This hasn't been the best few months for reality uber-producer Mark Burnett. First NBC pulled the second season of his The Restaurant series off the schedule and later burned off the remaining episodes on Saturday nights. Now Fox has announced that it's apparently so anxious to get his extremely disappointing The Casino series off the its airwaves that the show will air twice weekly for the duration of its thirteen episode run.
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Following the adventures of "dotcom" millionaires Timothy Poster and Thomas Breitling as they purchased and attempted to revitalize the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, The Casino performed poorly for Fox from the beginning, drawing only 5.8 million viewers in its June premiere. For there, the ratings have only gotten worse, with recent broadcasts of the series drawing well fewer than 5 million weekly viewers.
After tonight's (Monday, August 2) normal eighth episode broadcast at 9PM ET/PT, Fox will preempt The Casino for a week and begin the program's new dual Sunday/Monday schedule on Sunday, August 15 at 9PM ET/PT. After two weeks of dual episode broadcasts, the series will air its finale on Sunday, August 29 at 9PM ET/PT.
Given Burnett's ongoing squabbles with Fox concerning his upcoming The Contender and Rock Star series, perhaps Casino's demise was for the best -- putting a quick end to what has no doubt become an increasingly uncomfortable business partnership.