It looks like the axe has fallen for the Paul Haggis/Bobby Moresco drama The Black Donnellys. But does it have to be replaced by a reality show?
The Black Donnellys follows the story of four young Donnelly brothers — a clan of Catholic Irish-American siblings who are involved in organized crime in New York’s infamous Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. The story is told by unreliable narrator and Donnelly childhood friend named Joey “Ice Cream” while being incarcerated. The series stars Jonathan Tucker, Thomas Guiry, Olivia Wilde, Billy Lush, Michael Stahl-David, Kirk Acevedo and Keith Nobbs.
The series debuted on NBC on February 26, 2007 and took the place of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip on Monday nights. The series’ initial half hour did well (10 million) but viewership fell off significantly in the second half hour (6 million). The series’ initial hour ranked #50 for the week. The subsequent episodes lost viewers and attracted as few as 5.5 million.
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While many hoped that a Donnelly dismissal would mean the return of Studio 60, NBC has other plans. The Real Wedding Crashers will debut at 10pm on Monday nights beginning April 23rd, just in time for May sweeps. It seemed like the Crashers reality show would air on Sunday nights but, NBC execs like the series enough to give it the benefit of a post-Heroes debut.
Unless NBC pulls the series even earlier, only eight episodes of Donnellys will have aired on network TV. The series’ third episode, entitled “God is a Comedian Playing to an Audience Afraid to Laugh,” was considered too violent for network TV and was released as an NBC.com exclusive.
The network has ordered 13 episodes and its unknown at this point what will become of the remaining four segments. They may air over the summer or could be released as online exclusives.
Whether we get to see the rest or not, it looks unlikely the series will be back for a new season in the Fall. NBC will announce their Fall schedule next month. Stay tuned! 
UPDATE: NBC has now pulled Donnellys’ last scheduled episode due to low ratings. The unaired episodes will be made available on NBC.com, presumably on a weekly basis.
I’m so disappointed NBC, 1 of 4 shows I looked foward to seeing each week. You should’ve put it on an earlier time. Sell the rights to HBO or something, do something positive for a change instead of useless reality crap!
I tell you what NBC is going retarded. With all due respect to Mr. Zucker wtf is going on at NBC. The black donnellys is probably one of the greatest shows to air on NBC and they are only showing the new episodes online. Then then on mondays you have Thank god you are here. What the f**k is that reminds me of a rip off of whose line is it anyways. 30 Rock? wtf is that all about I watched 4 episodes and they werent funny at all and I laugh at anything but this show is not funny… Read more »
I’m so dissapointed that NBC decided to pull The Black Donnellys from the air. I feel like they didn’t even give the show a chance! It’s such a great show, and if NBC would just promote it correctly people would catch on to how spellbinding and brilliant it is. I hope NBC reconsiders and decided to bring The Black Donnellys back!
You made a mistake canceling The Black Donnellys, it was the best you had and what grabbed my attention to your network. Sorry to see my boys go…they were great!!!
I can not belive they pulled this wonderful show for Wedding Crashers…i hope that that show “crashes” so BD will be back on…
NBC gets one more of its horrable reality shows…
If you get rid of this show because you want to replace it with another simple minded reality show I’ll officially blackball you’re entire network. I will take my entire family, coworkers and who ever else I can take with me as well. I so much enjoy this show and to watch it get canceled and replaced by a reality show you really sank to an extreme low. I really hope you can find a way to make this show work out a little longer because this is absolutely the only show I have enjoyed watching besides Heros in the… Read more »
This is truly the biggest injustice in TV history. I truly feel sorry for the writers and actors for BD, they did an outstanding job and the loyal supporters here will not forget it. I can’t wait for this to kill NBC’s ratings, and they get their “just deserts.” I pray another network picks this genius show up. NBC just lost another viewer…Thanks for leaving all your Sh*t on the network NBC *applause*
who is running NBC…..just because Heroes is a hit, doesn’t make it a good lead in for all shows. Heroes demographic is not the same demo that would watch studio 60 or Black Donnelly. Sci-Fi and real world drama are not necessarily watched by the same people….two good shows down the drain due to poor scheduling….to bad.
I finally find something decent to watch and it gets cancelled for another stupid reality show ! Bring back The Black Donnellys!
What can we do to get the Black Donnely’s back? This was going to be my new show to watch.
i have a full time job and a part time job at night..at both places i tell them up front that i CAN NOT work monday nights..why they ask..because thats when hero’s and Black Donnely’s come on and i will be home to watch them..hero’s isnt back yet and they will probably be ending it soon and then they take off black donnely’s…now there is nothing to watch on tv..i have satalitte and now all its good for is to take longer to flip through and see there is nothing on but idiotic reality shows..that are not very realistic in… Read more »
oh yeah just what I want to see, a reality show based on a utterly moronic and juvenile movie… come on you stupid execs, just because your moronic daughter watched some stupid movie and thought it was funny, your gonna pull a show that was actually becoming very likeable?
if it weren’t for Heros your stupid network would be lost in the muck.
oh well, back to the cable channels… at least HGTV has something actually interesting in their “reality” shows.
this is unreal you gave a show to watch and we did and now you take it away right in the middle nbc you oue your viewers at least the last of it abc needs to kick you all the way out your realiy shows are so boreing that its not worth turning my tv on to waste my power bring back the black donnellys
ill never watch nbc again
I’m so incredibly disappointed. This is by far the best show since The Soprano’s…this sucks! NBC is obviously off track with this round of cancellations. I’ll definitely consider changing networks completely.