‘Big Shots’ Shot Down
Rookie ABC Dramedy Yanked
Well, this can’t be good news for the cast of one new ABC show, especially considering the currently ongoing and unrelenting writers strike. The Alphabet Network has decided to pull the male-oriented freshman series Big Shots and replace it with reruns of the female-oriented freshman series Private Practice.
This actually sounds like smart news from a ratings perspective since the second show, already picked up for a full season in mid-October, has earned far better ratings. But, practicality would make savvy TV watchers assume that networks would prefer to hang on to any show that has original episodes left to air. As of now, Big Shots does—a total of five, in fact.
When Private Practice airs on Thursday December 13, 20, and 27 at 10pm EST, the medical drama will find itself paired with the popular series that spawned it, namely Grey’s Anatomy. Executives will surely be watching closely to see if the matchup that many fans of both series have been yearning for since the fall season began leads to a ratings bonanza, or at least a boost. If that happens, ABC will have a proven scheduling option to pursue in the future, while fans will get to say “We told you so.”
As for Big Shots, I’ve recorded every episode of the series aired thus far save the pilot (somehow I forgot that one, the most important episode by far—Duh!), but I haven’t watched more than ten minutes. As the strike progresses, maybe I’ll finally get around to catching up. Maybe it’s also folks like me that caused the low ratings… On second thought, no. It was probably mainly the poor reviews.
Big Shots photo courtesy of ABC
