‘Doubt’ And Other Katherine Heigl Projects That Failed To Connect With Audiences
It took quite a while, but the first new TV series of the 2016-2017 fall season to get canceled is CBS’s Doubt. The courtroom drama boasted that it starred Katherine Heigl and was given a good time slot on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. following the highly rated Criminal Minds, but after just two airings, the show was cut. According to AdWeek, the show’s premiere on February 15 brought in a rating of 0.8 and 5.3 million total viewers and then dropped to a rating of 0.6 and 4 million viewers the following week. Beginning on March 8, the series will be replaced by Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.
Though she’s been acting since 1992, Heigl’s career really took off when she first appeared on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy as medical intern Dr. Isobel “Izzie” Stevens in 2005. She has been nominated for numerous Emmy awards and has won nine. In 2007, Entertainment Weekly considered her to be one of the “Top 25 Entertainers of the Year.” But it was during the following year that Katherine’s star began to shine less brightly. Heigl opted out of the Emmy race because she felt that she hadn’t been given any material that would warrant an Emmy consideration. Heigl left the show in 2010.
As much as Katherine Heigl tries, she really could use a win. Her next TV series, State of Affairs, appeared on NBC in 2015 and lasted for just one season. State of Affairs has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 28 percent and while the score was higher for Doubt (53 percent), CBS only aired two episodes (though more will likely be burned off during the coming summer season).
Heigl’s track record for movies has been spotty as well. While many of her more recent films have made serious money and some of them have received high scores from Rotten Tomatoes like King of the Hill (97 percent) and Knocked Up (90 percent), more often than not, her film’s scores are much lower.
Heigl should not take all of the blame for the following low-scoring movies, but her performances don’t always connect with audiences and/or critics. The following are 10 of Heigl’s lowest scoring movies according to Rotten Tomatoes:.
#10: The Ugly Truth (2009) (13 percent Rotten Tomatoes score)
Heigl starred as a television producer of a headstrong and piggish morning show host played by Gerald Butler. Critics complained that the film had a weak script with “little charm or comedic payoff.”
#9: (tie) Side Effects (2005) (11 percent Rotten Tomatoes score)
The film is considered a semi-autobiographical comedy by Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau. Heigl played a pharmaceutical company employee who questioned her company’s ethics. Luke Y. Thompson of the Los Angeles City Beat said of the movie, “…of all the people affected by big drug company scams, do we really care about the ethical dilemmas faced by gorgeous salespeople?”
#9: (tie) Killers (2010) (11 percent Rotten Tomatoes score)
Heigl played a woman traveling with her parents in the French Riviera when she meets the man of her dreams, Spencer Aimes (Ashton Kutcher), who turns out to be an international spy. Critics complained that the film was “dull, formulaic and chemistry-free.”
#7: The Nut Job (2014) (10 percent Rotten Tomatoes score)
Katherine voiced the character of Andie, a squirrel, in this animated film. The consensus of the critics about this film was that it would “provoke an allergic reaction in all but the least demanding moviegoers.” Heigl also voiced the movie’s sequel, The Nut Job: Nutty By Nature, which releases later this year.
#6: Valentine (2001) (8 percent Rotten Tomatoes score)
Released just four years before Grey’s Anatomy, Heigl played a medical student in this movie that was based on the novel of the same name by Tom Savage. Unfortunately, her character is one of the movie’s first victims in this slasher horror film. The critics said that the film wasn’t scary enough.
#5: (tie) The Big Wedding (2013) (7 percent Rotten Tomatoes score)
Despite the all-star cast that included Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Amanda Seyfried, Topher Grace, Susan Sarandon and Robin Williams, the consensus of the critics was that the film took “broad stabs at humor but few laughs.”
#5: (tie) New Year’s Eve (2011) (7 percent Rotten Tomatoes score)
A holiday picture written and directed by Gary Marshall that did well with ticket sales, but ranked low with critics. Katherine played the ex-girlfriend of a character played by Jon Bon Jovi. The film earned five Golden Raspberry Award nominations but remarkably did not win any.
#3: Home Sweet Hell (2015) (5 percent Rotten Tomatoes score)
Though critics liked this movie’s two leads (Heigl and Patrick Wilson), they did not like this film. Perhaps it had something to do with fact that Heigl’s character portrayed the perfect housewife while killing anyone who would stand in the way of her “happy” marriage in this dark comedy.
#2: One for the Money (2012) (2 percent Rotten Tomatoes score)
Heigl was picked to star in the start of a new movie franchise based on the Stephanie Plum book series by Janet Evanovich. There are more than a dozen books in the series, but the project was canceled after the first film did so poorly in box office sales. Katherine was nominated for a Golden Raspberry award for Worst Actress, but fortunately, lost to Kristen Stewart for her performance in Snow White and the Huntsman.
#1: Caffeine (2007) (0 percent Rotten Tomatoes score)
This film set in a coffee house has the rare distinction of receiving a zero percent score. Lael Loewenstein of the Los Angeles Times called the film “About as appetizing as a pot of dishwater coffee.”
[Featured Image by CBS]
