TV SCOOP! The Early Casualties of the Fall 2010 Prime Time Schedule: ‘Lone Star,’ ‘Outlaw,’ and ‘My Generation’ Cancelled

FOX DOES IT AGAIN!!!

Well, if you didn’t hear the news already or wondered why your TiVo or other recordification device didn’t record FOX’s “new hit series” (their words after the first week with only 4.3 million viewers), I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but FOX has unceremoniously cancelled Lone Star after only two episodes.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you, because I did: 

The first is the time slot and the network.  This show is the replacement for 24 which just ended after 8 seasons.  This is the last show in the world I would have ever expected to replace 24.  If there was a show that I would have thought would have gone in the Monday night at 9:00 p.m. slot on FOX,  it would have been either Human Target or Fringe.  Both are excellent action shows that could easily carry 24’s torch in that slot and to be completely honest, I think this show would be better suited for CBS or ABC.  They would seem to have the demographic for it more than FOX.

…I just didn’t think it would happen after two episodes.

So, I’m going to give this show 6 weeks without any expectation of it surviving the Thanksgiving season cuts.  This way I won’t be disappointed if another good show is cancelled which unfortunately, as good as this show is, I do expect to happen.

So, I was absolutely correct about LS and my other two concerns didn’t even have a chance to materialize as issues.  This was the absolute worst time-slot that this show could have been in.  As noted, this was the old 24 slot and even though by the fourth season 24 was beginning mid-season to avoid any breaks (because the breaks severely hurt the ratings), they still managed to put an action or police procedural in that slot.  Since the fourth season of 24 the residents of the 9:00 p.m. slot in the Fall have been: Prison Break, Vanished, K-Ville, Prison Break, Lie to Me.  Now, I will certainly grant that it hasn’t always been a success in that slot for FOX, but audiences certainly have known what to expect there and they didn’t expect a serialized soap, no matter how clever it was.

I am simply amazed that no one at FOX considered that this was a really horrible time-slot for what was a really good show.  I mean, seriously… I’m no network executive and I have absolutely no experience professionally in television, but I knew immediately from when I saw the pilot in August that it was beyond questionable to park LS here.  Seriously, who’s running things over there at FOX?

The only good thing about the demise of LS is that Lie to Me is being moved from Wednesday into its slot at 8:00 p.m. to Monday at 9:00 p.m.  Now, I don’t care about LTM because as much as I like Tim Roth, I don’t find the show particularly original or compelling, but filling their spot in Wednesday is going to be the show that should have been there all along: Human Target.  FOX apparently has found religion regarding HT and is making it the lead-in into the season premiere of Hell’s Kitchen.  That really is significant, especially considering how FOX (like it does with so many shows) was planning on putting HT out to pasture on Friday nights.

I think what’s happened is that someone who isn’t a complete idiot at FOX realized that they only had one new drama this season and it just failed miserably so maybe 8 to 9 million viewers in the middle of the week ain’t so bad considering they have nothing else.  So, although, I’m a little sad to see Lone Star go based on principle, if it means giving HT an opportunity to succeed… well, Lone Star… don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.

A final note on Lone Star: there was no reason to cancel this show, in fact there was no reason for it to be on FOX to begin with.  LS was tailor-made for F/X and it could have thrived there with the ratings it received on FOX.  It’s not a particularly expensive show to produce (which is obvious by the sets and locales) and it’s the type of show like Damages that would tell a story better over the course of 12 episodes than it could in 22.  The real question is: why couldn’t FOX figure this out before they picked it up or even after they cancelled it?

Some Sanity at The Big-Boy Networks

In other, more positive news, NBC’s Outlaw and ABC’s My Generation have also both been cancelled.  You may recall that I blasted what I consider to be the worst new drama on TV this Fall, Outlaw, despite the fact that Jimmy Smits is still a favorite of mine and I will tell you this show certainly won’t be missed… by anyone.

As for My Generation is concerned, all it took was the trailers for this show to tell me it was going to be awful and I want to thank ABC for saving me the trouble of having to watch the stupid thing and writing an actual review.

The real concern now is: who’s next?  Well, all I can tell you is that you’d better not get too attached to any of the new network dramas this Fall because none of them are doing particularly stellar.