"Four Kings" Put Back in the Deck

They shouldn't be smiling.

The Futon Critic is reporting that NBC has pulled troubled freshman sitcom Four Kings from the schedule immediately, replacing the series with repeats of My Name is Earl, which will begin airing in the vacated timeslot this Thursday.

The move hardly comes as a surprise to insiders who had pegged the show for cancellation. The series was averaging a dismal 7.47 million viewers, making it NBC's lowest-rated program on Thursday nights.

No official replacement for the timeslot has been announced yet. My guess would be either that NBC continues to use it to house repeats of Earl or Will & Grace or they move their new sitcom Teachers (a bad American remake of a so-so British dramedy) into the slot.

Meanwhile, people who watch My Name is Earl and The Office on Thursdays breathed a sigh of relief due to the news, as they finally won't have to be afraid of their TiVo's switching over early to NBC and forcing them to catch a glimpse of Four Kings.