In network cancellation news...

A number of shows have been cancelled over the last few days. None of them are a surprise. CBS axed PARTNERS (the blatant rip off of the 1995 series, PARTNERS). This series comes from the same writer/producers who created WILL & GRACE. So which was a fluke? W&G or PARTNERS?

Other series produced by this team: $#*! MY DAD SAYS, FOUR KINGS, TWINS, THE STONES, GOOD MORNING MIAMI, and BOSTON COMMONS.

LAST RESORT was dropped by ABC. This was the show about the nuclear submarine that docks on the LOST island. I must say I loved the pilot. My one question when it was over was how are they going to keep this going week after week? By week three when the sub was sneaking through a government blockade to get drugs for the island drug lord who had kidnapped three crew members I stopped asking.

Interestingly, ABC has not officially cancelled LAST RESORT. There’s a slim chance they could bring it back next season. Yeah, right. It’s not good enough to get a back nine but it is good enough to return for a second season? Mayday, captain!!!

My suggestion: take the pilot, slap a real ending on it and sell it as a movie.

666 PARK AVENUE was also yanked off the schedule by ABC, and like LAST RESORT is a candidate to return next season. So start that letter writing campaign now, 666 fanboys!

Not cancelled but premiering with a resounding thud this week was WHITNEY. Why NBC loves this show I do not know. Ms. Cummings must have compromising photos of the peacock in bed with 4-star generals. 

And of course, a few weeks ago NBC cancelled NEXT CALLER before it had even aired. Stephen Falk, the creator of that show wrote a cool article about what it’s like to be in that situation. You can read it here.

It used to be that networks would order 13 episodes of a new Fall series from the studio producing the show. If it got okay numbers they ordered a back nine. Networks eventually tried to hedge their bets, ordered only six episodes. The studios balked. Six episodes were not enough to establish an audience and if there were overages in production costs the studios would never recoup them. Networks backed off. They needed the studios to continue feeding them product.

But now that the networks own the studios they can do any damn thing they want. And we’re seeing that. They’re adding two episodes to an order. They’re shaving one or two episodes off an order. They’re ordering four script but not episodes. So anything is possible these days including putting a nuclear submarine in dry dock for a year.

Maybe the strangest example of this new practice was last season when ABC cancelled PAN AM but ordered one additional episode. Huh???  Hey, don't ask me.  I’m still trying to figure out WHITNEY.