Big Shots: ABC Pulls the Series, Will It Be Back?

ABC is moving some shows around for the November sweeps period and, as part of that, is pulling freshman drama Big Shots.

Big Shots follows the lives of four businessmen who are successful in business but whose personal lives are a bit of a mess. The series stars Michael Vartan, Dylan McDermott, Christopher Titus, and Joshua Malina. Big Shots debuted on September 27, 2007 and six episodes have aired thus far. The premiere attracted a mediocre 11.6 million, losing about nine million from the premiere of Grey’s Anatomy that preceded it. The ratings have been slipping ever since and the most recent episode attracted just 7.3 million. (Numbers based on overnight ratings.)

Its no surprise that ABC is pulling Big Shots for at least part of the November sweeps. Women’s Murder Club will take its place for a special Thursday night airing on November 15th. Then, on November 22nd, October Road will kick off it’s second season before settling into it’s Monday night timeslot a few days later.

It looks like Big Shots may return to Thursday nights on November 29th. If the writers’ strike continues for very long, ABC will certainly want to make use of any current scripted content that’s already been completed.

However, Big Shots is one of the few freshman shows that were not given orders for additional scripts or episodes in advance of the impending strike. That fact alone puts the series’ future in question. It’s not known how many of Big Shots’ 13 episode order have been completed or scripted. One way or the other, the show’s production will probably be shutting down in a few weeks at most.

As the writers’ strike goes on, ABC will be faced with some serious economic decisions. They’ll have to decide how long they want to keep paying actor and production expenses for a mid-to-low rated show that’s not even in production. At this point, it’s looking doubtful that Big Shots will survive. Stay tuned!