Has a show ever recovered after being canned?

Chicken #16 said:
I'm sure I heard that they do this because when they reach something like 70 episodes of a series it can then go to every network and that's when the writers start making real money.
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Syndication. It provides plenty of extra profits for the longer running shows. Less and less shows make it that far these days though.
 
Chicken #16 said:
I'm sure I heard that they do this because when they reach something like 70 episodes of a series it can then go to every network and that's when the writers start making real money.
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It used to be 100 episodes. It was the main argument against Star Trek going into syndication on US television when it was 'cancelled for good' in '69 after the third season (NBC never intended to renew it for Season 4 despite the support for it). But it was pushed into syndication and - gasp! - shows like that do quite well at 6pm every day rather than 10pm on a Friday night.

There are two 'sequels' to that particular Star Trek story. Firstly, the Nielsen ratings. US networks in particular put great stock in ratings. After Star Trek, they broke those ratings down by demographics (i.e. age, gender....you can see where I'm going :)). They took a look at what Trek's ratings had been using demographics, and thought 'hmm, maybe we shouldn't have cancelled that show actually....'.

*D'oh!*

The other part goes right back to the start of Trek. MGM had a chance at producing the show, and passed on it, long before NBC took it on. Many people over the years have wondered just how much those MGM execs regretted that decision, given the success of the franchise. I suspect there was much wailing and grinding of teeth! :D
 
Deadwood in my mind was the cruellest of axings, it was so sublime , i still haven't got over not being able to continue to watch it.


its got so much more story to tell
 
firefly was an atrocious axing, scrubs though as much as i loved it had over stayed its welcome, the new series was painfully slow and monotone and even infringed on turk and cox's ability to shine.
heroes was overshot by about 2 seasons but its always the case the shows that deserve the long runs because of content and quality never get them, im sure chuck picked up sponsorship from subway which had a lot to do with it continuing, love the show either way.
 
The Americans are very brutal with their axings. Some of them don't even seem like they've been given a chance before they get canned.
I used to like Dark Angel, which lasted 2 seasons and shot Jessica Alba to fame. Shame that finished.
But there are sooo many that get the boot before the end of the season.
 
Chuck only survives because of it's tenuous Subway deal and it's ludicrous product placement. I love it, but it's barely hanging on!
 
anant_shah94 said:
Thanks people. I looked into the Jericho thing, and I'm considering a campaign/petition to get scrubs back on air :p

I live in hope
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Jericho and the other shows listed, WERE GOOD. Scrubs WAS good but after 3 season got worse every season, the last was embarassing, geniunely not funny and all the characters are miles away from where they started, and were funny.

If its a show I really don't want back, at all, its Scrubs, because it started SO good its a show I felt obliged to watch just incase it got good again.

Jericho was a fairly, well not new, but nothing exactly like it around while it was on with a pretty decent cast and decent idea's. Scrubs in the past 3-4 series has been a generic and dull comedy without much actual comedy.

Likewise Family guy/Futurama went out on a high with many fans and without having lost an quality at all and came back on a high note.
 
gettothechopper said:
problem with US tv shows is that they are so insane about ratings and advertising revenues that they cancel stuff left right and center, (even when its not doing that badly)

good dvd sales seem to be the way to get stuff back on tv (family guy and futurama style)
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The difference is that a show can get 10million viewers a night, but if it has an ultra A list class of ex film stars pulling in a million an episode, or an ultra successful series like Friends with tv actors who get a million a show, plus production numbers then they need something like Friends to be getting 20million people to make a profit, at 5 million people the advertising money wouldn't cover the costs of the show.

Another show could get 2million viewers but be all complete unknowns, making no money, all shot in one office, shot with one camera, one cameraman and the director and writer is one of the stars, making little money, and 2 million viewers could put it in massive massive profit.

Ratings mean everything because their ad revenue is directly and 100% dependant on ratings.

If your 2 hour primetime block together gets more ratings than another network, you can charge more for every ad shown in the block, if you've got 4 failing shows, ad money goes down.


The biggest problem with tv shows is, writers get a lot of money and more and more as series get older and more popular.... and the big problem, reality tv. A presenter, a studio, no actors to pay, no writers to pay, a couple of interns coming up with crap games for the contestants to play. PRoduction costs are non existant compared to a fully scripted 45minute Drama like The West Wing or ER.
 
Shamikebab said:
Was it actually cancelled? I thought it was just rumoured.



Yeah Drive got cancelled by Fox after TWO episodes had aired! That's just ridiculous.
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Niche show with a HUGE cast and generally you would need to lock them all into long term deals, and half the cast aren't really in every episode, huge production costs, which will always be the case when you're driving around and shutting down real reads and real locations to shoot.

Really they needed the show to actually be better, and for the premise to be something that made people want to watch, it turned out it wasn't good enough anyway but also that people just didn't seem drawn in by the idea so it wasn't close to high enough viewing figures to grow up from.

Lets assume the advertised the crap out of it, they did, it had a few well known well liked stars in it, it did. Now if the premise catches peoples attentions let say 20million people tune in to see if they actually like the show, not just the idea. A not great show with 20million who like the IDEA, they can write it better, test and take it in a new direction, if 2million people tune in, people just don't like the idea, theres very little room for growth and you've also got very few people who can persaude their friends to watch aswell. The fact that it had I assume low figures AND wasn't very good spells instant death. A GREAT show with tiny figures can grow from word of mouth and good reviews/recommendations. A average/poor show with crap figures has no where to go but down. A crap show with huge figures has no where to go but down, but could still be very profitable.

Heroes, awful writing, no sense, some god awful actors but the idea, superheroes, everyone loves it, huge ratings despite being poor in terms of script and some of the actors, it worked.
 
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Thanks people.

I know most people didn't like scrubs:medschool. But for me, I'd almost formed a dependancy on scrubs, I absolutely love it. I think I relied on it a bit too much. That's why I'm so incredibly reluctant to see it go. It got 3.9 million viewers when the target was 4.5 million :(

I loved season 9, then again, I think godfather 3 is a good film :p
 
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