As if the whining from TV creatives over The Jay Leno Show hadn't been loud enough, they may be ready to take it up a notch over the cancellation of Southland.
Though decidedly unpopular with many in TV's creative community, NBC's bet on "Leno" could be easily chalked up as the best offense being a good defense: Leno posed a threat to NBC if he left for another network, while keeping him in a cost-efficient program freed funds for NBC to rebuild its scripted slate.
In contrast, the axing of cop drama "Southland" appears to be a more overt retreat. NBC pulled the plug on the John Wells Prods. drama amid circumstances that leave many observers scratching their heads.
While the timing was unexpected, it didn't leave me scratching my head. It was a combination of something that should have been done last spring, plus the likely continuation of the dumping of Ben Silverman's garbage. The show's 18-49 demo rating sank to a 1.7 the second to last week, before the finale was up to a 2.0 rating, Edit: Those were in the overnight fast affiliate ratings, as TVBill notes in the comments the final ratings for those two episodes were a 1.6 and a 1.9.
For starters, "Southland" was the best-reviewed and highest-rated freshman series in 2008-09 on a network that has been starved for fresh hits.
I'm sure Variety and the rest of the entertainment media would like to think reviews matter to the future of a show. Dream on. And saying a show is the "highest-rated" freshman series" on NBC is the very faintest of praise indeed.
Further, instead of keeping other networks from using an NBC-developed asset, as was the case with Leno, the axing invites rivals to take the product and run, as CBS did earlier this year with "Medium."
There's a lot of chatter about this in the TV press. Where exactly are the other networks lining up to grab Southland? It's a dog, they know it's a dog, and they're not going to touch it.
The cut also potentially angers Wells, a TV powerhouse whose "ER" was a linchpin of more successful times at the Peacock net, and feeds -- if not confirms -- the perception that NBC is one of the last places you'd want to take a drama of note.
Of course it angers Wells, but any cancellation is going to anger the shows producer. This is news? And I'm sure NBC still pays better for dramas than anywhere on ad supported cable, and anyone with a good drama idea would likely still take it to all 4 broadcast nets, exactly what does this change?
Perhaps what's most shocking about "Southland" heading south is NBC's apparent intention not to air any of the episodes it ordered just in May. The skein was in production on its sixth when NBC turned out the lights.
Is that really "shocking"? There may be many calculations involved. Perhaps if NBC thinks they can deal the rights, if they still have them, (long shot it may be), wouldn't they likely get more if none of the shows had aired? If that doesn't work they could still decide to air the episodes later. Perhaps putting 6 episodes into their schedule now just didn't work.
The ratings of "Southland" did taper off during its initial springtime run, and had NBC decided not to renew the series then, justification would have been easy and relatively painless. Same thing if the show returned this fall to even softer numbers after multiple episodes had run.
Instead, NBC pulled the show 15 days before "Southland's" season premiere in what appears at least in part to be a bid simply to save the licensing fee the Peacock would have had to pay Warner Bros.
Taper off indeed, to a 1.7 1.6 demo rating in the penultimate episode. And in the eighth paragraph Variety admits that, yes, canceling the show in the spring would have made sense!
And if the early cancellation does save NBC the licensing fees (I'm not sure Variety actually knows this, or is just guessing), the timing makes perfect sense!
Some observers have said NBC realized (perhaps better late than never) that "Southland" was too darkly themed to air at 9 p.m. But it's not a very strong argument in an era when crime, violence and death regularly populate that timeslot.
As many have noted in our comments, that's a patently nonsense public face saving reason from NBC. But is it a surprise that a face saving reason was generated? or that it was so easy to poke holes in?
The biggest complaint I have with what NBC did with Southland is that they could have axed the series soon after Silverman was replaced. Silverman was out months ago, yet Gaspin didn’t pull the plug on the show until just now. Yes, he was trying to get rid of another Silverman mistake, but he could have done that much, much earlier. By doing it the way it was done, millions and millions of dollars went down the drain.
I wouldn’t call what the creatives are doing “whining,” but “legitimate complaining.” It may have been sensible for NBC to cancel Southland for any number of reasons, but the timing of it still puts another (much deserved) gash in the network’s reputation. I for one side with Variety on this one.
Despite the critical praise for Southland, the characters seemed so stereotypical and with dialogue to match. When one watches a really inventive, deeply layered, and entertaining series like Mad Men, it makes you wonder why there was such critical fuss over a show that basically had a phony, glossy style that audiences rejected.
Kim, Mad Men doesn’t have low ratings for the network it is on.
“Whining over Leno”
I guess you are right let’s stop whining. Man his show is so good. I think I will watch it five times a week. Now I feel so much better.
