After just two weeks on the air, ABC has decided to pull Happy Town from the schedule. The TV show will be back but, for how long?
Happy Town follows the residents of a small town in Minnesota. After being plagued by kidnappings years ago, it seems the mysterious “Magic Man” has returned to start a killing spree. The cast includes features Sam Neill, M.C. Gainey, Geoff Stults, Lauren German, Amy Acker, Steven Weber, Ben Schnetzer, Sarah Gadon, Jay Paulson, and Robert Wisdom.
The series got off to a poor start two weeks ago with a 1.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 5.25 million viewers. Last week, for episode two, viewership took a nosedive to a 1.2 in the demo and 3.79 million viewers.
To no surprise, ABC has pulled Happy Town for the remainder of May sweeps. After tonight’s episode, the series goes on hiatus for two weeks and will return on June 2nd.
While this wouldn’t necessarily be a sign that the show will be cancelled, the ratings are. They’re terrible and there’s every expectation that they’re just going to get worse — especially with warmer weather coming and people spending less time in front of the TV.
After tonight’s episode, there are just five episode left. With numbers like these, fans of Happy Town will be lucky if the network shows the rest of them, never mind a second season.
Next week’s episode will be replaced by an edition of Primetime: What Would You Do?. On May 26th, ABC will present the network premiere of the Transformers movie.
What do you think? Why isn’t Happy Town performing better? Is it just not a very good TV show or are viewers just missing the boat?
Image courtesy ABC.
I’m in the United Kingdom, so I probably don’t count as I watch via streaming over here. But.. I do actually enjoy this show and hope abc dont can it. I look forward to its return to air in June
now that i have started watching it abc should AT LEAST let it air long enough for us to find out who the murder is…
I began watched “Invasion” AND “Threshold” to my dismay. I just don’t bite anymore. They cancel too fast. Nothing is given a chance.
I agree with Blaine, i also was a Twin Peakes fan which started out very slowly, but only got better, these networks need to give these new shows a chance to grow, allow the public to get to know the charactors, Happy Town is a good show
I really like it and am interested in its mystery. Would be nice if it could find a home on someplace like SyFy. Now I realize that’s NBC’s station, but Merlin found a home there and is still available for the small but devoted following it created.
I like the show but why is the young sheriff dude always smirking? doesn’t matter what he is dealing with, his dad’s cut off hand, a murder victim with a spike through his head, his wife’s abduction, he always looks like he’s ready to bust out laughing… what gives? is he the best ABC could find for the lead role?
it drives me nuts how i like a show and then …bam its gone… i dont think enough time has been given to this show to decide to pull it or not…its a shame..
ABC pulled the 3rd show from the schedule in the Los angeles area. I was greeted by an episode of “Cougar Town” as a replacement in the 10 pm time slot last night. Apparently the suits from Dizney didn’t find the content of the show family-friendly enough…
@Omar Ravenhurst: Interesting. What was on after Cougar Town?
dunno… switched off the tv.
I don’t think the show is bad at all, but you don’t start a new show during NBA/NHL playoffs. The people watching one or both of those will just do like I did, watch this show online. I think if they took in account all of the other people watching this show online there is a lot more people viewing this show than they realize and the ratings will go up when they don’t have to compete against not one but two different playoffs
Unfortunately ratings = money and the industry keeps gettting picky about such things. They no longer are content with waiting out a series for it to perform. Too bad, this show did have some potential. The biggest fault is that network TV is so stripped of anything that would keep viewers into the show. (i.e. No gore, realistic language, or even skin) I think in order for a series like this to do well, it’s gotta be on cable such as HBO/Showtime…
I really like Happy Town, but I also found Harper’s Island entertaining. I think it’s a great summer show, viewership always dwindles in the summer, why not put something like this on? ABC always cancels shows that don’t come out of the gate strong, it’s a mistake, The Office had horrible ratings during it’s first season and look at it now. Slow down ABC and give Happy Town a little longer to catch on, it will, it’s just going to take some time.
I actually thought that Happy Town was an interesting new edition to ABC. The show was unique and kept me wanting to see more. I am sad that the ratings are so poor. I hate when shows I like get cancelled!!
I really enjoyed the show, but I was a big fan of Twin Peaks too. Twin Peaks also had extremely low ratings when it started. The network stayed with the show, and was rewarded with good ratings. Hopefully they will stick with Happy Town too.
The Problem is the NAME. ABC has Cougar TOWN………….the name “Happy Town” in no way gives any idea of what to expect. I watched it by accident, and I LOVE IT. Every time I find a good series they go and cancel it. It got so I refused to get involved in TV series’, so I didn’t watch Lost when it began. Now you can’t come into Lost in the middle………………..so I am out of lick in watching that series, This could be a lot like Lost in viewer ship, IT HAS TO B E MARKETED!! Please ABC do not… Read more »
@ DHarvell…LOL about the Chloe thing! It is so true! This show did have potential but as others have said it is poorly, written, directed and acted. I wanted to like this show but it is just not good. The writers need to be fired. The lines are not clever their corny! Too bad it did have potential.