I really thought this was a bad idea. The original was just a surreal freaky nightmare but... ( I KNOW ILL GET FLAMED FOR THIS) wrapping a more straight forward narrative around the original works. I like it better than the original.

The Kingdom is the original. Kingdom Hospital is what this thread should be called indeed.

Jolt, I figure with all the things you are on, you would have liked the orignal better.

Jack I never saw the Kingdom so I really can't compare but I tuned into Kingdom Hospital because of Stephen King and so far I haven't been dissapointed.

THANK YOU!!!!! I've been wondering the same thing for the past two weeks!

renaldow, more people might post to and read the thread if you called the show by it's aired and promoted American TV name...

Hey, when someone else starts the thread they can call it what they want. Damned if I'm going to write the full true name, "ABC Presents: Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital" week after week. That title is a blasphemy.

If you can't figure out what the thread is about by the title, you're not smart enough to post in it

http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271|87149|1|,00.html

ABC Sends 'Kingdom Hospital' Screaming to Thursday
(Monday, March 29 08:15 AM)


HOLLYWOOD (Zap2it.com) - - To put it in parlance that Stephen King might understand, ABC views Wednesday night at 10 p.m. as a haunted house and if any show can occupy that time slot for a full year, it'll win a big prize. Well, relatively early in its run, King's "Kingdom Hospital" has sped away from that haunted house crying. After an impressive premiere and rapidly decreasing viewership, ABC has shipped the medical ghost story to an even greater graveyard on Thursday.

"Kingdom Hospital" will move from Wednesday nights, where it has been regularly crushed by NBC's "Law & Order" to Thursday nights at 9 p.m. where it can be regularly crushed by NBC's "The Apprentice" and CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

Starting Wednesday, April 14 (the week after the two-hour premiere of "The Bachelor"), ABC will shift "Extreme Makeover" to Wednesdays at 10 p.m. Although the personal transformation show has been soundly beaten on Thursday nights, its average viewership of nearly 7.7 million viewers against tougher competition shows the potential to outdo anything ABC has programmed in the slot this season.

Despite critical raves, "Karen Sisco" bombed out of the time slot relatively early in the season. The two-hour premiere of "Kingdom Hospital" drew a promising 14 million viewers. The second episode was down to 8.5 million and the third dipped to just under 7.1 million viewers.

In other scheduling moves, as was reported earlier, FOX is swapping Friday night dramedy "Wonderfalls" and Thursday night reality entry "Forever Eden" for a one week test run. That will put "Wonderfalls" on Thursday, April 1 at 9 p.m. and "Forever Eden" on Friday, April 2 at 9 p.m.


I'm not surprised people are turning this out. I've never seen The Kingdom, but it just seems like there is a lot of filler in the last couple of episodes, in order for it to be 13 hours or however long the series is.

Plus the typical stereotypical Stephen King characters on the show. Or are most of these characters from the original The Kingdom?

Chris

I noticed the move to Thurs also from my TiVo schedule. I hope they don't keep trying to move this around thinking that will help it. How about less commercials?? Nah, that wouldn't do it.

Most of the characters are from the original. About the only one that is a Stephen King creation is the artist and his wife, and 1 of the ghosts. Everyone else is a fairly reliable port of the Danish characters.

I don't think moving it up against CSI and The Apprentice is any sign that ABC is trying to help the show. That seems more like a "damn, we give up" sort of move to me.

Is it just me or is this show getting progressively worse?

Any thoughts on tonight's episode (assuming that anyone on here still watches it)?

I thought last night's episode was actually fairly good. The major thing that's annoying me about the show right now is Peter. What a waste of time. How many times can you watch his eyeballs moving? Ah well.

I feel they are just building up to some crazy climax. It will be interesting to see what it is.

I'm finding this show getting extremely boring. It just feels so stretched out now. This was 13 episodes, right? I don't know if I should stick with it. . .

I'm still watching it and loving it. The only problem is the commercials are a little much. ABC did the same thing with Line of Fire they have commercials every 5 minutes it gets a little annoying.

