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"Just Shoot Me" Faces Firing Squad
Just Shoot Me's on the critical list after getting capped by NBC.
After four months on hiatus, the laffer returned to the tube Tuesday night versus Fox ratings behemoth American Idol. Predictably, it bombed--placing fifth in its time slot. As such, NBC has yanked the seven-season-old series from its schedule on the eve of the all-important May sweeps.
Now, although Peacock net programming execs say the sitcom's 13 remaining episodes have been postponed until this summer, Just Shoot Me has apparently just shot its wad. Its time slot has been replaced with specials for the upcoming sweeps month, including The Most Outrageous Game Show Moments airing May 6. Just Shoot Me's current contract expires at the end of this season.
That's got the show's creator and executive producer Steve Levitan fuming. He's accused NBC entertainment prez Jeff Zucker of reneging on a promise not to pull the series and blames the show's demise on NBC's alleged mis-scheduling and lack of promotion.
"They threw it back on after four months and barely promote it; what did they expect?" Levitan grouses in Variety. "The frustrating part is that Jeff [Zucker] called a meeting with the producers and the cast and promised that he will air these episodes, that he would not pull them. Then they toss us back on and pull us the next day."
"Where has all the dignity and integrity gone in this business," Levitan asks. (We're betting the industry collectively takes the fifth on that one.)
In the trades, Levitan, who's also an executive producer on Fox's Oliver Beene, suggests that NBC's treatment was a reflection of a larger trend in show biz that favors reality series over scripted fare. Just this week, NBC announced two new relationship-driven reality series, For Love or Money and Average Joe, that will bow this summer. In fact, close to a dozen reality series are expected to air on the Peacock between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
So where does that leave the David Spade-driven comedy? Still in front of the firing range. In back-to-back episodes Tuesday night, the series averaged just 4.9 million viewers. Not an auspicious return for a show that NBC had already pulled midseason to avoid being crushed by Idol. Then again, critics could point out that the net had offered the series up as a sacrificial lamb when it moved the show from Thursdays to Tuesday nights last fall.
Calls to NBC were not returned, but the network is reportedly so annoyed at Levitan for speaking out of turn that the producer claims he's been blacklisted by the network.
"It's very frustrating when this show has done very well in nine of its 11 time slots over the years for them to treat us so badly in the end," Levitan tells Variety. "And when we complain, they get indignant. I don't understand it."
A look at NBC's summer programming sked suggests that the net has little room for anything less than stellar scripted series. Along with newbies For Love or Money and Average Joe and comebacks of Meet My Folks, Dog Eat Dog and Crime & Punishment, NBC has a full slate of unscripted fare bowing this summer, including a reality version of Fame, the funnyman talent search Last Comic Standing, the Meet My Folks spinoff Who Wants to Marry My Dad, the marriage-minded Race to the Altar, a behind-the-scenes peek at The Restaurant, the dating game Perfect Partners and, finally, the muscle-laden Next Action Star.
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