ABC Says Good Night to ‘Stalker’
ABC is turning out the lights on its freshman series “Night Stalker,” pulling the plug after six episodes that struggled to find audiences up against TV’s top-rated series, “CSI.”
Show creator Frank Spotnitz (“The X-Files”) announced the cancellation on his blog (Biglight.com/blog) Sunday (Nov. 13), and ABC confirmed Monday that the show was being pulled, effective this week. An expanded edition of “Primetime” will fill its 9 p.m. Thursday spot this week, with previously scheduled movies set for the two Thursdays after that.
“While I’m disappointed the series has come to an end, I am enormously grateful for the experience and the opportunity given me by the network and Touchstone Television,” Spotnitz writes. After thanking the show’s cast and crew, he adds, “It was a blast.”
The news doesn’t come as a big surprise — “Night Stalker” was one of many series that have struggled on ABC’s Thursday schedule in recent years. In its six weeks on the air it averaged just 5.2 million viewers and also struggled in the key adults 18-49 demographic.
Any show facing CBS’ “CSI,” which draws 28 million viewers each week, is fighting an uphill battle. But “Night Stalker,” an update of the 1970s series that stars Stuart Townsend as ghoul-hunting reporter Carl Kolchak and Gabrielle Union as his skeptical colleague, couldn’t break free from the pack behind NBC’s “The Apprentice.” Last week, it finished in a virtual tie with FOX’s “Reunion” and only beat The WB’s “Everwood” by a couple hundred thousand viewers.
Nine episodes of “Night Stalker” were filmed. At the moment, ABC has no plans to air the three that haven’t been seen yet.
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