Most people wouldn’t consider May to be an especially spooky month—but, then, most people aren’t the showrunners on network scripted TV shows trapped on the proverbial ratings bubble, who know that the turning of the seasons, and the approaching rush of network upfronts, means the axe may soon be coming down. And that, dear readers, may be considered your gentle walk-up to our latest visit to the Friday Night TV Murder Pile, that haunted and damned patch of conceptual real estate where underperforming TV shows go to die, having been dumped there by TV executives excited to have a light to-do list waiting for them when they get back to the office on Monday morning.
This week’s killer: NBC, which (per THR) has just stuck a fork in medical drama Brilliant Minds and cheerleading comedy Stumble. The former—based off the works of The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat neurologist Oliver Sacks, and starring Zachary Quinto as its resident Sacks stand-in—is still technically in the midst of its second season. But that was mostly because NBC decided it didn’t want to gum up its post-Olympics scheduling with the show, the lowest-rated drama on the network; it’ll instead burn off its final episodes over the summer.
Stumble, meanwhile, is dead after just one season. Created by Jeff and Liz Astrof, the series followed Jenn Lyon as a junior college cheer coach, married to a football coach played by Taran Killam. (Our own, fairly positive write-up of the series noted that the Friday Night Lights parallels, channeled through a more absurd mockumentary setup, probably weren’t unintentional.) Although it got pretty good reviews all-around, the show struggled to make an impact on ratings, and was reportedly one of NBC’s lowest overall performers of the season.
As for future potential occupants of The Pile, they’re lurking out there, presumably feeling pretty skittish right now. THR notes that NBC has three shows still waiting to hear about their prognoses at the moment: The Law & Order revival, two-season procedural The Hunting Party, and freshman comedy effort The Fall And Rise Of Reggie Dinkins.
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