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.
 Loading ... |
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.
This show is currently airing on HDNET on Wednesday nights if you are interested!
NBC you suck, who the hell would axe a show like this
THE BLACK DONNELLYS WAS A SHOW THAT HELD MY INTEREST. MUCH BETTER THEN THE REDICULOUS REALITY SHOWS THAT ARE ON TV TODAY. PLEASE SAVE THE BLACK DONNELLYS.
I really loved this show! NBC made a really bad move by cancelling it. They need to BRING IT BACK!!
The problem is there’s too many good shows on tv nowadays. Heroes, LOST, 24, Prison Break, The Black Donnellys… they’re all brilliant. For me, I think that BD was the best overall show… but it might not be for NBC. It probably would better suit a different network, but it’s unlikely it’ll get picked up… I’ve never seen that happen before (anyone care to point to some examples where an ongoing show swapped networks?).
You SUCK NBC….your news sucks, 99.9% of your shows suck because you who make the decisions ALL SUCK!!!!! If I were Howard Hughes I’d buy the damn station and fire all of you A**holes!! Redeem yourselves and put The Donnellys back on the air…oh, wait a minute…you won’t do that….because YOU SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
man… me and my wife loved the black donnellys. it was definitely filling my soprano void. I would love to see the show brought back. but NBC is obviously too stupid to know a good show when they see one. the show needs to come back, but I’d like to see it on HBO.
Bring this show back!!!!!
lol a show about menopause
but seriously, BD was one of the best shows ever. NBC is stupid for taking it off! brilliant plot, brilliant acting, BRILLIANT SHOW. what the hell is with the real wedding crashers? we’ll see how long that lasts…BRING BACK THE BLACK DONNELLYS
BRING IT BACK!!
Stupid move NBC!!! What next? A show about menopause?
A couple of weeks ago I discovered the show on nbc.com and watched every episode only to discover afterwards that the show was cancelled. Had I known, I wouldnt have bothered watching and getting invested in the characters. (Spoiler alert) Im dying to know what happend with Mrs. Donnelly, and what the hell Joey Ice Cream did to tick everyone off!
THAT IS JUST F**CKED UP THAT WAS A FANTASTIC SHOW F**CK NBC
HDNet is good news, and it is a good deal for them. But this does not leave NBC off the hook for butchering a masterpiece mid-season. The complete audacity of NBC to pull this sh*t is rediculous. Take a brilliant cast, brilliant director, and amazing writing — then replace it with a reality show? And they lose the studio60 (mathew perry fans) market, so they can’t function and decapitate themselves by pulling TBDs!?! The Black Donnellys is just evidence that network execs have no f**king idea how to run a network. The pilot episode of the show was better than… Read more »
well, fellow donnelly diehards our persistence could pay off, I hear HDnet will air the entire original show in June, let us hope there will be a season two!!