From
Indie Wire:
Shocked? Not me. Not at all. And if you read my thoughts on the
premiere episode, and those after, you really shouldn't be shocked
either.
The series just hasn't been quite the draw that NBC likely hoped it would be.
The debut of Ironside drew decent numbers - 6.8 million viewers and a 1.4 rating (adults 18-49) - thanks in part to the series that leads into it, Law & Order: SVU.
Ironside retained 99.7% of the total-viewer lead-in from SVU, during its season debut night.
That
retention didn't quite continue in successive weeks, however, as the
most recent episode, which aired on Wednesday, drew 4.8 million viewers
and a 1.0 rating. Those aren't necessarily terrible numbers... if you're
a cable TV network, that is. But when you're NBC, and you're in a
distant 3rd place behind CBS (9.45 million) and ABC (5.76 million) during the Wednesday 10pm hour (when Ironside airs), it's just not a good look.
Repeating
what I've said previously, this is a new series that I didn't think
would last more than 1 season, and expected that it might not even last
through the whole first season, given how anxious networks have become
when new shows aren't performing as strongly as hoped for - especially
when compared to the competition - and how quick they are to cancel said
shows.
Having watched all 3 episodes that did air, from my POV, there's really nothing all-that special about this Ironside reboot
that makes it stand out from all the other cop shows on TV currently,
and in recent years - other than the fact that the title character is
black, as played by Blair Underwood. And that's
just not quite enough, when you consider that it seems to be going for
something far more gritty, rough and tumble, compared to the 1960s
original that starred Raymond Burr, which it doesn't really
succeed at, in a cop/detective/crime-solving TV series climate that
includes much darker, more graphic, moodier material in the likes of Law & Order: SVU, the CSI franchise, and others.
NBC has unfortunately struck out in the new series department with black leads, over the last 3 or so seasons - remember Undercovers 3 years ago; Deception last season, and now we have Ironside.
Underwood did co-star in another NBC series that was canceled after its first season - remember The Event? Just like that action-adventure series, Ironside is now history.
Via press release, NBC has announced it will debut Dick Wolf’s Chicago P.D. (the spin-off of Chicago Fire) in Ironside's timeslot - at 10 pm on Wednesdays, starting on January 8.
In the meantime, over the next 2 months, replacing Ironside in that 10pm slot, for November and December, NBC will air a string of original programming, including new episodes of Dateline, Saturday Night Live holiday-themed specials, as well as holiday music specials starring Kelly Clarkson and Michael Buble.
Chicago P.D. will star Jason Beghe, Jon Seda, and Sophia Bush as Windy City cops. The show is a spinoff of NBC’s popular Tuesday night drama Chicago Fire, which continues to see significant ratings increases in its second season.
Blair Underwood's NBC reboot of 1960s/1970s crime drama series Ironside, co-starred, alongside Underwood, Spencer Grammer, Brent Sexton, Pablo Schreiber, Neal Bledsoe, and Kenneth Choi.
The series is written and exec produced by Michael Caleo (Rescue Me, The Sopranos), and exec produced by David Semel, Teri Weinberg, John Davis, and Jon Fox.
It's worth noting that, a year ago, Underwood signed what was then referred to as "a major development/talent holding deal" with NBC/Universal TV.
So expect that, under the above agreement, both sides will make another attempt, with another series, starring Underwood.
