In the run-up to NBC‘s 2026 upfront presentation, the network canceled two scripted series, sophomore medical drama Brilliant Minds and freshman cheerleading comedy Stumble.
“Honestly, we have a very, very tight schedule. Because we have a lot of sports, for our entertainment time periods, we had to actually give up on some shows that we really love to make room to launch our future potential hits,” Jeff Bader, NBCUniversal’s President of Program Planning Strategy, told Deadline.
The move didn’t come as a surprise as Stumble and Brilliant Minds are NBC’s lowest rated scripted series this season. Still, there are mitigating factors, including the questionable scheduling of single-camera mocumentary Stumble, starring Jenn Lyon, on Fridays behind Reba McEntire’s multi-camera sitcom Happy’s Place.
‘Stumble’
Stumble, which scored well with critics and viewers (82% and 96%, respectively, on Rotten Tomatoes), got off to a rough ratings start on Friday and never recovered, even after NBC eventually put reruns behind the far more compatible lead-in St. Denis Medical on Monday.
Deadline asked NBC’s head of scheduling Bader about launching Stumble on Friday and its subsequent cancellation.
“I love that show,” he said. “Obviously, there is an issue with a single-cam coming out of the multi-cam, just tonally, it was different than Happy’s Place. We have very limited real estate, and we did the best we could, I feel terrible about it.”
Added Lisa Katz, President of Scripted Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, “Creatively, we loved this show. I think we could all think of shows that we loved creatively that unfortunately, didn’t go beyond one season. We’re incredibly proud of it, and think it had so much humor and so much heart. I’m disappointed that it’s not continuing.”
Bader indicated that the network learned from the scheduling experience with Stumble and applied it to its development for next season.
“You’ll see that Lisa and team, they very specifically developed multi-cams to pair with multi-cams and single-cams to pair with single-cams, the flow should be better this year.”
NBC this year ordered two multi-camera comedy pilots as potential companions for Happy Place, one of which, Newlyweds, starring Téa Leoni and Tim Daly, was picked up to series and will follow the Reba McEntire sitcom on the Friday schedule. The network also greenlighted a single-camera comedy series, Sunset P.I. starring Jake Johnson, which will be paired with St. Denis Medical in midseason.
‘Brilliant Minds’
Brilliant Minds posted NBC’s steepest double-digit year-to-year declines despite having the same high-profile post-Voice Monday time slot as last season. In an early sign that the medical drama starring Zachary Quinto was facing a likely cancellation, NBC pulled it from the schedule in February, with the remaining six episodes set for release post-cancellation, on May 27.
Deadline asked Katz whether Brilliant Minds’ cancellation was a foregone conclusion since the scheduling of the final episodes makes their performance irrelevant.
“I think we shot this season and, again, similar to Stumble, creatively we love the show, and are really proud of the show, and think that the fans deserve to see how the story ends,” she said. “It has a great, very satisfying ending. So we’d like to have the opportunity for the fans of the show, of which there are still many, to be able to see it and finish the story with the characters.”
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