Studio 60 Won’t Return?

At least probably not at the same Monday time slot now occupied by The Black Donnellys, which is almost as critically acclaimed but doing a bit better in the ratings. After a month of extended hiatus and with nine episodes (so far) remaining on The Black Donnellys first run, there’s much speculation that Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip will either not return or, more likely, that the remaining episodes will air at a different time and day.

While I am adamant that Studio 60 is still one of the smartest, funniest and undoubtedly best hours on television, even I will admit that the show has gone a bit downhill since the first, oh, half of the season. In fact, for the most part, there have been few moments that have compared to the absolute electricity of the first episode’s opening. The fourth episode where the show inadvertently plagiarized material was just as exciting, but still. The characters are charming, genuinely interesting and the acting is spot on.

It’s an under appreciated show, which is what really caused it’s downfall, not only in the ratings but the writing. To get more people interested, I think the show’s writers felt they had to dumb it down and fill it with rushed romance plots rather than solid, behind-the-scenes-at-a-comedy-show drama.

Anyways, it was probably too good for mainstream America and probably would’ve had better success at HBO or Showtime, which is rather ironic since, during one episode, the president of the broadcasting company convinces a young writer that his creative, intelligent show could do just as well on national television than on cable. We all know better now, don’t we?

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to subscribe to my full feed RSS and follow me on Twitter!

del.icio.us Digg Reddit Netscape StumbleUpon