Well that was bloody quick! After just a few weeks of abysmal ratings, Fox has pulled the plug on its faux reality dating show I Wanna Marry Harry, which featured twelve American women who were duped into thinking they are competing for the love of Prince Harry when it was actually just Prince Harry look-alike Matthew Hicks.
Joining I Wanna Marry Harry on the network’s chopping block is another of Fox’s Tuesday night primetime offerings, Riot. Never heard of it? Neither had we — and apparently neither had pretty much anyone.
I Wanna Marry Harry made quite the splash prior to its premiere, making numerous headlines with its British royalty meets The Bachelor meets Punk’d concept. Fox even gave the series a premium premiere slot — right after the last American Idol performance episode of the season on May 20. But, even with the prime slot and the publicity, the premiere only managed to bring in just under two million viewers with this week’s episode unable to even break one million as a meager 990,000 tuned in.
Riot, which The Wrap describes as “basically a variety show complete with song, dance and sketch challenges with the extra twist of taking place on the show’s trademark one-of-a-kind set, which is tilted at a 22-degree angle,” actually managed to do a little better than I Wanna Marry Harry with Tuesday night’s episode managing to scrape together 1.18 million viewers.
Beginning next week, I Wanna Marry Harry and Riot will be replaced in Fox’s Tuesday night lineup with reruns of Family Guy, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, New Girl and The Mindy Project. And starting tomorrow afternoon, the remaining episodes of I Wanna Marry Harry will be available online at Fox.com, Fox On Demand, FOX NOW and Hulu. The network also says it is currently looking into finding a different time slot to air the rest of the season.
There is no word on the fate of the remaining Riot episodes.
