Entertainment

'Training Day' Is Coming To An End

by Nina Bradley

It's a wrap! CBS determined the fate of some of the series that have joined its lineup in the past year and recently canceled three more shows, according to TV Guide. Among the shows which were given the pink slip, it was revealed that Training Day will not be returning for Season 2. After just one short season, the network has ultimately decided not to continue the series, which is based off the 2001 movie of the same name.

The show, which launched in February of this year, reportedly got off to a slow start, according to Deadline, while also suffering the tragedy of losing one of its main characters. Bill Paxton's unexpected death happened shortly after the show's mid-season premiere.

During its production stages, the show created a lot of buzz due to the huge success of the movie and Denzel Washington's Academy Award win for his portrayal in the film. However, that chatter would soon wear off, once time came for the first episode to air, as it was reportedly met with extremely underwhelming viewership numbers, according to Deadline. Adding insult to injury, the show was later moved from its original Thursday night time slot to Saturday due to poor performance, TV Line reported. All-in-all, CBS decided not to officially pull the 13-episode series from the air until the end of the season, with the finale happening on May 20.

Training Day's cancellation certainly shouldn't come as a surprise, given the string of events that have stricken the freshman cop procedural. TMZ's announcement that Paxton's role would not be recast should there be a Season 2 also served as the writing on the wall for the show's demise. Paxton played one half of the mismatched cop duo that the entire show was based on, paralleling the pairing of Washington and Ethan Hawke's characters in the film version, which would make it hard to move on without someone in his place.

Looks like 16 years may have been too long of a wait to reboot such a classic film. I have to be honest, though — Washington-Hawke chemistry is a pretty hard feat to recreate.