3 new shows learn they have no future

NEW YORK  — Television viewers proved to not have much interest in seeing Kate Walsh as a misbehaving judge, a manufactured Utopian society created for the cameras or the “How I Met Your Mother” love interest portraying a lawyer in love.

All are television concepts that viewers have rejected. The actors and creators learned within the past week that their programs have no future, joining ABC’s “Manhattan Love Story,” the first program canceled this fall.

Fox’s “Utopia” was perhaps that network’s biggest disappointment. Fox scheduled the reality series for two nights a week this fall, but quickly cut that back to only Fridays when it got off to a slow start. When the Nielsen company reported that this past Friday’s episode reached a paltry 1.5 million viewers, Fox pulled the plug. The online part of the show stopped on Sunday.

NBC’s comedies “Bad Judge” and “A-to-Z,” which stars Cristin Milioti, remain on the air, but the network announced it will stop making new episodes when the initial order ends, so the programs will limp along until January.

With Thursday night football’s run on CBS ending, the network rearranged its schedule, returning “The Big Bang Theory” to Thursdays. TV’s most popular comedy grabbed 16.2 million viewers in its return. The new comedy “The McCarthys” premiered on CBS later that night to half that audience.

Fox’s telecast of the gripping finale of the San Francisco-Kansas City World Series was the most-watched prime-time show last week, Nielsen said.

CBS won the week in prime time, averaging 10.8 million viewers. Fox averaged 8.1 million, and won among viewers aged 18 to 49. NBC had 7.6 million, ABC had 6.7 million, Univision had 2.7 million, the CW had 1.7 million, ION Television had 1.1 million and Telemundo had 1 million.

Led by its “Monday Night Football” matchup of Dallas and Washington, ESPN averaged 5.02 million viewers in prime time, making it the most popular cable network. AMC had 1.9 million, Fox News Channel had 1.64 million, USA had 1.6 million and Discovery had 1.58 million.

NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.7 million viewers. ABC’s “World News” was second with 8.1 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.7 million viewers.

For the week of Oct. 27-Nov. 2, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: World Series Game 7: San Francisco vs. Kansas City, Fox, 23.52 million; NFL Football: Dallas vs. Washington, ESPN, 18.81 million; NFL Football: Baltimore vs. Pittsburgh, NBC, 18.6 million;

“60 Minutes,” CBS, 17.8 million; “NCIS,” CBS, 17.53 million; “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 16.25 million; “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 16.09 million; “The Walking Dead,” AMC, 14.52 million; “Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick,” NBC, 13.94 million; World Series Game 6: San Francisco vs. Kansas City, Fox, 13.37 million.

ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox is owned by 21st Century Fox. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks.