CANCELLATION ALERT: Go On, The New Normal, Smash, Rock Center with Brian Williams

NBC made four more cancellations today as freshmen Go On and The New Normal and sophomores Smash and Rock Center with Brian Williams joined the cancellation heap.

Go On and The New Normal were NBC's most highly touted freshmen comedies heading into the season. Matthew Perry's Go On was given a prime premiere slot after a night of the Olympics and it debuted to big numbers that night. When it aired in the fall, it was paired with Ryan Murphy's The New Normal after The Voice on Tuesdays. While retention was bad, the overall numbers were good and both shows were given full seasons. Then in January, The Voice ended and the wheels fell off for the two comedies as they plummeted to lower and lower numbers with Normal eventually hitting a 0.7 demo and Go On hitting a 1.0 demo. When The Voice returned in late March, it was too little too late. Some thought one of them might snag a renewal but it didn't happen as both got the ax, meaning NBC's entire freshman class of comedies - Go On, Normal, Guys with Kids, Animal Practice, and 1600 Penn all were one and done, not to mention the summer burnoff Save Me. These had to be tough cancellations for NBC because both these shows looked promising early on.

Also cancelled were two sophomore shows - big budget drama Smash and low budget newsmagazine Rock Center with Brian Williams. Smash's cancellation was inevitable but it's still a big fall for a show that started as one of NBC's most highly anticipated shows in years. With a universally acclaimed pilot, the show premiered to big numbers after The Voice the day after the Super Bowl last year. But the rest of the season was not nearly as critically acclaimed. When it came back as a midseason replacement this year, it aired on Tuesdays and completely tanked. It was moved to Saturdays in March which effectively cancelled it. The show was a personal pet project of NBC head Bob Greenblatt so this had to be another tough cancellation. Rock Center has been a low rated newsmagazine wherever it went but I thought it might get renewed as filler. But it wasn't meant to be so Brian Williams will go back to just focusing on the evening news.