'How to Be a Gentleman,' 'Free Agents' Canceled

The first cancellations of the fall television season have already come down the pipeline. Two comedies have met with the chopping block already, falling victim to low ratings that couldn't be supported in prime time.

"How to Be a Gentleman," "Free Agents" and "The Playboy Club" are the three big shows to have already been canceled. The news that "How to Be a Gentleman" had been canceled came out on Saturday, as the announcement came that production would end on the new Kevin Dillon show. It's a bit surprising, because this is a show that needed to flourish after "The Big Bang Theory," Thursday nights on CBS.

The first episode of Dillon's latest endeavor didn't do very well, drawing just 9 million viewers in the first week. The numbers just went down from there, even in the key demographic of 18-49 used to keep the advertisers happy. Taking the step away from the wildly successful "Entourage" wasn't quite as easy as advertised, and CBS will now have to head in a different direction with the Thursday comedy block.

For "Free Agents," the numbers weren't even close to being good. The Wednesday night show only drew an estimated 3.1 million viewers during the Sept. 28 episode. Receiving a 1.0 mark in the key demographic was even worse, and the show dragged down NBC during that 8:30 p.m. time slot. NBC lost every time slot on Wednesday night though, so this show is just one excuse for the poor ratings that the network is pulling in.

Shows like "Suburgatory (9.8 million viewers), "Happy Endings" (7.37 million viewers), and even "Revenge" (8.55 million viewers) are drawing better marks on Wednesday's. Those are all ABC shows, giving the network a huge boost in numbers that could help win the night. That's not something that could happen just a year ago, when ABC was struggling to find programming for the night.

With the cancellation of "The Playboy Club" over on NBC, these three shows are the only main ones taken off the air so far. There are likely more shows following soon though, because viewers aren't buying into all the concepts that have debuted this fall. Programs like the comedy "Up All Night" (starring Christina Applegate) and the drama "Unforgettable" (starring Poppy Montgomery) will need to bring in bigger numbers to make sure renewal happens.

Entertainment Weekly is predicting that the shows most at risk now are "A Gifted Man" and "Prime Suspect" because of low numbers.