The Knights of Prosperity

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The Knights of Prosperity
Network Logo for The Knights of Prosperity
Format	Sitcom
Created by	Rob Burnett Jon Beckerman
Starring	Donal Logue Sofía Vergara Lenny Venito Maz Jobrani Kevin Michael Richardson Josh Grisetti
Country of origin	USA
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13
Production
Camera setup	Single-camera setup
Running time	30 minutes (including commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Picture format	480i (SDTV), 720p (HDTV)
Original run	January 3, 2007 – August 23, 2007
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

The Knights of Prosperity is a short-lived comedy series that premiered on ABC in the United States on Wednesday, January 3, 2007. It was created by Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman, who also created the NBC comedy-drama Ed. The show follows a group of misfits—the titular Knights—who attempt to rob various celebrities, the first being Mick Jagger. Later in the series, the attempt to rob his luxury apartment failed, and the team moved onto new targets Kelly Ripa and later Ray Romano.

The series initially aired on Wednesdays at 9:00 p.m. before being moved to 8:30. The series was pulled after airing nine episodes and then officially cancelled by ABC.^[1] On August 8, after 5 months off the air, ABC broadcast two episodes and then pulled the sitcom once again.^[2] On August 17, 2007, the network made all 13 episodes available for viewing on ABC.com, but were later taken off. ^[3]

Contents 1 Name changes and scheduling 2 Marketing 3 Cast and characters 3.1 Guest stars 4 Episodes 4.1 International distribution 5 Seasonal Ratings 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Name changes and scheduling

The series went through several name changes: the original title was Let's Rob Jeff Goldblum, later changed to Let's Rob Mick Jagger once Goldblum committed to the NBC drama Raines. ABC announced the series for its fall schedule as Let's Rob... in May, and the final name change to Knights was reported in July 2006.^[4] During the TCA Tour, executive producer Rob Burnett indicated that the title might change again before the show debuts,^[5] but the show debuted under the "Knights" name.

Originally scheduled to debut on October 17, 2006 at 9:00 p.m., it was pulled from the schedule on October 3 in favor of at least two additional 90-minute episodes of its intended lead-in, Dancing with the Stars. ABC later announced that the program would be shelved^[6] and rescheduled for a January 2007 airdate due to the network now making another sitcom, Big Day, a priority for the Tuesday night schedule.^[7] On November 9, 2006, ABC began running promos for the show in advance of its January airdate. On December 5, 2006, ABC announced that the program would premiere on January 3, 2007 at 9:00 p.m. Although the show was scheduled to air the following week at 9:00, a primetime address by the President of the United States caused the second episode of the show to air at 9:30 p.m. The show returned to its normal 9:00 time slot the following week. The show was rescheduled to 8:30 beginning on January 31, 2007, and remained there until it was pulled from the schedule on March 5. Before the upfronts, The network announced that it was considering a second season featuring Ray Romano.^[8]

However, the show was ultimately canceled, and was briefly brought back in the summer to burn off the remaining episodes along with fellow low-rated newcomer The Nine. Both shows were pulled again on August 14 and on August 17, ABC put up the remaining episodes on its website.^[9]

[edit] Marketing

On December 26 2006, to generate buzz for the show, ABC distributed wallets bearing the monogram "KOP" in a number of markets. The wallets contained a receipt from "Enterprise Luxury Goods Ltd." for millions of dollars in purchases, a claim check for a platinum wristwatch, and an invitation to join a promotional group via text message.^[10]

On December 31 2006 during New Year's Eve in Time Square, ABC also distributed orange acrylic hats bearing a white embroidered "KOP".

[edit] Cast and characters

• Donal Logue as Eugene Gurkin
• Sofia Vergara as Esperanza Villalobos
• Lenny Venito as Francis "Squatch" Squacieri
• Maz Jobrani as Gourishankar "Gary" Subramaniam
• Kevin Michael Richardson as Rockefeller Butts
• Josh Grisetti as Louis Plunk

[edit] Guest stars

• Reiko Aylesworth as Simone Cashwell
• Ben Bailey as Ralph Carnucci
• Dustin Diamond as himself
• Mick Jagger as himself
• Sally Jessy Raphaël as herself
• Kelly Ripa as herself
• Ray Romano as himself
• Rocco DiSpirito as himself

[edit] Episodes

Episode #	Title	Air Date	Rating	Share	18-49	Viewers
1	Operation: Pilot	January 3, 2007	TV-PG L	7	3.0	7.4 million
2	Operation: Seduce Simone	January 10, 2007	TV-PG DL	5	2.0	5.2 million
3	Operation: Fighting Shape	January 17, 2007	TV-14	4	1.5	4.1 million
4	Operation: Deliver the Case	January 24, 2007	TV-PG DLV	4	1.4	3.8 million
5	Operation: Ralph	January 31, 2007	TV-PG DLSV	5	1.9	5.1 million
6	Operation: Caught on Tape	February 7, 2007	TV-PG S	5	2.1	5.6 million
7	Operation: Save Esperanza	February 14, 2007	TV-14 DLV	5	2.1	5.3 million
8	Operation: Panic Room	February 21, 2007	TV-14 DLV	4	1.6	4.1 million
9	Operation: Oswald Montecristo	February 28, 2007	TV-14 DLV	4	1.7	4.2 million
10	Operation: Rent Money	August 8, 2007	TV-PG	3	1.8	2.3 million
11	Operation: Steal the Safe	August 8, 2007	TV-PG	3	1.5	2.1 million
12	Operation: Open the Safe	August 22, 2007	TV-PG	N/A	N/A	*
13	Operation: RomanoCorp	August 23, 2007	TV-PG	N/A	N/A	*

[edit] International distribution

Country	TV Network(s)	Series Premiere	Weekly schedule (local time)
Croatia	HRT	2008	Sundays at 9:00 PM
New Zealand	TV2	February 2008	Wednesday at 10:20 PM
Poland	Comedy Central	Fall 2007	Mondays at 8 PM
Netherlands	Comedy Central	2008	Mondays at 10:30 PM

[edit] Seasonal Ratings

Seasonal ratings based on average total viewers per episode of Knights of Prosperity on ABC:

Season	Timeslot (EDT)	Series Premiere	Series Finale	TV Season	Rank	Viewers (in millions)
1	Wednesday 9:00 P.M. (January 3 - January 23, 2007) Wednesday 8:30 P.M. (January 31 - February 28, 2007) Wednesday 8:00 P.M. (August 8, 2007)	January 3, 2007	August 23, 2007	2006-2007	107	5.0 (#117)[11]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Knights of Prosperity at the Internet Movie Database
• The Knights of Prosperity at TV.com
• Extensive interview with the creators on public radio program The Sound of Young America
• Music from The Knights of Prosperity