Fox has axed their new sitcom Do Not Disturb. It isn’t a record however as it survived a full three episodes before getting cancelled.

The comedy starred Jerry O’Connell as a New York hotel manager. During it’s airing the episodes were not shown in the correct order as the pilot was shown after a standard episode was broadcast. TV critics didn’t provide high praise to the show and it’s ratings dropped double digits with each new episodes airing. Most of the time it’s comedy shows that fall short of the mark. Even though they are among the least expensive to create with no need for special effects, just a laughter track. The only downside comes in the form of shows like Scrubs where the cast become accustomed to the fame and demand more money. According to Jim and How I Met Your Mother are still fine examples of sitcoms so if you miss the old format they are worth a look.

In another low ratings story the newly released Knight Rider TV show which follows on from the Feb TV movie has had it’s ratings information released for the new episode.

This time instead of getting the expected audience of 12.7 million which was the number of people who watched the TV movie it ended up with 7.3 million. It’s such a serious matter for the NBC leadership that it’s rumoured that depending on the ratings for their upcoming drama Crusoe the NBC Co-chairman could recieve the axe himself. Where Knight Rider is concerned if the ratings don’t spike within the next few weeks it will be hard to see it reaching even 13 episodes let along a full season. The original show managed to do several seasons and sent The Hoff into super stardom so if the remake doesn’t even make it to a half-season it’s a bad sign for future remakes. It was considered a great idea after all since the remade version of Battlestar Galactica won viewers quicker than anyone expected, even the network execs.

It was doubtful that Heroes would be able to make a full recovery after the mid season strike. It turns out that even after a huge publicity campaign to get everyone talking NBC still couldn’t bring back to life it’s golden series. The 2-hour season premiere on Monday had ratings that came to 25% less than the season 2 premiere last year and it turns out the lowest ratings of any original Heroes episode.

This could spell disaster for the show as considering the number of special effects required unless it’s kept for brand recognition it would be hard to justify a show that costs so much to produce being kept around for a small audience. Given it’s only just hit season three it’s surprising to think that it could be the beginning of the end already.

When you look back at the antics of Hiro and his friends perhaps it could be a warning to those who try and make a superhero television show in the future. One thing is for certain, if Heroes fails so soon then another network won’t try a similar show for many years to come.

Fringe was supposed to be big, Fox broadcast it thinking that since Abrams was involved they could expect the same viewing figures as Lost. Boy, they were wrong. For those who didn’t see it or are unfamiliar with the show Fringe is a more science orientated version of The X-Files with a pilot episode rumoured to have cost $10 million to make. Unfortunately for Fox however instead of getting the 19 million viewers they were expecting to get as a result of a high profile, and yet confusing advertising campaign they only had 9 million viewers.

There are a number of comments going around the net with general net users providing possible answers to why the ratings were so low even with positive reviews. The main explanation comes down to the Nielsen ratings system being out of date and not including those who watch the programme after into the totals with Tivo type setups.

Ratings are everything in TV. Artistic integrity means nothing to the corporations so if the choice is between a period drama or a show about a man dating a horse which gets higher ratings the period drama would be the first thing to get the axe.

This fall season, just like any other, we would expect to see story after story of how each television show has done in it’s ratings against the studio estimates. This year though everything has been uncommonly quiet with only mention to the ratings data for Fringe so far. While we might be at the beginning of the season there was no mention to the ratings data for Bones or Prison Break so something is off this year. It could be that the networks are trying to create some tent pole shows where name recognition is more important than ratings or it could be that international syndication is becoming a priority. Be sure though that when we find out which of this years new shows are cancelled we will let you know. Right now our big bet is Knight Rider with it’s new ghetto logo (promo can be found on youtube).