I was really looking forward for the upcoming episodes of The Beautiful Life, but I just read from TV.com that CW just dropped the axe on Ashton Kutcher’s first ever venture on TV series business.
The CW canceled the Ashton-Kutcher-produced drama after just its second episode, and it’s pretty obvious why. Despite using near-nude models to promote the show, just over one million people watched The Beautiful Life’s most-recent episode last Wednesday. How few people is that? As Variety points out, more people watched a repeat of Magic’s Biggest Secrets Revealed on My Network TV. Yes, there were more viewers interested in learning tricks to perform at a 12-year old’s birthday party than viewers who wanted to see Mischa Barton act.
The show has nothing to blame but itself for its demise; it was scheduled in a great time slot (9pm on a Wednesday night), it was perfectly paired with the network’s most popular show (America’s Next Top Model), and it had tabloid-worthy news going into its debut (Barton’s mental illness). So what went wrong? A few things called acting, writing, and substance.
