Under the reign of Ben Silverman, NBC spent a whole lot of money on Kings — about $4 million an episode. Unfortunately for the peacock network, most viewers weren’t interested and the network lost a lot of money.
After three weeks of low ratings, they shuffled the series off to die on Saturday evenings, when viewership is typically lower anyway. While many devoted fans tuned in each week to watch actors like Ian McShane, Christopher Egan, Allison Miller, Susanna Thompson, Sebastian Stan, Eamonn Walker, and Dylan Baker, the numbers weren’t enough for the show to go back into production.
Not only won’t Kings be returning for a second season but NBC isn’t planning on taking that kind of ambitious risk again. The network’s President of Primetime Entertainment, Angela Bromstad, said this week, “It was a great production, but our challenge now is, you need to sell something. People want to know what something is about.”
Bromstad continued, “Kings was a complex idea. It was originally developed when I was [at NBC] before. We didn’t make it [then] because we thought it was a little too high brow and too difficult to sell in a 30 second slot. It doesn’t mean we’re not looking for big ideas [but] they have to be big ideas that the audience can grab on to.”
What do you think? Was the concept too much for the audience to grasp or did it fail for another reason? Too good for network TV?
Image courtesy NBC.
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I have watched a lot of television in my time, and KINGS possesses all things good about television. Entertainment has gotten way too shallow and meaningless, it hurts to turn on the screen because I know I will always be disappointed, let down, and left completely unsatisfied. KINGS, however, made me want more. It quenched some inward emptiness, some story that has been told so many times but is now new. This was one small, but great step to some sort of renewal of the entertainment industry, and now that hope is gone.
I was just looking for when the next season of KINGS would air, and just realized it isnt happening. I was really surprised and shocked. it is one of the best television shows i have seen in years. the story line and characters are great. it has really good actors to support its cause. im just wondering what is going in these tv producers heads. why let something really good go that is worth saving and keeping around.
I was very let down to read that Kings was cancelled. It had more depth and plot than most shows I have seen in years. I was instantly captivated by it’s characters and story lines that followed each person and how they all intermingled. The network big boys have sadly sold out for reality tv that is just not satisfying to me anymore (or other viwers i’m sure) R.I.P. “Kings” :0(
How is Kings off the air but shows like Merlin are still playing. Kings was turning into a show that reviled other big shows like Lost on other networks. NBC along with many other large networks have no idea about whats good and whats not. I’m sick of being force feed reality TV constantly, its boring and i don’t care who’s the biggest loser is or who wants to marry a millionaire. Oh well I guess, chalk this one up to other great shows like Arrested Development…..
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