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'Lone Star' faces cancellation

Geplaatst op 22 september 2010 07:03 door gsprimo

Pilot drew dreadful ratings despite critical acclaim

Now 20th Century Fox can claim to have produced both a Death Star and a dead "Star."

That the Fox drama "Lone Star" is on death watch is no surprise after its disastrous debut Monday, the first night of the fall TV season.

But unlike most series that experience television's ultimate indignity -- cancellation after one episode -- "Star" isn't being ushered out of existence to schadenfreude-fueled peals of laughter in the industry.

That's because unlike most shows consigned to the one-and-done club, the "Star" pilot drew critical acclaim and stood out from the pack of new pilots for being different than the increasing glut of procedural hours.

"No one in TV should be happy about this," said one agent who reps a writer on "Star." "This is going to have a chilling effect on networks taking chances on anything but cookie-cutter shows."

Flameouts are a ho-hum occurrence in the TV world, but the demise of "Star" was dramatic enough to send shudders through an industry hoping it will be more an anomaly than an omen.

Though Fox declined comment, it's possible the network is delaying the announcement of a decision, perhaps waiting for the cover that will be provided today by its announcement of the "American Idol" judges.

That "Star" will be canceled is being treated in industry circles as fait accompli, a matter of when, not if. Tellingly, while most underwhelming TV debuts are often followed by entreaties from counter-spinning execs magnifying glimmers of hope in the ratings data -- "did you see that uptick in the last quarter-hour among women 25-34?" -- the back-channel phone calls from network and studio execs never came.

That's because the ratings for "Star" were so bad that there was no silver lining to find on this mushroom cloud. The 4.1 million total viewers who showed up was a shockingly low number, especially given it had a strong lead-in from the season premiere of "House," from which its audience tumbled 68%. "Those are Friday night numbers on a Monday night premiere," said Brad Adgate, a veteran TV analyst with Horizon Media. "That's a nice cable audience."

Rejection came swift if the quarter-hour numbers are any indication. The final quarter-hour of "House" notched an audience of 11.5 million, which scattered instantly; by 9:15, the viewership had more than halved to 5.1 million, and successive drops registered until 3.3 million by "Star's" final quarter-hour.

The free-fall undoubtedly has a lot to do with how competitive the Monday 9 p.m. slot was, between the second hour of the season premiere of "Dancing With the Stars," the season premiere of "Two and a Half Men" and "Monday Night Football" on ESPN. But that didn't impact another series premiere at 9 p.m., NBC's "The Event," which was clearly the preferred new flavor of the night.

That another new show could thrive in such a tough climate means there may be more to the implosion of "Star." For one thing, the very attributes that drew raves from reviewers -- Metacritic scored it at a healthy 73 -- might have repelled viewers.