Apologies, but I was deleting some scheduling releases from The CW on this 4th of July morning and I happened to notice that “Famous in 12” was pulled after five impressively low-rated Tuesday airings.
It appears that some of my media brethren noticed on Wednesday afternoon and a couple noticed on Thursday afternoon, but the news has been greeted with all of the excitement that you'd expect from the cancellation of a reality series averaging a hair over 500,000 viewers.
Actually, the pulling of “Famous in 12” came after a July 1 episode that averaged only 474,000 viewers and a 0.2 rating among adults 18-49. There had been rumors that a “Famous in 12” cancellation was coming after the June 24 episode drew 532,000 viewers, so I guess we know what the threshold was.
The CW will air repeats of “Arrow” on Tuesday for the foreseeable future.
“Famous in 12” was an infomercial for TMZ, featuring Harvey Levin and the rest of that site's publicity/media machine attempting to make an ordinary family famous in 12 weeks. Spoiler: It wasn't going to happen.
The show was something of an inversion of The CW's “H8r” formula, in which ordinary people were told that they were less important than celebrities TMZ had previously made famous. With that comparison, “Famous in 12” can hold its head up high, since “H8r” aired only four times. Of course, “H8r” drew 1.3 million viewers and a 0.6 key demo rating in its premiere, which would have earned “Famous in 12” a parade and a full summer of airings.
[Did I mostly write this post as an excuse to link to my review of “H8r”? Possibly.]
There have been some new programming successes this summer. “Night Shift” has already been renewed by NBC and “Taxi Brooklyn” has done steady numbers in its first two weeks. “Gang Related” hasn't been a hit for FOX, but it pretty much hit a number in its second week and it hasn't varied from that number for a month, which is an admirable consistency if nothing else.
We've also seen the limits to network patience, even in the low-rated summer months. Before The CW refused to tolerate audiences under 500,000, FOX canned “I Wanna Marry 'Harry'” after its numbers slipped to 991,000 and “Riot” after it drew 1.18 million.
Will you miss “Famous in 12”? Did you know “Famous in 12” existed?