When Media Rights Capital (MRC) shut down production of Valentine and Easy Money a couple weeks ago, the company said that it would resume in a few weeks and that they were committed to finishing the series’ 13 episode runs. It seems they’ve changed their minds and the shows have now been cancelled.
Valentine is a quirky drama that follows a group of mythological gods whose existence depends on their helping mortals to find true love. It stars Christine Lakin, Autumn Reeser, Robert Baker, Kristoffer Polaha, Greg Ellis, Jaime Murray, and Patrick Fabian. Easy Money tells the tale of the dysfunctional Buffkin family that runs a small loan shark business in the Southwestern desert. Money features the talents of actors like Laurie Metcalf, Jeff Hephner, Jay R. Ferguson, Joe Peracchio, Katie Lowes, Nick Searcy, Kimberly Estrada, Marsha Thomason, Ravi Patel, Chris Browning, Jesus Mayorga, Gary Farmer, and Judge Reinhold. Both shows are produced by MRC who, earlier this year, made a deal with the CW to rent the network’s Sunday night airtime for the 2008-09 season.
Both Valentine and Easy Money debuted on the CW on October 5th. Though several critics praised Easy Money, most in the industry expected viewership to be quite low. In the past, the CW hadn’t had much luck attracting viewers to watch on Sunday nights, either by programming encores of their more popular shows or by airing new series. It seemed highly unlikely that this trend was going to change simply because another company was filling the timeslots.
For its premiere, Valentine attracted just 1.1 million viewers and a 0.3/1 rating/share among adults 18-49. A year earlier, CW’s now-cancelled Life is Wild drew 50% more viewers. Easy Money brought in 1.08 million people and a 0.4/1 rating/share. The year before, a repeat of America’s Next Top Model attracted 20% more people.
 Loading ... |
But, as bad as the MRC shows’ premieres were, the news for subsequent weeks was worse. With only four airings, the numbers have dropped to incredibly low levels. On October 20th, Valentine hit a series low of 718,000 viewers and this past Sunday, Easy Money fell to just 667,000 watchers.
In mid-October, MRC shut down the production on both shows. The reason given was that the writers needed time to catch up on scripts. Based on the series’ terrible ratings, coupled with and MRC’s much-publicized financial and management issues, it’s likely execs were trying to figure out if it made any sense to resume production.
Word is that they’ve now made a decision. Valentine and Easy Money have been cancelled, won’t return to production, and won’t complete the 13 episode orders. Eight episodes of each show have reportedly been completed and the fifth episodes will air this Sunday night. The company is supposedly still committed to filling the CW timeslots so execs are likely searching for replacements. Will those perform any better? Stay tuned! 
Image courtesy Media Rights Capital.
I personally liked the show Valentine, mainly because I think Christine Lakin is so cute. I woudl watch anything she is on. Maybe this explains why the CW sucks so bad
Loved Easy money. It is just as good or better than any Showtime Or HBO series, maybe they will buy it.
Easy Money was a good show. We have barely gotten a chance to get to know the characters. I agree with so many others, why do they rush to pull a show when it barely gets a chance to be seen? Every fall all the networks rush to put out all these shows at the same times then yank them before we have a chance to sample them. With DVR and Tivo it is alot easier to watch multiple shows. The networks need to recognize that not all viewers have the same tastes. While reality shows are liked by some,… Read more »
How dare they cancel Valentine? The CW is as bad as the WB in cancelling shows. I loved Life is Wild too.
Finish the last 5 episodes, then sell it on DVD. Or just put it on iTunes if you don’t want to shell out manufacturing costs. If it does well, bring it out during the Summer months. Or during the Winter when all the shows go to re-runs. Or put the un-aired episodes online for people to watch. If a lot of people watch, you know they’re interested.
They should of tried a different timeslot. Sundays are also football days, Amazing Race, and a lot of other established shows in that time slot. They also have a lot of movie specials going on then. A weekday at 7pm would have been the perfect slot for a new show. That way it doesn’t interfere with the shows people are already hooked to. It always annoys me when they just ax shows without trying anything different. Not to mention, only 4 shows have aired. I started watching it right after I found out about it. Which was after they decided… Read more »
I really really really liked Easy Money and am very surprised it was cancelled. Valentine I didn’t expect to last but I thought Easy Money was well written/acted. Just my two cents. Hopefully another network will pick it up?
“Easy Money” was one of our favorite shows. I hope that it can be sold by MRC to another production company or broadcast network if things don’t work out between MRC and the CW.
I am very suprised that Valentine was cancelled. It was a great show. I hope that it gets a secons chance later. The stories were good and the characters were likeable. The only thing that made it bad was the day they chose to put it on. It might have been a better viewing audience if they tried it on Tuesday or Wednesday night. Well, we can only hope that the producers see that the change is needed for TV from all the Reality Shows and highly intense thrillers, that sometimes, some harmless humor and love is needed.
Wow that sucks i was planning on watching that show lol.
And i definitely agree with the comment below me. Supernatural is an incredible show in my opinion and keeps getting better.And besides the spooky eps. it still manages to keep you laughing ;D. Definitely one of my favorite shows.
That’s really bad. The Valentine’s plot was good, but bad executed
And about the last comment.. No way Supernatural will finished so soon. He is just the only thing who disearve five minutes of watching in the CW! This season four is just fantastic
cancel supernatural…cancel supernatural…cancel supernatural
please CW just cancel supernatural so kripke can be jobless and padalecki can be free
Great shows that should still be on the air. At least finish them you can’t just start out showing something so great and have this amazing twist and not finish it. It’s completely unfair. I need to know what’s going to happen. These shows shouldn’t be punished just because they were unlucky enough to air on CW’s cursed sunday night. Just move them to a different night like at least Saturday or friday.
I have seen all the episodes and they are ok. I just like watching Venus’ sexy son on Valentine and Laurie Metcalf’s hunky son on Easy Money. Wowwie. It was good to see Christine Lakin (haven’t seen her since ABC’s Step by Step) on Valentine and Laurie Metcalf (since Roseanne, Scream 2 and Desperate Housewives) on Easy Money. These shows need a good kick to get into it! I’ll watch until the end..maybe these are better to be aired on MyNetworkTV24……hmmmmmmmmmmmm
Wow.
You are quite right when you say that nobody expected the CW to do better on Sundays with it’s MRC decision. I just wonder how long this deal will last. When it expires, I honestly must say that if the CW is still around, it will make far more sense to just give Sundays back to the affiliates.