Baldwin arrogantly thought his level of notoriety as an opposer of Trump coupled with high-powered celebrity guests would be enough to set him apart in a sea of leftist political talk shows. He was wrong.
In the premiere episodes, Baldwin showed himself to be a far more skilled actor than interviewer, barely allowing his guests to speak over his bevy of jokes and impersonations. A vanity project if ever there was one, Baldwin has seemingly been given a heavy dose of reality in the almost instant demise of his show.
“The Alec Baldwin Show” had plenty of ratings obstacles to overcome and needed to be a hit network show with broad appeal in order to survive. However, it unapologetically designed itself only for the leftist elite. Its original time slot on Sunday nights was opposite Sunday night football and premiered within weeks of two other comedy shows both hosted by progressive millennials, “Busy Tonight” on E! and “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj” on Netflix.
Despite the consistent failings of politically driven celebrity talk shows advertised as comedy, they seem to premiere and get cancelled by the fistful every few months. Few networks or streaming providers seem to be able to learn that content meant only for a progressive audience very rarely works in a country that overwhelmingly elected Donald Trump in 2016.
Baldwin’s fans will point to his November 2 arrest for assault as the reason ABC pulled the show, though Baldwin’s erratic behavior has hardly diminished his popularity in the past. “Saturday Night Live” even made a cute little joke about the arrest of their star Trump impersonator over the weekend.
ABC carefully chose their moment to quietly announce the failure of “The Alec Baldwin Show.” The network released their statement of the show’s sudden move to Saturday night in the mid-afternoon on Election Day, with most of the nation focused heavily on the midterm voting results. As so few people were watching the show, it is unlikely the cancellation will cause any major waves, and I expect ABC will soon retry the experiment with another, stridently liberal host.