We essentially know why the world of Kings was the way it was. Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth will all explain it for you. They also mean a few extra TV series just to get to Kings, and do you REALLY want them to start at the very beginning, even if it is a very good place to start? If you don’t want to read all that, just visit any Rabbi, Minister, or Priest, who would be happy to give you a Cliff’s Notes version.

I Samuel 17 doesn’t really mention many countries except Philistine (or Philistia) and Israel in conjunction with the David and Goliath story, but those are the ones of primary importance to the participants so it is to be expected. You’ll note that Goliath is thought to be from Gath, so for the TV series they named the whole country Gath to remove it slightly from being direct proselytization. Likewise, they used Mount Gilboa — the site of a Philistine victory against the Israelites — as the name for David’s own country, rather than the more obvious Israel. Shiloh was the capital city of Israel, and they kept the name for the series.

In I Samuel 19, Saul ordered David to be killed, but Jonathan ended up saving him. Again, for the TV series they slightly altered the events to heighten dramatic tension, but it’s pretty much the story as written. The major difference is that they made David and Jonathan enemies instead of friends, but we’ll never know where they would have gone with that story over time. As with many Biblical accounts the story glosses over most of the details so that you need to fill in most of the blanks yourself, hence lots of dramatic license for the show.

The final episode of the series is probably I Samuel 19:18, unless I’m missing the show’s storyline somewhat. David fled a lot, since he was always fighting somebody or other, so I may be equating the show’s final scene with the wrong flight.

The show’s name is pretty obviously a reference that they intended to keep going through II Samuel and both I and II Kings, since all main characters keep either being killed or dying of old age. If you ignore the whole religious overtone, the Bible is full of fairly rip-snortin’ tales of intrigue, sex, and betrayal, and most of them are better than any dramas on TV today. Several, such as David and Goliath, also happen to have lots of references in other works from around the same time, so it’s easy to add some additional flavor to the tale.

The failure of Kings on TV, though, is a pretty good indicator that what the Christian right have been saying, namely “we want more Christian stories on TV” is simply not true, since they avoided the show in droves.

I guess the network is putting all their eggs in the Conan, Leno, Tina Fey basket (and yes, they make an effort to promote those).

I don’t think their networks will renew them….

Right

Marketing 101 – know your target market. I don’t think intelligent people in their teens – 40′s were looking at leaving their programs mid-season on a Sunday (if they watched at all) or watch TV on Saturdays in the summer. Who watches TV programs for adults on Saturday nights at 8 PM – probably people 30 years older than the target. So someone at NBC really screwed up.

Examples of good scheduling making all the difference – The Closer on Monday nights with no competition but reruns or wrestling. Also the new show by NBC’s subsidiary USA called Royal Pains at 10 PM on Thursday nights after Burn Notice. Royal Pains is mediocre, but it follows a hugely popular show on cable and has a great time slot that largely works for its demographics.

Imagine if Kings had followed Burn Notice, as both shows appeal to the same age demographics (teens – 49) with a higher education and income than average. Kings would have had at least the numbers of Royal Pains, and probably better. (Note: RP beat all NBC new shows).

Yes Kings was expensive, so NBC should have taken extra pains to do it right, publicized it well, and trotted all the stars onto Leno, Conan, and the morning shows.

If NBC keeps relying on cheap reality shows, no one will watch. In May, Nielsen reported record TV watching while a plummet in network watching – despite it being sweeps month. Smart viewers are moving to cable.

Kings is your canary in the mine shaft.

The most annoying thing about Kings is they never got into any of the background of why the world in Kings turned out the way it did. At least with movies like ROLLERBALL (original not the awful remake), it explained a bit of how the world became the way it was. And it was never explained what the rest of the world looked like. It was like the Earth had only 2 small countries Gilboa and Gath and that was it.

I still have to watch the last 4 episode of Kings but I am not at all surprised that it was canceled.

I think if the Mentalist had been given the King’s schedule and promotion this spring, it would have had the same results.

Kings is a good show and got much better towards the end. I am surprised it lost so many viewers in the beginning.

I saw many ads on tv for kings before it aired. I guess I watch tv at the right time. Might have been hulu instead of tv … I watch alot of hulu.

Considering the viewers and cost per episode… there was no way they would pick it up for another season.

I read it was originally pitched to hbo or one of those type stations before nbc took it. Again ,, that was something I read a long time ago .. my memory might be wrong.

Actually, giving Kings bad weekend programming times is an easy way to explain the numbers. And I think the King’s scheduling is just one more example why NBC is failing so badly.

Here’s my viewer story:
Until I read about Kings on the a.v.club and then watched it on hulu two weeks ago, I never heard of Kings. Now my friends and I are all trying to get in all the episodes before it is over. And I have never been home on a Saturday night so I have never watched it live. Also, except for 2 nights of the new Conan, I have not watched anything on NBC for at least 6 months.

If NBC had played Kings on a weeknight during prime time me and my friends would have watched it. I imagine many from hulu would have joined us. We are the younger, more desirable demographic advertisers want.

And just think how much farther things would go if NBC actually advertised the show and put the stars on talk shows.

Thats because Castle is in its first season and can grow. If Dirty Sexy Money is slipping in its 2nd, whats to say it wont do the same the following year?

But people never heard of Kings when you aired it – no one under 50 watches NBC. We do not see ads on NBC and we do not sit at home watching TV on Saturday nights at 8 PM.

You should keep Kings and fire NBC staff.

Stupid programming decisions with Kings demonstrates why NBC is failing and few bother to click to your station anymore. For example, other networks and all cable bring out their new shows in the summer to play against reruns and build up an audience. They do this on weeknights during prime time. Often they show repeats later in the week. This is “Programming 101.” Even Dancing with the Stars started out in the summer.

Yet NBC introduced Kings in March, on a Sunday night, against shows with strong followings in the middle of their season. And unless people watched NBC, no one knew it started. It never had a chance to build an audience.