‘Truth Be Told’ Order Cut To 10 Episodes By NBC

This is becoming a trend this fall as the networks are not as trigger happy as previous years and don’t yank underperforming new series off the schedule abruptly. Instead, the nets are trimming the lower-rated newcomers’ original 13-episode orders and allowing them to air all produced episodes in their designated time slots. The latest example is NBC’s new comedy series Truth Be Told. Following two very low-rated airings (0.7 in adults 18-49 for the premiere, 0.6 for the second episode last week), NBC is cutting the sitcom’s order by three episodes, to 10. The Universal TV-produced show already is in production on Episode 10, so production will stop after filming the episode wraps.

The multi-camera comedy, which garnered mostly negative reviews, launched behind Undateable on the lower-trafficked Friday night to the worst premiere 18-49 rating for a new show so far this fall and NBC’s worst in-season debut rating ever.

Truth Be Told joins three other underperforming freshmen whose orders were cut: Fox’s Minority Report and ABC’s Blood & Oil (to 10 episodes) and NBC’s The Player (to nine).