19 October 2006

Is Studio 60 doomed for the cancel bin?

It seems almost certain that NBC will eventually cancel Aaron Sorkin's dramedy, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Ratings continue to erode, as both CBS' CSI: Miami and ABC's What About Brian are easily beating the show.

As a matter of fact, NBC will air a new episode of Friday Night Lights on Monday, testing the waters to see if that show -also suffering from low ratings, but seemly someone at the Peacock network loves this show -can get a higher rating against the above said counter programs and ESPN's Monday Night Football.

One can guess that if the show does better, you can say bye-bye to Studio 60.

The sad part is, the Sorkin show is thousands times better than CSI: Miami or the anemic What About Brian. True, there are way too many serialized shows on TV this season, and maybe the Neilson American's are picking and choosing this season, but still.

The biggest issue here, I think, is American's unwillingness to understand satire. Studio 60, for all its a-show-within-a-show format, is really a satire, mixed with drama.

But, here in America, where Two and Half Men is considered funny, and where a show like Scrubs is treated like a red-headed stepchild, they need the obvious joke, the fart and toilet humor. Smart humor is treated as almost anti-American.

Studio 60 deserves to be saved.

Get rid of something else, say ER?

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