CBS yanks Viva Laughlin
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
CBS is pulling all remaining episodes of Viva Laughlin from the schedule effective immediately, after only 2 episodes.
The move doesn’t bode well for the Nine Network which premiered last night to a middling 833,000. It was hailed by Nine as one of its bright new acquisitions earlier this year, and the networks had high hopes it would help turn around its ailing Monday nights.
Even last night on air during Millionaire, host Eddie McGuire openly admitted the show had “caused a storm in the US” with critics dubbing it “the worse show ever,” a phrase he felt was a bit strong. He’s right, it’s far from that.
CBS will replace Viva Laughlin with new eps of The Amazing Race, brought forward from a planned 2008 season. Remaining eps of the Jackman musical may be streamed online or elsewhere. The show becomes the first scripted casualty of the Fall Season.
The problem with the Americanisation of Laughlin was, aside from being a bold musical format, it lacked the exuberance of the British original. It tried to play it too safe and as a result appears to have ended up winning few fans. Culturally, it was probably always an awkward mix for Americans. But worst show ever?
Source: Variety.
7 Responses
At 10:35 it’s Extreme Makeover.
No return for Weeds, sorry gang.
Nine just announced the axe here too. See new post. Movie: Two Weeks Notice.
poor 9. Hopefully next year they can start fresh and will finally start treating their viewers right.
make them like the channel 7 in the old days then one day they will be liked again and WHOOSH! NUMBER ONE. STILL THE ONE.
maybe weeds will return now?? David what’s replacing Viva?
Can’t say I’m surprised sadly. I didn’t see it last night, but based on all the bad buzz, I knew it wouldn’t last long. The last time an American show tried something like this, the result was the infamous Cop Rock, which lasted 13 episodes back in 1990. If you’re going to do a musical-based drama show, you might do well to check out vintage Dennis Potter to see how it’s done right!
No…I think Seven is too busy sending out gloating Press Releases today.
Any word on Seven running the new Amazing Race over summer??!!! I really hope they do.
I’m really surprised at nine’s programming decision of putting this show on before they saw how it went iin the states. The premise was always going to be risky, so the recent result was forseeable. I didn’t watch it, but when I turned over during adds of Supernatural, it didn’t look too bad. Before i heard it was axed I was going to ask if there was going to be an Encore?