Following months of speculation, Steve Harvey’s daytime talk show Steve is officially done at NBC. Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that the season finale taped this week is indeed the last that will be distributed by NBCUniversal.
This nail-in-the-coffin news has been expected for nine months, since the outfit announced it would instead be offering up a new talk effort from Kelly Clarkson in Harvey’s time slot. That blow came only a year into the run of Steve, a reconceived version of his successful talker Steve Harvey which saw the host trade Chicago in for Los Angeles, briefly shift focus to celebrities (a la Ellen DeGeneres) and, most important, get an ownership stake with new partners and producers IMG.
It was the latter bit that is said to have initially frustrated NBCUniversal, but Steve’s failings weren’t entirely behind the scenes. After initially struggling with the change in format, Steve lost viewers. Recent audience tallies for the show have it down more than half a million viewers from the original’s last season. The show was no longer able to crack 2 million viewers, falling to 1.6 million viewers in recent weeks.
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