Thursday, May 21, 2026

“Smash” Smashed At NBC, Rotten Ratings Spell Doom

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“Smash” was an idea that never gelled. And now it is all but completely dead. The NBC drama about the making of a Broadway show scored a 0.6 last night in its target age group, 18-49. Its total audience was said to have been 2.6 million, but that’s just the people who had it on as background noise. No one is watching the second season of “Smash.” It was an experiment and it failed. It was beaten handily last night at 10pm by “Golden Boy” and by “Body of Proof” (a show I like). From the “Smash” cast Jack Davenport’s already found other work. It’s just a matter of time before we hear likewise about Anjelica Huston and Debra Messing. For an insider’s look at producing a Broadway musical, “Smash” was revolting to people who actually know how that works. To outsiders, it was a soap opera that was hard to follow. The question now is, when it goes, will “Smash” take some NBC execs with it. Undoubtedly yes.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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