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.
NBC sucks.
How could they do this!?!?! I mean sure, there are some things that could have been done different, Jenny could have slept with less people, Jimmy could have a little common sense, Tommy could take his shirt off again… whatever. But it needs a chance!
reality tv sucks!! and its not even reality anyways because the producers cut or edit parts of it to make it funnier..why can’t they just move The Donnellys to another time instead of having back to back Deal or No Deal repeats and now they put “Thank God Were Here” its stupid why don’t they put fresh faces up like The Donnellys instead of washed out comedians..NBC is a sell out and unless they bring The Donnellys back i have no need for that unreliable channel.
NBC is sucks!!!! and is making themselves worse by replacing them with more regular tv crap, the wedding crashers!
Here’s what I wrote to NBC: “Not that this little message will matter to anyone, but I just thought I’d say that I can’t believe NBC is pulling The Black Donnellys from the lineup. This show is fantastic, and has hardly seen the light of day! Instead, I guess it’ll be replaced by more mindless “reality” TV (“Wedding Crashers”) or some sort of novelty show featuring B and C list celebrities (“Thank God You’re Here) doing improv. Wow. NBC has really dropped the ball here.” Yeah, it won’t mean a damn thing, but I had to do it. NBC execs… Read more »
Why is it that every time a good show comes along it seems necessary to cancel it and have it replaced with crap. It’s truly a shame when shows like The Black Donnelly’s get canceled because the average viewer is to intellectually inept to comprehend and enjoy the story. We’ve seen it with Arrested Development and now this. Pathetic , truly a disgrace, I hope all of those people who will watch whatever treble “reality” drama is happy with their joke of a life.
Yours truly a Canadian viewer
The reality shows on TV are so far from reality it’s pathetic. The Black Donnellys is the best thing that has come to TV in what seems to be forever. Pulling it right out from under us is ridiculous. Does NBC think followers of The Black Donnellys will watch the show they are planning to put in it’s place?? I KNOW I WILL TURN NBC OFF. IF I CAN’T WATCH THE BLACK DONNELLYS – I WON’T WATCH NBC. My family and all of our friends (and I’m sure most fans of The Black Donnellys) will not be tuning into NBC… Read more »
I thnk it’s great!! I hope they replace it with more reality TV sh*t so I have an excuse to go out on Monday’s, Get drunk and not watch TV…f**k NBC
I have a few thoughts on this bullsh*t. Firstly I don’t post comments, but I have no choice since I was looking for my favorite show this evening and I found it was cancelled. F**K NBC, who decides to cancel the best show this network has aired, who ever you are you executive deush bag, you are an idiot. Thanks for ruining my monday night a**hole
This is so sad. What a great show and a great concept. It’s too bad this wasn’t on HBO; they’d be calling it the next Sopranos. Hopefully NBC will realize it made a huge mistake. The only thing we can do is watch every on-line episode in masse and show them this show does have a loyal audience.
i hope this is a joke…because that is the best show that has aired since god knows when!! i am thoroughly disappointed…”the wedding crashers” reality show? what a joke!! nbc has a recent habit of canceling great shows…how unfortunate!
Just like another person wrote. We only watch Heroes and The Black Donnellys on NBC. There are so few things to watch on local tv as it is. My son and I were extremely disappointed. Please let someone else have the show. My son said, “NBC messes up TV programing as bad as Sony online entertainment messes up MMO’s”.
The hell with NBC. I will never watch NBC again in my house. I don’t care what they put on. Who the HEll is doing the programming up there? What age group are they trying to reach? They took a great show off like the Black Donnellys for that low level canned crap “thank God you’re here”. No, thank god I have a remote and I can still use it. Good bye NBC and I will surely tell everyone I know how I feel.
Wedding crashers…another reality tv show.. come on! give me a break! What has happened to today’s society and being able to think above and beyond about certain tv shows, like the Black Donnellys. Instead, now a days people sit there on the couch, intoxicated by their ignorant and mindless attitudes and watch shows where they simply do not have to “think.”
I’m disgusted.
No one wants to watch this stupid reality show. The Black Donnelly’s always had you guessing. I felt like wearing a suit around town and wacking someone. Very seldomly I watch a show and keep watching it. NBC wanted better rating, but I never once saw a commercial.
Loved the show. Long live TBD