After a four week run, FOX says the honeymoon is over for David E. Kelly’s The Wedding Bells series.
The Wedding Bells follows the Bell sisters, Annie (KaDee Strickland), Jane (Teri Polo) and Sammy Bell (Sarah Jones), who inherited “The Wedding Palace” following their parents’ divorce. The staff also includes Jane’s husband and company COO Russell Hawkins (Benjamin King), photographer David Conlon (Michael Landes), and wedding singer Ralph Snow (Chris Williams).
The series debuted on March 7th on FOX following American Idol. Over 12.4 million watched the initial episode. That sounds impressive until you realize that the comedy lost almost 16 million from Idol. Once Bells started in its new Friday night timeslot, viewership quickly fell even further. The most recent episode attracted only 4.5 million.
Production was shut down yesterday following the completion of the seventh episode. Four episodes have aired thus far and FOX maintains that the remaining three will see the light of day. The Wedding Bells remains on the schedule this week but was already scheduled to be pre-empted next week (for an airing of the movie White Chicks). It’s unlikely that the series will return.
A spokesperson for FOX said, “While we’ve been pleased with the show creatively, and David’s writing was first-rate, (Bells) just didn’t secure the ratings we’d hoped for.” Stay tuned! 
WOW that’s all i have to say i understand that it went from 16 million to only and i say only 4.5 million watching but what about those 4.5 million we mean nothing to these networks….
let the show have a better night and time slot it is great…
Again comedy and good programming fails to get a fair chance. As other people have stated “white Chicks”!? How dumb do you have to be to work in programming for TV? Reality TV is cheap but then again you can only show it once. To the programmers and staff of all networks: You forgot that good comedy last forever, “I Love Lucy” is running every minute of every day some where on Earth and it is 50 years old and in B&W. So goes the chance to have a Summer season with good entertainment. Well they shot down “Twenty Good… Read more »
I am saddened by the cancellation of this show. I even tivo’d it when I knew that I would be out. If Fox won’t resurrect it, perhaps it can gain a stronger following on one of the cable channels. Additionally, 4 weeks is not enough to judge it by, many new shows take a while to catch on. AI was a great lead in, but the switch to Friday happened too soon.
Fox is making a big mistake by cancelling such a funny and entertaining show. David Kelly is one of the best and most creative writers in the business. Maybe a different night or time slot would show the true potential of this great show? There are plenty of shows that should be cancelled, but not this one!
This time slot for a great/new show like that was like saying, “lets knock David E. Kelly down a notch.” Fox set it up for the road it was on. Despite that, I have to say it was a fun show and the network should find a way to put the show back on, or at least Chris Williams on something of his own – he is hilarious.
I have very few show left to watch. I am a person that when I like a show I don’t want to watch another and wedding bells was the perfect show.
I can not believe that FOX has cancelled one of the best shows on television. All we have out there to watch is crime scenes. This show was a turn about for viewers. The time slot was not very good, but the show and actors were wonderful. I think they should reconsider and bring back the Wedding Belles. I had all my friends looking for the show, only to find out it had already been cancelled. What a disappointment this is. FOX …please bring it back.
I, too, am disappointed that the show was only given a 4-week attempt to pull in an audience. Changing the time slot did not help. But, I should not be surprised since Fox bounces House all over the place to accommodate two hours of AI which could be captured in about 30 minutes. I would hope Fox would reconsider or at least offer it to a cable network (i.e. USA). My boyfriend hates Grey’s Anatomy but this show he would watch with me.
I was telling my mother how nice it was to watch a good show again. Too much reality tv. Good actors, great story lines, funny! so annoying it’s about the $$ and the instant success. The bad tv that gets renewed every year amazes me! FOX should try to run it again over the summer when Idol is off the air. GIVE IT A SECOND CHANCE.
Personally, I got a kick out of this show. I think one of the reasons it did so poorly is because fox placed it on a Friday night time slot. How many viewers are going to watch on a Friday evening. Had fox aired this show another evening at an earlier time slot, viewership would have sky rocketed. It is clearly a shame because I truly enjoyed this show.
I did a web search to find out what happened to one of my new favorite shows, only to find it’s been cancelled. We’re very disappointed! It seems entertaining, wholesome programs get cancelled in favor of sex, violence, language, nudity, etc. This was fun, a good show, with interesting, well-developed characters, and a great story line. We saw almost no teaser advertising to promote interest in a new program — we happened on it by accident in the schedule — and it was almost obscure in the line-up! It’s my opinion that Fox did not give this program enough time… Read more »
I can’t believe that this new show was cancelled. I loved it. The same with the OC. My husband and I watched it faithfully also. Also the new show DRIVE was only on 2 shows and cancelled. Ticks me off.
I thought the show was cute. I love Heather
Tom & started to watch it because of her.
It was a cute show & I could not believe it was cancelled. You didn’t even give it a chance. Now I have nothing to watch on Friday.
bring it back. Bones is the only show you show that is any good.
Seriously.. why on earth would you pull such a clever, witty, and original show. It was different and so fun to watch. It was the one show my husband actually agreed to watch WITH me. It figures I get hooked on a tv show and it gets pulled. The reason the ratings weren’t that great is because it was on a Friday night. Try a different one! To be honest this was the only show I watched on FOX. And why did you air it one night and then have it play on another. That undoubtedly confused everyone. Please give… Read more »
Wow! I can’t beleive Fox would do this. The last one I saw made me cry and laugh. What are they thinking this is a great show for everyone and anyone. My brother who is a man’s man thinks this show is funny!