|
|
It's game over for Chris Carter's Harsh Realm virtual-reality TV show. Fox has pulled the plug on the fledgling series after only three airings. The dark new drama from the creator of The X-Files was expected to ease the pain of its cult predecessor's imminent demise, but Harsh Realm didn't even last until The X-Files season premiere in November.
And there'll be no Ryan Caulfield: Year Two. Fox has also canceled its other Friday night newcomer, Ryan Caulfield: Year One, thereby avoiding the dilemma of what to do about its title if the show survived for more than one season.
Last week the second broadcast of Ryan and third showing of Harsh Realm marked Fox's lowest Friday ratings ever.
On the good news side, WB has picked up a full season of Angel, starring hunky David Boreanaz as a crusading vampire, and ABC has committed to David E. Kelley's Snoops, despite less than stellar reviews.
How is Carter taking the death of his new show? He blames Fox, of course. As he tells Variety, it was "misguided" to have launched the show "without any promotional base, certainly when the reviews of it were good. I have a feeling we're a victim of a much bigger problem at Fox."
The bigger problem is the under-whelming showing by new series Action and Get Real and sophomore cartoon Family Guy, which are languishing in the ratings. These shows have all been pulled as possible midseason replacements, but some insiders expect they won't be back.
Carter blames Realm's demise on under-promotion by Fox and Ryan's weak lead-in. Says Carter, Fox executives admitted to him they had neglected Harsh Realm and were planning to atone by heavily promoting the show for the next seven weeks.
Carter also says he believes that Fox Entertainment President Doug Herzog was never a fan of Harsh Realm. "When I first met Doug, I realized he wasn't a fan of The X-Files, which made me paranoid that he didn't know what we did over here," he says.
Fox sources tell Variety that production has halted on both series. Eight episodes of Harsh Realm had already been shot. And with its meager ratings, sources say it's unlikely that Harsh Realm will end up at another network.
Meanwhile, ABC confirmed that the low-rated Thursday-night drama Wasteland will be yanked for the duration of the November sweeps, effective immediately. The specials The Best Commercials You've Never Seen and Totally Out of Control Vehicles will air the next two Thursdays. Getting bumped for these bottom-of-the-barrel specials has got to hurt. Kevin Williamson, your 15 minutes are officially up.
However, the network says Wasteland will be back: "Because we feel the show never truly got sampled and we believe in the talents of creator Williamson and our cast, we plan on re-launching the series again in December."
In its place, ABC will air an
hour-long Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.,
followed by a repeat of Whose Line Is It Anyway? ABC had already
scheduled an airing of Forrest Gump for Thanksgiving.
