Alec Baldwin's yugely bad week just got worse. ABC is yanking The Alec Baldwin Show from its Sunday night schedule, giving Shark Tank that 10 p.m. spot starting November 18. Baldwin's show will return to TV on December 8, but now airing on Saturday nights in what's widely considered a TV dead zone.
It's seen as basically a pre-cancellation move for The Alec Baldwin Show, which just debuted in mid-October and has only aired four episodes so far. This would be Alec Baldwin's second canceled talk show -- Up Late with Alec Baldwin was dropped after one season on MSNBC in 2013.
It sucks to see your shows canceled, but at least it's better than getting arrested -- which is what happened to Alec Baldwin over the weekend. That untimely incident may have paved the way for this network decision, though that's not something ABC is vocalizing.
The Alec Baldwin Show premiered with a pilot episode back in March, with Jerry Seinfeld and Kate McKinnon as guests. That debuted to 3.6 million viewers, which was hopeful for anything airing in the time slot of 12:30-1:30 a.m. on Sunday night/Monday morning.
When the show officially launched Sundays at 10 p.m. on October 14, however, it did not do so well. The new series debuted to 2.2 million viewers and a 0.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic for its first episode, which featured guests Robert De Niro and Taraji P. Henson. Later Alec Baldwin Show guests included Kim Kardashian West, Ricky Gervais, Jeff Bridges, and -- most recently -- Mike Myers and Cecile Richards.
The latest episode, airing November 4, only picked up 1.5 million viewers and a 0.3 rating. As Variety noted, that makes it one of ABC's lowest-rated programs. So it's not a shock that the network would move it to Saturdays for a quiet fade-out. When it does return on Saturdays, guests will include Sarah Jessica Parker, Kerry Washington, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Speaking of Saturdays, Alec Baldwin is probably best known these days for his portrayal of President Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live. But this past weekend, following the actor's arrest for allegedly punching a stranger over a parking space, even SNL took a shot at him as "disgraced former actor Alec Baldwin." Baldwin disputed the punch allegations, but it's certainly not the first time he's been associated with hot-headed spectacles. (If only his talk shows were as widely reported as his personal drama, they'd stay on air for decades.)
To be fair to Alec Baldwin, primetime talk shows are a tough sell in general. Remember The Jay Leno Show? NBC axed the former Tonight Show host's 10 p.m. talk show after just four episodes, and Entertainment Weekly mocked it as the biggest bomb ever. So things could probably be worse.
Plus, Alec Baldwin still has a home on ABC as host of Match Game, which recently finished airing Season 3. He could've been part of the upcoming Joker movie, in the part of Thomas Wayne, but he reportedly stepped aside from that due to conflicts with other projects. (Among other reasons.)
Maybe now that Alec Baldwin's talk show is riding off into the sunset, and he'll reportedly be playing Trump less on SNL, he'll have more time for other film projects. Starting on December 8, you can find The Alec Baldwin Show airing on ABC on Saturday nights at 10:00 p.m. ET. While waiting for its return, anyone else ready to see what his Blake from Glengarry Glen Ross is up to these days?
