From Marc Berman at Mediaweek.com:

-NBC Rearranges Friday:
After dipping from a solid first to a distant third on Friday NBC will
make immediate programming changes. Effective this Friday, Oct. 10, Miss
Match will move into the 9 p.m. hour, leading out of a repeat of Bravo’s
Queer Eye For the Straight Guy and into a repeat of Law & Order: SVU at 10
p.m. One week later Dateline will kick off the night at 8 p.m. ET.
Although we were all wondering which new series would be the first to go,
sophomore Boomtown gets that honor, with the critically acclaimed crime
drama sentenced to what NBC says is at least a three week hiatus.


Actually, this season’s “Boomtown” is a new show entirely. Last season, “Boomtown” was a great new cop show with a twist.

No, the policemen didn’t sing or dance!

One crime was told out of order through the perspective of different characters. Each sequence would start with the name of the person whose perspective we are watching.
One event could have three different meanings. Something could be revealed at the end of the episode that took place at the beginning of the crime.

Confused? Well NBC assumed the viewers were. I’d like to have faith in the viewers and think that they understood the show and just didn’t care.

NBC took the show off the air and sent it to a reform school called, “development.” It was sent to one of those camps where they beat the will out of you in order to make you a better person. Like those boot camps to get kids to stop doing drugs or yelling at their momma. You know, the one where rich kids and guests of the Ricki Lake Show are sent.

Well, after a few weeks in the reformatory, “Boomtown” came back, a little beat down. He learned to stop his terrible ways. He would now admit that challenging the audience was wrong, and he was sorry.

The show’s stories were all linear. No jumping back and forth in time. Each segment would have a name of a character, but the involvement was nothing more than the first couple lines or happen to move the scene. The only time they f’ed with a timeline was when someone was describing the crime, like on CSI or CSI: Miami, or the little known, CSI: Camden.

I guess the ratings for this reformed cop show were good enough to get a spot on the Friday night line up. This season the show returned even more beaten down. The plots are boring and nothing really happens. Even the names were removed from the top of the acct.

NBC should ship “Boomtown” to the Siberia that is Saturdays and burn off the episodes they shot. Then sell the whole deal to their sister station Court TV. Then To Their sister station BRAVO. Then to their sister station TR!O for “Brilliant but Cancelled.” (BTW- “Brilliant but Cancelled” is now a catchphrase/sound bite. People now predict, “This show is so good, but audiences won’t get it. It will be on Tr!o’s “Brilliant but Cancelled” in no time.” Every time you hear that, drink. Drink heavily.

So when you read that NBC cancelled a critically acclaimed cop show, think again. First they shook it and beat it’s will to live out of him.