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"Drive" Screeches to a Halt; Series Pulled from FOX's May Schedule

Looks like FOX has pulled Drive onto the shoulder.

After announcing that it would take the rather unusual tack of intentionally breaking up Drive's 13-episode run into two chunks (thus limiting any momentum the series would have built up), FOX has now announced that it is in fact benching the series for the entirety of May sweeps.

Four hours of the freshman series, about an illegal underground cross-country race, have already aired. FOX will fill Drive's Mondays at 8 pm timeslot with (you guessed it!) repeats of House.

While there's been no official word of the c-word (that would be cancellation, people!), it's not a good sign for a series that's already had its share of odd scheduling and plummeting ratings.

Oh well. It's not as if I didn't already make the turn for the exit ramp last week.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I WILL miss the hotness of Fillion, but not the silly, silly premise.

On another note -- is this true?:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-wk-baldwinwebapr25,1,4457998.story?coll=la-entnews-tv

Baldwin wants out of "30 Rock"?! Could HE have leaked...no. I don't want to believe that.
rockauteur said…
I still haven't seen Drive - the four episodes that have aired are stacking up on my tivo. But even so, I was hesitate at getting involved in a series that:

a) its season was split in half, 7 episodes now, the last 6 later.

b) the 13 episode order does NOT bring the cast to the end of the race. Which due to the low ratings of the premiere episode, did not give me warm feelings about a renewal. Which to me meant... why give a series a chance that has low ratings when its original episode order doesn't guarantee a resolution of the storyline?

c) im supposed to have a C for grammatical reasons, so I might as well use this as an opportunity to raise the discussion about Tim Minear's track record with FOX. He was looking at two cancelled FOX series in two years... This looks like its 3 for 3!
Anonymous said…
I guess you've seen that they've picked up another season of the Pussycat Dolls show?

I told you this would come back to haunt us all.
Anonymous said…
Justin, before Drive aired I was more concerned with FOX's track record of pulling series with blinding speed than Tim Minear's record. The fact that Tim Minear has had the misfortune of dealing with FOX is a bigger contributor to Tim's record that anything else.

As for FOX I am just waiting for the "special re-broadcat of last weeks performance show with exclusive never before seen footage" to take up space on the FOX schedule.
The CineManiac said…
First off, this is actually the forth Series Minear's been involved with that Fox pulled the plug on. (Firefly, Wonderfalls, The Inside, and now Drive)
Second here's the big questions, Jace maybe you or someone else can answer this for me.
Why would a network air reruns rather than new episodes of a show? Certainly the ratings of a rerun can't be that much better, right?
Also why would a network not air episodes of a show it's already purchased? every season shows get canceled and the network just doesn't air X amount of episodes it has already paid for, why don't they at least burn them off at some point, it just seems like a waste of money.
Vance said…
I guess I might as well delete it huh? I didn't watch it either yet thinking Fox would never finish the series. Damn I was right...
Again, are we REALLY that surprised? Reunion? Kitchen Confidential? ...
Anonymous said…
SO ARE YOU SAYING THAT NONE OF YOU LIKED THIS SERIES AT ALL? NO BLOOD PUMPING, HEART STOPPING, ADRENALINE RUSHES? BECAUSE THERE ARE A FEW 5000+ PEOPLE SIGNING A PETITION RIGHT NOW FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD FOR THIS GREAT SHOW, THAT WOULD BEG TO DIFFER! BUT WHAT DO I KNOW, I'M JUST A SUCKER FOR FAST CARS...
Anonymous said…
I thought Drive was a really cool show. I don't see why they got me hooked on watching this show and then pulled it off the air. The only show that compares to Drive is Hero's.
Anonymous said…
I sure hope you bring Drive back. I was a huge fan of Firefly and was soooo excited that Nathan Fillion was finally playing on something else. I was thinking, I hope this 'Drive' show is a good show for his sake. And then what do you know? It was Rad!! Who's decision was it to pull it? whoever that was, please put it back on so we don't have to watch re-runs of a pill popping, irritating doctor who thinks he knows everything. Just kidding. I know a lot of people enjoy that show, he just personally bugs me. I'd rather watch Drive. So can we expect it back on now?

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