14 DAY TRIAL // Fox and ABC have announced that two of their new shows won’t be returning to the small screen. “Ben and Kate” and “Don’t Trust the B—in Apartment 23” have been axed, with the latter not even getting to air the remaining episodes of the season.
As it happens, Fox has said that the remaining episodes of “Ben and Kate” would air at a later date but, as the Washington Post puts it, “we’ve heard that before.”
That is to say, don’t hold your breath for that to happen.
Both shows were canceled because of poor ratings, though “Don’t Trust the B” was averaging about 4.5 million viewers, a figure that “Ben and Kate” could only dream of.
James Van Der Beek, star of the former show, says that Nielsen ratings still dictate whether a project remains on air or not.
“I know most of you watched us on your own time & platform and that the competitive network scheduling game is irrelevant to you. But network TV is a business dictated by Nielsen ratings. And while that’s an antiquated business model, it’s the only one they’ve got,” he writes on Twitter.