The cancellation bloodbaths have been coming later and later each year, but this week one major network finally made a tough decision regarding one of this fall's brand new shows. Newbie series Notorious kicked off to alright ratings, pulling in a 1.2 rating and over 5 million total viewers, but those numbers were not something anyone would want to write home about and they've gotten worse as the show has gone on. Reviews for the drama weren't great, either. This week, ABC finally made the decision to cut Notorious' episode order, although the show has not officially been cancelled, yet.
When ABC signed on for Notorious earlier in 2016, the network signed an initial 13-episode order for the drama. If things had gone well, the show probably would have been bumped up to 18 or even 22 episodes by now. Instead, ABC is trending in the other direction, and THR reports the show is dropping from 13 episodes down to 10. This is totally opposite what has happened with a lot of ABC's new offerings, as Designated Survivor and Speechless have both gotten additional episodes. ABC is still in wait and see mode with Conviction and American Housewife.
Thursday night is a traditionally tough timeslot. This year, while the show has had to face off against football on CBS, it should also theoretically be helped by the fact that it is part of ABC's former TGIT Thursday lineup, which also features the still-popular Grey's Anatomy and How To Get Away With Murder right now. You would think the show would be able to compete with what the other networks are putting up, especially since it is airing opposite the faltering Pitch on Fox and Chicago Med on NBC (the latter is a show that does well but is not a runaway winner on Thursdays).
The good news for ShondaLand fans is that ABC already has Scandal set to return to the schedule in January. The show was bumped to midseason after Kerry Washington revealed she was expecting a baby. We don't have an official premiere date for midseason yet, but the fact that Scandal will be back does ensure that ABC can fill the timeslot.
Notorious isn't officially cancelled by ABC at this point. The numbers did tick up during the show's most recent outing, but the rating was still an unimpressive .9, so it would probably take a miracle for ABC to earn a second season of the drama. It's far more likely the network will choose to quietly cancel the drama sometime during the coming weeks. We'll let you know once an official decision has been made.
If you'd like to keep up with Piper Perabo and Daniel Sunjata starrer, you can catch new episodes of Notorious on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. ET, only on ABC. To find out how the rest of your fall favorites are faring, take a look at our ratings round-up.
