Tuning In to TV

‘Southland’ axed

NBC has pulled the plug on “Southland” before the show’s second-season launch, Variety reports.

According to the trade publication, on Thursday Warner Bros. Television was told by the network that the series was being canceled. Neither the studio nor NBC would comment on why the show was halted, but insiders say the dark nature of the cop drama was a factor.

“Southland” had been set to bow in the Friday 9 p.m. slot on Oct. 23. “Dateline” is currently in that hour, and NBC has been content with its ratings. Last week, the long-running newsmagazine drew almost 8 million viewers, Variety said.

NBC said it will do its best to air the six second-season “Southland” episodes that have been shot and that the quality of the show wasn’t a factor in the decision.

“Southland” aired seven episodes the spring in the Thursday 10 p.m. slot after “ER” signed off in March. The show performed respectably at the outset but softened by the end of its run.

Art imitates life

They’ve been featured on countless talk shows and magazine covers as well as their own TLC program. Now Jon and Kate Gosselin are serving as the inspiration for Friday’s “Law & Order” episode.

The segment, titled “Reality Bites,” focuses on the star of “Larry Plus 10,” a “Jon & Kate Plus Eight”-type reality show about a dad raising 10 adopted special-needs children after his wife is killed, TVGuide.com says.

The episode spotlights the competition between two families — Larry Johnson’s and another clan comparable to that of “Octomom” Nadya Suleman — as they compete to get their own reality show when Larry’s wife is murdered.

Larry becomes a suspect in his wife’s slaying, but so does the Octomom-inspired character. “The babysitter is a suspect. One of the kids, who’s a teenager, is a suspect,” “L&O” executive producer Rene Balcer tells TVGuide.com. “The teenager’s friend is a suspect. We’ve got lots of suspects.”

Mr. Balcer says scenes highlighting “Larry Plus 10” were informed directly by reality shows, even down to wiring a house for sound and the “confessionals” that can be staples of such programs. Besides the whodunit aspect, Mr. Balcer says there’s the question of whether the episode will change people’s attitudes about TV-friendly families such as the Gosselins and Octomom.

“It may make, in some ways, both the producers and subjects of reality shows less sympathetic [to viewers],” he says. “Why would you want to subject your kids to that kind of intrusion?”

Monkey business

ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” nixed the planned use of a chimpanzee as a mock guest judge for Tuesday night’s show, just hours after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals protested, Variety reports.

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