The Chopping Block: NBC Cancels Reality TV Show After Three Episodes

To no surprise, NBC has cancelled its latest foray into reality television. The show that has been on the “chopping block” since it premiered has come to an end. The network series has cancelled The Chopping Block.

Based on an Australian reality series of the same name, The Chopping Block stars celebrated chef and restaurateur Marco Pierre White (from the UK’s Hell’s Kitchen). The British Michelin star chef splits eight newbie cooks and restaurateurs up into two teams of four couples each. Each side is given an empty restaurant space in the middle of Manhattan. Working together, they must plan, open, and operate a restaurant in the most competitive city in the world.

In some ways, the series is similar to FOX’s Hell’s Kitchen show — except that it didn’t attract nearly as many viewers. The March 11th premiere attracted an embarrassing number of viewers, just 3.77 million with a 1.4/4 rating/share in the 18-49 demographic. The following week, it dropped to 3.46 million and a 1.3/4. This week, Chopping Block fell much further, to just 2.58 million viewers and a 0.9/2 rating/share.

Chopping Block has been cancelled effective immediately. For the time being, NBC will fill the timeslot with repeats of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, installments that first aired on the network last year. Newer episodes of the drama are still scheduled to debut on April 29th.

The remaining five episodes of Chopping Block may air at some point in the future but it doesn’t look very likely.

UPDATE: Beginning April 1st, NBC started releasing a new episode online each Wednesday. While this is good news for those with high-speed Internet connections, this ensures that the network won’t be airing the episodes on broadcast television. To watch, go to hulu.com.