Big Island series
loses its wind
‘Wind on water’ off the air
By Tim Ryan
Star-Bulletin"Wind on Water," the first television series to be based on a neighbor island, has been pulled from NBC's schedule after just two broadcasts, a precursor to being canceled.
The cast and crew were notified yesterday and the production office shut down, a spokesperson for producer Zalman King said.
It's rare that a show is ever brought back after being removed from its broadcast schedule. But NBC has not officially announced that "Wind" was canceled.
The two episodes aired so far received dismal Nielsen ratings. Saturday night's show got a 3.8 rating and 7 share in homes, and a 1.9/7 in adults aged 18-49). That was 17 percent below its poor premiere 18-49 rating a week ago.
With November sweeps beginning next week, "there's no way (NBC) would keep a show with a seven share" on the air, an NBC spokesperson said.
The Big Island-based hourlong series starring Bo Derek and Lee Horsley last Friday finished its eighth episode and was to begin number nine today .
The original program order for the NBC-Zalman King production called for 13 episodes. It's possible that the completed but not aired six episodes will never be seen.
In "Wind's" timeslot, NBC will air repeats of "The Pretender" this week and Nov. 14 and a special on comic Chris Farley Nov. 7.
The "Wind" pilot cost about $4 million; each episode another $1.8 million.
There was also more trouble with the fast-sinking Oahu-based "Fantasy Island," on ABC.
The series got a 3.6/7 in homes, 2.0/6 in adults 18-49, its lowest numbers yet, losing to Fox's "Cops" and "America's Most Wanted." It was the first Saturday this fall with no baseball disruption.
Each household rating point represents an estimated 994,000 homes, or 1 percent of the country's TV households. Each adults' 18-49 rating point represents 1.239 million viewers, 1 percent of the U.S. total. A share is the same sort of percentage, except it's measured against only the homes or viewers watching TV during the timeslot involved.
