Skip to main content

Nobody's Watching "Nobody's Watching"... Again

Say it isn't true. After all this time (not to mention brilliantly funny webisodes), could Nobody's Watching actually be dead?

Sadly, it looks like that's the case, despite the Peacock ordering a live episode of Nobody's Watching a few weeks ago and setting the stage for a March launch of the live format, which could have led to a series pickup.

According to an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Tuned In Journal, an NBC source confirmed Nobody's Watching creator and executive producer Bill Lawrence's suspicious that the network wouldn't in fact go forward with the series or the live show, despite the TCA announcement last month.

Lawrence says that contracts for Paul Campbell and Taran Killam--who play the fictional Will and Derek--expire at the end of the month; Lawrence (Scrubs) also said that he would cease making all webisodes/viral videos for the Nobody's Watching site. "If I kept doing it and nothing happens," he told the Post-Gazette, "I'd have to kill myself."

Still, what exactly happened at NBC to turn the tide, AFTER an announcement was made about the show's future? "I'm thinking it was an 11th hour decision to pull the plug, but I am hoping it's not," said Lawrence.

Regardless, a spokeman for NBC has confirmed that the project, in both its live and filmed incarnations, will not be going forward after all.

A sad, sad day and a bitter reminder that, no matter how much fan support you have for a series, there's sometimes a massive disconnect between that fanbase and the network programming execs making decisions about which series are ordered and which are destined for the trash heap.

Nobody's Watching, I had hoped, was destined for greater things than that.

To Bill Lawrence, Neil Goldman, Garrett Donovan, Paul Campbell, and Taran Killam, I'd like to say thanks for the laughs, the awesome emails, and for the memories. I loved the original pilot and the viral videos they'd created for this self-aware comedy experiment.

Nobody might ever get to watch this amazing show on the air (as it should be), but I'm certainly glad that this nobody ever got the chance to tune in.

Comments

Bill said…
So sad. Remember when primetime network TV was littered with comedies? And there were only a couple cop/lawyer shows? Good times.
The CineManiac said…
Sad News, I too loved being one of the Nobodies Watching. This would have at least made a great live special.
Rich said…
It really is too bad becuase I think their videos represent the potential of genuine user generated video content - completely original and creative.

This is my true hope for genuine UGV...for more and more writers, actors, etc. to have a showcase for their talents that may otherwise go unnoticed due to the closed-door nature of TV/Movie studios!

Popular posts from this blog

What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season

Pilot Inspektor: CBS' "Smith"

I may just have to change my original "What I'll Be Watching This Fall" post, as I sat down and finally watched CBS' new crime drama Smith this weekend. (What? It's taken me a long time to make my way through the stack of pilot DVDs.) While it's on following Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars on Tuesday nights (10 pm ET/PT, to be exact), I'm going to be sure to leave enough room on my TiVo to make sure that I catch this compelling, amoral drama. While one can't help but be impressed by what might just be the most marquee-friendly cast in primetime--Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Jonny Lee Miller, Amy Smart, Simon Baker, and Franky G all star and Shohreh Aghdashloo has a recurring role--the pilot's premise alone earned major points in my book: it's a crime drama from the point of view of the criminals, who engage in high-stakes heists. But don't be alarmed; it's nothing like NBC's short-lived Heist . Instead, think of it as The Italian

The Daily Beast: "How The Killing Went Wrong"

While the uproar over the U.S. version of The Killing has quieted, the show is still a pale imitation of the Danish series on which it is based. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "How The Killing Went Wrong," in which I look at how The Killing has handled itself during its second season, and compare it to the stunning and electrifying original Danish series, Forbrydelsen , on which it is based. (I recently watched all 20 episodes of Forbrydelsen over a few evenings.) The original is a mind-blowing and gut-wrenching work of genius. It’s not necessary to rehash the anger that followed in the wake of the conclusion last June of the first season of AMC’s mystery drama The Killing, based on Søren Sveistrup’s landmark Danish show Forbrydelsen, which follows the murder of a schoolgirl and its impact on the people whose lives the investigation touches upon. What followed were irate reviews, burnished with the “burning intensity of 10,000 white-hot suns