NBC certainly hoped that The Black Donnellys would bring in better numbers than the show it replaced, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Turns out it didn’t perform well either, despite the hype. Donnellys only average 8.4 million viewers for its debut, only slightly assisted by the lead-in audience from Heroes. Heroes ran over into Black Donnellys’ timeslot, so the 14.3 million who were watching may have held on for the debut of Donnellys. However, they didn’t stick around—the numbers dropped to 6.8 million at 10:30 p.m. Studio 60, by comparison, averaged 6.1 million viewers during its last episode. I saw a clip on E! with Kritin Veitch where she said that Studio 60 is as expensive to cancel as it is to create, so NBC is certainly between the proverbial rock and hard place.