Anchorwoman

Anchorwoman, FOX's ill-conceived reality series about a ex-beauty queen/WWE diva moving to small-town Texas to become an anchorwoman, has been canceled after only one night on the air.  The show debuted Wednesday to a paltry 2.7 million viewers, placing it 4th in its time slot by a wide margin  This was enough for FOX to pull the plug.  This is relatively unprecedented, seeing as networks typically give new shows at least a couple of weeks on the air before killing it.  Technically, Anchorwoman did air two separate half-hour episodes of their show, but they might have well been one.  The remaining seven episodes can be seen on FOX.com.

I always assume something fishy is up when the networks pull a show quickly, especially after one episode.  Don't you need to give a show you've pumped all this money into a chance to find its audience?  Why was FOX so certain that Anchorwoman would not pick up some steady word-of-mouth over the next week?  How could they be so sure?  Well, clearly, FOX felt that Anchorwoman was unsellable, and while this may be true, is it really going to get better ratings over the next month than the deluge of repeats FOX will be showing in its place?  It doesn't make much sense to me.

I watched the episodes on Wednesday and the show actually wasn't all that bad.  Really.  However, I wonder if there may be a more sinister reason Anchorwoman was yanked from the air so quickly: complaints from local FOX affiliates over their portrayal of local news.  You see, Anchorwoman made the local news look like the ridiculous and unnecessary enterprise that it is.  FOX affiliates nationwide could not have been pleased with their portrayal.  Just a theory.

Goodbye, Anchorwoman Lauren Jones.  You will be missed.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior WriterSource: Yahoo
(Image Courtesy of FOX)