By Michaela Gordoni
NBC cancelled five shows on Friday while giving the green light to THE HUNTING PARTY and BRILLIANT MINDS.
The key reason for trimming out the shows (LOPEZ VS. LOPEZ, NIGHT COURT, FOUND, THE IRRATIONAL and SUITS LA) was to make room for Tuesday Night NBA games. In February 2026, NBA games will also air on Sundays. The NBA in total will get seven hours of viewing per week.
“We had a lot of shows that we had to pass on in order to put our schedule together,” Jeff Bader, President of Program Planning Strategy for NBCUniversal Entertainment, said Saturday. “In the fall, the NBA is a huge priority for us. That is our biggest new show in the fall.”
When it came to which shows to cut, “We looked at what their performance was, week to week, episode to episode, on both linear and digital, to try and glean which ones we thought had the best ratings story,” Bader said. “And then on the creative side, the creative teams did the same thing, [showing us] which ones have the best potential to capture a new audience.”
THE HUNTING PARTY and BRILLIANT MINDS had the best performance.
Bader explained that moving shows to Peacock isn’t always successful.
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“We had that conversation about every show,” he said, but none were estimated to be worth saving.
He didn’t go into detail on why most of the shows were cancelled but elaborated on SUITS LA.
“SUITS [LA] has had a very short run, but it really just has not resonated with the way we thought it would,” he expressed. “People were speculating why it hasn’t…but it’s just not really showing potential to grow for us in the future, unfortunately, and those are the decisions we had to make.”
There are still nine shows on “the bubble” as we wait to see whether they get the go-ahead for another season: ACCUSED, ALERT: MISSING PERSONS UNIT, ALL AMERICAN, ANIMAL CONTROL, BRILLIANT MINDS, THE CLEANING LADY, DOCTOR ODYSSEY, GOOD COP/BAD COP and GROSSE POINTE GARDEN SOCIETY, TV Line reported.
NBC has recently heavily marketed GROSSE POINTE GARDEN SOCIETY on its socials. It’s unclear whether it’s following a pre-set advertising plan, giving it a last hurrah, or trying to attract more viewers before NBC makes its final decision.
As NBC looks to the future, it seems like it wants to grow its sports fan base. The coming years could see more and more series swapped for sports, but let’s see how it fares with the NBA games.
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