Christina Hendricks as Joan Harris (née Holloway) from Mad Men.Image via AMC
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Erin Konrad
Published Jan 23, 2026, 7:50 PM EST
Erin Konrad's love for everything entertainment dates back to elementary school when she became obsessed with classic Hollywood musicals. When she's not catching up on all her favorite television shows, she's advising her friends and family on what they should binge watch next.
She has her Bachelor's degree in Journalism and a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Creating content for Collider gives her the opportunity to combine her writing skills with her passion for television and movies. She spends her free time trying to beat her personal record of reading 126 books in a year and cuddling with her dog, Gracie.
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Sometimes networks take big swings with their offerings, and it just doesn't work out. Executives and creators are always trying to capitalize on what's popular at the moment, and then tailor their line-up to meet those needs. AMC's Mad Men was a huge success during its run from 2007 to 2015. The Emmy-winning critical darling was so popular that NBC decided to piggyback off that 1960s-based series with its own historical drama that debuted in 2011. The problem is that viewers weren't all that interested in the story, and it was cancelled after just a few weeks, proving that not all ideas are good ones.
What Is 'The Playboy Club' About?
The cast of 'The Playboy Club' (2011)Image via NBC
The Playboy Club is a fictional series based on Hugh Hefner's real-life Playboy Club that was originally based in Chicago. Set in 1961, the story follows Nick Dalton (Eddie Cibrian), a handsome lawyer who is running for state's attorney even though he has ties to organized crime. Nick is a card-carrying member of The Playboy Club, where his paramour, Carol-Lynne (Laura Benanti) works. Carol-Lynne is the "Bunny Mother" of the girls who work at the club and tries to take care of the staff. The series explores the lives of several of the "bunnies," including Maureen (Amber Heard), a newly hired, innocent Bunny who is trying to escape her past; Brenda (Naturi Naughton), who is attempting to be the first Black Playboy Playmate; and Janie (Jenna Dewan), who is dating the club's bartender. Broadway vet Jenifer Lewis also pops up as Pearl, the seamstress for the club, who acts as a mother hen to the whole group. The Playboy Club set out to tell a darker story with twisty crimes and historically accurate themes.
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Posts 1 By Jessica Nobleza'The Playboy Club' Could Never Be Rebooted Today
The Playboy Club premiered on September 19, 2011, but by October 3, NBC had announced it was being cancelled. After just a mere three episodes, the series already had extremely low ratings. Many in the industry speculated that the series did so poorly because it was a bad fit to air this type of show on a broadcast network versus a cable channel. Even though The Playboy Club was based on Hefner's somewhat debaucherous nightlife scene, the broadcast network was pretty limited by what it could actually show on the air. It seems that viewers at this time just weren't interested in diving into this world.
Unfortunately, NBC refused to even air the remaining four episodes that had already been filmed. There's also the matter of the outrage that followed the series that likely informed NBC's decision to abandon the show. Conservative groups called for a boycott of the series, even before it aired its first episode, saying the show was anti-family and degraded women. After the first episode aired, several advertising brands (including Kraft Foods, Campbell's, and Subway) had pulled their ads because of the uproar. All of this upheaval, coupled with low ratings, made the quick cancellation a no-brainer for NBC.
Even if it was an interesting concept, The Playboy Club could never be rebooted today. Although the content would have been much more well-suited for a streamer (with no restrictions), the only type of show that would work today would be one that heavily criticizes Hefner or one that investigates how our culture functioned during that time period to allow the Playboy era to thrive. The 2011 series merely used the name and brand of Playboy as a hook to draw viewers in (which clearly didn't work), and as shock value to show audiences how far we've come from those days. At the time, The Playboy Club seemed too soap-y to dive into any true exploration of deeper themes of gender or moral attitudes. Any series that would be linked to the Playboy brand today would need to address the massive exploitation of women, and would be far different from the NBC show's storytelling and tone.
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Want deeper context on TV misfires and media branding? Subscribe to the newsletter for concise analysis of why some series fail, how controversy reshapes programming, and what lessons creators and networks take away. Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.The Playboy Club might just have been a fun offering of 1960s crime drama if it hadn't decided to include the Playboy references. Instead, it's probably going to end up in the sad pile of television shows that got cancelled after just a few episodes. In retrospect, NBC probably did the right thing by pulling the plug on this controversial show early on.
The Playboy Club
Like TV-14 Drama Release Date 2011 - 2011-00-00 Network NBC Directors Holly Dale, Alan Taylor, Kenny Ortega, Phil Abraham Writers Luke SchelhaasCast
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Eddie Cibrian
Nick Dalton
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Karen LeBlanc
Tina Turner
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Leah Renee
Bunny Alice
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Amber Heard
Bunny Maureen
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