RIP Manhattan Love Story

[silverscreenselect]

ABC's low rated Tuesday night comedy has become the first official cancellation of the new TV season. Earlier, Fox's reality show Utopia, although not officially cancelled, was moved to Friday night to burn off the remaining episodes. This cancellation has to be a bit of a surprise since the move came one week after the network ordered three new scripts for the show (which they are now on the hook for, although filming hadn't started on those episodes). This year, the networks have been more patient than in past seasons with new series (last year Lucky 7 and We Are Men were cancelled after two episodes each). For now, ABC will air two an extra episode of Manhattan's former lead-in, Selfie in its slot.

[ghostjmf]

I have never watched Manhattan Love Story, but am really impressed, in a bad way, that NBC's Mysteries of Laura & Bad Judge are still on. Please don't tell me they're big hits (I guess I will look it up, though). I admit to watching one episode of Laura with the obnoxious (to put it very mildly) twin kids from hell on it all the way through. That was enough for a lifetime. Its the lead-in to SVU, the remaining Lawn Order show, & Chicago PD. So someone at NBC must have thought highly of it. Not reviewers, not the ones I looked up after I lived through that episode. Bad Judge, where I really like the star from 2 other of her series (Grey's Anatomy & its spinoff Private Practice) I watched up until she was having sex on the judge's bench. Or somewhere like that. Enough for me.

[SpacemanSpiff]

I'll admit to watching parts of MLS, mostly because on Tuesday evenings I'm usually working in a garage, and the TV there is only over-the-air stuff. I wanted to like it, but the gimmick of having what's going through their minds as a voiceover (usually snarky comments or self-doubt worries) got old in a hurry. I also realized in last week's episode (where the primary couple was agonizing over the "we've dated long enough, why haven't we had sex yet" issue) that the entire premise was going into Rhoda territory -- if the trick of the series is to move along with a relationship, what happens when you get there? Once they do it, does that mean the show's already jumped the shark? As it turns out, that's no longer an issue.

The scary thing, too, is that they're replacing it with more Selfie episodes. One article I had read said that MLS had kept 90% of the lead-in ratings from Selfie; the problem is that Selfie's ratings aren't that hot either.

[jarnon]

TV Guide reports that Selfie will be cancelled too. Forever, How to Get Away with Murder and Black-ish will survive for at least a full season.

[silverscreenselect]

How to Get Away with Murder will survive for at least a full season.

How to Get Away with Murder will only have 15 episodes, in accordance with Viola Davis' contract. It's a similar arrangement to the one Kevin Bacon made before he agreed to do The Following.