Seth Green

Freshman sitcom disappears from schedule

LOS ANGELES — It looks like the reign of "Four Kings" at NBC will be shorter than expected.

The network has yanked the first-year comedy from its schedule for at least the next few weeks after the show scuffled in its first episode following a five-week absence. It will be replaced by repeats of "My Name Is Earl," starting Thursday (March 23).

The show, which stars Seth Green, Josh Cooke, Todd Grinnell and Shane McRae as lifelong buddies who share a New York apartment, got off to a somewhat promising start in January, averaging close to 9 million viewers over its first two weeks. Since then, though, it’s cracked the 7 million-viewer mark only once; last week’s episode reached 6.83 million people despite lesser-than-usual competition, with the NCAA basketball tournament airing on CBS instead of "Survivor."

Although it certainly wasn’t a breakout hit, "Four Kings" did do a credible job of holding the audience for its lead-in, "Will & Grace." Last week’s episode, for example, retained about 75 percent of the 9.1 million people who watched "Will & Grace," and for the season the two shows were averaging identical 3.4 ratings in the adults 18-49 demographic.

Both shows were created by Max Mutchnick and David Kohan.

The writing has been on the wall for "Four Kings" for a while, though. Cooke and McRae have both taken roles in pilots at ABC — Cooke in "A Day in the Life" and McRae in "Our Thirties."

There’s no word from NBC as to whether the remaining episodes of "Four Kings" will see the light of day.