The first cancellation this fall has been CW’s ‘The Beautiful Life: TBL’ following a number of fairly bad ratings. Details that the production had been halted were confirmed in late September 2009. Inside sources were quoted as saying that repeats of dramas to the likes of Melrose Place would fill the freed up timeslot from October.
After low ratings in September, the cancellation of the show was inevitable. The second and final episode averaged 1.1 million viewers, lower even than a repeat of ‘Magic’s Biggest Secrets Revealed’.
TBL was initiated by CBS TV Studios and Ashton Kutcher’s Katalyst shingle, loosely based on Kutcher’s experiences as a young male model. Along with Kutcher, other executive producers were Jason Goldberg, Karey Burke and Mike Kelley.
Launching with a racy marketing campaign, the show starred Mischa Barton, Corbin Bleu, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Nico Tortorella, Ashley Madekwe, Elle Macpherson and Sara Paxton.
TBL was the favourite as a companion to ‘America’s Next Top Model’ – which CW had difficulty with finding over the years. CW hoped TBL would be the perfect scripted counterpart to its long-running reality hit. Still on the bench are reality sketch ‘Blonde Charity Mafia’ and the scripted entry ‘Life Unexpected’. Netlet had also ordered two new reality skeins in September, ‘Fly Girls’ and an untitled entry starring socialite Tinsley Mortimer. Other cancellation news includes ‘The Bill Engvall Show’ after three seasons. In a statement, the cabler said, “While the show didn’t attract the audience we need to renew it for another season, we’re proud of the work of everyone involved.”