Deadline is reporting that NBC has stopped production on the Mario Bello detective series Prime Suspect. The well-reviewed but audience ignored series will complete shooting this week on its 12th episode as well as filming next week for a thirteenth episode before production shuts down with no timetable for the show’s return to production.
The Deadline report goes on to say that cast-members have been told that the series has been cancelled though NBC’s official stance is that they are considering their options for the series. The move to bring an end to Prime Suspect was indicated yesterday when the series was left off the network’s midseason schedule.
Prime Suspect never really got off the ground. The series was hyped heavily by NBC but when CBS made the move to put the wildly popular series The Mentalist opposite the newcomer series, the job of launching Prime Suspect became infinitely more difficult. To NBC’s credit, the network did not give up on the series easily.
Earlier this month, in effort to raise the series’ profile, the network stripped the series across four nights in the 10 Pm ET, 9 Pm CT, timeslot. The move failed to garner big numbers and likely spelt the end for the series.
Prime Suspect began life as a remake of a very popular British detective series starring Oscar winner Helen Mirren. The original Prime Suspect however, had the advantage of being a series of mini-movies. The American Prime Suspect was reconfigured into a fairly typical network procedural. Many fans of the original never gave the show a chance.
Now that the series is ostensibly over the question becomes can star Mario Bello be a star in the Emmy race next year? Few cancelled shows get the chance to compete for awards though this year Friday Night Lights pulled off a couple of surprises. Bello and the series received strong reviews over the first six episodes and still have six that will air eventually.
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