Apr 07 2009
Kings Gets Shifted To Saturdays
According to TV.com, the NBC drama Kings is being shifted to Saturdays after last weekend’s low ratings. I’m starting to wonder why the networks even order pilots anymore. Kings is an expensive show with an excellent cast and yet NBC stopped advertising it after the vague tidbits they ran prior to the premiere. Originally slated to air in ERs old time slot on Thursday nights, NBC instead chose to go with Southland–a gritty cop drama–because we don’t have enough of those on the air. While Southland gets minute-long commercials every 5 seconds on NBC, Kings languishes unnoticed on Sunday. You can’t get viewers for a show if they don’t know it exists.
TV.com conjectures that Kings will run its course on the chance it may garner Emmy noms. Because it says a lot of great things about a network who cancels its Emmy-winning shows. And I’m not saying that TV.com is wrong, I’m pointing out how lame these network execs’ thinking is.
Why the shift to the dead zone Saturday where they sent Crusoe to die? Who knows? They’re not even replacing Kings with anything on Sundays, just extending Dateline. If people don’t know about Kings, I’m not sure that moving it to another time is going to help the cause, but I’m guessing NBC has just written this one off already. Hopefully they will air the remaining episodes before cancellation. And we can always hope for a miracle, but this season doesn’t seem to be one for that anymore. I’m just sorry this show didn’t start out on cable where it may have had better luck at gaining an appreciative audience.
It seems that lovers of good TV only have one thing to hope for these days–that their beloved shows at least get the chance to have a decent ending penned before they get shipped off to never-never land after a full or even half season.
NBC still lists the next Kings episode as airing on Sunday, April 12. Check your local listings to watch for when the shift to Saturdays occurs, perhaps on the 18th.
PHOTO: Ian McShane as King Silas, Christopher Egan as David in Kings, screencaps c2009 Universal Media Studios, NBC.
