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UPDATED: We have the first cancellation of the 2010-2011 season. No big surprise here – Fox today pulled the plug on the critically praised new soap Lone Star after 2 low-rated airings. Starting next Monday, Lone Star will be replaced by procedural Lie to Me, which has been called to duty earlier than planned. Lie To Me‘s third season will launch next week in the Monday 9 PM slot, which the crime drama once occupied. Following Fox’s cancellation, 20th Century Fox TV decided to immediately cease production on the show, which was filming Episode 6. It is not clear what will happen with the 3 produced episodes that have not aired yet.
The writing was pretty much on the wall after the much-hyped Lone Star opened with a 1.3 rating in 18-49 last week. It got a reprieve but, instead of rebounding, it actually slipped from its disastrous premiere last night to a 1.0 rating, tied with the CW’s Gossip Girl in the 9 PM hour. That’s how, armed with strong reviews, solid cast and a big marketing campaign, Lone Star, became one of the biggest series misfires in recent TV memory. The consensus was that it was a series better suited for cable. But, since Lone Star was developed and budgeted as a broadcast series and in light of its quick demise on Fox without any devoted following, an afterlife for the series on cable appear extremely unlikely.
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It’s a shame really but it’s NOT a Fox show.
very sad, just finished the second episode. this would have been a great season.
Well…what can you expect I suppose on network television? Network television basically has appealed to the lowest common denominator for the past few years, and anything remotely intelligent does not last very long, because people don’t like to think after a long day at work, or what have you. Kings, anyone?
Bummer, it was pretty good. Don’t think I ever saw a single ad for it, though. Why even release the shit if that’s how you’re gonna be?
This just in… water is wet! Who didn’t see this coming???
Oh, snap!
Best show on television, shame. Adrianne Palicki is a movie star
I was writing the SAME thing. I think James Wolk & Adrianna Palicki will totally catapult. No one’s fault here but FOX marketing – They were sitting on a gold mine of amazing talent and writing – total FAIL on marketing’s part. Total Shame – but i’m not worried for those two.
Just because it’s good doesn’t mean it’s appealing. I know it’s easy to blame marketing 100% but the general public was just plain not interested.
Damn, I really loved this series. Far superior to The Debacle errr The Event on Nothing But Crap.
And yes, Adrianne is a star in the making.
Move it to FX or AMC! Would fit in well there and half those numbers would be good…
Lifetime or USA might be a better fit – but cable should welcome it. Perhaps not procedurally-enough for TNT…
Moving it to another network would work best like AMC, with a show like this having a complicated story it will be watered down and stale into a twenty or more episodes. In a AMC setup, the thirteen episodes would likely be easier to plan out. I prefer quality over quantity any day. Either-way I doubt anyone would be willing to take this load.
This was the best new show of the season. Everything else sucked (“The Event”). Any chance for a reprieve on cable?
Not shocking that it was canceled, or even that it was canceled after two airings. But to call it one of the biggest misfires in recent tv memory is awfully shortsighted and inaccurate. Shows, even critically acclaimed ones, miss every year. Don’t see what’s so special about Lone Star’s failure.
this is more of a cable show. maybe amc or tnt will swoop on in!
What a shame. The best pilot I’d seen in years. Couldn’t they run off the rest of the episodes on FX, see if it finds an audience there? Seems a better home for a such a complex, morally ambiguous show.
Adrianne Palicki is amazing, agreed. We’ll see her elsewhere soon enough I’m sure. Maybe DirecTV to the rescue for Lone Star?
SO SAD. The only thing on television worse than DWTS is Lie To Me. What a waste of a super talented cast.
really? ‘the only thing on television worse than dancing with the stars is lie to me’?
not ‘something smells funny at the kardashian residence’?
as a member of that ‘super talented’ and supposedly ‘wasted’ LTM cast i say thank you. oh and shut up.
hell yeah The Brendan Hines. Lie to me is awesome. Am super bummed about Lonestar. I remember when I first heard about it on this here website there was chatter of it not being a fox show. I actually applaud fox for taking the risk. Just like I applaud NBC for sticking with FNL all these years even though it doesn’t do well. and its just tv man, not saving lives or rocket science. Lets all chill out and be glad air conditioning was invented
Ooops, I’m sorry. The “super talented” cast I was referring to was the cast of Lonestar. I’m entitled to not like your show. Lie To Me seems to be doing well so… let me hate it I’m happy for you that you’re working!
