Kings first premiered in mid-March. Its storyline is a modern re-telling of the biblical story of King David. It stars Ian McShane as King Silas, Chris Egan as David Shepherd. The cancellation follows the show’s move to Saturdays in a bid to boost ratings.
Kings Moved To NBC's Saturday Lineup
Kings filled a spot on NBC’s schedule Sunday’s at 8pm. Citing poor ratings, the network recently shifted the show to Saturdays at 8pm. In that timeslot the show was thought to be winner because other networks either reran episodes of their series shown during the week, or movies. In other words because NBC showed a new episode of Kings every Saturday, the network would win the night’s ratings war.
The other side of the argument; the side that turned out to be true was that moving the show to Saturdays was the network’s way of giving up on the show. The show drew an average of 4.5 million viewers to date, which put it in a tie for 128th place in the ratings war. Faithful viewers will get a chance to see the remaining episodes starting in June. In the only Saturday airing, the show brought in only 2.4 million viewers.
The show had originally been slated to occupy the Thursday at 10pm timeslot, previously held by NBC hit ER.
Kings Cost a Contributing Factor, NBC Gets New Executive
The show’s pilot cost $10 million (USD) to produce, and subsequent episodes have come in at around $4.5 million USD. The cost put Kings among the network’s more expensive shows to produce. According to Forbes magazine the insurance company Liberty Mutual did offer a $5 million USD sponsorship deal. The deal died, because instead of the usual product placement, the company wanted the right to review scripts in order to clear up dialogue.
NBC’s new head of Comedy and Dramatic Programming Angela Bromstad cancelled the show as one of her first acts after taking the job. She argued the struggling network needed to broaden its appeal and she doubted the high-concept drama about a modern day king wouldn’t do it, and so the show was cancelled. Reruns of Law & Order SVU are replacing Kings its Saturday timeslot. In its Sunday timeslot, the news magazine show: Dateline is being extended to two hours.
There is a remote possibility the show may get picked up by one of NBC’s other properties, the Sci-fi station. But it’s considered highly unlikely because of its low ratings. Kings only aired one Saturday before it was cancelled, so there’s no way to tell if it would have been a hit. Kings’ remaining episodes air June 13th-July 25th. Watch it while you can, it’s worth it.
