Why Were They Cancelled?

Four shows have gone down so far this season. Why did they get cancelled you ask? Ultimately, we know it was because of the ratings, but I will take a few minutes to delve a little deeper into the causes.

Valentine (CW, Sundays 8 PM EST) – The reasons for cancelling this one are pretty clear. No one watched it. Only twice did it pull more than one million viewers and it wrapped up its eight episode run with only a little more than 500k viewers. It also wasn’t that great. Oh it wasn’t terrible, like say Knight Rider (why is that still on the air?), it was just boring. You would expect some thunder and lighting with Greek gods milling about and all, but it never really registered. And with Desperate Housewives veteran Kevin Murphy on board, I expected some decent flashes of wit. But those were few and far between. I also hear that the CW did a poor job of promoting the series (along with the entire Sunday night Media Rights Capital slate), but even if they did, I don’t know that this one would have ever soared.

Episodes Completed: 8

Chances of Resurrection: Are you kidding me? I did hear that the Save Valentine campaign will be sending Valentine cards to the CW. Both fans have already mailed theirs.


My Own Worst Enemy (NBC, Mondays 10 PM EST) – This high concept series suffered from a poorly realized premise and convoluted, contrived scripts. Not enough viewers tuned in to begin with, and the few that did quickly lost interest. It’s unfortunate too, because Christian Slater really shined in the dual role of Henry / Edward. Had they focused more on the Jekyll and Hyde potential of the series and less on the espionage aspects, perhaps it would have succeeded. But ultimately the show performed well below last year’s cancelled Journeyman in the timeslot and NBC quickly lost patience.

Episodes Completed: 9

Chances of Resurrection: Miniscule. I have seen a few rumblings in some of the forums to petition NBC to keep it and/or the Sci Fi Channel to pick it up. But they don’t have much momentum at this point.


Eli Stone (ABC, Tuesdays 10 PM EST) – This odd Fantasy / Legal Drama just barely received the greenlight for renewal after its freshman season because it pulled marginal numbers in its Lost lead-out slot. Without the boost from that series during its second season, it has languished in the ratings, and I also understand that it has lost its way creatively (see Sam Christopher’s review). It did not see the same drop-off as Pushing Daisies, but the numbers dipped low enough to convince ABC to pull the plug on the show.

Episodes Completed: 13 for Season 1; 8 for Season 2 (with an additional 5 planned)

Chances of Resurrection: Slim. At this point I have not seen a significant fan movement step up to try and save the show. There were petitions circulating around to get a second season when it was on the bubble the first time around. But I do not see too much out there now that ABC has pulled the plug on it.

Pushing Daisies (ABC, Wednesdays 8 PM EST) – Alas, this wonderful little series was probably doomed more by Prime Time audiences than network short-sightedness. I think that it was just too unique and off the wall for the standard viewers that tune into Prime Time network programming. ABC really supported the show early on giving it a full season pickup after only a few episodes of its first season had aired. When that was made moot by the writer’s strike, they renewed it for a second season and even ran a promotional campaign in early September that included a traveling bakery. And from what I understand, ABC president Steve McPherson continued to pull for the show up until the very end, but Disney execs gave the final thumbs down seeing how far the ratings had fallen this year. I think that if Pushing Daisies had produced only slightly better numbers (maybe similar to what Eli Stone had) it might have at least survived for a full second season. It had critical acclaim and took home some Emmy’s after its first season, so I believe that the network would have given it some leeway. However, it has dropped down to CW level numbers (pulling less than 5 million total viewers on its November 19th airing), and Disney decided to cut ties with the show, breaking the hearts of millions of devoted fans.

Episodes Completed: 9 for Season 1; 13 for Season 2

Chances of Resurrection: Slim, I’m sad to say. The series has a dedicated fan base that is currently lobbying hard for the show. And even though Jericho fans succeeded in convincing CBS to grant them a renewal after sending a mountain of nuts, Season 2 had even fewer viewers than Season 1 and the show ended up being cancelled for a second time. Other networks will definitely take this into consideration when deciding on renewals for shows with iffy ratings. Series creator Brian Fuller has promised to wrap up the story in a comic book, but this will hardly be satisfying to those who delighted in the unique visual experience that the show offered. Fuller also mentioned the possibility of a theatrical movie, but studios will be wary after the Firefly / Serenity experience. Perhaps the best that fans can hope for is a direct to DVD movie to cap off the series. For more information on the fan campaigns to save the show, go to: savepushingdaisies.blogspot.com


Why Weren’t They Cancelled?

While four went down, two series received full season pickups despite their poor ratings. So what happened there?

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (FOX, Mondays 8 PM EST) – This one came out of the gates in its second season underperforming and early on seemed sure to get the axe especially considering FOX’s quick trigger finger with Science Fiction and Fantasy shows. Yet surprise, surprise, they gave it a full season order. FOX execs apparently see something in the franchise and they acknowledge that all shows on the network see a boost to their ratings after American Idol returns to the schedule in January. At that time, the series will move to the Friday 8 PM EST timeslot and play the lead-in to Joss Whedon’s new series Dollhouse. Not certain if that is good news, though, as I cannot remember any genre show that has succeeded on FOX in that timeslot (The X-Files had the 9 PM timeslot). At least for now we can see this as a good sign and hope that it indicates FOX will have more patience with genre shows going forward (but we are still not ready to forgive them for cancelling Firefly).

Knight Rider (NBC, Wednesdays 8 PM EST) – The Peacock Network obviously decided to give this underperforming show the nod for a full season because of its highly devoted fan base and its critical acclaim --- wait, no, I have that wrong It’s numbers have been in the toilet and it has been lambasted by almost any reviewer with the slightest amount of integrity. So why is it still on the air? Perhaps they still saw something in the franchise and did not want to kick it to the curb just yet. But then Bionic Woman did not receive the same love last year and it had much better numbers. They do plan on retooling the series and bringing it closer to the feel of the original (less espionage, more helping the down-trodden). Still I can’t see how they expect much of a turnaround in the numbers. So why is this one still on the air while quality shows like Pushing Daisies get the boot? If I could understand the thinking of the Entertainment industry, I could probably also solve the oil crisis, peace in the Middle East, world hunger . . .

-John J. Joex

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