The first casualty of the 2011 Fall television season has been announced! Members of the Parents Television Council should be happy.
“The Playboy Club” has been cancelled, NBC announced today. The show will be replaced by Brian Williams’ newsmagazine show, “Rock Center” beginning October 31. Until “Rock Central” airs, however, “Prime Suspect” repeats will air in “The Playboy Club”‘s timeslot.
Even though the series was actually finally starting to find a groove, the show was cancelled due to its abysmal ratings: its premiere on September 20 only garnered 5 million viewers and a 1.6 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The second episode garnered less ratings-3.8 million-and a 1.3 in the demographic, and the third episode garnered even less viewers and a lower rating-3.2 million and a 1.2 rating.
The reason I say that the PTC should be happy is because they were against the show from the start. The organization called for a boycott of the show and wanted sponsors to pull their ads from the timeslot. The president of the organization said the show was a “degrading and sexualizing program” and also called it a “commericial disaster.” Seven advertisers did pull their ads from the show as well.
Personally, I think that while “The Playboy Club” got a slow start, the show does have merit and a good story was developing. Perhaps, as a lot of commenters have said on various websites, if the show moved to a network like HBO or Showtime, the show could flourish, since there could be more added to the show that couldn’t be added while the show was on a network like NBC.
What do you think? Give your opinions in the comments section below.
Wow… was really getting into this show. Guess I was one of the very few that watched it. Don’t get what they were saying about it being over-sexualised though. Sure it is about the Playboy Club as the name would suggest… but if you dont know what that would entail then you shouldn’t be watching it anyway.
When you see the sex in shows such as Mad Men, Game of Thrones and Spartacus… it’s ridiculous to say that this is over the top. It’s such a shame as the show had a lot of merit.
Yeah, I really don’t understand why “The Playboy Club” got the rep as a salacious show when it didn’t really show anything.
SERIOUSLY!!! I was sooo getting into “Playboy Club”
Loved the characters & story line was getting good!!
Awwwww…. I’m so bummed:( As for it being degrading…
it’s back in the 60’s?? Thought they did a great job making it
real for that era:( This sux!!
WOW! finally something good on TV and they go and cancel it. I was just getting into the plot……. I am very very disappointed.
Tony
@Tony, @Caroyln, @ Ian–I’m glad you guys liked the article! Believe it or not, at first I didn’t like the show, but by the third episode I really liked it, so I’m really sad to see “The Playboy Club” gone.