'The Playboy Club' Cancelled

NEW YORK -- NBC's Playboy bunnies are being replaced by Brian Williams.

The network said Tuesday that its 1960s period piece drama "The Playboy Club" is being canceled, acting less than 24 hours after the new series drew only 3.5 million people for its third episode. It's the first cancellation of the new fall TV season.

Williams' new prime-time newsmagazine, "Rock Center," will take over the 10 p.m. Eastern time slot on Mondays, starting Halloween night. Reruns of the drama "Prime Suspect" will fill the hour for the next three weeks.

"The Playboy Club" started weak, with 5 million viewers for its first episode, and didn't improve.

Set in a Chicago club and evoking the era and attitude made fashionable by "Mad Men," the drama was hurt by strong competition. Both "Hawaii 5-0" on CBS and "Castle" on ABC are their networks' strongest 10 p.m. dramas, said Bill Gorman of the website TV By the Numbers. The viewership for "Castle" is up 8 percent over the first two weeks of last year, Nielsen said.

NBC's drama drew some mixed reviews and protests by activists who tried to encourage an advertiser boycott, deeming the material inappropriate for network television.

Mike Hale of The New York Times wrote that the series was "an unwieldy and mostly humdrum combination of mob tale and backstage musical."

In his pan, Steve Johnson of the Chicago Tribune harkened back to the magazine: "Like mean people or rainy Saturdays, the Playboy Club is, alas, a turn-off."

Frazier Moore of The Associated Press, however, called the show "a plush escape" and selected it one of his 10 new shows worth watching.

Williams, NBC's top news anchor, has been assembling talent in anticipation of a fall launch. "Rock Center" will feature Harry Smith and Kate Snow as correspondents, along with Meredith Vieira, Nancy Snyderman, Richard Engle, Matt Lauer and Ann Curry.

NBC had not given the show a time slot initially but promised one would become available when one of the new shows failed.

Comments

[NeonRose]

02:12 PM on 12/03/2011

Disappointed. Only new show I liked. It was entertaining and reflected the culture and changing social issues of that time. I am so tired of good shows getting canceled, especially when they haven't even had a chance to develop a fan base.

[billy goat]

11:53 PM on 11/14/2011

I loved the playboy club. It was as good as any cable show. I don't get it.

[burningviolin]

12:43 PM on 11/07/2011

I grew up with Playboy hidden under my mattress, so I tuned in. Within minutes I predicted that the show would be cancelled. It had a leaden pace, was predictable, and rife with stereotypes. Had I not watched it on DVR, I probably would not have gotten to the end. Pretty women cannot carry a show on their backs alone. There has to be a story. There has to be interesting speech. It wasn't about The Playboy Club after all. I feel sorry for all of the actors and other people who worked on the show. I can imagine their disappointment. It won't hurt them to have this episode in their portfolio though, it's not their failure. I wish them luck.

[lelalafaythe]

01:25 PM on 10/20/2011

The Playboy Club would have been a total hit if it aired on cable. A quality show is now lost, hopefully it will resurrect on cabel, it's way too good to be forgotten. Mystery, intrigue, humane compassion, love, jealousy, an all human experience graced by actors of depth and solid talent. A big thanks to Heff for trying, he offered the viewer a quality show and the viewer just didn't appreciate all of his extremely talented efforts. To those who didn't watch, "your bad,' you missed a good one.

[lelalafaythe]

01:12 PM on 10/20/2011

The Playboy Club was an outstanding mystery novel via the tube and should have aired on Cable where it would have found far greater success. Heff's Playboy Club was an absolute mystique for the time when it became famous on a global scale. As a baby boomer his show brought back deleriously happy memories of the era when holding a Playboy Club key was the ear-mark of social prestige and financial success embracing a whirl-wind of jet-setters and characters that helped shape society. Heff is a great man, a lover not a fighter, and I HOPE that he brings The Playboy Club to cable, I'll be the first to watch the show, it was directed in absolutely excellent taste with a professionalism that is rare. Sorry to see the show go, and Heff is a national asset.

[ChavelainDetroit]

02:27 PM on 10/18/2011

This is really messed up. I hope another station picks this up! I wonder do they think about the people who watch via computer...

[ronaldhonolulu]

12:49 AM on 10/18/2011

Too bad. I loved the female lead. (the bond bunny)

[DogTown]

08:12 PM on 10/15/2011

Great show, great plot, great story-lines, great cast...the acting was wonderful...bad time slot. NBC should have moved it to January after The Voice!

[Erika Patrick]

06:34 PM on 10/11/2011

I am so tired of watching a new show just to have it cancelled. I liked the Playboy club. It was fun. I thought it had a good story line and likeable charactors. But like so many new shows It was cancelled before it really got started. Hey networks not everyone likes reality shows,cooking and news programs.

[Wraithkelso]

10:16 AM on 10/12/2011

I agree, but I could have seen this coming because of the following:

A) NBC owns Syfy which cancelled their most popular series Eureka - for no reason at all.

B) A lot of people didn't give the show a chance just because it had the name Playboy involved, but my brother worded it best, its similar to Mad Men.

The thing that sucked is that, of all the networks, I returned to fall with Sanctuary (syfy), NCIS (cbs) and Community (nbc) that I would be watching again. And I cam in with open minds to EVERY new show... the only ones that kept me interested or entertained were Playboy Club (nbc) and Whitney (nbc), the jury is still out on Once Upon a Time (abc) because it doesn't premiere til later this month, and I might give the new Tim Allen show a chance as well.

I stand by it, NBC Universal never should have sold out to Comcast, all of their terrible decisions have been made after that buy out.

[tureia glover]

11:15 PM on 10/10/2011

I liked the show. I found it interesting, and fast paced. And pleasantly unpredictable. I always have the answers, but not with this show. NBC. NO one is going to watch the replacement. Grow a pair and tell people you will show what you want. Besides you wouldn't have aired it in the first place if the focus groups hated it.

[kushka53]

06:43 PM on 10/08/2011

NBC Execs have no balls--they should have stuck it out. I come from the Feminist Era and I loved this show, specifically because there was so much richness in the plot to be developed: civil rights, gay rights, women's rights, and it was clear that the writers were going to make that happen. It was a great incubator and had it survived would have taught, in a very clever way, all about how these movements happened. Eh, and now we have Brian Williams instead. Cheerful pablum.
Says it all about these times...

[Avajo]

07:07 PM on 10/16/2011

No balls. EXACTLY!! They never have. If I had a dime for every time they pi$$ed me off......

[jaimee hedlund]

06:33 PM on 10/08/2011

I loved the Playboy club, I won't be watching any of your other shows, you always blow it don'tcha???

[bblgumm13]

07:44 PM on 10/05/2011

Well that's not fair what about the 3 million people who do watch it. At least make it an internet show like some other's are doing.

[Vanessa1129]

10:27 AM on 10/05/2011

It's a numbers game.
I have seen some shows on TV that I think absolutely stink.
But as long as enough ppl are watching regardless of content or quality. It stays.
I can't speak on this show since I nevah tuned in.

[writeon1]

07:42 PM on 10/04/2011

I actually liked it. But I grew up in the 60's in Chicago so found the setting interesting. It wouldn't be on my top 5 list or anything but I thought it was entertaining. http://newsy1.wordpress.com