Major NBC Reality Series Moves to New Channel

The Courtship made its debut on USA Network Wednesday night after starting the season on NBC. Before moving to its NBCUniversal sister cable channel, the new reality dating series earned poor ratings on the main Peacock network. The Courtship is making the move to cable after failing to attract viewers on NBC.

The Courtship will air Wednesday nights at 11 p.m. ET after Temptation Island, Vulture‘s Joe Adalian confirmed. Episodes will be available to stream the next day on Peacock. Last week’s episode was the series premiere, with episodes two and three airing this week. Episode 4 will air on Wednesday, March 30, reports Variety. This Sunday, NBC will air Weakest Link in place of The Courtship. On March 27, NBC’s Sunday night schedule will feature American Song Congest, Weakest Link and Transplant.

The Courtship was originally titled Pride & Prejudice: An Experiment in Romance and is a dating show where everyone wears costumes inspired by the Regency Era. The series stars Nicole Remy, who has to find the love of her life in the UK while playing by Jane Austen-inspired rules. Although it looks like producers developed the show to capitalize on the success of Netflix’s Bridgerton, NBCUniversal started developing it before Bridgerton was released.

NBCUniversal originally intended only to release the show on Peacock, but executives thought putting it on NBC’s schedule would help it attract more attention. “We are always looking to discover a fresh take on a beloved format,” Jenny Groom, EVP of entertainment unscripted content at NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, told Variety. “Much like how The Voice took the singing competition to the next level, The Courtship elevates the experience by reimagining modern dating and experimenting with dating in Regency times.”

Sadly for NBC, The Courtship was not the next Voice. The ratings for The Courtship were abysmal. The March 6 premiere drew just 990,000 viewers and a 0.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic, despite airing after an America’s Got Talent: Extreme repeat, reports TVLine. DVR playback didn’t help, as only 100,000 more viewers watched the show during the week after the premiere. Episode two somehow did even worse, dropping 37% in total viewers and 50% in the demographic. Remarkably, Transplant Season 2, which aired after The Courtship, has averaged 1.1 million viewers.