Posted in: Current News, Disney, Editor's Picks TV News, Movies, TV, YouTube | Tagged: ABC, romeo and juliet, shonda rhimes, shondaland, still star-crossed, television, tv, william shakespeare

ABC Moves Low-Rated 'Still Star-Crossed' To Saturdays

Still Star-Crossed is about to learn firsthand if "parting is such sweet sorrow" as ABC announced that the low-rated drama would be parting with its Monday night time slot and burning-off the remainder of the season's episodes on Saturday night at 10 PM, beginning July 8. Produced by Shonda Rhimes' Shondaland and ABC Studios and based on the novel from Melinda Taub, Still Star-Crossed was scheduled in a prime summer time slot immediately following The Bachelorette. The show wasn't able to capitalize on the strength of its lead-in, with a disappointing premiere that drew only 2.3 million viewers and a continued drop in ratings ever since.

It wasn't just the viewers and ratings that doomed the series. Critics were harsh on the series, with this quote from Entertainment Weekly mirroring similar reviews of the show:

If Shonda Rhimes has her way, the violent delights of Shakespeare's famous doomed affair will really never end. But judging by the pilot of Still Star-Crossed, an adaptation of Melinda Taub's novel that imagines the aftermath of Romeo and Juliet's deaths, Shondaland's latest product is neither soapy romance nor gut-wrenching tragedy, but a sluggish, stilted mess.

From ABCs's original announcement of the series sequel to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet:

Still Star-Crossed picks up where the famous story of Romeo and Juliet ends, charting the treachery, fight for power and ill-fated romances of the Montagues and Capulets in the wake of the young lovers' tragic fate. In the wake of Romeo and Juliet's tragic deaths, the Montague and Capulet rivalry escalates. A new royal takes the throne and struggles to determine what is best for his city when Verona as an epicenter of mayhem.

Still Star-Crossed stars Grant Bowler as Lord Damiano Montague, Wade Briggs as Benvolio Montague, Torrance Coombs as Count Paris, Dan Hildebrand as Friar Lawrence, Lashana Lynch as Rosaline Capulet, Ebonee Noel as Livia Capulet, Medalion Rahimi as Princess Isabella, Zuleikha Robinson as Lady Guiliana Capulet, Sterling Sulieman as Prince Escalus, Susan Wooldridge as Nurse and Anthony Head as Lord Silvestro Capulet.

Although this is the second project from Shondaland that ABC has cancelled (with crime comedy/drama The Catch recently cancelled after two seasons), Rhimes is still moving ahead with a Grey's Anatomy spinoff and the legal drama For the People. Though Scandal will air its final season, Grey's Anatomy and How to Get Away with Murder appear to be safe and secure in their TGIT spots.

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