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It was introduced as a limited series and will stay that way. Greg Berlanti’s Political Animals won’t become a regular series for USA Network as originally envisioned. The mini was a modest performer, premiering to 3.8 million total viewers and averaging 3.2 million total viewers in Live+7 over its summer run. The ratings were not bad given that Political Animals aired with little support on Sunday — a night USA had not programmed for a while — but ultimately they weren’t strong enough to justify the show’s high cost. The political/family drama from Berlanti and Laurence Mark boasted a top-notch cast led by Sigourney Weaver, Carla Gugino, James Wolk and Ellen Burstyn.
“We are proud of Political Animals, our miniseries that attracted critical acclaim and impacted the cultural conversation this summer,” USA said in a statement. “It was a pleasure to work with Greg Berlanti and Laurence Mark and a powerful cast led by Sigourney Weaver. We look forward to collaborating again with these immensely talented creatives.” Meanwhile, Berlanti is busy with breakout CW hit Arrow, midseason CBS drama Golden Boy and several projects he has in development for next season.
Related: USA’s ‘Fairly Legal’ Cancelled, ‘Burn Notice’ Nears 13-Episode Seventh-Season Renewal
Political Animals was an experiment for USA, which went aggressively after the project in a bid to expand into more serious and acclaimed programming. In the end, the show was decided by ratings. Political Animals joins regular series Common Law and Fairly Legal, which were recently cancelled.
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Too bad, really enjoyed this short series!
Me too.
Wow, USA is CLEANING HOUSE this week!
Are you pitching to USA Tommy? That sounds like one of their titles!
Such a shame. I loved the show! I guess USA is not interested in awards after all… Their loss. Hope to see Ms. Weaver leading another TV series soon.
USA screwed up with this one.
They ran it like a regular series for 6 weeks and it got lost in the summer programming.
It wasted the star performance of Ms. Weaver.
USA should have run the 6 hours over three nights as a blockbuster miniseries like Hatfields & McCoys.
I agree, it was fun to watch, well-written, well-acted.
Too bad!
Many here said it launched too close to the summer, but USA was smart to try it. They’re trying different things and it got attention.
REALLY A SHAME!!! It was nice to have something different to watch on Sunday evening, for a change. Sounds like the Broadcast side of the business has gotten a hold of the cable side of the company and not allowing series to develop an audience. Its all about ratings and nothing else. Guess I’ll switch to another network Sunday evenings….
“impacted the cultural conversation this summer”
That’s rich.
Too bad. I thought the show was well-written and smart, with enough “soap opera” drama to keep everyone entertained as well. Could the show be transferred to another channel or is it gone for good?
I miss the old days when they’d give a good show a chance for a while and let its audience build. RIP Political Animals!
Really- I agree! This was the best show on USA-they didn’t even giver it a chance to pick up an audience-I won’t be tuning into anymore showes on USA!
USA made exactly the right call. Overacted, poorly-written West Wing ripoff. You could predict each line before it was said.
When the airwaves are saturated with political news and ads it was perhaps bad timing to air this show when it did. Would probably have done better once the political “season” itself is past. Should be re-considered for another shot later this year or next.
Airing against Breaking Bad, Newsroom, AND Olympics did no favors. Would have done better in a different time slot
Oh major bummer! Political Animals was so much better than most of the dreck on television. I watched every episode, talked about it lots, and liked the finale so much I watched it twice.
Great cast wasted on terrible writing.
They way USA is treating their established series and emphasizing reality stuff….the beginning of the end to their cable dominance.
Thank God. What a horrible show that NOBODY watched.
What a shame! Intelligent TV doesn’t get the chance it needs to become a success.
Hoping USA pick ups the pilot based on Elmore Leonaard short story to series. Look how well Elmore Leonard property FX Justified turned out. Right now the only thing I’m watching on their network is Burn Notice.
Graceland preview was pretty generic and I already stopped watching White Collar in the middle of season 3.
Arrow still a hit but it’s still losing some of it’s overall audience. Arrow only gets a season pass from me to get it’s creative issues in order.
Has greg berlanti ever made a good show? I just want to know other people’s opinions (and yes, I am absolutely jealous of his success and money!).
Short answer: no. Long answer: ‘good’ is definitely in the eye of the TV consumer. Berlanti is the king of schmaltz, but there are millions of schmaltz lovers.
Great cast….too bad.
As one of my friends said, “it was a really terrible ending to a miniseries, but a great ending to a first season.” Elaine Barrish for President!
Yes, it figures! This is why USA network is becoming a rerun station as any new interesting TV Shows are not pursued! Political Animals was a great series, it had it all: Drama, Comedy, Politics, Morals and Ethics. I thought the show did a great job of showcasing current issues with family, politics and culture in America. A show that wasn’t afraid to tackle ethical and moral issue, showing the citizens the tough decisions that our politicians must contend with on a daily basis. This show would have done wonders to repair the horrible reputation of politicians, even though it was well earned by many crooked elected officials of yore. If we keep emphasizing the terrible aspects of politicians we do so at the cost of our democracy. The show would have shined a brilliant light on the other 10% of politicians that dedicate their lives, sometimes detrimentally to their family. And personally, having Sigourney Weaver and Ciarán Hinds portray two very distinctive and totally different politician types, each with redeeming qualities added the right spice that may have help change the current stigmatism of American politics. So, go ahead USA network executives keep your current line-up of crap TV (Suits) we don’t want you competing with other networks that have the fortitude to tackle controversial real American issues.
My 2 cents, for what its worth.
ps: Not saying that Suits or my favorite White Collar shouldn’t have a place in the line-up but they are like potato chips or candy!? A continuous diet of junk food is not healthy, so please USA rethink your decision to cancel “Political Animals”! As this viewer needs at least 1 healthy well-fortified meal a week.
pss: Also, like the way the press was portrayed in this mini-series.
LET’S START A CRUSADE TO SAVE: POLITICAL ANIMALS
OR SELL TO ANOTHER NETWORK!
I agree with you…the best show on USA and on TV-how could they cancel it? The acting was phenomenal and the storylines were fantastic!I had it programmed into my TIVO-they should pitch it to another network. How do we start a campaign to bring it back?
Like all networks, they have to make tough decisions. Fairly & Political were big favorites of mine – but I don’t count. USA still has 2 of the best shows on TV – White Collar and Covert Affairs. While Fairly was a softer sell – I’m surprised at Political, given that it had decent #’s for a Sunday night. Perhaps they should have given it 1 more shot rather than start al over with a new unknown entity. USA – are ya listenin’ baby.