NO one was more surprised by the cancellation of “Anchorwoman” than the anchorwoman herself.
“I was completely shocked,” said Lauren Jones, the blonde, buxom bikini model who “starred” on the short-lived Fox reality series.
She got the news Thursday that the show was canceled from executive producer Brian Gadinsky.
The cancellation came just one day after the first two episodes of the five-episode series aired Wednesday night and attracted just 2.7 million viewers despite several weeks of advance publicity.
Reached by phone yesterday, Jones said she was “disappointed” because she felt the show and the story it told of her transformation into a hard-nosed news anchor was due to get better in the episodes to come.
She revealed that the producer is shopping the show to several cable channels, including E! Entertainment Television and MTV, which means the entire series could eventually be seen.
The producer’s plan to find another buyer for the series means the unseen episodes will likely not turn up on Fox’s Website, fox.com, as the network had reportedly planned.
Despite its short lifespan on Fox, Jones feels the show will end up helping her career.
“I actually benefited because I got so much publicity,” she said. “I have so many offers on the table and everyone’s been so supportive. No one has yanked those offers.”
She said she’ll hopefully have a new job to announce in as soon as a week. E! is one of the TV networks that has reportedly expressed interest in having Jones come on board as an entertainment correspondent.
There was also word yesterday that at least one TV station in New York is interested in Jones.