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.
We Love Ian McShane, and would definitely love to see him into a series he is such a strong male actor and could do any part, we loved him in deadwood and missed this series with him in kings at first but we watch it and loved him in that, I get the concept of the cancellation I think it would have worked too, Maybe you can make another series and put him as the main character,,.his acting abilities as a good guy, a mysterious guy, or the villian is all so possible and worth watching, thank you and good… Read more »
This sucks
As usual, something finally comes on television I love a d is a good show and it gets cancelled. If it’s not a no braqiner reality show or an inane comnedy,m the networks don’t continue it. Unforturnatelym, those of us who like any type of interlligent, educational, or thought provoking shows have to turn to cable. How sad!
I was utterly dismayed when I learned that Kings was being canceled, like many others here have said, I also watched the entire season on Hulu. I saw the commercials and thought the show looked vaguely interesting, but had no idea the plot line was a retelling of the Biblical King David. I came across it only a few weeks ago online and was hooked after the first episode. It is perhaps the best show I have seen on network television. I really do hope that HBO or another networks picks it up–I’ve never been so excited for a Season… Read more »
Consumer Report 2005 Auto Magazine article titled “U.S. autos narrow the gap”. An article just a couple years after GM tries to gain 2% of the market share. Both laughable then, and obviously laughable to everyone now… What’s the point? Hollywood is the next Detroit. They have no idea when they make the mark, miss the mark, or why anything works or doesn’t. It all doesn’t matter; sponsors are going to eventually find somewhere else to be loyal to when determining where to put their tons of advertising money. Broadcast TV is scrambling to always hit the grand slam without… Read more »
At least I’m glad that SOME people in this world enjoy/understand the talented and intricate production. Seriously, I can hardly believe that someone could watch an episode of Kings and NOT be in love with it or at the very LEAST enjoy it. I’ve read the other comments too… it’s great to see that there are others just as enraged and hurt by NBC’s actions. They are totally right: it was terribly publicized/promoted, it should have been on primetime, and other media besides T.V. should have been taken into ratings consideration. I feel so betrayed by the cancellation of this… Read more »
Kings is a an anti America show. If you are a communist , live under a KING or DICTATOR or live in a third world country and under a KING’s rule you will like kings. But in America and other freedom loving countries we do not want this type of rule. Maybe if NBC would write about what people want – they would get viewers. Here is an idea, a pro-america show! Wow what a concept. Not everyone hates america – and people do not want to watch a show about an alternate america where a king rules – we… Read more »
Great show! Unfortunately is was too intelligent for the average TV viewer. We watched every episode even though we knew it was going to end. Fantastic cast and exceptional writing.
If NBC is smart, they would take Kings and place it on their Universal TV channel on cable. I know they gambled on putting it on over-the-air TV, but someone in programing should have know that the amount of TV audiences that have have short attention span are growing. The TV audiences of today are overworked, overclocked, I-Need-Gratification-Now, generation. Kings is a show that would take an impatience audience too much to absorb. Thankfully there are still an audience that need quality programing if they are going to blow their money on a market that over-saturates itself with crap.
I think Bromstad under-estimates the intelligence of the viewer if she thinks Kings is a bit “high brow”. Its a delight to get away from the mind numbing reality shows that we are being bombarded with. Programs like Kings and Eleventh Hour are a breath of fresh air . Will have to see if “Day One” lives up to all the hype and is not just a remake of “V” with modern sfx.
It doesnt surprise me that Kings was cancelled I was looking forward to the series at the start of the season but Then It was placed on Saturday night… That is an automatic pass for me. I am NEVER home watching The tube on Saturday night. If the show were on Tuesdays or Thursdays or Even Sundays it would have survived. So sorry that NBC lost 48 Mil on its production. But its not the first time that improper scheduling has shot them in the foot. This was the sort of show I love, Like Rome & the Sopranos. only… Read more »
Love Kings. I can’t tell you how upset I am that it’s cancelled. I loved the modern take on a historical story. I was hooked that first episode somewhere in the middle of the war scene when I realized it was about the biblical story. I just thought it was so clever, I had to watch that episode all over again. I really appreciate that NBC took that risk with it, because even if it got cancelled, the 12 episodes we got were entirely worth it. The character development was strong and the plot was, for a well-known story, still… Read more »
It really is unfortunate that this show is now out of production. I just finished the season (on Hulu) and I was really looking forward to another season.
Hopefully a network like HBO will be brave enough to pick it up. This show easily trumps some of the ones they already air. Got my fingers crossed, but I think this show will never make it back up. Its really unfortunate, but Hollywood hasn’t been able to grasp a new idea in y ears. They can only think so far as to rehash old ideas that have already run their courses.
Loved Kings. Thought the story line was very relavant to todays world. Can’t figure out the $4,000,000 per episode tho. Ian was the only star on the show, and there were very few special effects. Too bad the networks keep going back to medical, crime and reality shows, At least the cable channels take a chance on new ideas, you watch, they will get most of the Emmys again this year.
This is too bad. One of the best shows on network television in several years. It could succeed on HBO perhaps. It is easier, these days, to appeal to the lowest common denominator audience, and throw on more reality shows. It is a business, after all. If it happened to be a good show, artistically presented and well acted, well, that would have been an accident anyway. Being based on a biblical story could have worked out had they advertised it more towards that angle in the red states.