‘Manhattan Love Story’ Gets The Axe From ABC

It took longer than usual, but ABC has finally announced the cancellation of a show. The network has decided to axe the romantic comedy show Manhattan Love Story after only four episodes.

Manhattan Love Story debuted on September 30. The show tells the story of a couple and their questions about starting a relationship. It stars Jake McDorman and America’s Next Top Model alum Analeigh Tipton, along with Nicholas Wright, Jade Catta-Pretta, Chloe Wepper, and Kurt Fuller.

The first episode of the series had a mediocre rating of 1.5 with just 4.7 million viewers, and the viewership dwindled down to 2.6 million viewers with a rating of 0.7 on the latest episode. The series had no big stars and it was showing opposite two of the best-rated shows on television, which are CBS’ NCIS and NBC’s The Voice.

Though Manhattan Love Story got the axe after the fourth episode, it still beat some of the previous fall shows that were cancelled just a week or two after their debut. According to Entertainment Weekly, Lucky 7 was cancelled on October 4 last year, and in 2012, CBS’ Made in Jersey was cancelled on October 10.

TV Series Finale reported that ABC had ordered more scripts for Manhattan Love Story and Selfie last week, which is a sign that the network isn’t ready to get rid of a show just yet. However, the low ratings of Manhattan Love Story may have prodded the network’s decision to cancel the show.

ABC announced that the show will be pulled off from the Tuesday 8:30 p.m. slot effective immediately. Reports indicate that the show’s slot for next week will be replaced by a Halloween special. After the Halloween special, Manhattan Love Story’s slot will be filled in by Selfie, which means audiences are going to have a double dose of the social media comedy.

Although Selfie isn’t doing too well in terms of viewership, it definitely trumped Manhattan Love Story with a rating of 1.1 and 3.8 million viewers. ABC has not released a statement regarding their plan for the empty slot left by Manhattan Love Story.

Despite being the first network to cancel a fall show this year, ABC also has other reasons to celebrate with the success of their other shows, including the new Shonda Rhimes legal drama series How to Get Away with Murder and the comedy series Black-ish.

[Image via ABC All Access]