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That 1.0 adults 18-49 rating last night didn’t do flailing new NBC comedy Animal Practice any favors. The network just announced that Animal Practice will be replaced by Whitney, whose second season will premiere November 14. Animal Practice will remain on the air until then.
It has been a fast fall from grace for Animal Practice, whose pilot was previewed during NBC’s coverage of the Summer Olympics’ Closing Ceremony. But the comedy starring Justin Kirk and Crystal the monkey never found traction when it launched last month. Meanwhile, NBC signaled that it may have other plans in store for returning comedies Whitney and Community last week when it pushed back the shows’ scheduled Friday debut. Whitney and Guys With Kids are the only multi-camera comedies on NBC, and now they will run together. The move brings Whitney to the Wednesday 8 PM slot where it aired for the second half of last season. Will Community re-join NBC’s Thursday night next?
So far, NBC has given back-nine orders to freshman drama Revolution and comedies Go On and The New Normal, with Guys And Kids‘ and Chicago Fire‘s fates still TBD. (Guys With Kids has been a stronger ratings performer than Animal Practice, regularly building onto its lead-in.) Animal Practice underwent two changes since the pilot: the female lead was recast with JoAnna Garcia Swisher after the pilot and original showrunner Gail Lerner was replaced by Marco Pennette after Episode 3.
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garbage in, garbage out. people deserve better than this crap.
ugh, you made me laugh so hard. You are so true. Oh, my goodness !
ROFLOL!!!
Headline should have read — “NBC replaces worst show of this year with worst show of last year.”
You are so right. We do deserve better. THESE SHOWS ARE GEARED TO MY YOUNGEST GRANDCHILDREN. 7 and 9.
Replacing one injury with another injury…
Terrible, terrible move. Whitney is God awful and Animal Practice had fun potential.
Another misstep by this creatively defunct network.
Good choice, NBC.
I saw the preview during the Olympics and I wasn’t impressed.
Too bad really. I never saw AP but Justin Kirk is hysterical. He deserved better.
At least Animal Practice was bearable, but Whitney is unwatchable.
That is a shame, it was funny. Should have been a multi-cam.
why?
how does that make any sense? have you ever worked with animals?
Guys With Kids can make a multicam work with babies. I am sure they could do it with animals.
I see no reason it would have worked as a multi-cam. It was like when NBC had Teachers, it was a multi-cam but it had dramatic elements. You can’t mix comedy and drama on a multi-cam. Plus, I do think the animals would have made the live audience stuff very difficult. And Tyler Labine has even said that he finds working in front of an audience difficult and limiting, and he was one of the best parts of the show. Ironically, he was hysterical in Mad Love, but that is beside the point. Anyway, NBC can’t make a good multi-cam, I hope they never will, and I hope Whitney gets cancelled as soon as possible.
I think multi-cams are much better at mixing comedy and drama than single-cams, actually. See All in the Family.
Multi-cam shows can barely handle one animal in front of an audience. A place full of animals is like a show full of special effects – it needs to be single-cam because you’re just going to wind up shooting much of the show without an audience anyway.
It is my understanding that Animal Practice was discontinued due to animal cruelty. Some activist sites requested potentail viewers not to watch this show due to the inherent animal abuse involed in this series.
Never saw the show but I was hoping it would succeed. Justin Kirk is such a talent.
This sucks. Animal Practice had a so-so pilot but improved markedly in its second episode and was getting better every week. Why not flush that turd Guys With Kids instead?
Because Guys With Kids has built on Animal Practice’s lead in every single week.
I don’t get it — the monkey was the highest testing character for the fall season. If Mob Doctor geta canceled next, I’m giving up on network TV. Maybe I’ll try watching one of those new cable shows the sophisticated folks like…
please be a joke! if it is a joke, this is the funniest comment I’ve ever read on Deadline!
well done, sir!
So bummed for the monkey!
