Ratings for "Kings" have been so low that, effective immediately, it's off the Sunday schedule and moving to Saturdays at 8 starting April 18. It's a bad-news, quasi-good-news move. The move to Saturdays -- a night the networks have basically given up on programming -- means that NBC is effectively washing its hands of the show. But it also makes it slightly more likely that we'll get to see the full first season, since expectations are so low for Saturday that NBC might be willing to leave it there for the rest of the season.
Well, frak. As you said, at least we'll get to see the whole first season, but that's a pretty sad exile. There hasn't been an original drama I liked on Saturday nights since...dang, it might have been CUPID 1.0.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. Didn't NBC send Kidnapped to Saturdays only to pull it completely a couple weeks later?
ReplyDeleteThis show was probably too expensive to make to not try to burn it off in primetime. Ah well. Good Looking Corpse Syndrome.
ReplyDeleteAlan - Why couldn't you have given an "In the Motherhood" style warning about Bob Saget's sitcom? Between that, Kings, and Chuck looking precarious, I am starting to think that all TV should just be Jay Leno.
Alan,
ReplyDeleteAny sense that a satisfactory ending would be in the offing as long as the show is allowed to fill its production order? I know NBC allowed Journeyman to have a sort-of conclusion, but I just want to make sure I won't be spending my time watching something left incomplete.
I just started watching this show and catching up on the episodes (thanks to hulu). It's much better than I was expecting, but they did a horrible job marketing it. All summer long I saw this flyer -- a picture of a butterfly on a flag with the word KINGS on it -- on trains in the NYC area and had no idea what to expect. How does a butterfly on a flag create buzz?
ReplyDeleteHopefully the show will run its full course on Saturday and conclude in a satisfying way. Unlike, say, Chuck, I wouldn't mind too much if Kings doesn't come back. And if losing the Kingdom of, er, Kings is the price we need to pay to receive another season of Chuck, then let us make the sacrifice willingly!
ReplyDeleteWait just one second! Does this mean that come the end of May I am going to have to choose between watching NBC's run-offs of Kings and ABC's run-offs of Pushing Daisies?
ReplyDeleteNot fair.
So I'm guessing this means the odds of a bunch of butterflies flying down on Michael Green's head in the form of a crown, causing that Silverman joker to see the light and re-up the show for next year, are roughly equivalent to the Knicks' playoff chances?
ReplyDeleteI love it, but sometimes I really hate it too, this thing they call "T. V." Sigh. Oh well, hopefully at least we'll get the full 13.
Yeah, let's yet again listen to the horribly inaccurate NRs, pull another good show that's early and is still finding its ground and replace it with good ol' fashion reality television/game shows...
ReplyDeleteat least its still on for the moment, so that's a small victory.
Knowing it was coming doesn't make it any less sad. I certainly had my quibbles with the show, but the positives far outweighed the negatives, especially the acting of the "adults" on the show.
ReplyDeleteSeems like there's no guarantee we'll even get to see the full season, which is even sadder. Does anyone know if there is an episode scheduled for this coming weekend at all?
Seems like they had planned on skipping Easter, so they're gonna take this weekend off despite the schedule change.
ReplyDeletewas waiting to see if the show would be successful before investing my time in it...too bad, but saves me some hours
ReplyDeletethey should really just make new dramas like this freely watchable on demand anytime for the first 4-6 episodes and guarantee a 10-13 episode full first season...otherwise, its tough to invest in any serial know ing the odds are against it...especially on nbc
Mike - I absolutely agree with you that this show should have been free On Demand. Most of the Sunday shows are already well established, and new episodes of The Simpsons, etc. were going against Kings. Free On Demand would have encouraged a lot more people to check it out. But as soon as you see a charge, even .99 cents, unless you're really motivated, you're likely to just say "Fk it", and watch something else instead.
ReplyDeleteSince they are down five hours of prime time programming, could they be testing Saturday nights as a place where niche shows with high DVR rates can land?
ReplyDeleteThere are a significant number of people who would be interested in this show who are in church when NBC was airing it. Maybe they'll find it on Saturday--but it would help if they actually told people what it was. I had seen the previews without interest until Alan pointed out that it was the story of Saul and David. Otherwise we would never have started DVRing it to watch later. It's good, though not great, and I hope they at least finish the season out.
ReplyDeleteSaturday nights. At 8PM. Which, this time of year, is *before* full dark.
ReplyDeleteAnd Orthodox Jews? Love this series.
Can we begin the drumbeating for HBO to pick this one up?
ReplyDeleteCan we begin the drumbeating for HBO to pick this one up?
ReplyDeleteHBO would never, ever, pick up a show that had failed on a broadcast network.