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CANCELLATION ALERT: Law & Order: LA, The Event, Outsourced

With a flurry of renewals and pickups, NBC also had to do some cancelling and they officially axed freshman series Law & Order: LA, The Event, and Outsourced.

With a promising franchise name, Law & Order: LA debuted last fall to strong ratings - 10.6 million viewers and a 3.2 demo. While it faded some in the fall, NBC was not happy with how it was going and yanked it from the schedule to do an overhaul. After many months off, it returned in April to its lowest ratings and the news hasn't gotten better from there. After cancelling the mothership last spring, NBC will now be down to just one show in the franchise - the long-running Law & Order: SVU. Through 13 episodes, it has averaged 7.1 million viewers and a 1.9 in the demo.

Also cancelled was the most-promoted show for NBC last summer, the high concept thriller The Event. The heavy promotion worked at first as it premiered to 10.9 million viewers and a 3.6 in the demo. However, ratings dropped off dramatically from there as it was a serialized show and not a very well received one at that. A long hiatus did nothing to help but it was already going downhill before the hiatus. Hopefully the writers and producers saw the writing on the wall and gave the show a proper conclusion for the season finale. Though it's rumored to be shopped elsewhere, that will probably not come to fruition. Through 19 episodes, it has averaged just 5.6 million viewers and a 1.8 in the demo. Even those numbers are skewed by the powerful debut.

Finally the comedy Outsourced was cancelled. Though it was a niche show like many of NBC's Thursday comedies, it was not as well received as the other critical darlings on the night. It started decently enough airing after The Office but ratings were headed south and then the wheels fell off when it moved to 10:30pm as part of NBC's three hour comedy block. NBC picked up a ton of comedies and there was no room for this show, which was one of the hot pilots last year at this time. Not counting last night's season finale, it averaged 4.5 million viewers and a 2.1 in the demo.

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