The Player: Cancelled Now? Gone for Good?

Tonight, NBC airs the ninth episode of their action drama The Player. Is this the last episode? Has the show been cancelled or will it be back with more episodes in 2016?

Set in Las Vegas, The Player follows a huge game in which world events are predicted, gambled upon and influenced by a shadowy elite. Controlling the game is the “The Pitt Boss,” a mysterious Mr. Johnson (Wesley Snipes). “The Dealer” is Cassandra (Charity Wakefield) and she recruits rogue FBI agent Alex Kane (Philip Winchester) as “The Player”. Alex is driven by the need to find out who killed his wife. Damon Gupton also stars.

Debuting on September 24th, The Player got off to a poor start in the ratings, averaging a 1.16 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 4.86 million viewers. The second episode’s numbers were even worse with a 0.95 in the demo and 4.58 million. The numbers have dwindled lower since then.

After the fifth episode, NBC cut The Player’s episode order down to just nine installments but kept the series on the air to finish out its run. The network (and fans) were likely hoping that the numbers would improve once CBS’ highly-rated Thursday night football concluded but it didn’t happen. The Player’s viewership actually dropped even lower.

NBC hasn’t officially cancelled The Player but then, networks rarely officially cancel any of their shows. One thing’s for sure, the network won’t be ordering any more episodes so tonight’s will end up being the defacto series finale. It’s game over for The Player.

They’ve also already committed the show’s timeslot to other programming. Starting January 7th, the Thursdays at 10pm timeslot will be taken over by new series Shades of Blue starring Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta.

What do you think? Have you been enjoying The Player TV series? Do you think it should have been cancelled or saved and given more time to prove itself?