Monarch has been assassinated after just one season on Fox
The series (sort of) starred Susan Sarandon as the matriarch of a country music family that included Trace Adkins and Anna Friel
Aux News Fox
The Monarch is dead; short live the Monarch.
Which is to say: Deadline reports tonight that Fox has pulled the plug on Monarch, its recent effort to do for country music what Empire did for hip-hop. (And also, now that we think of it, exactly what Nashville already did for country music. Whoops!)
Instead, Monarch has ended after just a single season on the air, thus denying us any lingering familial drama. (Or incredibly bizarre real-world drama, in the case of Empire.) The series centered on the fictional Roman family, a legendary country music dynasty thrown into chaos after matriarch Dottie (Susan Sarandon, who featured prominently in the pilot before stepping back her involvement for reasons that will become apparent exactly one word after this parenthetical ends) dies. The series starred Trace Adkins as Dottie’s husband, a beloved country musician in his own right, and Anna Friel, Joshua Sasse, and Beth Ditto as the three Roman children, in various states of waywardness.
Fox tried, god bless ‘em: Monarch launched with a huge marketing push that included a large focus on the show’s country soundtrack, with Friel, Ditto, and Adkins singing lots of covers of beloved genre hits. (Adkins’ character also got his own real-life signature whiskey; bad news today for anyone who was a big drinker of “Truthteller 1839.”)
But at the end of the day, Monarch just didn’t have the juice. (Although it did have the “Juice”; Ditto did a cover of the Lizzo hit in the show’s third episode.) Ratings fell hard after the Sarandon-heavy first episode, and while they held steadyish from there, critics tore the show apart for, among other things, appearing to be a Susan Sarandon project with very little Sarandon in it.
Monarch was mostly notable, in fact, for its behind-the-scenes status: As the first show to be produced by Fox Entertainment Studios—the studio formed from the detritus of whatever Disney didn’t take when it bought most of Fox several years back—the show had a lot riding on it. And now, unfortunately, has appeared to take the whole load galloping right off a cliff.
30 Comments
We have a moral duty to fight against all shows that try to normalize wearing cowboy hats.
Raylan Givens would like to have a word
Boyd Crowder would like to have five words where one would do.
“I’ve been accused of many things, but being inarticulate ain’t one of them”
You know what, while Boyd’s style varies dramatically over the series, I can’t think of a single time he dons a cowboy hat. (And why would he, with that magnificent head of hair?)
Goddamn, excellent response!
Boyds will by Boyds, right?
Walt Longmire would like to stare at you until you reconsider that position.
Bob Falfa disagrees. As do I.
The hats serve their purpose. They are a pretty good indicator of what the head ‘neath them thinks of black people.
Wait, Beth Ditto? From the Gossip? There’s a name I hadn’t heard in a dozen years.
I mean, I totally would have pirat…er…I mean watched it had I known that.
One in the same!
Sounds like a timeslot just opened up for a country fried drama loosely based on the dirty life and times of THE SPR3!
Now I understand why Hulu recommended this to me last night.
Monarch has been assimilated after just one season on Fox, resistance futile
To be fair, it probably wasn’t a good sign that it got pushed back due to reshoots and a showrunner change before it even premiered. I remember seeing previews for this during the end of the last NFL season, and then when Week 1 came around this year, seeing those exact same previews and wondering “Wait, didn’t they already put this out?”
BRING BACK THE MOB DOCTOR!
I didn’t watch the show but I saw all the commercials so I was shocked to learn here that Sarandon’s character died in the pilot. She was all over the advertising. If I had been interested in the show and had watched the pilot I might have been impressed that they had the guts to kill off the most famous person on the show after the first episode, but I probably would have been more pissed off and felt like I had been lied to and wasted my time.This reminds me of the original script for Lost where Jack would have been portrayed by Michael Keaton but he would be killed halfway through the pilot, making Kate the main character.
This reminds me of the original script for Lost where Jack would have been portrayed by Michael Keaton but he would be killed halfway through the pilot, making Kate the main character.Say what you will about the last two seasons, but the overall show would have been awful if they went this route instead.
Hell of a “bait and switch” they pulled on people. She was likely a big reason someone may have given some legitimacy to the show. Like, it doesn’t look that great but if she’s in it, maybe there’s something more to it.
This has to be the 800th show I first heard of after it got cancelled.
Geez. I thought this was gonna become the new big show among conservatives. Although I guess Sarandon’s presence must have hindered that, however peripheral.
Several minor league baseball teams had “Monarch nights” back in early September where the home team wore Monarch-themed jerseys, they gave away Monarch swag to fans, and they showed Monarch clips on the Jumbotron between innings. It was a weird promotion for a new TV show, and, as others have said, all the clips made you think Susan Sarandon was the star.
(Although it did have the “Juice”; Uh-oh…OJ Simpson is reviving his acting career?
So now what am I supposed to watch? Grey’s Anatomy?!
Just Succession, Sopranos, or Supernatural
at first glance I saw the words ‘Fox’ and ‘Assassinated’ and my eager brain must have confused ‘Monarch’ with ‘Murdoch’ for a brief second.
Never have I felt such joy, swiftly followed by such deflation…
That’s really messed up man
I might have watched it if I’d known Susan Sarandon immediately dies.