The TV Zone

I, for one, am inconsolable over the cancellation of the first (scripted) show of the new season - that being (what else?) "Viva Laughlin." It went down in flames only a couple of hours ago, after CBS execs woke up on the west coast and wailed, in unison, "what in God's name were we thinking?" Variety broke the "Viva (Not) Laughlin" story on its website just a little while ago.

Inconsolable only because the mind reels over the possibilities of where this show would have headed had it survived. I mean, just imagine. Hugh Jackman performed in 75 of the silliest seconds on network TV in years when he sang "Sympathy for the Devil," and then that gloriously silly sequence was upstaged just minutes later when Melanie Griffith - in the role of Bunny Baxter - sang (and danced) to Blondie's prehistoric hit, "One Way or Another."
Television like this comes along but once a decade, if that, and now it's over. So, inconsolable.

Variety reports that the singing (or lip-syncing) stopped forever when CBS checked out this morning's ratings after last night's telecast. It scored a 1.2 rating among young adult viewers, and yes, that number is as bad as it looks.