Fate of ‘The Mysteries of Laura,’ ‘State of Affairs’ at NBC still unclear

While NBC was kind enough today to confirm the future of some of their primetime programming, they were not nearly as gracious with some of their other programming. Ultimately, let’s just put it this way: You may be waiting for a while to learn the future of either “State of Affairs” or “The Mysteries of Laura.”

Why make us wait with these two shows? It is mostly a matter of the network not knowing if either can have a future. The funny thing is that we know NBC really wanted both of these to be big hits. In the case of “State of Affairs,” it had a huge promotional campaign themed around Katherine Heigl returning to TV after many years away. Meanwhile, “The Mysteries of Laura” was another chance for Debra Messing after “Smash,” and it also was a aprt of their “Woman Crush Wednesdays” lineup that featured “Law & Order: SVU” and “Chicago PD.”

If we were to give the edge to one show over the other, we’d say that Messing’s series has a better chance. “State of Affairs” had the luxury of multiple good lead-ins; even “The Celebrity Apprentice” has turned out to be a bigger hit than anyone expected. “The Mysteries of Laura” has not had that advantage, and it can at least say that it has a pretty good viewer base. Its biggest issue is the age of these said viewers, given that we are in this TV era where networks seem to care much more about the 18-49 demographic than just about anything else.

We figure that the future here will be a little bit clearer come May, which is when the networks have their upfront presentations.

If you missed it, head over here to read the renewal announcements today! Also, you can sign up if you want to get some further TV updates via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)