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Axed: Utopia (USA)

FOX pulls the pin on its ambitious reality in which participants were living as pioneers in a year-long experiment.

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2014-10-02_1409Ouch this one will hurt.

FOX network has decided to pull the pin on its ambitious reality series Utopia, in which participants were living as pioneers in a year-long Reality TV experiment.

The show participants, who had committed to spending a year away from their normal lives, will be sent home. There was no prize ever put on offer.

The series, based on a John de Mol Dutch format, made a soft debut ahead of the official 2014-15 season and quickly languished in the ratings. FOX then dropped Tuesday episodes leaving just their Friday episodes, with the most recent outing pulling barely more than 1.5 million viewers. It had struggled as the lowest-rated new fall offering on FOX.

In September CEO Dana Walden said, “We’re definitely going to exhibit patience. What exactly that means, it’s hard to tell. I’d say that as long as we’re feeling creatively satisfied with the show, we’re going to do everything in our power to give it an opportunity to thrive and grow.”

Repeats of Junior MasterChef will now air in its place.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

4 Responses

  2. US TV networks are extremely patient when it comes to dud shows. I remember TT reporting that the first episode of this show had bombed badly in the ratings and had been slammed by the critics. Yet it was kept on air. Compare this to Australian series such as Excess Baggage, The Best Of Kath and Kim, and Overhaul which were either bumped to digital channels or taken off the air completely after just one episode.

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