Cancellation Watch Breaking News: NBC Cancels Heroes will Replace it with The Cape
By John J. Joex
I’ve been predicting it all season long and many weary fans have been begging for it to happen and now finally NBC’s ailing superhero franchise will get the boot, though it may still get a wrap up of sorts. Word went out yesterday that the peacock network has officially decided to cut ties with what once looked like such a promising franchise. Heroes started out its first season as a ratings darling and won the honor as one of the 2006-7 season’s top water-cooler shows. However, the creative team could not recapture the magic of the show’s first year in subsequent seasons leading to a steady attrition of viewers. The numbers it pulled in the 2008-9 season would have gotten it cancelled on any other network, but seeing as NBC was struggling in fourth place by that time, they kept it alive. But the decline continued this year with viewership sinking below the five million point by the time the series finished up its fourth season episodes. Still, NBC considered keeping it around for one more year, but ultimately decided to let it rest. They are still talking about a two to four hour event that could air at mid-season to provide a final wrap up for the series seeing as they left viewers hanging at the end of this season. That’s actually the suggestion I made previously which shows that NBC execs must be scanning this site for ideas on scheduling! (Okay, perhaps not and I had nothing to do with the Leno debacle!)
The network has not given up on superheroes, though, as they have picked up the series The Cape which will star David Lyons and Summer Glau. Following is the official description of the show:
“The Cape” is a one-hour drama series starring David Lyons (“ER”) as Vince Faraday, an honest cop on a corrupt police force, who finds himself framed for a series of murders and presumed dead. He is forced into hiding, leaving behind his wife, Dana (Jennifer Ferrin, “Life on Mars”) and son, Trip (Ryan Wynott, “Flash Forward”). Fueled by a desire to reunite with his family and to battle the criminal forces that have overtaken Palm City, Faraday becomes “The Cape” his son’s favorite comic book superhero — and takes the law into his own hands. Rounding out the cast are James Frain (“The Tudors”) as billionaire Peter Fleming – The Cape’s nemesis – who moonlights as the twisted killer: Chess; Keith David (“Death at a Funeral”) as Max Malini, the ringleader of a circus gang of bank robbers who mentors Vince Faraday and trains him to be The Cape; Summer Glau (“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”) as Orwell, an investigative blogger who wages war on crime and corruption in Palm City; and Dorian Missick (“Six Degrees”) as Marty Voyt, a former police detective and friend to Faraday.
Date: May 15, 2010
Categories: Cancellation Watch, John J. Joex
