Cancellation Friday: “Partners”, “Last Resort”, “666” each get pink slip

And this after the T Dog Media Cancellation Bus gets crushed into a cube…

Usually, these type of “Bloody Friday” cancellations take place the week before the upfronts in May. But in a season where rules change as often as someone’s underwear, Bloody Friday came six months early.

CBS canceled Partners Friday after eight episodes. That was followed later in the day by ABC’s cancellation of 666 Park Avenue and The Last Resort, the latter show created by Rockford native Shawn Ryan, who also created The Shield and The Chicago Code (which was canceled by Fox with around a 2.0 rating.)

While Partners will vanish immediately (to be replaced by Two and a Half Men reruns and possibly Rules of Engagement in January), Last Resort and 666 are expected to finish out their thirteen-episode orders.

Partners, one of the more critically-scathed shows of the season (Metacritic score: 37), hit a series-low 1.8 adult demo rating, losing a huge chunk of its How I Met Your Mother lead-in and was typically the lowest-rated show on CBS’ Monday night lineup and underperformed last year’s time-period occupant 2 Broke Girls.

ABC’s Last Resort and 666 Park Avenue were more well-received by critics, but had even worse-rated Nielsens. Both series’ most recent episode earned a lowly 1.2 rating each. Both faced top-rated shows: Resort was up against The Big Bang Theory; 666 was up against Sunday Night Football on NBC. The first hour in prime-time Thursday nights have been problematic for ABC in recent years – five series have been canceled in the last four years. Historically, only four series have succeeded in this Thursday time slot since 1978: Mork & Mindy, Matlock, Ugly Betty, and Wipeout.

666‘s fate was sealed when Hurricane Sandy reportedly destroyed the series’ sets in New York City, where the show was shot. The serialized drama with supernatural elements never did catch on with audiences.

Interestingly enough, these three shows were canceled on the same day the maker of Twinkies and Ding Dongs permanently closed its doors due to financial difficulties and a prolonged labor dispute. Since The T Dog Media Cancellation Bus itself met its maker, the transportation for all three TV shows’ trip to the television graveyard is now being provided by a Hostess truck.