Life Canceled by NBC, Won't Return for Fall 2009 Lineup

NBC Announced that it Will Cancel Life and Make Room for a New Show in the 2009 NBC Fall Lineup

"Life is canceled." Those were the words from NBC co-chairman Ben Silverman on Monday, as he announced the news that fans of the show had feared. While some shows don't know their fate yet when it comes to be re-newed or not (read Chuck and Law and Order), they came right out and announced the cancellation of Life. The NBC fall lineup will instead go in a different direction, and with some of the sneak previews about what will be on the network in the fall, it seems that they didn't have room for this show on the schedule.

For those familiar with the show, Life was an intriguing and original cop show that didn't adhere to some of the same rules that other dramas worked with on television. The show focused on a Los Angeles detective named Charlie Crews (played by Damian Lewis) and how he dealt with working his job and past issues at the same time. This all takes place after Crews has been in prison for a crime that he didn't commit, and is now back at work to do what he does best. The show started back in the fall of 2007, and had been holding on for a while, but seems to have seen its last breath.

During the second season of Life the show was averaging about 6.2 million viewers per episode according to the Nielsen ratings, which wasn't quite as good as they had hoped for in the beginning. It didn't help matters that the show kept getting moved around, splitting time between Wednesday and Friday nights, and also spending a short stint in NBC's Monday night listings. The show couldn't keep a foot-hold though, and NBC has now decided to go in a different direction with several other new shows that they hope to premiere in the 2009 fall lineup.

It's too bad that a show like Life couldn't survive, but maybe it could find second life on something like the USA Network. It didn't stand a real chance at coming back when it was announced that Jay Leno would be taking over the 10 p.m. time slot in the next season of television, as it has led to cutting many 10 p.m. shows. The official release of the NBC fall lineup will be coming on Tuesday, May 19th, but for now, they have just been releasing sneak-peaks at what the shows are which will be tested.