LIFE

The wife and I just completed Season 2 of the television show LIFE. We loved the show so much that we decided to see when Season 3 would be starting, as many of our favorite shows have begun their season. And then we discovered that last May, NBC decided to not have another season.

I blame Jay Leno.

While I understand the decision from a short sighted business stand point, I feel that this is a poor decision long term. I understand that shows like Jay Leno's, or Who Wants to be a Millionaire, or Dancing with the Stars, or American Idol, etc.. are much, much cheaper to produce than hour long dramas like LIFE. But shows like Jay Leno are firecrackers compared to the atomic bombs that are shows like LIFE. Sure, you might save some money up front producing a variety/reality/talk show, but you lose back end profit from DVD sales and syndication for smart, edgy, original programing like Life.

LIFE was not the typical crime show. It had a solid story line (Det. Crews spent 12 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, and now that he has been reinstated with the police department, he is on a mission to discover who set him up) as the backbone to the weekly crime mysteries they solved along the way. The interweaving of the serial crime stories with the who-done-it conspiracy puzzle made for riveting television. The characters were complex, the story was intreguing, and the plot twists were interesting without being cliche (at least until the last few episodes of the second season, when it appeared the writters and producers could see that the end may be near and decided to tie up some loose ends should a third season not occur).

So thank you NBC for deciding to commit 5 hours a week to a rarely amusing or entertaining "comidian" instead of commiting to original and unique programming like LIFE. I shall take my television viewing to CBS, FOX, and ABC during primetime (except for a half hour each week when I tune in for THE OFFICE) so long as they continue to churn out decent televion, such as Flashforward, House, Bones, Modern Family and Family Guy.

I hope that you continue to be shut out of the top 25 most viewed shows during primetime. Heck, your only show in the Top 25 in total viewers last week was a Sunday Night Football game. Keep it up NBC, and pretty soon, even Nickelodeon will have more viewers (if they don't already).