The Black Donnellys: NBC Puts a Hit on the Drama
It looks like the axe has fallen for the Paul Haggis/Bobby Moresco drama The Black Donnellys. But does it have to be replaced by a reality show?
The Black Donnellys follows the story of four young Donnelly brothers – a clan of Catholic Irish-American siblings who are involved in organized crime in New York’s infamous Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. The story is told by unreliable narrator and Donnelly childhood friend named Joey “Ice Cream” while being incarcerated. The series stars Jonathan Tucker, Thomas Guiry, Olivia Wilde, Billy Lush, Michael Stahl-David, Kirk Acevedo and Keith Nobbs.
The series debuted on NBC on February 26, 2007 and took the place of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip on Monday nights. The series’ initial half hour did well (10 million) but viewership fell off significantly in the second half hour (6 million). The series’ initial hour ranked #50 for the week. The subsequent episodes lost viewers and attracted as few as 5.5 million.
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While many hoped that a Donnelly dismissal would mean the return of Studio 60, NBC has other plans. The Real Wedding Crashers will debut at 10pm on Monday nights beginning April 23rd, just in time for May sweeps. It seemed like the Crashers reality show would air on Sunday nights but, NBC execs like the series enough to give it the benefit of a post-Heroes debut.
Unless NBC pulls the series even earlier, only eight episodes of Donnellys will have aired on network TV. The series’ third episode, entitled “God is a Comedian Playing to an Audience Afraid to Laugh,” was considered too violent for network TV and was released as an NBC.com exclusive.
The network has ordered 13 episodes and its unknown at this point what will become of the remaining four segments. They may air over the summer or could be released as online exclusives.
Whether we get to see the rest or not, it looks unlikely the series will be back for a new season in the Fall. NBC will announce their Fall schedule next month. Stay tuned! 
UPDATE: NBC has now pulled Donnellys’ last scheduled episode due to low ratings. The unaired episodes will be made available on NBC.com, presumably on a weekly basis.
July 3rd, 2009 at 11:26 am
i have just watched season 1 in scotland and it is all anybody anybody talks about at work best serious ive seen in years
May 29th, 2009 at 10:29 am
If this will not happen again with NBC then the least you could do for your dissapointed fans whom presumably you care nothing about is sell the rights to the show to a different network. HBO would be an awesome candidate for this series seeing as how they can do way more with violence, language, nudity, etc. I hope someone sees good in this series and brings it back before time runs out.
April 4th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
hello everyone the black donnellys is exploding in europe and everyone is excited i hope it will be a season 2. this story is amazing i would buy every season dvd as much of us would buy
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Gosh I’ve been praying that somebody would pick up this show for the last 2 years. NBC is honestly one of the dumbest networks EVER for dropping this show. You know how many viewers the show had in general?! Can you blame the show for having low ratings because it started right in the middle of NCAA March Maddness? No. You know who you can blame for everything, it’s NBC. This show had more potential than any other show I have seen….But oh well… I guess there’s nothing I can do about it now. I’ll just buy the 1st season on DVD and remember the times that me and my brother would watch that show and talk about how awesome it was.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:02 pm
first of all i have been waiting for the black donnellys to come out with season two or something related to the black donnellys. i bought the dvd series a while ago and ive shown this series to many ppl who i felt wouldnt like this series. ive shown my family, my girlfreinds family, most of my freinds and they all love it!! everyone i show this series to is upset over only one fact, and thats because no one knows wat happens next! even my 65 yr old grand mother loved the series. i agree with most of these ppl and they say BAD F’N MOVE!! dont come out with a good series if u cant finish what you started. please and thank you
December 30th, 2008 at 4:11 am
what a great show this is…brilliant story telling, great acting, great premise. I cannot believe NBC pulled this show….u should be shot !!
December 5th, 2008 at 8:27 am
is there goin to be a finale season?
August 10th, 2008 at 12:43 am
Bring back the Donnelly’s - it was one of the best series that has been on.
August 6th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Oh stupid NBC executives.
Im from all the way PORTUGAL, an European country and I freaking loved this series!
Season was awesome.
For me, its like better than Prison Break and Heroes.
Hope NBC falls back on the decision.
Donnellys rule
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Tisk, Tisk, tisk…
You know…
i knew you guys were idiots but not like this…I’m sorry if im being vague here but,
you guys really shouldn’t have shot don’t the black Donnelly’s series.
Not a good move you guys, i’m telling you right now, and i’m not trying to be loathsome but you’ll regret this move, not very professional in my books.
or anyone else’s.