LOL!!! Great come back, Brendan!! What an ignorant comment. Lie to Me is the BEST thing on TV!!!! Now, if Fox would just promote the hell out of Lie to Me like they did for LS, that’d be amazing. A pipe dream, I know, but amazing.
I’m not sorry. “Lie to Me” sucks. It’s a one-trick pony and the trick wore thin by episode 3. A human lie detector? That’s about as dramatic and interesting as a human smoke detector. Snore.
That was the most awesome thing I read today. Hey, I love your show, Brandon, and the DVR is permanently set to record it!
I’m happily waiting for Monday!
LOL! Brendan, you rule! Lie to me is the best show on television. Thank you for all your hard work! <3
Wow, what a comment! For this very reason, you are my hero Brendan!
just watched the pilot and 2nd episode last nite. (after reading many good reviews.)
the marketing campaign was very unappealing. all the billboards of a guy sleeping with two women mis-represented the show. i kept seeing those billboards and thinking, why would anyone want to watch this.
actually, could’ve been a great show if it found an audience. oh well. and actually the twist revealed at end of 2nd episode showed what the upcoming season would’ve been like. which would have been very interesting and actually, complex.
Thank you FOX for doing the smart thing of getting rid of this crazy show and giving us the new season of something way better, Lie to Me, sooner than expected!!!! Last night I tried watching this crazy show and I just couldn’t get into it. Thanks for doing the right thing, FOX!
Just let it die. Fox ruined it, the only way it would be worth a crap is a complete redo, starting with going back to the original pilot script, hiring different show runners, recasting, and reshooting…. this show is dead and with numbers like these, no network is going to try to bring it back
This is such a shame!! It was the best pilot I watched all season. Now we can look forward to a pilot season made up of “Hawaii 5-0: Miami,” and “Grey’s Anatomy: Los Angeles…” oh wait, that’s “Private Practice.”
What will FOX put on instead? Some awful Darnel reality show like: “Dancing with the Biggest Loser Stars?” All they have is “Ride-Along,” right? Well, they have no choice but to make that a hit!
Good show. Good writing. Great premise. Wrong Network.
Lone Star’s pilot was EXCELLENT… and if it was a movie, like The Grifters… or if this were a very special “Dateline,” maybe it could work. that’s a BIG maybe. but as a TV show? nope. ultimately there is nothing redeeming about this con artist father and son no matter how charming they can be.
it’s not like “The Sopranos” where you know this is a corrupt world. these two degenerates, who practice bigamy and fraud on innocent people, are working within a TV environment where the audience are people who are constantly being taken advantage of when they were just trying to get by.
no one wants to see anyone do well at what these guys do. and they don’t even do it for a greater good a-la Robin Hood or an emergency surgery for a little girl, but for themselves. you can’t root for them week after week. throw in the bad marketing and scheduling debut, it was Doomsday…
Well if you bothered paying attention to the last 5 minutes of the pilot, it was made clear what the point of the show would be about: Robert repaying the people he stole money from with a respectable job so he could exit his con peacefully.
The father character, I’ll give you, was pretty weak. From the first moment we saw him, I had a bad feeling. It’s not that David Keith’s a bad actor, not by a long shot. But I get why they did what they did with him so they could ultimately create a foil between the redemptive con – Robert – atoning for the sins of the father.
As for the audience being “people who are constantly being taken advantage of”, this is idiotic. Not like Sopranos, huh? Okay, they’re not identical, but it’s still the same. Audiences do root for the bad guy, but even in this case, he wasn’t a bad guy. And the audience that was watching this show is clearly not the one you’re imagining. I don’t really find ma and pa who just lost their 401ks and foreclosed on their house because of Bernie Madoff to be the natural targets for this how. You might, however, but that’s a problem with your warped logic.
