Television Program Cancellations

"The Arsenio Hall Show," once defined as the new model for late-night television, will end production May 27, a victim of declining ratings and an overcrowded talk-show field. The cancellation comes only weeks after the show's producer, Paramount Domestic Television Distribution, vowed that the show was not in trouble. In recent weeks, the show had been dogged by rumors that the lower ratings were making it increasingly difficult for producers to book guests.

KNBC-TV Channel 4 has canceled "Midday Report," its 11 a.m. newscast anchored by Kim Baldonado, and is running repeats of "Access Hollywood" in its place. The newscast, which aired for the last time on Feb. 12, "was taken off the schedule in order to reallocate resources," according to KNBC spokeswoman Erin Dittman. Baldonado, who has won awards for her coverage of education and homelessness, will continue as a general assignment reporter for the station. She took over "Midday Report" in July after serving as a weekend anchor.

Concerned about harming its business relationship with the NFL, ESPN called an audible Wednesday and announced it was canceling "Playmakers," its seamy pro football drama. Mark Shapiro, ESPN vice president in charge of programming and production, said the NFL's reaction to the series was "the primary factor" in deciding to cancel the weekly show. "But we made the decision," Shapiro said. "We do not let anyone dictate our programming agenda."

CBS has pulled the plug on another long-running soap opera. Just three months after "Guiding Light" aired its final episode, CBS announced Tuesday that it will end "As the World Turns" in September, after 54 years and more than 13,000 episodes. Its cancellation will leave CBS with just two soaps: daytime's most-watched serial, "The Young and the Restless," and "The Bold and the Beautiful." "World," which launched in 1956 and is the oldest of the remaining broadcast soap operas, had long been rumored to be the genre's next casualty.

And you say television is predictable? Who would have guessed a few years ago that one of TV's rages of the '90s would be two homely, repulsive, eternally flatulent, irredeemably moronic teenagers who can barely read, have reached the apex of their lives working in a greasy burger joint and spend most of their time rapt before a set watching rock videos and fantasizing about "scoring"? As in having rip-roaring sex 'round the clock.

"Grace Under Fire" vaulted into prime time's Top 10 its first season and tied "Frasier" for the People's Choice Award as favorite new comedy series. Yet though the latter continues to amass accolades in its fifth year, the former exits ABC's schedule after tonight with barely a whimper. As recently as three years ago, "Grace" and its star, Brett Butler, appeared to be on top of the world, moored in the coveted berth after "Home Improvement."

There were no empty seats in the Paramount Pictures conference room. At one end of the long table sat Kelsey Grammer, star of NBC's "Frasier," and at the other end, the show's co-creator and frequent director David Lee. In between were cast regulars like David Hyde Pierce and John Mahoney and such guest stars as Anthony LaPaglia and Jason Biggs.

"Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" has made her last regular house call, leaving both fans and the program's star expressing confusion and outrage over CBS' decision to cancel the western series after six seasons. CBS announced its prime-time schedule for the coming TV season last week, dropping "Dr. Quinn" from the Saturday lineup. Instead, the network will move "Early Edition" into the 8 p.m.

Fox on Monday announced programming moves that include a revamping of its Thursday night lineup, the premiere of a new comedy, "Ask Harriet," and the return of "New York Undercover." Those series will replace the veteran comedy "Living Single" and the freshman drama "413 Hope St.," both of which have struggled in the ratings this season. "Living Single," about four female friends living in New York City, will end its five-year run with two back-to-back episodes on Jan. 1, starting at 8 p.m.

"It really doesn't get better than 'Murphy Brown,' " Candice Bergen allows softly. "I always thought it was like going on a blind date and opening the door and having Robert Redford standing there." It's the Monday after the Friday night wrap of her title role in "Murphy Brown's" 245th and final episode. In her cozy dressing-room cottage at Warner Bros.

When Al Gore unveiled his youth-oriented cable TV network, he said his ambition was to connect "the Internet generation with television" by creating a channel that would be made up mostly of short-form content supplied by its audience. After more than four years trying to establish itself as a 21st century channel by and for the people, Current TV announced Wednesday that it was canceling three shows and letting go nearly a quarter of its staff -- 80 employees -- as a part of a shift toward more traditional programming.

NBC has pulled the plug on John Wells' "Southland." The move comes just two weeks before the gritty cop drama was set to premiere in its new Friday at 9 p.m. time period. Now, in its place, NBC will schedule the less expensive news magazine "Dateline NBC." "I am disappointed that NBC no longer has the time periods available to support the kind of critically acclaimed series that was for so many years the hallmark of their success," said "Southland" executive producer Wells, whose previous credits include "ER" and "The West Wing."

After only two episodes had aired, the CW pulled the plug Friday on "The Beautiful Life: TBL," a drama executive-produced by Ashton Kutcher about young models living in New York. It was the first cancellation of the fall television season. "TBL" premiered Sept. 16 to just 1.5 million viewers, and the audience dropped this week to 1 million. The series starred Mischa Barton and Sarah Paxton. The CW said it would fill the 9 p.m. Wednesday slot with reruns of its new "Melrose Place" series.

Writer-producers Andre Nemec, Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg know firsthand what it's like to leave fans hanging when a series is abruptly canceled. That's what happened with their last show, "October Road," which ABC yanked off the air last year before viewers learned the answer to the show's central question: Was Nick, the prodigal writer who returned to his hometown, the father of his ex-girlfriend's son? They ultimately resorted to shooting an epilogue on home video for the DVD boxed set to finish the story.

ReelzChannel, the cable and Web network launched two years ago to feed the seemingly insatiable appetite of movie aficionados, this week canceled its signature show, "Dailies," and laid off more than 40 people who worked in its Los Angeles studios. The "Dailies" program provided a recap of the day's movie news and previews of upcoming films.

Goodbye: NBC has set March 12 as the date for the final episode of "ER," the medical drama that has been a network staple since the fall of 1994. The finale will be two hours.

I am woman. Hear me roar--right off the air. Murphy Brown couldn't keep a secretary, sang Aretha Franklin songs badly but with abandon and told off Dan Quayle (in a vintage moment of art imitating life when life believed the art was real). Cybill, the fortysomething Hollywood actress, was constantly shoring up two ex-husbands and fighting to maintain some shred of dignity through a changing parade of goofball acting jobs.

Jon Stewart, the host of a 6-month-old midnight talk show on MTV, received an early morning wake-up call from his manager Wednesday. The New Yorker was fast asleep in a Santa Monica hotel, where he has been staying while shooting scenes as an in-line skater in a comedy film being directed by Nora Ephron. Barry Secunda told Stewart that he had made the front pages of Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter.

CBS has crossed "The Ex List" off its schedule. The hourlong comedy about a woman searching for true love among her ex-boyfriends has been pulled from the network lineup, CBS said. Its Friday time slot will be filled this week by a rerun of "NCIS." There was no comment from the network on whether the low-rated freshman show might return. -- Associated Press

"The Riches" has gone bankrupt. The FX series, which starred Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard as hustling grifters who assume the identity of a dead suburban couple, has been canceled, executives said Tuesday. The drama has been on shaky ground since it was interrupted by the writers strike, facing the same dilemma as another canceled FX series, "Dirt." The shortened second season ended with a cliffhanger that apparently will not be resolved. But FX has picked up a 13-episode second season of its freshman biker drama "Sons of Anarchy."