It’s never a good sign when you’re a TV show and your original episodes and your repeats are attracting almost the same [negligible] ratings.
It’s never a good sign when your stars are rushing off to take leads on new pilots.
And it’s never a good sign when your network shuffles your second-to-last original episode off to Saturday night and gives your normal time period to a clip show.
Welcome to the world of ABC’s “No Ordinary Family,” which continues to face a slew of indignities on the path to seemingly inevitable cancellation in May. [On the list of “bad signs” we didn’t even mention what comes of adding Eric Balfour in a key supporting role.]
ABC announced on Friday (March 18), buried in a scheduling release, that “No Ordinary Family” will air its regularly scheduled episode this Tuesday night, followed by a way-out-of-timeslot airing at 10 p.m. on Saturday, March 26, following a reairing of the season premiere of “Dancing with the Stars.” Then on March 29, “No Ordinary Family” will be preempted for a “Dancing with the Stars” special titled ‘The Season So Far,” though since “the season so far’ will have equalled two episodes, it might as well be titled “scheduling filler.”
“No Ordinary Family” will then return on April 5 for its season finale, semi-ironically titled “No Ordinary Beginning.” The following week, ABC will premiere the new season of “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution,” an Emmy-winning show that did sub-“NOF” ratings when it aired on Friday last year.
The official fate of “No Ordinary Family” will not be revealed until upfronts in May. Meanwhile, stars Michael Chiklis and Julie Benz have directed their attentions to pilots on CBS.
Stay tuned…