From CNN.com (3/30):


LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- ABC has all but unplugged the life support machinery for one of its newest dramas, "Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital," after four weeks of hemorrhaging ratings.

ABC said Monday it would move the struggling program next week to
9 p.m. on Thursdays for the remainder of its run, essentially throwing it to the ratings wolves opposite two of television's biggest hits -- "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" on CBS and "The Apprentice" on NBC.

Initially slotted against NBC's "Law & Order" juggernaut at 10 p.m Wednesdays, "Kingdom Hospital" has been one of ABC's biggest disappointments this season as the network struggles to rebuild its prime-time schedule. The highly promoted 13-part drama from prolific horror writer Stephen King was touted by ABC as a key to its mid-season comeback strategy, and top executives of ABC's parent, The Walt Disney Co., have been under fire from shareholders who claim they have mismanaged the company. One of the sore spots cited by the dissidents -- led by company namesake Walt Disney's nephew, Roy Disney, and his business partner Stanley Gold -- is the low-rated ABC network.

Based on a Danish miniseries and King's own experiences of being hospitalized after a near-fatal accident, "Kingdom Hospital" tells the story of a famous artist who wakes from a coma with telepathic powers in a haunted hospital.

But after a promising two-hour debut March 3, the thriller has declined steadily in both overall audience and the key demographic of viewers aged 18 to 49, the group most networks use as a benchmark of prime-time success.
Last week, the show averaged just 5.6 million viewers overall and a meager 2.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic, down 57 percent in both categories from its premiere.

ABC plans to air a fifth episode of "Kingdom Hospital" this Wednesday before moving the show to its new Thursday berth next week. In its place next Wednesday, ABC will launch a new edition of romance reality show "The Bachelor" with a two-hour premiere at 9 p.m. The following week, April 14, "Extreme Makeover" will move into the 10 p.m. Wednesday slot.
ABC has been on the ratings ropes since its onetime monster hit game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" collapsed from overexposure two years ago.

this is the 4th week in a row it's been delayed. It's really starting to get annoying. Especially since i missed last the last new sow

http://www.stephenking.com/pages/FAQ/khfaq.php

ABC will run the final 4 episodes of Kingdom Hospital as three one-hour episodes and one 2-hour episode. Episode 10 is called "The Passion of Reverend Jimmy" by Tabitha King and Stephen King. Episode 11 is called "Seizure Day" by Richard Dooling. Episode 12 is called "Shoulda' Stood in Bed" by Stephen King and the last episode which is 2 hours is called "Finale" by Stephen King. All are directed by Craig Baxley and they will run on consecutive Thursdays beginning June 24th.

This stunk so bad I forgot to watch it one week and then just said, "Who cares." Watching it was masochistic.

I really wanted this to be great but after watching a few episodes I found myself letting them stack up on my Tivo and not wanting to watch them. I finally deleted them and hung it up.

Yeah, I gave up on it too. I thought it would be my kind of show initially. But it was just really dull.

Okay so is this show cancelled or on hiatus or what?

I saw Stephen King mention that it was definitely pulled with unaired episodes remaining but that it wasn't really cancelled. I was sort of miffed myself because I WAS getting into it and stuff was started to move ahead.

ABC was sort of killing the show from the get go because there was always so much advertising in each hour that the show never contained more that 22 min of real content which is a 30 min show IMO.

So are the remaining episodes ever going to air? Is this a second season mid-season replacement?

I mean I'm pretty sure it is cancelled, but it still seems to be in limbo.

I'm pretty sure the only other time you're going to see this is with the DVD release. The rating fell off the cliff after the first episode or two.

I thought it was done. It wasn't very good IMO so you didn't really miss anything. It dragged in the middle. If it had been shorter I think it would have been better.

The show's two finale episodes ran in July (so it did finish its run). I hadn't watched it for many episodes but watched the end, because, what the hell, I was a little curious. The end sucked just as bad and I already can hardly remember it.

The shows had a normal program/commercial ratio. However, It would have been better if there had been 38 minutes of commercials per hour.

A month of so back, they aired all the remaining episodes. At this point you'll have to buy it on DVD or rent it.