“no one wants to see anyone do well at what these guys do. and they don’t even do it for a greater good…”
But once again, you’re wrong. That is precisely what the series was to be about. Of course, as a TV show, the whole point is to sustain itself for X number of seasons, so it’s not like they could just come forth and say “We did wrong. We are going to pay”. And really, how realistic is that except in a movie? Most people I know aren’t that self-flagellating. They try to make clean starts without sacrificing their entire lives. That was what Bob was doing, not just to keep the women he loved (which would obviously come to a head in a future plot point), not just to try and reform his father (another possible storyline), but also to give what he had been taking back.
I’m sorry but you just went about your analysis all wrong. I guess that’s what happens when you don’t have all the facts.
the difference is, Fox is a network that thrives on sponsor and advertising dollars, hence has to play to a larger, broader audience. Comparing that to the Sopranos and HBO which is not ad based but subscriber based is a completely idiot argument. Bottom line… Show is cancelled, why? cause no one watched it… soooo it would seem that YOUR facts are wrong.
I don’t think you read anything that I wrote except the part about the Sopranos. Please, if you can’t respond to someone’ ENTIRE argument, save yourself some dignity and just close out of the window. Or better yet, take some scissors, snip your power cord, throw the battery in the blender, and put two bullets in your brain. Or hang yourself, whatever. I don’t really care. Your lack of intelligence will do you in eventually, save yourself the pain.
Did I ever claim that comparing the show to the Sopranos was a perfect analogy? Did I make a contrary argument – that is, did I say this show should have been on Fox? Hell, did I say ANY fucking thing about the marketing, the demographics, or anything about this show at all…
No, and the absence of such comments should not be construed as my total agreement with how these things were planned out. This is called logic 101, faggot.
The very “FACT” – since you’re such an original bastard – of the matter is, just because something on broadcast has similar tones with something on basic or premium cable does not mean it can’t be done on broadcast. Once again, for a tard like you, I don’t expect you to understand that I’m not saying Lonestar couldn’t have worked as a cable show. The point, once again, so you might learn through repetition is simple: audiences love anti-heroes. Sopranos may have a darker tone, but the themes are the same. Do you know two other things that have the same themes? Hannah Montana and Spiderman. Does that make them the same goddamn thing, no.
Please, you’re such a goddamn retard that you’re not just embarrasing yourself, you’re embarrassing me as well. Scram.
Basic, you were making a valid argument until you started with the childish and offensive insults.
Why would anyone predict success for a show called Lone Star which has nothing to do with the John Sayles film?
Hahahahahahaha!!! Ahhhhh-hahahahahahahah!!!! There IS justice in the world.
Sayonara, white-bred crapola!
What’s white bread about it? It seems too “edgy” rather than what Broadcast TV seems to be, i.e. “comfort food.” Far more Rome or Sopranos than Modern Family or Big Bang.
I read the pilot and thought it was okay – but not stellar. I think the main problem was that there was no star in any of the leads roles. Wolk was very miscast – and, in fact, I thought was terribly mannered in the pilot episode. Coupled with the fact the we spent no time with the character (maybe 7 to 8 minutes) before we see his “other” life — you don’t really feel drawn into the story — the stakes seemed rather light. BUT, none of that matters anyway, because no one showed up to watch it. I am smack in the demo – and I am not sure I saw any ads about this series besides web banner ads.
Adrianne Palicki will rebound quickly. She’s great.
I sure hope this finds a new and better suited home as is. Really loved the two episodes.
I cant believe they could give it at least a few more weeks. I was looking forward to see Addie M. oh well,cant believe they are canceling Lone Star but not Good Guys, which sucks{in my opinion}
No matter how solid the production values, I don’t think women viewers want to see other women betrayed on screen.
Yeah, but they sure don’t mind reading about it in their romance novels. Oh and let’s kindly forget that the pilot tested very well with women. You might have a point there.