NBC Cancels ‘Outsourced’

nbc canceled tv shows

The NBC sitcom, American TV’s first set in India and the first to feature so many Indian Americans in front of and behind the camera, failed to make it into the lineup of NBC’s Summer 2011 schedule. NBC entertainment president Robert Greenblatt announced the network’s lineup of new shows at an “upfront” presentation May 16, which introduced new and existing shows to advertisers, and “Outsourced” didn’t make the cut.

“Sad to see it go — hopeful that this opportunity was a step towards others! Thanx all!” tweeted cast member Rizwan Manji, who played Rajiv, the ambitious, backstabbing office manager at Mid America Novelties, an American gift products company whose call center was relocated to Mumbai.

“Pity the show got cancelled just as it seemed to be finding its feet,” tweeted Anisha Nagarajan, who played the shy Madhuri. “It was an amazing series to be in.”

Parvesh Cheena, a hammy comic actor from Chicago who stole many of his scenes as Gupta, has already lined up a new acting job, according to reports: he will next be seen in a big-screen comedy called “City of Jerks.”

Babu Subramaniam, who served as first assistant director on the show and was instrumental in creating the look of its realistic sets on a soundstage just north of Hollywood, posted on Facebook, calling “Outsourced” “… a great fun ride! Mumbai in Studio City!”

Response has been wildly mixed since the news broke that the Indian-themed comedy was being cancelled.

Although the show’s fans have been effusively praising its writing and performances, the show had plenty of detractors from the very first episode, who called the show’s portrayal of Indians racist and criticized its writing.

“NBC cancelled ‘Outsourced.’ Let’s start that letter-writing campaign. And by that I mean thank you cards!” tweeted one Hollywood scribe.

“Outsourced,” which was adapted by American TV director Ken Kwapis from an independent film released in 2006, followed the comic exploits of an American sales manager, Todd Dempsey (Ben Rappaport), assigned to supervise his company’s call center in India. The show also starred Anisha Nagarajan, Diedrich Bader, Pippa Black, Rebecca Hazlewood and Sacha Dhawan, and boasted a writing team that was one-third Indian American; India-West went behind the scenes of the show in an exclusive story series last October.

The show, which premiered last September in a dream time slot right after “The Office,” had been in limbo ever since it was moved to a deadly 10:30 Thursday night slot later on. Many “Outsourced” fans felt that the time slot was the main reason for its downfall, though the show earned positive ratings among viewers who recorded it on DVRs and watched entire episodes online at www.nbc.com/outsourced (where full episodes are still available).

According to the industry blog TVSeriesFinale.com, the show debuted to a 3.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 7.49 million viewers — making it NBC’s second highest rated scripted show.

By week two, it had fallen 22 percent. The numbers kept falling after the time zone shift, and reached a low of 1.4 in the 18-49 demographic, with just 2.97 million viewers.

For the past few weeks, a grass-roots campaign had urged fans from around the country, in the Indian American and mainstream communities, to write in and let NBC know the show was loved and wanted (I-W, May 6).

A Facebook page called “Keep Outsourced” hasn’t given up yet, though: its fans are now lobbying the TBS network to pick up the shows for airing in reruns.

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admin    Other Article     Acting Job, American Tv, Backstabbing, Cast Member, City Response, Comic Actor, Detractors, Fun Ride, Madhuri, Manji, Mid America, Nagarajan, Nbc Entertainment, Nbc Sitcom, President Robert, Rajiv, Robert Greenblatt, Screen Comedy, Soundstage, Subramaniam