Christian Slater can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to television. ABC has cancelled his low-rated Mind Games TV series. Only five of the 13 episodes have aired. No word on what will become of the rest.
Mind Games follows a pair of brothers (Slater and Steve Zahn) who use psychological manipulation to solve problems and to make people’s dreams come true. The rest of the cast includes Megalyn Echikunwoke, Wynn Everett, Gregory Marcel, Cedric Sanders, and Jaime Ray Newman.
Replacing Killer Women, Mind Games debuted in late February to a disappointing 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 3.58 million total viewers. As bad as that was, the second episode performed even wors, dropping nearly 40% in the demo. The numbers perked up a little after that but were overall still terrible.
For the immediate future, ABC will air reruns of Sunday night drama Resurrection. That show started strong but has been losing significant numbers of viewers each week and could use added exposure.
Starting April 15th, the third season of Celebrity Wife Swap will take over the Tuesdays at 10pm timeslot. The network has 13 episodes.
Mind Games marks the third disappointment for ABC in the later Tuesday night slot. Lucky 7 was pulled after two installments and Killer Women was dropped after six. The network cancelled Body of Proof last season due to low ratings but they now look nearly stellar in comparison.
What do you think? Do you think ABC should have cancelled Mind Games or did they wait too long? Why do you think it bombed?
Mind Games had an interesting and the show was canceled WAY too soon. My son and I were just saying how much we liked Mind Games because we had it on the DVR. I hope they at least air the remaining episodes over summer. The TV execs are losing it…
Are you serious ? !!!!!!!!!! This is the first show I’ve ever got in to the chemistry between zahn and slater was amazing .!!!!!! **** what a disappointment **** I’m so pissed off get it back on !
TOO BAD! The show never stood a chance up against two big time shows at same time slot. What were they thinking???? Then again, there were not most likely. Should be put in a time slot to give it a chance. I thought the show was good.
I never tuned in to “Mind Games”. Just based on the ads and trailers that I saw for it, I was pretty sure that this show wasn’t going to get much of an audience. It looks like I was right about that. Glad I didn’t waste my time watching the handful of episodes that got aired. So, ABC, explain to me again: what was so bad with the ratings for “Body of Proof”? You could have just renewed that show — and not wasted money or time on Mind Games, Lucky 7, or Killer Women — and your ratings for… Read more »
What makes ABC think people who didn’t watch Mind Games will watch Celebrity Wife Swap.
Why don’t you have the elimination round of Dancing with the Stars? It brought your TV stations great ratings. Or maybe give me a a job to sit in and view your programs before you air them.
If you want people to watch your show, you should also make it available on demand and through the apps and online.
I knew it wouldn’t make it from the previews that’s all I needed. Now would be the perfect time to bring back KILLER WOMEN !!!! Have you seen how many people want Killer Women back on by their comments. It was a great show and want it back !!!!
Replacing junk with worse junk is not a good idea! CWS is worse than MG, bad as MG was.
saw that coming from the first 15 minutes of the show.
Ugh, I liked this show, and think they cancelled it too soon. I hope that I get to se the remaining episodes.
i knew it would be cancelled. i stopped watching in the middle of the 2nd epi. i feel bad for christian slater tho, he deserves much better quality tv shows IMO. i think steve zahn’s character kinda ruined the show tho and made it intolerable to watch, at least he did that for me lol.
The same thing I said. Steve Zahn’s character was too much of crazy. I love Perception and McCormick’s character is so much easier to follow and to love. The first time I watched Mind Games, Zahn gave me a headache. lol. I expected this to be cancelled. I’m sorry for Slater though, and for the other actors who are now out of a job. The black actress (can’t remember her name) I liked her in The 4400. I hope she gets something else soon, as do the others. I’ve seen her in other shows (I think she was in 666… Read more »
Correction, the actress, Megalyn Echikunwoke, was not in 666 Park Avenue. She was in Made in Jersey.
@stephie59: yeah steve zahn was extremely erratic & he was bad at it! at first i thought that i could relate to steve’s character b/c of his ‘craziness’, but he actually ended up turning me off to his character lol… i also watch ‘perception’ and LOVE eric mccormick, he does pierce’s character & the ‘craziness’ really well so his show is much easier to watch! 🙂 actually, my fave parts of ‘perception’ are his ‘crazy’ scenes 🙂 i can relate to him lol. sadly, one of the women in ‘mind games,’ jaime ray newman(?) seems to be slightly cursed w/… Read more »
My only question is…why did it take five episodes to cancel it?
Ugh. Lucky 7 was pretty good, Mind games was watchable but for the excessive amount of crazy that Zahn was forced to show. The premise was good though.
I think the biggest problem for ABC is that no one knows what they’re showing. So many of their shows are crap that their ads reach only a small portion of the population. They should try advertising on cable channels a bit like NBC does.
Bring back Killer Women, I am not sure why you pulled it to begin with. Body of Proof, was also a great show. Bring them back!!!