NBC Dumps Betty White
After breaking Saturday Night Live ratings barriers for NBC, taking down CBS’ insufferable reality host Jeff Probst and snagging NBC a rare Emmy nom in that category, and clocking good numbers for the network with not one but two 90th birthday parties on their air, NBC has thanked Betty White by canceling her show Betty White’s Off Their Rockers. The network has opted not to pick up the reality series, in which old people punk young ones. When NBC unveiled the show in April 2012 coinciding with the network’s first 90th birthday party for White, the reality series clocked 12 million viewers and a 2.6 rating in the 18-49 demo, though it quickly settled in lower than that. In its second season, the show averaged about 5.3 million viewers and a 1.5. On Tuesday, the season finale was down 33% in the demo compared with the year season before, though up 25% from July 2′s series low.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the news comes the same day NBC said it has ordered eight episodes of Endemol USA‘s original hourlong game show Wall Of Fame. Endemol USA (Big Brother, Wipeout, Steve Harvey) will produce the new series. On Wall Of Fame, families of four win cash by correctly answering general-knowledge questions and then identifying which celebrity on a “wall of fame” also got the right answer. Endemol USA also produced game show Deal Or No Deal, which you’ll notice is not running on NBC anymore, having debuted in 2005 before sputtering out in 2008.
White’s always delivered for NBC. When she hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time during the 2010 May sweep, she handed the show its biggest audience since its election-year heights. When last year’s Primetime Emmy nominations were announced, for the first time since the reality competition host category was added to the awards competition Probst was mercifully not nominated — because White was, for Off Their Rockers. “We’re really proud of the show and the fact that the audience has responded as favorably as they have, and the interest we have already received from other networks is a testament to the show”, Chris Coelen, CEO of Rockers production house Kenetic Content, told Deadline. “We are thankful we had this experience at NBC”.
White will continue to deliver for Viacom-owned TV Land, where her Hot In Cleveland is about to hit its 100th episode later this season.
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