H8R: New CW Reality Series; Cancel or Keep It?

Some celebrities get a lot of bad press these days and it influences how the public sees them. Do they really deserve the bad rap or is there more to them than what we see in the media? H8R, a new show on The CW, tries to answer that question. But, does H8R itself deserve a slot in primetime or should it be quickly cancelled?

On H8R, celebrities go head-to-head with regular people who don’t like them. They try to win their adversaries over and, in the process, reveal person behind the famous name. Actor Mario Lopez hosts the program which includes two celebrities in each episode.

The reality series debuted on Wednesday night and attracted a meager 0.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic and just 1.29 million viewers. It was a distant fifth in its timeslot and was easily beaten by reality shows and reruns on the other networks. In truth, most of the CW shows usually do come in fifth place but this was really bad.

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How bad? In the same timeslot a week earlier, a rerun of last season’s America’s Next Top Model performed about the same, garnering a 0.5 in the demo and 1.25 million viewers. With terrible numbers like these, it seems like H8R could easily become the first cancellation of the Fall 2011-12 season.

Unless the ratings radically improve, it’s certain that The CW will pull H8R. A likely move would be to begin airing the previous week’s edition of America’s Next Top Model as a lead-in to the new episode. America’s Next Top Model certainly needs better lead-in support than what it got this week and was surely hurt by H8R’s premiere.

But, what do you think? Is H8R worth watching? Do you think it just needs more time or should be cancelled immediately?