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 just found about the show , watched the 3rd episode and loved it……..ABC needs to give it a chance, get the word out on the show………
I agree with most of the comments here. Every time I fall in love with a show, it gets canceled. The only shows that seem to stay are crime and medical dramas, stupid sitcoms with no intelligent humor, and reality shows. I liked this show, but I am more disappointed about Better Off Ted.
i loved the show
ABC has done it again…aired a series that doesn’t go over well, but instead of airing the remaning episodes for the faithful viewers that did watch, they stop showing them and leave us hanging. At least finish it off so we know what was going on. DayBreak, Invasion, October Road…just to name a few they just stopped airing. Sure they put out Dvd’s to end the series but come on ABC, get with the program. I will NEVER watch another new episode on ABC again.
I really like the show and actually look forward to watching it on Weds night. I like that it is a different kind of show then whats on TV. I get sick of the Cop shows, the family shows. This one is different and I love it for that! ABC should give the show a chance before they decide to pull it. It’s not fair they get people to like a show but supposedly not enough people watch it! It’s no Greys Anatomy, but even that had to start somewhere!
I watch it and like it please don’t stop this show!!! I do think that it should be put on at 8 or 9 instead of 10. 10:00pm is to late on work and school nights..just change the time cause I sometimes have to go online to watch when I miss it…
Happy Town was like “Northern Exposure” meets “Twin Peaks”. It was interesting and an alternative to all the reality show crap that is prevalent on television today.
Honestly its because certain shows that were a on mini break came back and people watched thier regular shows. I personally think the show should continue. Last year Harper’s Island was on around this time and I really loved that mini series. I just got really into Happy Town and would love to see the rest of it. Once other shows like criminal minds and csi ny finish you would see a big difference in ratings.
and yet The Middle is still on. ridiculous.
I eagerly watched the first episode but nothing about it made me want to continue watching. Ifound it boring.
My husband and I really enjoyed this show, as did my daughter & son-in-law. I couldn’t believe that it wasn’t on this week……Sure hope it’s not cancelled………..It never had a chance to catch on and “word of mouth” didn’t stand a chance either……….I agree with others when they say ABC is too quick to cancel shows……How in the world can you know if the show will succeed after only 3 or 4 episodes
My 19-year-old son and I both liked this show. We were looking forward to tonight’s episode only to find it wasn’t on. We both think it’s ridiculous to cancel a show after 3 weeks.
I really was liking this show. I wish ABC would reconsider and leave an original idea on their network. Look at where Lost went, it was a great show, and they thought outside the box, like Happy Town.
Now I remember why I don’t like watching programs on ABC. Every time I find a program that truly peaks my interest they want to pull the plug on it. ABC give the show a chance!! Show the final episodes for goodness sakes!!
Maybe if I had watched the second episode I would have liked it better. However, I felt the first episode was really slow and didn’t get me hooked like it should have. From the previews, I was expecting something supernatural(which I do like to watch) but nothing in the show gave any major substance to that expectation. It seemed like there were only really paranoid people. I forgot about it the next week.