If this was about content, Medium would not have been cancelled. If it was about Silverman, Medium would not have been cancelled. no my friends this is about something else. Remember they aired the first 7 earlier in the fall at 8pm. Now all of a sudden it’s too dark for 9pm. I don’t think so.
Don’t know if we will ever know. (was not trying to be rude earlier but the Leno whining is justified.)
Mad Men has Emmys, too.
But I think AMC keeping Mad Men for its cache’ is somewhat true. Cache perceptions might actually be as or more important than ratings reality when it comes to negotiations for carriage fees.
Kell, not watching it is justified. Whining about how bad it is – that’s just whining.
Not renewing it immediately is not the same as nearly canceling it. While fans may have waited impatiently for a renewal (and I can understand that) I’ve never seen any evidence that AMC has even considered canceling it.
Robert, I agree that there is an argument for cache, and despite hardly anyone watching Mad Men, it is because of it (and more recently Breaking Bad) that people talk about AMC at all. But saying that it has low ratings for all of cable is not taking into consideration the network that it is on, which doesn’t expect USA-sized ratings.
I don’t think anyone would have paid much attention if they had not renewed Southland last spring or even if they canceled their episode order in the middle of summer. But canceling it so close to the premiere date with such a transparently false reason had to sting more than a regular cancellation. Were people naive to think that the pushed-back premiere date wasn’t a sign of trouble? Absolutely. Was this still a rather disrespectful way to cancel a show? Yes. Combined with the ill-will created by the Leno move (which I am much less sanguine about than you seem), it’s not surprising the creative community is annoyed by the situation.
Holly it’s one thing for John Wells to be unhappy. That’s 100% understandable, but hardly newsworthy.
It’s understandable for fans of the show to be unhappy, but that’s not what the Variety article was about (and is also hardly newsworthy).
What’s goofy to me is that *other* creatives are mad at NBC for this (or possibly are not in a widespread way, and Variety is just being spun into this article by someone’s PR assets).
Bill, you’ll note there were zero direct quotes in that article. While there’s no doubt Wells is understandably unhappy, quoting a couple of somewhat well-known creative types would’ve made it at least more “newsworthy” to me. They didn’t find even one to quote. It could be that there are people who are unhappy, but not so unhappy they want to be quoted. As you note, NBC is still one of the four best places to get a deal (in terms of $$).
I read it, yawned, and moved on. Due to lack of quotes, I didn’t even think of posting anything. But you like trolling the whiners more than I do!
Robert ……………. True.
Frank …………….. Don’t know what show you were watching but the Characters were the best thing on Southland. The story telling needed work but the world was awesome. and the way it was shot was a complete innovation. Not everyones cup of tea in sure but it was a solid show that might have grown with time.
Holly ………………. I agree ! The biggest problem I have was the timing. I was waiting for this show to come back. I figured since they renewed it with an air date it would at least be given a chance.
Bad form. ……….. (girl can’t trust anyone these days
was southland really the best reviewed series of last year? not that its bad but come on best?
Probably ………………. Not too many good shows last year.
They couldn’t even find any anonymous insiders to quote.
On network TV, only Life on Mars got higher reviews and they weren’t great either; both had decent reviews though. 3 new shows this season have better reviews than both: Good Wife, Glee, & esp current best-reviewed show on TV Modern Family.
Actually, Robert, it got a 1.6/4 for the penultimate episode! (Went down in the Finals). Finale scored 1.9/6 — better, but still not great. As far as its average, don’t forget NBC bought the ratings for the first few episodes with an absolute saturation of promotion, plus that plum ER slot. (Let’s also not forget, the renewal deal was complicated, being tied into other WBTV properties, including CHUCK and the DEK show that NBC was on the hook for).
I am not at all surprised how other creatives are reacting to the SOUTHLAND situation. In addition to the LENO backlash, JW is a highly respected producer and current/former President of the Writers Guild. When he gets slighted, (and having a show cancelled two weeks before its premiere *is* being slighted), it’s easy to see how it became the ’cause celebre’ it is now.
Granted, NBC was rather hasty in renewing the drama. However, it is a high-quality, well-produced and well-acted drama that deserved better treatment.
Though the ratings are not what many anticipated, there isn’t much else on NBC’s slate that is doing all that much better in terms of viewers (which are still important regardless of the ridiculous focus on A1849 by both advertisers and the networks).
To the Variety article’s point, it is another step toward NBC becoming the “unscripted” network — which is why so many in the creative community (John Wells included) are understandably unhappy with NBC.
The difference between “whining” and “discussing”? Apparently, only the author’s opinion of the show in question.