Oh look, it must be May already. That came quickly. Well, it’s upon us again folks, Upfronts and all that comes with them. In this case (this particular post), it’s all about what we won’t be seeing come the new television season. Of course, as much as I’m sad, and still dealing with the loss of, there are some show’s I’m okay with knowing won’t be coming back.
While this news isn’t really news anymore, especially if you’ve been paying any kind of attention, you’ll know what’s coming. What’s different is my two cents, if anything. Come on, you had to have seen that coming. It really wouldn’t be an opinion post without it. Then, I believe, what people call this is news. This isn’t news. Moving on.
At some time last week, if not before, the networks announced what show’s they’d be keeping around for another season (of which I’ll write about later), and the show’s that would not be continuing on, at least on that particular network (i.e. “The Mindy Project”, maybe?).
So, if you’ve somehow managed to miss this bit of television news, continue reading and discover what you don’t have to watch next season, if you were at all.
Just because I like this network more, we’re going to start with the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).
“Cristela”, “Forever”, “Resurrection”, “Revenge” (which I only include as it didn’t get to have a fifth season and was announced as the final season only after the halfway point of the season), “The Taste” (what show was this?) join the already cancelled shows: “Manhattan Love Story”, which actually was cancelled very early on, “Members Only”, which was cancelled before it premiered, which is okay too as it would’ve probably been cancelled anyway, and “Selfie”, which I figured quite quickly (twice), would be cancelled, and it was, early too; thank god.
The only show, of the ones listed, (I don’t think there are too many left for renewal or cancellation), that is a little surprising is “Cristela”. This show seemed to be doing fine from an audience standpoint, but I guess the demo (however that factors in), wasn’t good enough. It was also a Friday night show, so it’s even more surprising. Guess it’s a good thing I got behind and stopped watching.
“Forever” was dumb. Maybe I’m just that good at figuring out what won’t make it for a full season, or only be a one season show.
“Resurrection” on the other hand, I’m not sure. I know a lot of people weren’t really watching from the beginning, but I guess the numbers just kept getting worse. Worse than “Revenge’s” numbers, or close to them. Two seasons is better than one or less than that.
Then there’s “Revenge”, which really only did the predictable one season sooner. I was just really hoping that it would get a fifth season to bring it to 100 episodes, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. I’m just glad that the show got to basically end the way it wanted, which so few shows don’t get to do.
Over at CBS, things looked not as grim as I thought.
“Battle Creek”, “The McCarthy’s”, “The Millers” (which I think was cancelled a few months ago), and “Stalker” joined “The Mentalist”, “Reckless”, which was cancelled in the Fall, but was aired during the summer, “Two and a Half Men”, and “Unforgettable”. Thankfully, I didn’t watch the majority of these.
“The McCarthy’s” never looked all that promising. I’m more surprised it lasted as long as it did.
The other’s I actually know nothing about as I didn’t want to waste my time with them, nor did anyone else, and banished these show premises from my mind.
Sadly, the only show I watched, of this batch, was “Stalker”. It seemed promising, regardless of critic reviews, but somehow it didn’t have the right ratings the network wanted.
Fox finally did away with some of it’s less than stellar programing, which shouldn’t be a surprise when you think about what was cancelled.
“Backstrom”, “The Following” (man, it doesn’t pay to be Kevin Williamson this year), “The Mindy Project”, which could be up for grabs by Hulu, are now going the way of “Gang Related”, which was a summer show, “Gracepoint”, “Mulaney”, “Red Band Society”, and “Utopia” (major disaster).
I tried out a few of the latter shows, but knew that there wasn’t much of a chance that they’d return.
To many, even me a bit, the big surprise is “The Mindy Project”. It’s lasted this long, even with terrible ratings, but critics loved it and hoped it would do better. It didn’t. So, now there’s hope that Hulu will pick up this show and continue it.
Last year, it was a bad week to be J.J. Abrams, this year, it’s Williamson. Not only is “The Following” cancelled, but as you saw above, “Stalker” too. “The Following” isn’t terribly surprising, as it’s ratings never rebounded from slumping last season. For me, I’m okay with this only because I felt creatively, it was suffering. It just became an insufferable show, which seriously explains why I’m still behind on it. Guess I’ll finish it later.
The only one I’m so relieved to see go, although it took too long, is “Backstrom”. From the first episode, which I hated watching, I knew this was a terrible show. It was just offensive and unnecessary on so many levels, and makes me wonder how Fox thought it a good show to bring on. I’m also wondering, as I have been for some time, why people think Rainn Wilson is funny? He really isn’t.
Over on the peacock network, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), shows were kicked out of the returning club one by one.
“About a Boy”, “Constantine”, “Marry Me”, “One Big Happy”, and “State of Affairs” have gone the way of “Allegiance”, cancelled “A to Z”, cancelled quickly, “Bad Judge”, “Parenthood”, which actually got to end on its own schedule, and “Parks and Recreation”, also got to end how it wanted.
While some of this is sad to others, none moves me. The only one that moved me was “Parenthood”, but that’s because it was the series finale, and it was good. I either chose not to watch the others, or got so far behind that my mind was pretty much already made up. Some, however, I just plain didn’t watch. Gotta love low ratings, which was in part because people found the premise of the shows terrible.
And lastly, mostly because this network is a joke (still), The CW. Unlike the other networks, this one didn’t have many to get rid of. They chose to keep the majority of their programming.
“Hart of Dixie”, and “The Messengers”, have been the only shows to get cancelled. It’s strange too, seeing as they have a full slate for next season and also picked up new shows. Some (most) networks are plain stupid.
With this network it’s tough to comment. They evaluate a show’s success or failure far differently than the others. They have to, mainly as all the shows garner less than four million viewers each week. I didn’t watch either of the now cancelled shows, so I’m not saddened by this news.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, wraps up the broadcast networks cancellation spree. Okay, there’s actually a few left up in the air, but at the time of this writing, this is what was announced. I’m also aware that there’s other shows on other networks, but I don’t care to talk about them. It helps too, that I didn’t watch them anyway. As the week continues, I’ll update with a new post accordingly, as well as throw out some posts for the new show’s that have trailers made available. All part of the fun that comes when it’s Upfronts week! Stay tuned.
...Everything in Between 