NBC is stopping production on new legal drama Outlaw while keeping the show on the air. Starting tomorrow, the freshman series will go on production hiatus while the network monitors closely its ratings performance. Eight episodes of Outlaw have been produced; 3 of them have already aired, with 5 more in the can. If there is a ratings uptick in the next 2 weeks, production on the show will be restarted. If not, it will become permanent.

The drama pilot starring Jimmy Smits as a Supreme Court justice with a gambling problem who leaves the bench to become a private attorney was a dark horse during the development process and surprised some when it landed a series order in May. It hails from Conan O'Brien's once NBC-based production company Conaco. NBC gave Outlaw a solid sampling after America's Got Talent but the series never took hold in its permanent Friday 10 PM time period where it was crushed by CBS' Blue Bloods, drawing a 1.1 demo ratings and 5 million viewers during premiere week and a 1.0 rating, 4.5 million last Friday. While several new NBC series have performed lower than expected, the network is yet to pull any series off the air though it had been mulling potential scheduling moves.

http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/

...were on, say, USA or Bravo cable network (both NBC/Universal owned)...there wouldn't be any problem with the number of viewers, because "5 million" is enough to ensure production of a full 13 week cycle of episodes. Not on a broadcast network, though. And I have a strong feeling NBC is settling a score with Conan O'Brien, for paying out all that "compensation" so he could exit the network "quietly", by their eventual cancellation of their commitment to schedule "his" series.

"OUTLAW" is a decent legal series, and Jimmy Smits is giving his all. But NBC probably won't. Too bad....


:read:

Another new show has bitten the dust: "Outlaw" is riding off into the sunset on NBC.

The network, which shut down production of the show last week, has pulled the low-rated low-rated legal drama starring Jimmy Smits from its Friday-night schedule. Starting this week, the show will air at 8 p.m. ET Saturdays through Nov. 13; after that, it's finished.

On Fridays, meanwhile, NBC will air the new unscripted series "School Pride" (which premieres this week) at 8 p.m. and a two-hour "Dateline" at 9.

"Outlaw" had a somewhat promising start for NBC this fall. The pilot drew better than 10 million viewers after the "America's Got Talent" finale on Sept. 15. Once it moved to Fridays, though, the audience plummeted: Its three Friday episodes averaged only 4.6 million same-day viewers.

Factoring in DVR viewing for the Sept. 24 episode (the only week for which those numbers are available), "Outlaw's" average climbs a bit to 5.1 million viewers, but that still trails CBS' "Blue Bloods" and ABC's "20/20." It averaged a meager 1.0 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic.

"Outlaw" becomes the third new series this season to get the ax, following FOX's "Lone Star" and ABC's "My Generation."

http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2010/10/outlaw-gets-a-death-sentence-from-nbc.html