There are few TV producers are wildly successful as Shonda Rhimes. The Grey's Anatomy creator basically owns an entire night of primetime TV on ABC, with her various dramas making up #TGIT on the network. But they can't all be winners, and her most recent ABC project is definitely proving that. Rhimes is an executive producer on Still Star-Crossed, a series that serves as an immediate sequel to Shakespeare's classic Romeo and Juliet. With an inclusive cast and modern take on the classic tale, it seemed like Still Star-Crossed could end up as a new classic. But reviews have been poor, and now ABC has moved the series to the slaughter house of air days: Saturday night.
This news come to us from EW, which reports that Still Star-Crossed has been moved from Mondays to late Saturday evening, perhaps the least popular time to watch TV. The new series will be taking a few weeks off ahead of this move, returning to the small screen on July 8th at 10pm (yikes). Not only does the day of the week suck, but ABC has also thrown the new series to the wolves by assigning it such a late time slot. A flop by any other time slot would smell as bad.
I think its safe to say that it's only a matter of time before ABC fully cancels Still Star-Crossed. The series has gotten extremely poor ratings since its premiere in May, and the numbers have only continued to drop in the following weeks. With the show now attempting to get viewership on Saturday nights, there's no way that things are going to get better. It's just another tragedy of the stage (and you thought Romeo and Juliet had it bad).
Still Star-Crossed was a tough sell from the start. Revolving around the aftershocks of Romeo and Juliet's suicide in Shakespeare's play, the audience is expected to remember every nuanced relationship from The Bard's work. Except most casual TV viewers likely haven't thought about Romeo and Juliet since their 10th grade English class. In an attempt to counter this, the show is weighed down with heavy exposition and its fair share of overacting.
This doomed series is the second Shondaland project to be dumped by ABC in recent memory. Crime dramedy The Catch was recently cancelled after two seasons, booting the show from future TGIT programming. Although this hasn't seemed to discourage Shonda Rhimes from working on more TV shows with the network. She's currently got a Grey's Anatomy spinoff and legal drama For the People coming down the pipeline, so Shondaland is still open for business. And while Scandal will air its final season, Grey's and How to Get Away with Murder don't appear to be going anywhere.
Still Star-Crossed will return to ABC July 8th. In the meantime, check out our summer premiere list to plan your next binge watch.