Yes, my comment was a joke. Believe me, I gave up on network TV a long time ago… I am hoping, however, that the monkey can pull a Bryan Cranston and get that “Breaking Bad”-like role he so rightfully deserves. That chimp has got some chops…
Animal Practice and Whitney can suck it! So what does this mean for Community?
@Kieran – Because Guys with Kids has better ratings. Why cancel a show that has semi-decent ratings and keep one that has horrible ratings?
Quality. Animal Practice was consistently better reviewed AND received than GWK. With time, its audience would eventually have come around, just like countless other tv classics, Cheers, Seinfeld. The opposite will likely be true with GWK, with time, its audience will fade away. ESPECIALLY with a terribly embarrassing show like Whitney for a lead-in. Animal Practice had real potential.
So the difference between semi-decent and horrible ratings is an 2 to 3 tenths of a percent? 1.4 is far from semi-decent, especially for an 8:30 time slot.
What’s the Chimp going to do now? It’s months until pilot season and so he’ll probably slip down the agency ladder until he’s working at a Big Top circus in Topeka. It’s going to be a few months until we see his mugshot on smokinggun.com for holding up a dry cleaner’s in Hapsburg, Tennessee. Diff’rent Strokes all over again. When will this madnes end!!!!
He’s still here in LA. Last night I saw him (her?) hooking on Santa Monica near Highland.
The chimp will go back to performing improv because it makes him feel famous and superior to the “losers” on Two And A Half Men.
I love monkeys!!!
I hope NBC has the chimp in some kind of holding deal. He’s wittier than Whitney and a better interviewer than Leno.
Given the general opinion of Whitney I’m surprised NBC didn’t at least try switching AP’s timeslot with Guys With Kids… But I’m not surprised about this move. I imagine Up All Night will be binned next (shame, it’s a good show) and Community slotted in on Thursday with another newbie once 30 Rock ends.
so who is going to get fired at NBC for allowing this to even make it to the air?
Tal?
Renate?
Simran?
Sleven?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! The only new show that made me laugh out loud- other than Mob Doctor, but that was for the wrong reason. Goodbye, Rizzo and all the great cast. You had a winner. Goodbye, NBC. Back to Simpsons reruns. Sniff.
Yes, replace crap with crap and try to pass it off as something other than crap.
This really is too bad. Animal Practice was getting funnier and funnier. NBC really mucked this one up. Should have been in a Friday time-slot with a lead-in. Guys With Kids is one of the worst shows I’ve seen in years. Whitney, if you will remember, was just as terrible. Maybe they canceled AP to put Crystal the monkey in charge of NBC scheduling.
‘The Middle’ is one of the best, and most Emmy-ignored, comedies on TV – so putting one piece of dung to replace another piece of dung against it shows that NBC has no answer.
I love Whitney. So happy it’s coming back soon!
I love that you kept this anonymous
Said no one.
Some pretty harsh comments people. How quickly or uninformed you are. and your jumping to conclusions way to early. Jerry Seinfeld BOMBED it’s first year and did not fair well in it’s 2nd year. It didn’t gain an audience until they re-worked it. Same with Whitney, it’s been re-tooled and is a much better, a much funnier show than it ever was last year. I was a hater until I was in a focus group and watched 2 Hysterical episodes. Even if you don’t like Whitney the comedian the show does have an incredible comedian in Chris D’elia. Give it 2 episodes than hate it if you like. My money is on Whitney (The Show) to pull in better ratings than last year and certainly better than animal Practice.
Funny how you neglect to mention that Seinfeld aired in summer after repeats.
Well, it looks like we found out Whitney Cummings’ user name on here…
Chris D’Elia is hilarious, but he can’t save the show. It’s like what people said about Peter Serafrancowicz on Running Wilde, although I thought Running Wilde was excellent. Whitney Cummings is the modern day Fran Drescher, possibly worse.
Now where do I send my spec??!?!?!