NBC has been my most watched non-cable network for years. That may soon change. E! Online reported earlier this week that NBC had canceled My Name Is Earl and Medium. This move only compounds the loss of Life and Knight Rider. OK, Knight Rider maybe wasn’t such a surprise but one’s lust for muscle car porn must be sated.
Good shows have always come and gone, although lately it feels like more good ones are leaving than staying. But it’s the reasoning behind two of the cancellations that I find interesting and perhaps a foreshadowing of future decisions. While low ratings have traditionally been cited as a primary reason for axing a show, we have now entered a brave new world. From a liveblog of NBC’s scheduling conference:
So we’ve now turned a corner from wondering how online video would affect television viewership to its new role in deciding what shows to continue televising. What’s unclear is whether online demand means requests for streaming video or the kind of user buzz that saved Chuck. Either way, NBC’s secret sauce has lost some of its flavor as they continually reimagine what a night of television should look like. Fox offerings Fringe, Bones and House, and ABC’s hilarious Better Off Ted show that NBC has no lock on drama or comedy. And the effects of filling the last hour of prime time with Jay Leno remain to be seen.
It’s starting to look like ER’s farewell truly was the end of an era. The good news is it’s just as easy to remember one three-letter acronym as another.