Under the reign of Ben Silverman, NBC spent a whole lot of money on Kings — about $4 million an episode. Unfortunately for the peacock network, most viewers weren’t interested and the network lost a lot of money.
After three weeks of low ratings, they shuffled the series off to die on Saturday evenings, when viewership is typically lower anyway. While many devoted fans tuned in each week to watch actors like Ian McShane, Christopher Egan, Allison Miller, Susanna Thompson, Sebastian Stan, Eamonn Walker, and Dylan Baker, the numbers weren’t enough for the show to go back into production.
Not only won’t Kings be returning for a second season but NBC isn’t planning on taking that kind of ambitious risk again. The network’s President of Primetime Entertainment, Angela Bromstad, said this week, “It was a great production, but our challenge now is, you need to sell something. People want to know what something is about.”
Bromstad continued, “Kings was a complex idea. It was originally developed when I was [at NBC] before. We didn’t make it [then] because we thought it was a little too high brow and too difficult to sell in a 30 second slot. It doesn’t mean we’re not looking for big ideas [but] they have to be big ideas that the audience can grab on to.”
What do you think? Was the concept too much for the audience to grasp or did it fail for another reason? Too good for network TV?
Image courtesy NBC.
This show was the best show I ever seen on TV. The problem is not the show but the NBC executive producers. They put the show on Saturday which they should put prime time during the week. The idea to cancel this show was really bad. It was a bad move from the NBC managers. The script, story and the acting were unbelievable great. I hope the write & producer can take this to another TV station like Bravo, HBO, Showtime etc. It hurts to know a great production like that can die because some stupid Network President. She/He should… Read more »
LOVE this series… but the reason it failed is because people in the United States don’t know the real story – don’t read their Bibles and don’t care about Biblical history. Remember what the blockbuster “The Ten Commandments”? That’s because people, THEN, knew the Ten Commandments and all the action that surrounded that story.
If churches, synagogues & parents would actually teach the Bible, this sort of series would be popular!
Can’t believe this was cancelled…one of the best things on. Better than all that reality bull crap!!
This show should never have been cancelled!
Bring it back.
Kings is a show that chanllenges the view to think and analyze. It was too good for NBC and would have been better on HBO. So sad that the general public missed out on such a great show. I have watched and rewatched episodes several times online and each time have drawn more information/details from the episode that I missed previously. On a few occassions my teenage daughter had come in while I was watching and she was hooked. She was disappointed that there wouldn’t be a second season. This show definitely deserves a second change with the right marketing… Read more »
For me, the pretentious spirituality and the absence of meaning behind monarchical order, makes for really bad story telling. The creators should spend the 4mill per episode on a Deadwood spin-off, perhaps set in New York where the Pinkertons ruled the dark alleys and Wall street. But be sure David Milch can add his magic to it.
And once again, the nets chalk up the death of a quality ty TV show to its being too tough for the audience to grasp. UGGGGGGH!!!!! Wake up networks. LOST is also “too complicated” for viewers weaned on The Bachelor, but it has a harder core fan base than just about any show other than Original Star Trek. When will networks realize that people who have the brain power to watch, engage with and become invested in shows like these also: tend to have college educations/higher degrees, have stable jobs where they make a decent income, will become rabidly devoted… Read more »
I didn’t watch it because it got bad reviews on metacritic, and my tastes seem to align with theirs. So maybe it just wasn’t that good of a show?
I do think it’s a shame that there doesn’t seem to be a place for non-conventional programming on network television anymore though.
NBC wasn’t behind “Kings” because the show was tied to Bromstad’s predecessor. She arrived in December ’08, deliberately moving it from its Thursday time slot to a weak spot on Sunday, then briefly to Saturday and abruptly without notice to June. “Kings” was the best show to come out on network television in the last decade. What a pity. Network politics.
I loved this show! It was not promoted right at all, and I think that too many people who do not have enough brain power to understand that kind of story is what makes up the nielsen families! I THINK THIS WOULD BE A GREAT SHOW FOR HBO TO PICK UP FOR NEXT SEASON!!!! You could have more true bloody action to it, have more of the sexual tension played out! and darker language! It would be great, like a cross between the sopronos/deadwood/rome and a shakespearian old king story!
I LOVED Kings, and I’m really really sad that it’s off the air. I don’t have a TV- I watch all shows online at hulu.com and fancast.com I think that the networks aren’t taking into count all the people that watch online only- as lots of people subscribe onine (at hulu.com for instance) and watch the show when ever they have the chance.
I thought the actors were awesome, and loved the plot and story line. I’m really sad they cancelled it….
I agree the supporting actors were not that good especially Culkin. However the show was very good the plots, the sets etc, it was a great idea. I think the general public just wasn’t interested in something new and different because they are glued to the same reality garbage and police dramas that have crammed the networks. Unfortunate. I will be buying the dvd though.
Um I would say Ian McShane was by far the best actor on the show. The others were terrible. Mr McShane is far too good to have such a bad supporting cast. I think he was too good for the show anyway. As for the show itself it wasn’t bad but not great IMO, like I said the supporting actors were just bad and adding Mr Culkin?? Bad move. He’s time was up after Home Alone.
I think this failed because it was promoted wrong. If they had promoted it as the modern adaption of the story of David, I would have started watching it. Rather, I thought the story was going to be about Modern Day Kings in America. I thought that a strange idea. I didn’t like it, so I didn’t watch, when I learned it was the retailing of the story of David in modern times, I was interested in watching. I chalk up the failure simply to the failure to promote this in a way that would attract viewers. Not because it… Read more »