Last week, ABC pulled Happy Town from the schedule for the remainder of May sweeps period. Though things didn’t look good for the mystery TV show, the network didn’t officially cancel it. Now they have.
Happy Town follows the residents of a small town in Minnesota who are terrorized by a killing spree from the mysterious “Magic Man”. The cast includes Sam Neill, M.C. Gainey, Geoff Stults, Lauren German, Amy Acker, Steven Weber, Ben Schnetzer, Sarah Gadon, Jay Paulson, and Robert Wisdom.
On April 28th, the show got off to a bad start with a disappointing 1.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic and just 5.25 million viewers. For episode two, viewership took a nosedive to a 1.2 in the demo and 3.79 million viewers. ABC announced they were putting the TV series on hiatus and the third episode’s numbers dropped further still, to a 1.1 rating and 3.04 million viewers.
This week, ABC announced the new 2010-11 schedule and, not surprisingly, Happy Town wasn’t on it. The show has now been cancelled though the network still plans to run the remaining five episodes. They’ll start airing on June 2nd.
What do you think? Are you surprised that Happy Town has been cancelled? Will you still tune in to see the remaining episodes?
Image courtesy ABC.
I was shocked to see this show cancelled….they havent even given the show or the public to decide….I didnt catch the first few episodes and then watched them and was hooked….too bad, this show has a great cast and an interesting premise….
Some good actors, nice setting but just bad writing.
I can’t believe that it’s being cancelled.I really liked this show. @admin, will it be on tonight?
@admin
When will or did the series finale of Happy Town air?
@Pikachu: 7/7/10
It is listed as scheduled for June 30 on TVRage.
@George: I believe that’s episode 7, “Dallas Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” There’s one more but I don’t have a title yet.
The June 30th episode is #8 and is titled “Blame It on Rio Bravo.”
@George: This is what I’m seeing. There’s none scheduled for 6/23.
1 “In This Home on Ice” on April 28, 2010
2 “I Came to Haplin for the Waters” on May 5, 2010
3 “Polly Wants a Crack at Her” on May 12, 2010
4 “Slight of Hand” on June 2, 2010
5 “This Is Why We Stay” on June 9, 2010
6 “Questions and Antlers” on June 16, 2010
7 “Dallas Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” on June 30, 2010
8 “Blame It on Rio Bravo” on July 7, 2010
Ditto most of the other comments. I really like this show and don’t think the network did it justice in the way it aired it and marketed it. The break of course signed it’s death warrant…why do networks always break new shows up like that? It kills them every time. And I agree, I am so SICK of “reality” programming, wish the rest of the country would wake up from their comatose state and appreciate creative shows. Or I just wish networks wouldn’t completely cave to all those stupid reality shows. ugh. Guess I better find something else to watch,… Read more »
Unfortunately Mary Anne, and not really defending ABC, shows with low ratings ALWAYS get put on hiatus during a sweeps period so you shouldn’t really have been surprised about Happy Town being banished till June. Again it is an unfortunate fact of TV life that reality programming is vastly cheaper to produce than quality programming thus it is no surprise that summer is prime time for a glut of reality TV. Here in the US we still predominately have a dual season format as far as broadcast networks are concerned: One main season of about 22 episodes and a summer… Read more »
Sorry to see this one go. It imho was the best thing that Steven King never wrote … lol. I really enjoyed enjoyed it a lot and will be sorry to see it replaced by some mindless drek. I thought Sam Neill was just fantastic as Merritt Grieves. This might have played better on HBO or Showtime as I feel it really was playing to a niche audience anyway. Too bad it was on ABC ( but at least it wasn’t on FOX where it might have been cancelled before it even aired).
This show which is awesome has not been given a chance. it was put on in the midst of shows like Dancing with the Stars, and some other prime time show. This show is a very good one for ABC if given the chance. How do they expect to get good ratings if they show 2 episodes and then take it off the air for 3 weeks for other shows they had scheduled. Stupid timing for such a good show.:(:(
I too am sorry to see this show cancelled. My daughter and I really looked forward to it each week. We both enjoyed “Harpers Island” last summer and I think that a new show such as Happy Town would have done well with that same premise; a mini series that was specifically written for a certain number of weeks. That way the show has a chance to work through it’s story line and end the way it was meant to. Sadly, I see a future of nothing but “reality” (I use that term loosely) shows geared to people who don’t… Read more »
Unlike the majority of comments, thus far, I think the writing for Happy Town has been questionable, from the start. Painful-to-listen-to dialogue and painful-to-watch acting makes for a train wreck of a series. I say train wreck, because – much like a train wreck, the series seems to have attracted a limited number of gawkers. Even though I disagree with those who say that this series was well-written, I totally agree with the general opinion that this is yet another example of the dumbing down of the American television viewer. As long as we have our talentless-hacks that are given… Read more »
I am sorry to see it go- too bad when the idiot’s don’t know a amart show from another- and then they premier a new show before other shows have run through the rest of their seasons so even if the show is good, if they have to stop watching another show that they are used to to see how it’s season ends then they are not going to switch over to the new show when it starts to check it out. So noone tunes into the 1st few shows of Happy Town . They figure they’ll catch up after… Read more »
I’m actually really bummed to see it go. This is one of two shows i watch on reg tv. everything is cable. Me and the family really enjoyed it and liked guessing whAt would happen next.
sad to see the show go. it was one of the few shows my husband and i really enjoyed this season. wish they would change their mind!
Unfortunately, the “dumbing down” of society is bad for anything that makes people “think”, including “Happytown”. Apparently, viewers only want reality schlock like “Survivor”, “American Idol” and “Dancing with the Stars”.
Too bad
I’ll be sad to see it go too, however I think this would be better as a mini series to begin with. In a mystery like this putting off solving it would only hurt the story so I think 1 season is just the prefect length. The downside is since they probably didn’t go into the show with only 1 season in mind it’ll probably end up rushed with bad writing oh well. At least the show had potential at one point.
I enjoy this show and am sad to see it cancelled. Somewhat reminded me of Twin Peaks. That being said, I can understand its cancellation. Poor ratings are poor ratings. The show has way too many characters that are never fully developed.