UPDATE: I hear MRC now has been asked to consider Moonlight for mid-season. This is such a shot in the dark it’s barely worth posting. But I’m posting nonetheless. I’ve also been told that CBS continues to hold an option on the star of the show, Alex O’Loughlin, and that he’s in demand for other projects.

…I just heard it’s a no-go for Media Rights Capital, which is programming Sunday’s two-hour block for the CW, to pick up Moonlight. So it’s dead, gone, six feet under. The cancelled CBS show was officially offered to MRC yesterday. (It was also offered to others, but the people behind the show thought MRC was their best shot.) And there was enough of a chance of a pick-up that Warner Bros television took the unusual step of agreeing to delay its order yesterday to strike the Moonlightsets until Friday to see what happened. And a lot of lobbying and arm-twisting has gone down since then. However, first thing this morning, MRC officially passed. The reason I’m told is that MRC, rightly or wrongly, is committed to looking for fresh material, not recycled. (MRC has already semi-announced its four original shows for CW’s Sunday time slots…) But in my opinion, it’s a dumb move by MRC. Not only would Moonlight‘s ratings be a huge improvement over anything now appearing on the CW, but the company could take advantage of the awareness already built up thanks to CBS’s heavy (in other words, expensive) promotion of the show throughout this past TV season. At a time in the TV biz when it’s so hard to market new shows, that’s a big plus. A big minus, however, is the tough deal that WBTV would drive, and that’s what sunk the show at CBS, too. In the end, like all things Hollywood, it’s about business.

  1. ‘Moonlight’ To CW?
  2. ‘Moonlight’ Cancelled
  3. ‘Moonlight’ Not On CBS Fall Schedule But Not Dead

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.

Get the latest Industry news sent straight to your Wall.