Prime Suspect: Cancelled Now?

Earlier this week, NBC announced their mid-season schedule and, not surprisingly, low-rated Prime Suspect wasn’t on it. Supposedly NBC execs hadn’t cancelled the show and would still be “considering their options” until all 13 episodes had aired.

Now comes word that production will be shutting down before the holiday. The cast and crew were reportedly informed of the season wrap on Monday afternoon, as NBC was announcing their schedule. It surely wasn’t a surprise. Mario finishing episode 12 now and will complete number 13 before closing up shop.

There won’t be any more episodes produced for this season, despite the fact that the network ordered another half dozen scripts. Though NBC isn’t officially saying that Prime Suspect is cancelled, the cast and crew have been told that there won’t be a second season.

Theoretically, Prime Suspect could be brought back next season but that would mean that the network would have to put a lot of money into promoting a show that had been off the air for nine months, a show that couldn’t muster strong ratings after a big launch. Thus far the show’s averaged a dismal 1.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic and just 4.97 million viewers.

There’s simply no reason for the network to spend any more resources on Prime Suspect. For whatever reason, most of the network just weren’t interest in this TV series.

What do you think? Are you sorry that Prime Suspect is being cancelled and won’t be back for a second season?