Comedienne's Second TV Show Canceled This Year
'Red Widow' Gets The Axe
NBC confirms: Life is dead
by Kona Gallagher, posted May 4th 2009 4:40PM
While they haven't yet made an announcement about other on-the-bubble shows, including Medium, Law & Order, and of course, Chuck, NBC's Ben Silverman has confirmed that Life has indeed been canceled. Life is just the latest victim of the Writers' Strike curse: ABC's Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone, and Dirty Sexy Money are among some of the other series that had their freshman seasons interrupted by the strike that began in November of 07, and won't live to see a third season.
Other second season shows, including the aforementioned Chuck, along with ABC's Samantha Who? and FOX's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles are currently on the bubble. The CW's Gossip Girl is one of the few shows that premiered during the 07-08 season that is definitely going to make it to the 09-10 one.
The strike spooked the networks and advertisers, and we're obviously feeling the effects now, over a year after it ended. What it boils down to is a lot of great shows are suffering-- and Ben Silverman is a dick.
Chuck and Life are both strong shows stuck in crappy timeslots. Chuck is in the impossible Monday at 8 slot, up against House, The Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother, and Gossip Girl. Life, on the other hand, performed well enough on Friday nights that it took Lipstick Jungle's place when it tanked on Wednesdays. It did all right, but when Lost came up against it, Life didn't have a chance.
Life was one of my favorite shows on television. It had the comfort of a procedural, but kept you interested with Charlie Crews' over-arching mystery of who framed him, without being infuriating as Lost can often be. The acting and writing were both top notch, and well, Damian Lewis is super-hot.
In the end, I would bet that Chuck is going to come back, thanks in no small part to its rabid fan base. While a lot of you gave Isabelle hell for not including Life on her list of Ten shows that should be renewed, Life's fan base didn't quite mobilize in the way Chuck's did.
Perhaps if Damian Lewis made people some subs, Life might have survived. In the end though, while I still contend that Ben Silverman is, in fact, a dick, maybe the numbers just weren't there. Regardless, I'm ordering my fruit basket of mourning right now.
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