“The Meredith Vieira Show” will conclude its two season run in May, host and executive producer Meredith Vieira announced today of her NBCUniversal Domestic Television Distribution based talk show. “I am so sorry to see our show come to an end after this season, but I am also incredibly proud of the work our staff has done and forever grateful to our supportive viewers,” she said in a statement. “We promise to spend our final weeks producing the best broadcast we know how. And have a blast doing so!”
Word of the daytime talk show’s cancellation first came to light on Saturday, December 26, when PageSix published a story citing an unnamed insider that the show was telling reps of the celebrity elite that the show would come to an end in the coming months.
“The Meredith Vieira Show” is the second lowest rated talk show in daytime, second only to Disney/ABC Domestic Television’s “FABLife.” The daytime talker is averaging an anemic 0.9 household rating and a 0.5 in the Women 25-54 key adult sales demo.
According to Deadline, which first reported the news, Vieira will transition towards NBC’s coverage of the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after production wraps on the talker. The show, however, will be replaced by 4:00 PM local newscasts in the top four markets it airs, including New York and and Los Angeles. The NBC Owned Television Stations, which was the talk show’s launch group, have opted to move the 3:00 to 5:00 PM block consisting of “Steve Harvey” and “Ellen” to an earlier 2:00 to 4:00 PM block. It’s noted that other NBC Owned stations already include 4:00 PM newscasts on their schedule.