Heartbeat: Cancelled Too Quickly by NBC?

A little over a week ago, NBC decided to cancel their new medical drama, Heartbeat. As a result of the cancellation, tonight’s episode is the TV show’s last. Was NBC justified in cancelling the series or should there be season two?

Set at the fictional St. Matthew’s Hospital, Heartbeat follows a cardio-thoracic surgeon, Dr. Alex Panttiere (Melissa George), as she tries to juggle her personal and professional lives. She eagerly fights authority, particularly when it comes to her patients’ health and well-being. The rest of the cast includes Dave Annable, Don Hany, Joshua Leonard, Jamie Kennedy, D.L. Hughley, Shelley Conn, Maya Erskine, and J. Louis Mills.

Heartbeat debuted on March 22nd. It followed an episode of NBC’s highly-rated series The Voice and drew a 1.39 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 6.30 million viewers.

Heartbeat moved to its regular Wednesday night timeslot the next evening and the ratings saw a dramatic dip, falling to a 0.89 rating with 5.16 million. The numbers have kept dwindling downward. Last week’s penultimate episode drew a 0.67 in the demo with just 3.86 million.

Those kinds of numbers are just too low for NBC to justify renewing the series so the cancellation certainly wasn’t a surprise. The peacock network is already busy promoting their new drama series for the fall. It remains to be seen if they will do any better.

But, what do you think? Did you like the Heartbeat TV show? Was NBC justified in cancelling it or should the network have given the series more time and a second season?