NBC has abruptly terminated its (supposed-to-be) week-long event, Celebrity Cooking Showdown. A press release says that the episodes scheduled for last night and tonight can be viewed at nbc.com. Here's a link in case you want to do this.
Jeez. I've done shows that were did poorly in the ratings…shows that were cancelled…but I never did anything they felt they had to yank off the schedule with less than 24 hours notice. And certainly nothing that ever got relocated from a major network to a website. (They couldn't even move it to MSNBC or CNBC?)
In case you're interested, the first night got a 5.7 rating. That's poor but it looks worse when you realize that the show before (Deal or No Deal) got a 9.2 and the show after (The Medium) got a 6.9. Tuesday night, Celebrity Cooking Showdown dropped to a 2.4…so more than half the people who watched the first night didn't bother with the second. Wednesday night, the show got a 3.5. Those are pretty bad numbers.
I didn't see Celebrity Cooking Showdown but I have the feeling someone made a mistake in dropping it this way. Okay, so the ratings may have been dreadful…but it was promised, it oughta be delivered. Not that long ago, NBC did the same thing with the third competition of Last Comic Standing, suddenly deciding to not run the final episode. That caused some ill feelings and this new termination will, as well. Somewhere, there are going to be viewers who will not bother with the next NBC special event series because it's frustrating to get wrapped up in a game and not get to see the ending. It's like reading a mystery novel and as you near the final pages, someone grabs them out of your hand, sets them on fire and just tells you whodunnit. Very unsatisfying.
There have been a couple of times in the comic book industry where I believe publishers have alienated their readerships with hasty cancellations. Something wasn't selling, the publisher panicked and no thought was given to what a fast termination would do to the folks who were buying the product. I can think of at least two distinct periods in the history of DC Comics where, I believe, consumers didn't want to try the new books because new books seemed to get axed so rapidly. It was like, "Why bother?" NBC could easily find themselves with the same problem…especially when they launch their upcoming, fourth edition of Last Comic Standing. And no, I can't explain why they're doing another one when the last round did so poorly they didn't broadcast the final part.
Tonight at 8 PM, where they would have been airing the grand finale of Celebrity Cooking Showdown, NBC will air an episode of Deal or No Deal. According to another press release, it's a rerun of the one from April 12 with the black guy who works as a professional clown. If you've never seen Deal or No Deal and have been thinking of giving it a try, this wouldn't be a bad choice…although they didn't have the usual 26 lovely models opening the briefcases. They had 26 Miss U.S.A. contestants doing the honors. You have to wonder though how much better it could possibly do than the grand finale of Celebrity Cooking Showdown that has been advertised. Not only will Deal or No Deal be a recent rerun but most potential viewers won't even know it's on.