Thursday, April 20, 2006 - 11:53 AM
NBC Calls Off 'Cooking Showdown,' Episodes to Instead Air Online
By Brian Ford Sullivan
LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- NBC is calling off its "Celebrity Cooking Showdown," as the show's final two installments - set to air tonight and Friday - will instead be webcast on NBC.com.
Repeats of "Will & Grace" ("Love Is In The Airplane") and "My Name Is Earl" ("The Professor") will fill the 8:00/7:00c hour tonight with an encore of "Deal or No Deal" ("Episode No. 24") set to run tomorrow at 8:00/7:00c.
The news comes after yet another disastrous performance for the series. Last night's installment took a distant fifth place among adults 18-49 in the 8:00/7:00c hour (a 1.6 rating) according to preliminary numbers, ahead of only "One Tree Hill" on the WB (a 1.2 rating).
Ben Silverman, David A. Hurwitz and Sean "Diddy" Combs were the executive producers of the series.