NBC Cancels ‘Undateable’, ‘Telenovela’, ‘Heartbeat’, ‘Crowded’ and ‘Game of Silence’

Undateable
Tyler Golden/NBC
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Now it’s NBC’s turn to start giving shows their pink slips ahead of upfront week. According to THR, the Peacock net has canceled Undateable, Telenovela, Heartbeat, Crowded and Game of Silence.

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The last of the three was pretty much a given; the drama about childhood friends who were keeping a dark secret got mediocre reviews and barely garnered 6 million viewers. Telenovela, starring Eva Longoria in a behind-the-scenes comedy about the cast and crew of, well, a telenovela, squandered a lot of the lead-in supplied to it by its fellow winter freshman show, Superstore, which got a second season a few months ago. Heartbeat and Crowded were spring shows that made barely a dent in the ratings.

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Undateable is another case entirely. It did well enough in the summer during its first season to get a second, but NBC then decided to move the show to Fridays, start it in the fall, and make every show live. The live shows had a great party feel to them, complete with live bands, interaction with the studio audience, and great engagement with fans on social media, but the ratings were miniscule, with just over 3 million per week tuning in. Still, it showed that in 2016, live, non-sketch TV can be done, so let’s hope Bill Lawrence and company get a chance to do it again.