‘The Assets’ canceled by ABC after only two airings

Obviously, “The Assets” was not really considered to be much of an asset at all to ABC. Only a day after the “limited series” aired what was its second episode in a timeslot that the network has success with thanks to “Scandal,” it has now been confirmed that the show will be pulled. Therefore, there is not going to be any more of “The Assets” the rest of the way, and it is unclear whether or not the rest of the series is ever going to even air.

So can we really put this cancellation on the show itself being bad? Maybe a little, but the larger problem here is the network for deciding to give a show no chance at all to succeed in the first place. The promotional campaign was nonexistent, and what there was out there failed to really do anything when it comes to explaining what the show is actually about. Also there weren’t any names on the show that any sort of mainstream viewer would know, and that made this campaign significantly more difficult. Add to that a weak lead-in courtesy of “The Taste,” and the show (to use a taste-ful pun) was toast.

If there is a lesson to be learned here from ABC’s move, it may be that it would be a much smarter decision for them to sub in either familiar properties, or shows that are easy to promote if you are in this January / February period where you don’t want to just throw up repeats. Some suggestions? You can either bring back “Wipeout,” which at least does okay in the ratings considering the sort of show it is, or you can revive an old reality competition. We still felt like “Whodunnit?” was a great property last summer and it was building an audience, but its biggest problem was just airing at a terrible time and not having enough brand recognition at first.

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