ABC head blames himself for ‘Once Upon a Time in Wonderland’s’ low ratings

Back when “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland” was first penciled in for a premiere date on Thursday nights in the fall, we were quick to have a simple reaction to it: What? It was a move that didn’t make a ton of sense. You were placing the show against “The Big Bang Theory” as well as another drama in “The Vampire Diaries,” and it was a big commitment to ask fans of the original “Once Upon a Time” to devote two hours to you a week.

Originally, the idea was to air the spin-off between one half of the show’s third season and the other, where it wold have given fans fresh programming, and a little bit of a different story. While you cannot go back in time and change things, ABC head Paul Lee did admit this week at TCA that he made an error in putting this show on at a time that had been murder for the network over the past few years:

“I should’ve done that. In retrospect, I think it would’ve done better there and I should’ve stuck with the earlier idea. I totally take responsibility for that.” 

“Once Upon a Time in Wonderland” has not been technically canceled, but the feeling here is that it is only a matter of time before it does end up that way. If the ratings for the original were higher, ABC would probably be more willing to try this again with the original plan, but we don’t see it happening again at this point. There are enough other shows for the network to try out, and it really needs to do a little bit of digging. Save for “Scandal,” there is really not a breakout hit other than “Once Upon a Time” in the past few years. Even “Agents of SHIELD” is drawing lower ratings than it looked like it would.

Are you bummed at all about the lower ratings for the spin-off, and would you want to see the show back next year with different characters? Share below.