CANCELLATION ALERT: Ironside, Welcome to the Family

Two NBC freshmen series joined the cancellation pile as drama Ironside and comedy Welcome to the Family were cancelled after just a few episodes.

Ironside premiered to pretty much DOA numbers at 6.8 million viewers and a 1.3 demo and it has fallen since then, hitting 4.8 million viewers and a 1.0 demo this past Wednesday night. NBC was hoping this show could surprise like Chicago Fire last year which was also critically panned but continued to exceed expectations. Ironside couldn't overcome the bad reviews and it skewed ancient. It will be added to the list of the many failed TV remakes. Ironside will air one final episode this Wednesday (and I wouldn't be surprised to see a burnoff on Saturdays at some point). After that, Dateline, SNL, and holiday concert specials will fill the void until January when Chicago Fire spinoff Chicago PD premieres on January 8. NBC is hoping that Chicago PD can do the same thing Chicago Fire did in the 10pm timeslot last year but time will tell.

Effective immediately, NBC has pulled Welcome to the Family after three pathetic weeks. It premiered to a horrible 3.0 million viewers and 1.1 demo. It tumbled to a terrible 0.8 demo in week two. Though it rallied a tenth last night, it was not enough for NBC to change its mind. NBC has horrible problems across the board on Thursday but they had to get rid of their weakest link, which was clearly Family. NBC will air a mix of shows in this hour as well including extra episodes of The Voice, double pumping of Parks and Recreation, and specials. On January 2, Community will return for its fifth and supposedly final season at 8pm while Parks will slide to 8:30pm.

With this news, the 22 episode order for The Michael J. Fox Show from the start, and a full season for The Blacklist, only Sean Saves the World doesn't have news yet for NBC. It received an order for additional scripts but no pickup or cancellation decision has been made yet as NBC may want to see how it does after The Voice and some specials. Dracula premieres October 25.