Chances are you’ve heard of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. How could you not, with the immense amount of advertising promoting it, the fact that it was created by Joss Whedon, and, oh yeah, the ties it has within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For those who don’t know, that includes the following: the Iron Man films, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, and The Avengers. The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot had over 12 million viewers and the highest ratings in the United States for the first episode of a drama series since ABC’s V four years ago. But the question is, did you hear about the show that aired after Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Lucky 7? No?
Lucky 7 follows the lives of seven gas station employees in New York City who play the lottery every week in hopes of winning for their personal reasons. Once they win, they quickly discover that while money can solve problems, it can just as easily create new ones, such as…Well, I guess we’ll never know. Don’t feel too bad about not hearing about Lucky 7, because you’ll never hear about the show again. Lucky 7′s pilot premiere only had about 4 million people watching it, and the numbers for their second week dropped even farther. Even though the show is based on a popular British television show, The Syndicate, which is currently doing well, Lucky 7 was the first show of the Fall 2013-2014 television season to be canceled on October 4th.
Was the show really terrible enough to be axed? I guess we’ll never know. There’s always the unfortunate aspect that sometimes shows need a few episodes to find their footing in order to begin to build an audience. Pulling the rug out from under the show so early is always unfortunate for the people working on the show, but that’s when the business has to make tough decisions quickly. ABC believes that Lucky 7’s low ratings were caused by a lack of marketing, which resulted in a lack of interest, but if they blame their marketing, is it really the show’s fault for not attracting people? Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. already had the backing of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to promote the show, so why didn’t ABC bother to put more money behind their other shows? Did they believe that this show was destined to fail from the beginning?
Lucky 7 isn’t the only show to have been axed this season. Although the popular show Law and Order: SVU was the lead-in for the NBC’s Ironside, it wasn’t enough to save the show, which was canceled on October 18th. NBC had another loss in their freshman comedy series, Welcome to the Family, which had Parks and Recreation as a lead-in. NBC should consider themselves to be a a little luckier this season, for unlike last season with Do No Harm, they weren’t the first network to cancel a new show.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Fox’s Sleepy Hollow was the first show of the Fall 2013-2014 season to be renewed for a second season. This show had a lower rating than S.H.I.E.L.D., but its dedicated fans week after week must have been a clue to the network that they should keep Ichabod Crane’s flowing locks around for a little bit longer.
