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.
ABC kills FLASHFOWARD, EASTWICK, CASTLE? who makes their decisions? I would love the paycheck to be so stupid as to trust those scores after 2 shows !! We’ll watch them on AB C Family IU hope in the future.
f
Dear Networks,
If you keep cannibalizing your babies, eventually people will stop showing up to your showers.
<3<3<3
ABC sucks, the shows PEOPLE like they take off.
I loved KYLE XY, but there wasnt enough sex and sleaze in it.
it was replaced with a show about a pregnant teen….
ABC needs a management overhaul. Give the freakin shows a chance
GEEEEZE
I think the first two episodes should have been shown together as a pilot. The first episode was too thin – it simply didn’t reach critical mass, and if it had been combined with the second, people would have a much better idea of what was going on.
Now that Lost and 24 are winding down, I was in need of another must-watch show. I thought this would be it, but now it looks like ABC is going to snuff it out before it gets legs.
So much potential down the drain…
I really think this show is edgy and cool and people need to give it a chance to get going before they can make a decision. I definitely think viewers are missing the boat, as usual, when it comes to an interesting and different show. I am a huge fan of Lost, for example, and I am actually surprised it stayed on TV since it requires people to follow it. I also think the network should give it longer than two weeks to seeif there really are the ratings they want/need to keep it on.
If they don’t air the rest of the episodes, they should at least put them online! Why record shows, if you’re just going to waste all that money?
I don’t know where they are getting their viewer numbers, but those numbers are wrong. It’s been pretty stormy the past few weeks where I live, so the satellite was down and I had to watch the episodes online, along with all the other people i know who watch this show. For some reason it seems to have mainly happened on Wednesdays, which is also when ‘Mercy’ came on, and that show was also cancelled. This show can’t go away until at least some questions are answered. They keep cancelling shows that I actually watch and just about everybody I… Read more »
no real action, very slow start. I would like it to speed up several notcha. i do like the plot.
The show is really cool. It has the ‘feel’ of Twin Peaks. I think that part of the problem with this show and all shows is that the networks keep interrupting new episodes. There will be new episodes for a couple of weeks and then re-runs for a month, and then more new episodes. People really lose interest. They don’t know when their shows are going to be new or what’s happening with them. So, this show, although it’s very very good, probably won’t make it because everyone will think it’s been cancelled before it even really has a chance… Read more »
I really really enjoy the show and think that ABC needs to show the last 5 episodes at least! geesh! 3 shows and pulling, pathetic on ABC’s part! give it at least 1 season before they pull it. This is why I dont’ watch ABC other then this show peaked my interest, they SUCK!
I thought it was great, I love a good mystery. I don’t want to see it go.
FIRST OF ALL HAPPY TOWN IS UP AGAINST CSI NEW YORK AND I THINK LAW AND ORDER SO IT WAS PUT IN A TOUGH SPOT TO BEGIN WITH SECOND OF ALL IT IS A SHOW THAT WILL TAKE TIME TO UNFOLD SO IT WILL NEED TIME TO DO JUST THAT PEOPLE WERE AND ARE EXSPECTING IT HAVE SUPERNATURAL ASPECTS AND THEY ARE JUST BEGINNING TO BE SEEN WITH A LITTLE BIT OF PATIENTENCE THIS SHOW HAS THE MAKINGS OF A VERY GOOD SHOW IT HAS A VERY GOOD CAST AND AS LONG AS THE STORY STAYS GOOD THEN IT MAY… Read more »
Happy Town is awesome along the same lines as last season’s Harper’s Island on CBS! The characters are intriguing, well-written (for it’s twists and turns) and the mystery has me hooked! I hope more people will watch when it returns, even if it remains a summer series. And, Twin Peaks, it is not! Twin Peaks was perhaps a high point in modern television. Nothing could match it today except for Lost.
The reason is that the first episode was horrible in both film quality and direction. It was shrill and had that cheap, shrill quality to it that Harper’s Island had. I decided to stick with it since the underlying story seemed rather good and the writing excellent. I was glad I did because the second episode was a marked change. Everything wasn’t comprised of one ear shattering screeching note. The action was wonderful, the story compelling and the promise bright. It’s remained like that and I’m sorry to see that the show’s been canceled. Very disappointed with this decision.
Reminded me of Twin peaks, I actually like that it’s a bit cheesy; it shows that the writers were trying to have a little fun with the characters. As per usual, canceled.