Film-Industry Satire ‘Action’ Canceled

Art has stopped imitating life on the Fox network, as “Action,” the savage film-industry satire from movie producer Joel Silver, has officially been canceled.

Fox aired the series for the last time Thursday night. Only eight of the 13 completed episodes have been shown, and the network, a division of News Corp., would not say whether the remaining installments would ever be broadcast.

“Action” created a stir before its premiere due to its use of coarse language and sexual situations, becoming the first series on a broadcast network to regularly receive a “mature audiences” rating.

Audiences, however, didn’t exhibit much interest in the concept, despite image-spoofing cameo appearances by movie stars. The program, which had been shelved since late October, averaged just 4.3 million TV viewers, ranking 109th out of 135 prime-time series this season, based on data from Nielsen Media Research.

The series, which starred Jay Mohr, was produced by Columbia TriStar Television, a unit of Sony.