It looks as though NBC’s celebrated, 20-year-old series, Law & Order, is coming to an end. Despite indications earlier this year that the show would go on to a record-breaking 21st season, negotiations have fallen apart for next season and NBC is reportedly on the verge of dropping the show altogether. Law & Order has, for years, trailed behind its spinoff, L&O: Special Victims Unit, in the ratings. (SVU is in no danger of being canceled.) Meanwhile, the latest spinoff for the franchise, Law & Order: Los Angeles, is still set to premiere this fall.
It also looks likely that NBC’s Heroes won’t be getting a fifth season. The show has struggled in the ratings for years, but it’s held on despite storylines that have wavered between ridiculous and so-so. But NBC is not blind to the show’s dogged fans, who still hope for some kind of proper ending, and are considering giving Heroes a 2 or 4 hour wrap-up movie/miniseries at some point next season.
Meanwhile, over at ABC, a number of high-profile shows have gotten the axe, including FlashForward (which the network once hoped might become the next Lost), the long-running Scrubs (which jumped networks from NBC not too long ago), Better Off Ted (which is universally loved by critics, but has too few viewers), and Romantically Challenged.
Most people I know hate moving. Sometimes, the hassle and trouble just make you want to scream! It seems that TV show producers are not afraid of moving, though. This past year, we have seen so many TV shows move from one home to a new one. Reuters has this report:
However, you couldn’t say the same about TV shows. Several series switched homes this year, including “Project Runway,” “Scrubs,” “Beauty and the Geek,” “Inside the NFL,” “Nashville Star” and Tyra Banks’ talk show.
And after years of promise, the Internet-to-TV series pipeline finally started to produce (albeit mixed) results with transplants “quarterlife,” “Sanctuary” and “In the Motherhood.”
The biggest headline-grabber was the shocking April announcement of the move of Bravo flagship series “Project Runway” to Lifetime. Eight months and several lawsuits later, the shift has been put on hold by the courts, with the fate of the completed sixth season of the hit fashion series up in the air after Bravo’s parent NBC Universal won an injunction barring Lifetime from airing it.
Another cable staple, “Inside the NFL,” made a less acrimonious switch between pay cable rivals HBO and Showtime. Following HBO’s decision to drop the longest-running cable show after 31 years and after four months as a free agent, “Inside the NFL” signed in June with Showtime.
And that is only the tip of the iceberg! The article contains more dish on these TV shows. My question is – which TV shows are moving homes in the coming year? More so, how will the moves affect their ratings AND staying power? I don’t want to see a good show turn sucky just because they moved, do you?
Scrubs is back, as funny as ever, and (if Executive Producer Bill Lawrenece is to be believed) promises to fulfill the impossible. He’s bringing back actress Aloma Wright – without resurrecting her character, Nurse Laverne. As for the J.D. and Elliot romance, he says, “half the fans want them to end up together and half the fans want them apart. We’ll make everyone happy.”
Uh, how is that going to happen? Stay tuned!
Welcome to the new Erati!!
