The Superstars cancel or keep?

Superstars A cross between Battle of the Network Stars and Wipeout, ABC has kicked off yet another celebrity competition series. But, how is the show stacking up — should it be kicked off the schedule?

The Superstars first premiered on ABC in the 1970s as part of Wide World of Sports. That version puts athletic champions against one another in various sports to determine the best overall athlete.

This latest version of Superstars teams celebrities with professional athletes and pits them against one another in a series of competitions. One pair of players is eliminated each week.

The eight celebs are David Charvet, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Dan Cortese, Paige Hemmis, Julio Iglesias Jr., Joanna Krupa, Ali Landry and Estella Warren. The athlete participants are Jennifer Capriati, Brandi Chastain, Robert Horry, Jeff Kent, Kristi Leskinen, Lisa Leslie, Bode Miller and Terrell Owens.

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The six episodes of the competition were shot at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas and are co-hosted by Jenn Brown, John Saunders, and Warren Sapp, a competitor on the original version.

The first episode of the celeb-athlete competition aired on June 23rd. Though the participants worked hard to win their games, the show wasn’t a winner in the ratings. The first hour of the premiere attracted just 4.47 million viewers and a 1.5/5 rating/share of the coveted 18-49 demographic. In contrast, a repeat of NCIS drew 10.87 million and a 1.8/6.

The second hour of Superstars dropped to 4.07 million viewers and inched up in the demo to a 1.6/5 rating/share. America’s Got Talent attracted 10.26 million and a 2.9/8.

This week, Superstars’ ratings dipped even further. ABC aired a 90 minute installment. At the start, the show attracted 4.15 million and a 1.2/4. By the end of the show viewership had dropped to just 3.58 million viewers. That helped to put the network in a distant third place for the night.

Considering that there are only a few episodes of Superstars left, it seems likely that the network will let all of them air during July. On the other hand, it seems very unlikely that ABC would bother to bring it back for another season.

What do you think? Is this reality competition a winner or a loser? Keep it or cancel it?

Image courtesy ABC.

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