Southland gets the axe

After being pushed a month back to October 23, for its Friday night premiere, "Southland" has undoubtedly met the chopping block. The show was on the cusp of launching the six episode second season, but unfortunately that will not happen.

NBC decided to cancel the show altogether, even though the network was originally supportive of the show. "Southland" started off well taking over the Thursday night 10pm slot from its predecessor hit "ER".

The gritty cop-drama was created by John Wells who has been behind such NBC hits as "The West Wing" and as spoken about before "ER." This cancellation ends the long association between Wells and NBC.

Since the "Jay Leno Show" took over the 10pm slot during the week, all the dramas have been moved to an hour earlier. NBC felt that "Southland" might be too dark for the earlier time slot. Also since the show struggled to get good ratings in its first season and was moved to Friday night, they figured they might as well cut their losses.

As reported on Reuters.com, "it hasn't been a good start for NBC's scripted dramas this fall, with rookies "Trauma" and "Mercy" struggling along with most of the returning veterans, including "Heroes" and "Law & Order: SVU."