UPN has yanked the horror/drama "All Souls" off its schedule after only two airings — two airings that drew abysmal ratings.
The network insists the show is only on hiatus until a later date. The remaining four installments of the six episodes produced may end up airing sometime this summer, but it's gone.
Now, "All Souls" wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible. It was certainly better than "Special Unit 2," the silly "Men In Black" rip-off that's still on UPN's schedule. But the failure of "All Souls" points to bigger problems at UPN — anything that's even slightly intelligent or ambitious isn't going to work at the home of "WWF Smackdown."
Last year, UPN briefly aired the cop drama "The Beat," which came to us from the producers of "Homicide: Life on the Street." It, too, was not a perfect show, but in terms of quality, it was light years ahead of most of what UPN offers.
The network didn't know what to make of "The Beat," didn't know how to promote it and, according to producer Tom Fontana, UPN president Dean Valentine didn't even like the show.
More importantly, UPN viewers didn't want to watch a show that tried harder than the WWF.
Which has got to give pause to all "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fans out there. The show is moving from the WB to UPN in the fall, and, frankly, that's a frightening prospect.
UPN execs are promising they won't try to change "Buffy" for the young, male viewers who tune in to "Smackdown." It's much too early to dispute their apparently sincere sentiments. And it seems unlikely that UPN would try anything as ridiculous as, say, having WWF wrestlers guest star on "Buffy."
But then, who would've thought that any show would have been more immune to that than "Star Trek: Voyager" — and you may recall that the sci-fi series featured a guest appearance by WWF star The Rock. Now that's scary.
The fact is that the current UPN administration has yet to develop a single show that could conceivably be called a hit — which may explain their eagerness to steal "Buffy" away from the WB. What hits they have (and they're minor hits at best) predate them.
And "Voyager" is the weakest "Star Trek" yet, and "Moesha" was actually developed for CBS, which passed on the project.
UPN also seems to have an inordinate number of shows that it acquired from elsewhere. "Smackdown" was, of course, borrowed from cable, "The Hughleys" came from ABC, "Chains of Love" from Europe, "Buffy" from the WB.
(Indications are that the WB may cancel Fox-produced "Angel" because Fox-produced "Buffy" is headed to UPN — and UPN has already signed a contract guaranteeing it will carry "Angel" for two years if the WB cancels it. Not only that, but odds are better than even that the WB will also cancel the marginally rated, Fox-produced "Roswell," at least in part because of "Buffy" — and that "Roswell" could also end up on UPN.
Wouldn't it be nice if networks could come up with their own shows instead of stealing them?
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com