michael, Pure speculation here, but it’s possible Kings had a penalty attached (NBC had to pay extra if they didn’t air all the episodes) and Listener didn’t. Or since it was airing on Saturday they figured it wasn’t really hurting anything. Or they wanted to stop Listener before the big cliffhanger. We’ll probably never actually know.

  10. nkinsey

    Did anybody catch the commercials with NBC calling The Listener the #1 drama of the summer? Hilarious stuff.

  11. Chad

    “#1 drama of the summer?”

    Wasn’t the same claim made for The Philanthropist?

  12. James

    Is no one going to comment on this, a site that catalogues televison numbers and their current decline, most likely due to alternative viewing means such as DVR or illegal online downloading, about the earlier post which not only instructs but details the hows of illegal downloading?

  13. Nick

    I think they say all their shows are #1 based on some nonexistent statistics.

  14. Anonymous

    James, everyone knows how to download illegal programming here. Omegaparticle didn’t break some groundbreaking news…

  15. James, Overall US television viewing isn’t in decline, it is growing slowly. It’s broadcast viewing that has been declining for 25+ years, while ad supported cable has been growing. And that earlier “post” wasn’t a post, it was a comment from a reader. And it’s not like the information contained in it isn’t easily available in 30 seconds of Googling.

    There, someone commented on it.

  16. Nick, not “nonexistent” statistics, “carefully massaged” statistics ;)

  17. Belle

    They cancelled a great show…. and will be showing repeat… again… of the extremely boring Law and Order ???.. Wwhat the hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  18. MIke the Canadian

    James you say POTATO I say PO TAT O, some say that practice is illegal I say its preview ware. Its a Canadian show, with all the ‘pirating’ of USA shows around the globe for once my country produces something people want to steal, haha, I’m proud to be a Canadian today, we made it buddies. Most of you are probably unaware that Canada highest grossing film was Porky’s, yes that little gem, unless trailer Park Boys surpassed it. To get back though to my original point humans are going to have to come to terms with pirating of content sooner or later, its not going away and will increase if the current efforts to further criminalize the behavior by Government and their business sponsors don’t get the point. BTW hows that war on drugs or war on terror working out, get ready for the war on illegal bits & bytes what a grand clusterfuck we got going for us, who actually needs TV anymore with all these wars going on eh. I’m just sayin…

  19. Lanie Grace

    @Alex
    Why not burn off the remaining episodes you paid for nbc.

    Probably because Law & Order repeats brought in more viewers and money than continuing with Listener.

    ~Lanie~

  20. Kevin

    What are you talking about pirating “The Listener”? It is on free commercial television and if they aren’t showing the entire season in the U.S., what’s the big deal?

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