A little bit weird, a little bit political with a lot of humor.
Reality TV hits new low....
Published on October 9, 2004 By historyishere In Movies & TV & Books
Ok, there has been a trend forming ever since the Mole II was aired for three episodes in its Fall slot in 2001 and restarted the following May. When it happened, there was a fervour... and a lot of calls from fans to boycott watching the network. But it passed, and Reality TV recovered.

Then Fox cancelled Forever Eden and Playing it Straight after it specifically said that no matter the ratings, they would run their course. And again, the fans(all 6 of them) cried foul and claimed they would never watch the network again... but I don't think that was too effective a threat.

But now, we have reached the ultimate in sleaziness... the ultimate in how little a Television network thinks of their fans.... NBC cancelled a reality series, "Last Comic Standing" 4 days before its finale was to be aired. I mean, COME ON.... I can't think of another time when a series, ANY series got cancelled the week before its finale.... what kind of assholes run NBC. I mean, they almost demanded that a new series of LCS start for the fall because they had holes in their schedule, and the second edition of LCS had really good ratings during the summer, and despite the objections of both Jay Mohr and the other executive producers of the show, who legitimately feared that the public would get burned out on the francise, NBC forced them to throw together a "Battle of the Best" contest which stumbled out of the gate.

And now, because the executive producers of LCS predicted exactly what would happen, NBC is denying us, the fans, the pleasure of seeing this contest finished right. Instead, we are going to either watch the finale on Comedy Central(which means we have to have American Basic Cable) or watch the two episodes of Father of the Pride that is replacing LCS to find out the winner. Now, I think the classy thing to do would have been to show the finale in a different time slot, just so everyone has some closure, but they didn't do that, and it reflects badly on them.

Personally, I think it is simply spineless for NBC to do this, and I think I will be a bit more wary of getting involved with an NBC reality show from now on.

IN SHORT: NBC is the king of BULLSHIT now! *shakefist*

Boo NBC Boo!

Comments
on Oct 09, 2004
I gave Fox three chances - "Undeclared," "Firefly" and "Wonderfalls." 3 wonderful, smart witty shows - all cancelled. Suffice to say, I don't make it a point to watch Fox anymore. ABC cancelled one of my all-time favorite shows "Once and Again" and then put only one season (out of the three) out on DVD. I haven't forgiven ABC for that one yet. Except for "Alias," I avoid the network.

The ironic part of it is the networks then wonder why they are losing viewers to cable. Perhaps if they let a show build an audience instead of cancelling instantly, just as the stories are beginning to unfold, then yes maybe they could give people a reason to switch back.

I liked LCS and I wasn't really interested in viewing yet another installation of it. It was just too soon. Fans need to have a breather in between seasons.
on Oct 09, 2004
I am thinking about some of the shows networks gave up on that are dvd darlings... like Freaks and Geeks and the Family Guy.... or My So-Called Life on cable systems like lichen.

I think networks tend to forget that some of their biggest long-term hits were shows that were horrible in the ratings their first seasons(Seinfeld, Cheers), and that sometimes time is the best medicine.
on Oct 10, 2004
http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271|91084|1|,00.html

I wonder how many of the 6 million people who were watching LCS are going to be willing to watch "The Biggest Loser" because of this whole incident....
on Oct 19, 2004
For those of you who didn't get to see it... I have found out who won.....






Alonzo Bodden!