NBC’s ‘Hannibal’ episode pulled due to controversial storyline; finale moved up

We’ve already seen the Boston tragedy cause a number of changes to broadcast network schedules; ABC is swapping out “Castle” episodes, NBC delayed “Revolution” until Monday night, and pretty much all of primetime last night was preempted in order to show coverage of the capture of the last surviving suspect of the bombing.

Even though this case seemingly has reached a conclusion, NBC has still made a move when it comes to the scheduling of their violent hit “Hannibal.” According to Variety, executive Bryan Fuller had personally warned the network about the content about the episode that was scheduled to air Thursday night. Why? It apparently featured a subject so gruesome as children-on-children murder, and we actually wonder how this was ever greenlit in the first place in the aftermath of Sandy Hook.

Instead of scheduling this episode at a later date, it actually seems as though it is not going to air at all. Instead, viewers will jump ahead to episode 5 on Thursday night, and there will be no issues in continuity in doing so. With this in mind, the show’s season 1 finale date has also been pushed up now to June 20.

“Hannibal” started off pretty strong in the ratings earlier this spring, but did fall down to a new low in a 1.4 rating this past week. As of right now, we would say that it is a toss-up for renewal from a network that has experienced some significant struggles finding hit drama series, especially with the recent failures of “Do No Harm” and “Smash” season 2. They may be willing to take a gamble on a series that few other people would want to.

Do you think that this is the right move? If you want to read some more of the latest changes to the NBC schedule, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: NBC